Latest Construx Podcast Episodes
#47 Retrospectives
Inspect and Adapt - April 09, 2024 17:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsIf hindsight is 20/20—and it's good practice to look back to find ways you could do better—then why do retrospectives seem like such a waste of time? Shouldn't they be a goldmine that we're excited about rather than just another obligatory meeting? Inspect & Adapt host Mark Griffin gathers fello...
#46 Reverse Agile Scaling
Inspect and Adapt - March 11, 2024 16:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsThere is a lot of talk and ideas about how to scale agile up from the one-team, one-product base so that multiple teams can support a product (I am looking at you SAFe). But what about the case where one team must support multiple products? That is reverse agile scaling. Join Construx’s Mark Gri...
#45 Value Identification
Inspect and Adapt - February 06, 2024 16:00 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsWhat does "value" mean on your product? How do you know you are working on the most valuable thing? Construx's Earl Beede, Jenny Stuart, and Mark Griffin discuss how to clearly identify and articulate value on development projects. Knowing the targeted value is critical for prioritization and s...
#44 Bringing it All Together – the Successful Leadership of Hardware/Software Teams
Inspect and Adapt - January 04, 2024 17:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsHow do you lead product development teams when a company that has always been hardware focused now owes its success to both hardware and software? Construx's Mark Griffin and Earl Beede recently spoke with Inogen's Norbert Leinfellner and Horst Pichler, who have decades of experience leading thi...
#43 Project Managers 2023
Inspect and Adapt - December 04, 2023 16:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsListen to Construx's Earl Beede, Jenny Stuart, and Mark Griffin as they assess the role and duties of project managers on software intensive projects. A special focus will be on groups using agile development processes. Earl and Jenny will share stories of what they have seen work and what hasn'...
#42 Splitting User Stories
Inspect and Adapt - October 31, 2023 20:00 - 57 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsConstrux's Earl Beede, Jenny Stuart, and Mark Griffin investigate ways to split user stories so they fit in a sprint. Some methods are far preferable—and even easier—than others. Sometimes it just means setting yourself up to make your user stories split-able. Earl and Jenny will share their sto...
#41 Special Guest: John Belbute, Engineering Metrics
Inspect and Adapt - September 21, 2023 19:00 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsWhat metrics make sense for a development team? How do you talk about productivity? Construx friend John Belbute joins Construx’s Steve Tockey, Earl Beede, and Mark Griffin to talk about engineering metrics. John has been a software leader at many companies, including Intuit, WebMD, eBay and Cap...
#40 Waterfall vs. Agile 2023
Inspect and Adapt - June 12, 2023 23:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsIt's been over two decades since we were told that Waterfall development is bad and Agile development is good. Construx's Earl Beede recently did a webinar on the subject (available on YouTube). This Inspect and Adapt looks at some of the comments and questions that came up. Earl is joined by ho...
Waterfall vs. Agile 2023
Inspect and Adapt - June 12, 2023 23:00 - 55 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsIt's been over two decades since we were told that Waterfall development is bad and Agile development is good. Construx's Earl Beede recently did a webinar on the subject (available on YouTube). This Inspect and Adapt looks at some of the comments and questions that came up. Earl is joined by ho...
#39 Product Owner vs. Product Manager
Inspect and Adapt - April 12, 2023 19:00 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsThere is a lot of confusion about where the job or role of product owner ends and that of product manager begins. Construx's Earl Beede recently did a webinar on the topic. Now Earl is joined by Construx's Jenny Stuart and Mark Griffin to take a deeper look into how the two roles differ and wher...
#38 The Engineering Manager in Agile
Inspect and Adapt - February 06, 2023 20:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsYou have engineering managers and you want to adopt agile - or are already doing agile - development. Where does your engineering manager fit? What activities and roles do engineering managers play in the agile development organization? Join Construx's Jenny Stuart, Mark Griffin, and Earl Beede...
#37 2022 Disaster Stories and Improvement Ideas
Inspect and Adapt - January 06, 2023 19:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsAt the end of 2022, Construx surveyed our clients to hear their best disaster stories of 2022 and what areas they want to improve so they won't repeat their disasters in 2023. Join host Mark Griffin with Construx experts Earl Beede and Steve Tockey as they Inspect and Adapt those disaster stori...
#36 Right-Sizing Software Process: Going Meta
Inspect and Adapt - November 22, 2022 16:00 - 53 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsIs there a "best" way or process to develop software? Is there one size fits all? Construx has always said, "no". One of our 10x Principles is "Tailor the Solution to the Problem". Join host Mark Griffin with Construx's Earl Beede and Steve Tockey for an Inspect and Adapt of right-sizing softwa...
#35 Individual Estimation
Inspect and Adapt - October 25, 2022 21:00 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsIndividual expert judgment estimation (a.k.a. best guess, gut, swag, etc.) is the most common method of estimating development projects. Yet it almost always is not a good estimate. Join host Mark Griffin with Construx's Earl Beede and Steve Tockey for an Inspect and Adapt of individual estimati...
#34 Backlog Refinement
Inspect and Adapt - October 03, 2022 17:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsBacklog Refinement is a practice that most agile teams should do - but many don't. Join host Mark Griffin with Construx's Jenny Stuart and Earl Beede to Inspect & Adapt backlog refinement. We cover how backlog refinement has become a critical part of agile teams, how it should work, common mis...
#33 How Much Testing Is Enough?
Inspect and Adapt - September 13, 2022 17:00 - 59 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratings"How much testing is enough?" is a question Construx gets asked a lot. Join host Mark Griffin with Construx's Brian Daugherty and Steve Tockey for an Inspect and Adapt of the enough testing question. We cover the drivers of testing, strategies to help determine "enough," and the common mistakes ...
#32 Leadership for Women in Software
Inspect and Adapt - August 11, 2022 22:00 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsWhat does it mean to bring your full self as a woman to leadership in a software or technical organization? Join Construx's Mark Griffin as he interviews Jessica Garcia about how to deal with the challenges of leadership specifically as experienced by women. Jessica leads and coaches women towar...
#31 The Daily
Inspect and Adapt - August 01, 2022 14:00 - 58 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsMany, if not most, agile teams include the practice of a daily gathering. It goes by slightly different names: the daily standup, the daily scrum, or walking the board. Join host Mark Griffin with Construx's Jenny Stuart and Earl Beede for an inspect and adapt of the daily. We cover the daily's...
#30 Scaling Agile: Three Agile Scaling Frameworks and Six Scaling Recommendations
Inspect and Adapt - November 18, 2021 16:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsHearing about different scaling frameworks and wondering which one is for you? Join host Mark Griffin and guest Jenny Stuart for an overview of the popular Agile scaling frameworks SAFe, Nexus, and LeSS, including their strengths and relative weaknesses. We’ll cover the frameworks’ core techniqu...
#29 Twenty Years Is Enough! It’s Time to Update the Agile Principles and Values
Inspect and Adapt - July 19, 2021 20:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsToday’s episode focuses on the very basis of Agile: its principles and values. Steve McConnell recently gave a keynote at XP2021 in which he said they need to be updated. You'll hear a quick recap of Agile’s beginnings, what was happening in software development when people got together at that ...
#28 Six Ways to Decrease Stress in Development Partnerships
Inspect and Adapt - July 06, 2021 22:00 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsWorking with external software development partners often increases stress for the existing internal staff. A Construx client asked us to conduct research with our clients on approaches to reducing this stress. We identified six recommendations and related specific actions that organizations can...
#27 More Effective Kanban, Part 3: Kanban for Portfolios and Programs
Inspect and Adapt - May 03, 2021 22:00 - 38 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsConstrux VP of Consulting Jenny Stuart and Mark Griffin cleared up common misconceptions about Kanban in Episode #19. In Episode #24, they discussed numerous best practices for establishing and optimizing your Kanban system. Here, they focus on seeing the big picture—working with Kanban at highe...
#26 Software Estimation Lessons Learned from Covid-19 Forecasting
Inspect and Adapt - March 11, 2021 17:00 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsFor the past year, Steve McConnell has applied his extensive estimation expertise to a timely problem: Covid-19 forecasting. Steve’s Covid Complete Data Center provides US national data, state data for every state, state scorecards, forecasts, forecast evaluations, and other data on the pandemic...
#25 Crafting Software, Part 1: Beers to Pair with Requirements, Design, & Estimation
Inspect and Adapt - February 24, 2021 23:00 - 50 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsWe thought we’d do something fun to start our second season and use a familiar vehicle to help new listeners and our old friends understand Construx’s software engineering expertise. And how are we going to do that? We’re going to use beer! You might be thinking, "Well, now you have my attention...
#24 More Effective Kanban, Part 2: Operating and Optimizing Your Kanban System
Inspect and Adapt - October 21, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsConstrux VP of Consulting Jenny Stuart and Mark Griffin cleared up common misconceptions about Kanban in the first episode in this series (episode #19). This time they cover numerous best practices for establishing your initial Kanban system—determining work item types, workflow, work state poli...
#23 Exploring Metrics: Using Landing Zones to Define and Guide Success
Inspect and Adapt - August 25, 2020 17:00 - 52 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsIt's a sad truth that many software teams are working with no explicit definition of success. Join Construx Senior Fellow Erik Simmons and Mark Griffin to learn about the landing zone, a table that you can use to define success in a quantified, explicit way. Erik played a role in the developmen...
More Effective Agile, Part 9: Focus on Throughput, Not Activity; Plan Based on Measured Team Capacity; Decriminalize Mistakes
Inspect and Adapt - August 05, 2020 17:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsSteve McConnell completes the series in which he describes the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The final principles described are: "Focus on Throughput, Not Activity." Similar to managing to outcomes, adding the nuance that busyness is not the ob...
#22 More Effective Agile, Part 9: Focus on Throughput, Not Activity; Plan Based on Measured Team Capacity; Decriminalize Mistakes
Inspect and Adapt - August 05, 2020 17:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsSteve McConnell completes the series in which he describes the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The final principles described are: "Focus on Throughput, Not Activity." Similar to managing to outcomes, adding the nuance that busyness is not the ob...
More Effective Agile, Part 8: Express Clear Purpose with Commander’s Intent; Model Key Agile Behaviors; Manage to Outcomes, Not Details
Inspect and Adapt - July 29, 2020 19:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsSteve McConnell continues to describe the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The principles described this time: "Express Clear Purpose with Commander’s Intent." Support your teams’ ability to make timely, local decisions by clearly communicating you...
#21 More Effective Agile, Part 8: Express Clear Purpose with Commander’s Intent; Model Key Agile Behaviors; Manage to Outcomes, Not Details
Inspect and Adapt - July 29, 2020 19:00 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 10 ratingsSteve McConnell continues to describe the 28 key principles in his new book, More Effective Agile (Construx Press, 2019). The principles described this time: "Express Clear Purpose with Commander’s Intent." Support your teams’ ability to make timely, local decisions by clearly communicating you...
Related Construx Topics
- Agile 2