Episode 15
Agile Teams and Escaping Velocity with Doc Norton and Claire Podulka
July 12th, 2017
44 mins 35 secs
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About this Episode
Agile Teams and Escaping Velocity with Doc Norton and Claire Podulka
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Guests
Doc Norton: Co-Founder and CEO of CTO2.
Claire Podulka: Project Manager at Table XI.
Summary
How can you tell whether an agile software team is successful? Many teams use a single measure: velocity. Doc Norton, author of Escape Velocity, and Claire Podulka join the show to discuss why velocity is not a useful measure: it doesn't explain the problems with an unsuccessful team, and successful teams probably don't need it. We discuss the problems with velocity, what to use instead, and get on soapboxes for our least favorite agile anti-patterns.
Notes
02:48 - Metrics for Agile Teams: Velocity
- Escape Velocity: Better Metrics for Scrum Teams by Doc Norton
- Trust Driven Development by Noel Rappin
06:15 - Using Velocity
07:49 - Problems When Relying Solely on Velocity and Estimation
12:35 - Theory of Flow
15:17 - Body Weight Analogy
17:17 - Assessing Team Health
18:37 - Team Temperature (Joy)
21:51 - Lead Time and Cycle Time
30:04 - Managing Estimation and Team Metrics When Teams and Scope Change
33:17 - Using Metrics: Large Organizations vs Small Organizations
39:18 - Breaking Down Team Velocity at the Individual Level