Fifteenth in a Fifteen Part Series
By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the fifteenth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 15: Execute Subsequent Sprints
 
With Sprint Zero (0) in your rear-view mirror, you’re now ready to execute the Sprints required to build your product. 
 
A Sprint typically begins with a two-hour, time-boxed Product Backlog “grooming” session.  Since your Product Roadmap is complete, your Product Owner should already be writing User Stories and appending them to relevant Epics.  User Story “grooming” is a continuous process executed by the Product Owner throughout the product’s lifecycle.  Grooming sessions are formal meetings that give the delivery team the chance to ask questions of the Product Owner about their User Story. Grooming sessions are supposed to occur during the Sprint, however, it is not uncommon for grooming sessions to be held in Sprint 0 or earlier.  Grooming sessions are attended by the Product Owner, anyone else the Product Owner deems as required, and the entire delivery team.  It may not be possible to discuss every User Story in the Product Backlog, therefore the team must endeavor to review this highest priority User Stories first; those the Product Owner would like to see released first.  Ahead of the grooming session, the Product Owner must provide draft acceptance criteria for those stories with the highest priority.  During the grooming session, the Product Owner will explain the User Story to the delivery team and participate in clarifying discussion.  During the course of the grooming session, user stories may be split and / or new stories written.  For each user story discussed, the acceptance criteria are agreed and the Product Owner confirms the story’s priority.  If required, the Scrum Master will schedule additional grooming sessions to ensure that at the very least, the stories expected to be included within the Sprint are reviewed.  Again, the goal is not to review every story in the product backlog, but rather to review just enough stories to fill the Sprint backlog.
 
Day 1 of your Sprint must include the Sprint Planning ceremony.  I recommend a two-part Sprint Planning session with both sessions time-boxed at two (2) hours each.  Sprint Planning sessions are attended by the Product Owner, anyone else the Product Owner deems as required, and the entire delivery team.  The Product Owner delivers a list of “candidate” User Stories that he / she wishes to have solutioned (ideally based on the product’s roadmap and priority).  The Product Owner verifies the priority of “candidate” User Stories, Acceptance Criteria is finalized and agreed, and Story Points are assigned.  Lastly, with an understanding of the team’s velocity, the delivery team will “pull” the Stories from the Product Backlog into the Sprint backlog that they believe they can deliver within the sprint.
 
Part 2 of the Sprint Planning session should also occur on Day 1 of your Sprint.  The Product Owner is not required to attend Part 2, but the entire delivery team must be in attendance.  Tasks for “pulled” User Stories are reviewed, augmented, finalized, and confirmed by the delivery team.  Story Points are confirmed for each Story.  The Scrum Master compares total story points for “pulled” User Stories against the team's velocity.  The delivery team will pull additional User Stories or push lower priority User Stories out of the Sprint.  Final User Stories are committed to the Sprint by the delivery team, and the delivery team develops their “Working Agreements”.
 
With Sprint Planning complete, the Daily Stand-Up meetings will begin.  Ideally, the Product Owner and the entire delivery team attend the Daily Standup, however, only personnel tasked with actually completing work are mandatory.  The meeting is time-boxed to a maximum of fifteen (15) minutes and the standard stand-up questions are asked by the Scrum Master of all team members.  A Kanban board for the Sprint is displayed showing User Story Tasks as they progress through the statuses: “To-Do”, “In-Progress”, "Blocked", "Cancelled", and “Done”.
 
At some point towards the end of the Sprint, the delivery team will conduct a demonstration of the user stories completed.  Demonstrations are attended by the Product Owner, anyone else the Product Owner deems as required, and the entire delivery team.  The Scrum Master will explain to the audience what the team committed to for this sprint and why those stories were selected.   The Scrum Master will spend a few minutes going over what the sprint metrics are and what they mean (e.g. the burn down chart and the team's velocity).  The Scrum Master will identify any stories that were not finished and why.  The delivery team will demonstrate to the Product Owner the shippable code and functionality that has been developed during the Sprint.  The Product Owner is encouraged to provide feedback, suggestions, and ask for changes to what has been done.  The Scrum Master will begin drafting applicable User Stories for the Product backlog based on the Product Owner's comments.  Finally, the Product Owner should give the delivery Team a view into what's coming in the next sprint, and show the updated roadmap, if available.
 
Not every Sprint will result in a release into a production environment for general availability, but every Sprint will result in working, shippable code.  Your release plan will define when a release occurs, whereas Sprint Planning defines what work will be completed in a given Sprint.  At the end of the Sprint, the delivery team must release their shippable code into appropriate repositories and / or environments.  This activity may include the submission of relevant change control (a.k.a. request for change) records and obtaining management authorization to release. 
 
The final ceremony that occurs during a sprint is the Retrospective.  Ideally this is completed on the last day of the Sprint.  The entire delivery team must attend.  The Product Owner’s attendance is not required and may be discouraged, depending on the team dynamic.  The retrospective is when the delivery team will examine themselves, their processes and tools, and make changes so they are a healthier team.  It is a private opportunity for the team to celebrate their work and inspect and adapt their own processes and interactions.  Some key questions to answer are:
 
(1) What did we do well in this sprint?
(2) What could we improve on in the future?
(3) What will we commit to improving in the next sprint? 
 
The Scrum Master will capture discussion points from these questions and ensure they are implemented in the next Sprint.

Fourteenth in a Fifteen Part Series

​By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the fourteenth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 14: Execute Sprint Zero (0)
 
As with any other project, you’ll want to ensure you have all materials procured, all contracts signed, environments built, tools selected, etc.  While this is occurring, your Product Owner should continue writing and grooming User Stories. 
 
Sprint Zero (0) is when all preparation work takes place to ensure your team can begin writing software free from obvious impediments such as environmental or procurement constraints.  To ensure your team can begin work on schedule, ensure your Sprint Zero (0) accomplishes the following:
 

• Architecture: Once you have the Product Roadmap defined, an Architect is then able to define major system components such as application, database, and web servers, environments, programming languages, software development kits to be used, etc.

 

• Contracts: If the product’s architecture requires you to contract with new vendors, you’ll need to get any legal documents drafted and signed during Sprint Zero (0), if they have not been done already.

 

• Materials Procurement: If the product’s architecture requires you to procure materials, procurement activities must be completed during Sprint Zero (0).

 

• Determine the Sprint Duration: Most teams have two (2)-week Sprints.  A Sprint should never be longer than four (4) weeks and no shorter than one (1) week.  If a project has significant risk, it is best to have shorter sprints.  The shorter the sprint, the less amount of time elapses between the sprint inspection activities, which allows management to course correct much faster.  You always want to find out sooner rather than later if your project is going “off the rails.”

 

• Release Plan: Once the Sprint duration is determined, the initial release plan can be developed.  Using the Product Roadmap, lay out the Features, Themes, and Epics over a three-to-six month period.  Your Release Plan will now be connecting the Product Roadmap and the Sprints themselves.  A Release Plan can either be built from a feature or a schedule perspective.  A feature-based roadmap determines those features that make the most sense to release together, whereas a schedule-based roadmap picks a date in the future and then determines which features can be delivered by that date.  If you know that features contain specific risks, it is a good idea to attempt to release those first.

 

• Determine the Team’s Beginning Velocity: Since this is a transformation initiative, your team will have no historical information from which to base its Velocity.  The Normalized Estimation Technique provides a one-time method for getting a team’s Velocity defined such that it can informatively pull User Stories from the Product Backlog into the Sprint Backlog.  For every full-time developer and tester on the team, give the team 8 points (adjust for part-timers).  Subtract 1 point for every team member vacation day and holiday.  Find a small User Story that would take about a half-day to develop and a half-day to test and validate, and call it a "1".  Estimate every other Story relative to that one using the Fibonacci sequence.  Never look back and do not worry about recalibrating.  Remember, a team's velocity is inherent to the team, and is not transferable to another team.

 
I do not recommend agile training be undertaken during Sprint Zero (0), but if there are members or your team that are unfamiliar with Agile, the training must be completed during Sprint Zero (0).

Thirteenth in a Fifteen Part Series

By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the thirteenth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 13: Build a Product Roadmap (containing Features, Themes, & Epics)
 
Immediately following the kick-off meeting, you’ll want to begin agile planning.  Time spent on agile planning is intentionally limited because agilists know they will be expected to embrace change as the project unfolds.  Change occurs when business priorities shift causing features (either in development or in the backlog) to have more or less value to the organization.  The ability to realize value by capitalizing on expected change is one of the key benefits of agile, and the underlying reason that most organizations undertake an agile organizational transformation.
 
The first and most important step to building a product roadmap is to clearly define the “product”.  A product is something that has business value.  It may generate revenue or support a business outcome.  It could be one (1) traditional stand-alone application or it could be a suite of several applications, databases, or processes.  My recommendation is to define software development “products” as individual applications.  I have supported “products” consisting of more than one (1) application, but doing so becomes unnecessarily complex.  If your product’s applications cannot be uncoupled, then it is very important that every team member be able to develop code on all of the applications within the “product”.  For example, if your product consists of three (3) applications, but only two (2) out of five (5) team members are able to develop on one (1) of the applications, the output of your team cannot be realistically calculated or planned.
 
Agile planning follows a logical framework with consistent vernacular.  To build a Product Roadmap, you’re only interested in the top three (3) levels of planning:
 

• Features: A “Feature” is a broad-grouping of high level functionality.  The “Feature” designation is intended to be the highest level strata for classifying a product’s functionality requirements.  Feature examples for a technology product are “Payment” and “Login”.  A user of the system will login and make payments for purchased goods.  Features are too big for detailed planning, but they provide the structure and framework to gather additional requirements.

 

• Themes: A “Theme” is a designation used to decompose Features.  For example, for a “Payment” feature, the type (or form) of payment accepted could be considered a “Theme”.  If a product accepts multiple forms of Payment, a theme could be “Credit Card”, “Paypal”, “ACH Debit”, etc.  Likewise, if a product accepts multiple forms of login authentication, a theme could be “Login with Facebook”, “Login with Email”, etc.  Like with Features, Themes are still used only as a planning framework are not detailed enough for actionable tasks. 

 

• Epics: An “Epic” is an even lower level designation intended to further decompose Themes.  For example, an Epic associated with a “Credit Card” Theme could be “Visa”.  Similarly, for a “Login with Email” theme, an Epic could be “Multi-Factor Authentication”.  While these are lower level, further decomposed work items, they are still not detailed enough for actionable tasks. 

 
The Product Roadmap is the pre-requisite for the Release Plan discussed in the following lesson.  Once the Product Roadmap is defined, the Product Owner can begin writing User Stories and appending them to relevant Epics.  Agilists understand that the development of User Stories will continue as the project unfolds, but the goal is to have the Product Owner begin drafting User Stories that he / she deems as having the most business value, immediately after the initial version of the Product Roadmap is released.  These User Stories should naturally rise to the top of the discussion during backlog grooming and sprint planning sessions since they have the most business value and highest priority. 

Twelfth in a Fifteen Part Series

By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the twelfth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 12: Hold a Kick-Off Meeting
 
Every project begins with a kick-off meeting.  Agile projects are no different.  It is a chance to pull every team member into a meeting and outline the project’s execution parameters.  Do not discount the importance of having everyone present.  Find a time that works for everyone and schedule enough time for attendees to ask questions.  You and your sponsor will be speaking a majority of the time, but your attendees will have questions that will invariably drive questions from other attendees. One hour is typically the maximum amount of time you’ll want to use for a kick-off meeting.  Thirty minutes may not be long enough.  Try to get everyone in the same room if possible, and allow enough time for attendees to process the information and learn from the experience.  Be positive about the outcome.  State your expectation of success.
 
At a minimum, the kick-off meeting must address who, what, when, where, and why.  All attendees must leave the meeting with a firm understanding of this information.  The delivery of this information will have the most impact if it is delivered by your sponsor.  His or her clout in the organization will strengthen the message and demonstrate to participants that senior management is firmly behind their effort.  Whether it is at the kick-off meeting or at some other point in the project, the sponsor must demonstrate his or her commitment to the initiative and its methods to mitigate potential team member subversion later in the project.
 
When drafting the agenda for your kick-off meeting, be sure to include the following:
 

• Who: Often times you’ll see this information covered in the form of introductions.  Allow each team member to introduce themselves, discuss their background, and explain why they were chosen for the project.  These are the people that will make it happen, so don’t shortcut this part of the meeting.  Allow everyone to learn from everyone.

 

• What: You’ll definitely want your sponsor to cover this part of the kick-off meeting.  Your sponsor should articulate exactly what the project is meant to accomplish, as well as any risks and / or issues they see the team encountering. 

 

• When: Communicate the estimated project timeline to the team.  You’ll want to use the best possible projection for an end date.  If there is a deadline to be met, that must be communicated as well.

 

• How: Next, you’ll want to cover how the Agile framework will be used to deliver the project.  Your team will have been trained in Agile concepts so nothing should be new to them.  You’ll want to emphasize how this project will use a fairly “by-the-book” implementation of Agile and explain any deviations or tailoring expected.  No one should leave concerned about the manner in which Agile will be used.  If someone has a concern, be sure to let them voice it for the entire team to hear and discuss it as a group.

 

• Where: An increasing amount of software development is being completed by remote resources, making it impossible for team members to be co-located.  If co-location is possible, you’ll want to tell team members where they’ll be sitting on a day-to-day basis.  You’ll want to cover where the Agile ceremonies will be held and any collaboration tools team members are expected to use for virtual presence.

 

• Why: It’s a good idea to have your sponsor close the kick-off meeting with why company leadership has chosen to try agile and selected this project to pilot test.  The sponsor must ask every team member for their support and make himself available for questions or concerns.

 
Completion of the kick-off meeting using the outline above will ensure you and your team are well positioned for success.

Eleventh in a Fifteen Part Series
By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the eleventh in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 11: Select a Pilot Project
 
Simply put, the pilot project must be a project that is representative of, and similar to, other projects executed at your office.  It cannot be a “one-off” or unique project.  For example, projects related to mergers and acquisitions are typically not good candidates, whereas projects related to ongoing enhancements of technology services are good candidates. 
 
Sponsor alignment during the selection process is required.  The sponsor must be aligned on the purpose of selecting the pilot project, which is to allow the team to test the execution of agile fundamentals from beginning to end, and gauge agile’s feasibility for your environment.  If the project is a success, it will give momentum to the transformation initiative.  If the project is a failure, it is not the end of the world.  Aspirations and expectations must be tempered while the team learns their new work patterns. 
 
To guide the pilot project selection process, you will want to evaluate projects against six (6) key criteria:
 
(1) Duration: Select a project with an expected duration between four (4) and twelve (12) weeks.  Shorter projects do not allow the team adequate time to execute the repeatable agile processes.  The team must have enough time to fumble through things and recover while they learn, and be able to deliver meaningful feedback on agile’s effectiveness.  Longer projects have an ineffective feedback loop for those learning new work patterns.  Additionally, longer projects slow down the organization’s ability to effectively integrate the new work patterns across many teams. 

(2) Priority: The project must be at least moderately important with an adequate level of investment and expected return.  The highest and lowest priority projects in the organization are not good candidates.  Look for a project somewhere in the middle of the organization’s priorities.  

(3) Risk: Similar to priority, you will want to find a project with some risk, but not so much that people working on the project feel pressured to revert to old work habits.  Resources working on the project must be in a relatively low-stress setting when initially executing the newly learned agile processes.  Similarly, never pick a project that if it fails to deliver, the company could go out of business.  

(4) Human Resources Required: Look for a project that requires several cross-functional resources to deliver.  An IT software development project will typically have a business analyst, architect, one or more software developers, testers, and a project manager.  Feedback from each of these roles as they execute the new work practices is critical to the success of your agile transformation initiative.    

(5) Project Lifecycle: Look for a project that traverses the typical phases of an IT project.  You’ll want a project that goes through the normal initiation, planning, design, development, testing, implementation, and support phases.  Having a project that only produces a design or delivers business requirements is not a good choice.  Your team must be able to see their product perform in operation to gain insight of the effectiveness of the new work practice. 

​(6) Sponsor Engagement: Your Sponsor must play the role of Product Owner during the pilot project.  Ideally, your pilot project will be selected from your Sponsor’s list of projects.  If your Sponsor does not have a project that matches the pilot selection criteria, your Sponsor must partner with another executive to use one of their projects as the pilot.  If this occurs, your Sponsor must still play the role of the Product Owner on behalf of the partnered executive.  This requires a level of trust between your Sponsor and the executive that he / she chose to partner with.  This arrangement is only appropriate for the pilot project and serves to shield the team from unnecessary outside criticism while they experience the agile learning curve.         
Compare the organization’s list of pending projects against the selection criteria above to yield a list of potential pilot projects.  Have your Sponsor select the pilot project armed with the information above.  This is not a decision to be taken lightly.  Success or failure will impede or accelerate your transformation initiative.

Tenth in a Fifteen Part Series
By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the tenth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 10: Train the Team in Agile Concepts & Practices
 
While you may have some team members with prior agile experience, you must regard your pilot team as being unfamiliar with agile.  You must increase the team’s agile knowledge as quickly as possible.  There is only one (1) proven method to accomplish this; you must send the entire pilot team, along with the Sponsor, to an agile “101” class, or an agile boot camp.  An introductory agile class is typically three (3) days.  Five (5) day agile “boot-camps” are also available.  Certified agile trainers will facilitate the course. I believe the most common and effective course is one that certifies attendees as scrum masters.  The scrum master course typically provides the baseline foundational agile knowledge that your team will need to be successful.
 
The reason this training is so important is because attendees learn about and perform the agile processes and ceremonies during the class.  Attendees learn “by-the-book” agile concepts and tenets and perform the processes and ceremonies as they were intended, and not adapted to fit any specific organization.  Your pilot team should not be taught how to adapt agile to their organization at this time.  Adaptation will come later as the team masters the techniques and makes informed decisions about which adaptations truly make sense.  Adaptation too early typically results in a team falling back into old waterfall-style habits.
 
Agile training attendees will learn that they must deliver software frequently, at the end of each sprint, and the processes must be carried out to realize this objective.  When training is complete, the team must assess how existing enterprise tools and processes support and / or hinder their ability to deliver software frequently.  The team must understand how they will use existing tools and processes within the new agile context.  Most tools and processes can be adapted to agile.  You will need to engage the owners of these tools and processes to educate them on the support required for your agile project to be successful.  If changes to existing tools and processes are required, be prepared to have multiple conversations with tool and process owners to get them onboard with the support required of them.           
 
By the time your team has completed agile training and understood how existing tools and processes will support their agile project, they will need to know where they will physically sit each day.  Conventional agile wisdom dictates that teams sit co-located and in the same room whenever possible.  Given today’s remote work IT culture, rarely have I seen this play out exactly as specified.  The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted additional pressures on agile teams by restricting their abilities to sit in an office.  I have found that collaboration tools coupled with a structured and well controlled sprint execution framework can keep all team members adequately engaged, and negates the need for team members to sit next to one another.

Ninth in a Fifteen Part Series

By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the ninth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 9: Socialize Generic Agile Concepts & Practices Prior to Full Rollout
 
The term “socialization” refers to the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of a social group.  This internalization, or learning process, is done by every member of the group, typically over a short period of time.  Socializing a concept requires memorization, practice, and discussion of the required actions that must be taken.  In a business setting, it is not uncommon for a team to require two (2) or more weeks to adequately socialize and accept a new work practice.  Every group and team situation will be slightly different.  Therefore, the time period required for a team to socialize concepts will differ.  As team size and process complexity grows, so does the time required to socialize the concepts.
 
There are two (2) practices that you must introduce and socialize amongst personnel involved in the organization’s agile transformation.  These are daily planning and retrospectives.  These practices are widely regarded to be low impact, highly effective, and the starting point of a company’s iterative transformation.  At this point, you will have identified the agile sponsor or champion, executives, stakeholders, supporters, and the agile team.   All of these personnel must socialize the practices.  The agile team will carry out the practices, but everyone must be on-board with the concepts.  After the agile team is identified but before the agile pilot project is underway, agile team members should attempt to implement these practices in their day-to-day activities.  These practices immediately illustrate agile’s core tenets of transparency of work, open and honest communication, and a willingness to improve over time.  By embracing these practices, the organization can gently adapt to the organizational change required.    The successes and efficiencies gained by implementing these practices will build the momentum you will need for organizational commitment.
 
Agile’s daily planning practice is known as the “standup meeting”.  The standup meeting gets its name because no one should be sitting during the meeting.  A standup meeting is no longer than fifteen (15) minutes.  The standup meeting should be held at the beginning of the work day, and the team should decide on the date, time, and location.  Every team member must attend and every team member must speak.  In a roundtable format, each team member must answer three questions: (1) what did they do yesterday, (2) what do they plan to do today, and (3) what is preventing them from making progress.  The Scrum Master must ensure that everyone gets to speak and answer the three questions without interruption. If there is time left over after everyone speaks, the team is free to openly discuss any topic.  The Scrum Master must schedule the meeting and publish minutes afterwards.  A common anti-pattern of a standup meeting is not everyone getting to speak.  If you find that this is occurring, topics raised by speakers running over their allotted time must schedule separate meetings to further discuss the topics raised.  The Scrum Master can act as a facilitator to schedule meetings or activities to impediments to progress.
 
Agile’s retrospective practice is a thirty-to sixty minute meeting held at the end of every development cycle.  A typical agile development cycle is between two (2) and four (4) weeks.  The purpose of the retrospective is for the team to review the work they just completed and identify opportunities for improvement in processes, designs, or any other work practice deemed by the team to be inefficient.  The meeting agenda for the retrospective is as follows:
 
(1) What did the team do well?  It is critical to recognize and celebrate successes.  It builds the team’s confidence and validates the team’s value contribution to the organization.  It is important to spend an adequate amount of time celebrating successes.  Sometimes the team must look hard to find them, but going through the exercise validates the team’s learning and informs their improvement decisions.
 
(2) What did the team do not so well?  Before team members will share failures, they must be assured that they are in a safe environment.  It is imperative that every team member believes that they are all in it together.  Over time, the team will get better at identifying opportunities for improvement.  Don’t expect miracles overnight.  Iterative evolution is the goal.  Any team, especially at the beginning, will go through stages of development, and it is important to consider the developmental stage when asking team members to admit possible mistakes.
 
(3) What does the team want to improve?  The team makes a commitment to improve items in the next development cycle.  The chosen improvement items must be realistically achievable.  This is not the time for lofty or overly ambitious goals.  Incremental improvement over time is the goal.  Have the team brainstorm and create a list of potential improvements, and then have them select an item, or items, from the list that they can realistically accomplish within the time constraint of the next development cycle.  Open communication and team commitment is the goal.  The Scrum Master should maintain the master list and track progress made on the improvement opportunities.  The list should be revisited at each retrospective meeting. 

Eighth in a Fifteen Part Series
By Chad Greenslade
 
I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations.  Below is the eighth in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices.  I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.
 
Lesson 8: Logistical Ground Rules & Assembling a Diverse Team
 
Ideally and if possible, you'll want to find a physical meeting space where team members can be co-located all the time.  The team requires a space where they can all sit in close proximity to one another, and have room for collaboration.  This is typically a large conference room, capable of supporting eight to twelve people, depending on the size of the team.
 
In today’s ever increasing virtual workforce environment, and the IT industry’s inherent predisposition for work to be completed remotely, many IT organizations have embraced the work-from-home model.  There are now many effective collaboration tools on the market that eliminate the need for team members to physically sit in the same geographic location.  While it can be highly effective for an initial agile team to be physically co-located while they are executing agile fundamentals for the first time, physical co-location of team members has proven to be not a “hard and fast” requirement.  Many agile teams in industry today function as virtual teams only.  Agile’s inherent frequent inspect and adapt cadence coupled with the evolution of online collaboration tools ensures the proper amount of management oversight is applied.
 
Probably the most difficult concept for any non-agile organization to embrace is the idea that agile team members are dedicated to the agile project 100% of their work day.  In non-agile organizations, internal IT employees are typically spread very thin across many projects.  Additionally, team members may have both development and production support responsibilities.  This can lead to a culture in which projects are completed in a resource’s “spare time”, and project delivery work can suffer seemingly endless delays as resource labor is consumed by production support activities.  There are countless studies illustrating knowledge worker productivity losses due to context switching.  Furthermore, the reliability and predictability of agile performance metrics is compromised if resources are not dedicated full-time.  You’ll need concrete metrics if you’re going to prove the success of your upcoming pilot project and effectively navigate the cultural and political headwinds you could face in the future.  The bottom line is that if you want success both in your upcoming agile pilot project and the larger agile transformation initiative, the organization must make the human resource capital investment required for success.  For an agile project and transformation program, this means that resources on the team perform only the team’s work.  Outside influences and external demands on team member output drastically impact your team’s ability to make and deliver on commitments.
 
The agile team makes the magic happen.  They deliver value to the organization.  Strength is found in the diversity of your team.  Just as you engaged stakeholders and supporters, you must engage team members in the same way.  You’ll need input from many different perspectives and you’ll need to win-over certain key influencers in the organization.  It is important to realize that your selected team members may be currently delivering value using a different methodology.  Inclusion of these team members, for example, will provide valuable insight into current operations and help you successfully navigate internal cultural resistance. 
 
Your selected team members should be a representative sample of your organization.  If you only select team members who are already 100% on-board with the agile transformation, you’ll deny yourself the opportunity to win-over the nay-sayers.  When you win-over someone who was skeptical and / or opposed to the agile transformation, they can become powerful allies who evangelize the concepts to their colleagues.
 
Your selected team members should also be a representative sample of the general attitudes found in any workplace setting.  Including a representative sample of these attitudes will gain you advocates and accelerate the transformation.  In an agile transformation initiative, you’ll typically encounter the following attitudes, listed in order of most difficult, to least difficult, to win-over:
 

• People who hate change and avoid it at all costs
• People that challenge any type of organizational change or initiative
• People who are extremely knowledgeable in their field but are difficult to work with  
• People who are extremely knowledgeable in their field and open to collaboration

 
Last but not least, and most importantly, you must select team members who have the technical skills to deliver business value.  In a typical software development delivery process, you’ll typically find the high-level disciplines of software developers, database administrators, testers, and infrastructure personnel.  Within specific disciplines, you’ll find specializations.  For example, software developers may be skilled in some languages, but not others.  Similarly, database administrators may be familiar with some relational database management systems, but not others.  At this point, you’ll need to put in some forethought on your “pilot” project, which will be further discussed in Lesson 11.
 
You’ll benefit by creating a matrix of the above mentioned skills, attitudes, and backgrounds needed for your team.  As you select team members, ensure you’re including adequate representation from every area in the matrix.  Effectively mixing these variables ensures you win the influence you’ll need to realize your transformation goal.​

An Atheist’s Acceptance that God is Love
By Chad Greenslade
 
A few days ago, I watched a video that made me think for a second about being atheist.  The premise was simple.  They likened DNA to a book.  They placed an actual book in the hands of an atheist and asked the atheist, "Do you think this book could have materialized out of thin air?"
 
Of course the atheists replied, "Absolutely not!  A book cannot magically appear out of thin air.  Someone must have made it.  Someone must have made the paper, made the ink, created the language, pictures, etc., required to physically produce the book.  A book clearly has a creator." 
 
Then, the narrator goes on to explain how DNA is the instruction book for every living thing on this planet, and how every living thing, when it comes time to make a cell for a certain function, refers back to it’s DNA book in order to produce the cell to the correct specification.  The narrator got the atheist to agree that DNA is a book, and then re-presented the atheist’s previous conclusion that a book must have a creator.  All of the atheists interviewed were speechless.
 
So, I thought about this.  I thought about this in the context of religion, science, evolution, the age of the universe, and my limited but interested, understanding of chemistry, physics, space and time. 
 
My initial rebuttal is that comparing a physical book to DNA is false equivalence.  A physical book simply cannot be the same thing as DNA.  After all, DNA is a chemical; it’s an acid.  But apparently, in that acid sits a code, and that code can be compared with a book that has three billion pages.  For humans, 99% of those three billion pages are the same.  The remaining one percent makes up the differences between you and me.  The other three billion pages are reserved for every other form of life that exists on this planet.  So, when you think about it like that, simply denying that DNA is a book is not enough to justify mine, or anyone else’s, atheism. 
 
After my initial rebuttal, I thought some more, and here’s where the “DNA is a book” analogy breaks down, at least for me. 
 
I’ve observed every living thing on this planet have defense mechanisms.  These mostly biological responses serve to protect an organism, and in certain situations, other organisms like them.  We see protective responses all the time.  In animals, we see them when mothers care for their young, and when species live in packs.  We see plants chemically warn other plants of impending destruction.  None of these living organisms has a god, none of these organisms stand to benefit by recognizing that there is a god, and none of these organisms will ever think about being punished by a god.
 
From the Miller-Urey experiment in 1952 that proved amino acids can be built from inorganic precursors while simulating the conditions of early Earth, to the Abiogenesis theory that that the transition from non-living to living entities was not a single event, but an evolutionary process of increasing complexity involving molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and ultimately the emergence of cell membranes, it’s clear that electricity, a natural phenomenon, jump-started, and was later harnessed by, molecular self-replication (a.k.a. “life”).  At a sub-atomic level, molecular self-replication used electricity to assemble a chemically-encoded instruction set for how it came to be, and how it could continue to be.   
 
This chemically encoded instruction set was “the book”.  So what created the book?  It’s simple.  It’s obvious.  It’s the only answer that’s ever stood the test of time, and probably ever will stand the test of time.  We did.  Life did.  It’s always been us.  It’s always been life.  The book was required for life’s self-preservation.   
 
When I set this theory against the backdrop of time and imagine the elements forming organic compounds in a primordial soup, chemically instructed at a sub-atomic level to preserve themselves, to look after each other, aging, evolving, using new materials and chemically recording their experiences, given the vast expanse of time and space (Earth is 4.53 billion years old), I can see how the book accumulates three billion pages.
 
I think it was slow at first and probably suffered some setbacks, but with electricity (lightning) as the catalyst for the specialized chemistry of carbon and water, building largely upon four key families of chemicals (lipids, carbohydrates, amino acids, and nucleic acids), after one billion years, these organic compounds began manifesting their destiny.  With enough time, they’ve recorded enough intelligence in their chemistry to animate themselves and evolve in many different directions, resulting in an explosion of life in the oceans.  Within the first billion years of Earth's history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect Earth's atmosphere and surface, leading to the proliferation of anaerobic and, later, aerobic organisms.
 
Some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as early as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earth's distance from the Sun, physical properties and geological history have allowed life to evolve and thrive. In the history of life on Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinctions. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely; most species have not been described.  More than 99% of all species of life forms, amounting to over five billion species that ever lived on Earth, are estimated to be extinct.
 
But I digress.  This post is not necessarily about theories on the origins of life, but more about disproving the existence of god. 
 
Look, I get it.  People need spirituality to feel connected.  A feeling of connectedness is how we reproduce.  Often, people need to feel that someone somewhere is looking out for them, preserving them.  This, innate, biologically-encoded ideal is the origin of the god construct that has plagued humankind’s psyche since the beginning of their existence on this planet.  We only have it because our brains are evolved enough to operate above an instinctual level.  This has freed our mind to wonder, and for early humans to derive supernatural explanations for the unexplainable.  These leftover supernatural explanations gave rise to modern day religion.
 
So what is god?  God is a defense mechanism.  It’s a defense mechanism we construct for ourselves, in order to feel connected, to feel preserved.  But, if defense mechanisms come from a chemically-encoded instruction set for how a being came to be, and how it continues to be, it can be argued that the innate feeling of preservation for ourselves and others, is the real defense mechanism, and that “God” is merely a figment constructed by the conscious mind.  What else do we call it when we take action to preserve ourselves and others?  Love.  We call it love.      
 
That same feeling, that same energy, that drives us to hug our family and friends, to pamper our pets, and to water our garden is the same energy that pushed the building blocks of life, all those eons ago, to band together and simply look after one another, to take care of each other, so that it, whatever “it” was, could continue.  Over time, life came to realize “it” as reality.
 
You don’t need a deity to mask your love.  You don’t need a deity to justify your love.  You don’t need a deity to augment your love.  You are able to generate the same amount of love with or without your idea of a god.  Love is not simply a feeling; so much as it is the actions you take from those feelings.  If there’s a universal force, it’s undoubtedly electricity, a predictable and sometimes controllable physical phenomenon.  Once that force jumpstarts the reaction, self-preservation, or love, is what sustains it.  The explanation of god begins and ends with love.  At least the bible got that part right​.

Using an Over-the-Air & Internet Streaming Solution
By Chad Greenslade
 
If you are looking to cut-the-cord on your cable television provider, I can't recommend enough a solution consisting of an over-the-air antenna combined with a smart TV streaming box.
 
I have been using the following solution for over two (2) years.  Prior to implementing this solution, I was paying AT&T U-Verse approximately $250 per month for television and (terrible) DSL-based Internet service.  Now I pay SuddenLink $90 (+ tax) each month for their 1Gbps Fiber-Optic Internet service only.  I do not pay for television service.
 
For my over-the-air television service, I installed the "EXTREMEtenna 80" ($109) external television antenna (https://www.channelmaster.com/Digital_HDTV_Outdoor_TV_Antenna_p/cm-4228hd.htm) on my chimney.  If you live in an HOA, you'll want to get pre-approval to install the antenna.  I also installed the "Titan 2 High Gain Preamplifier" ($69) (https://www.channelmaster.com/TV_Antenna_Preamplifier_p/cm-7777.htm).  The amplifier is mounted onto the antenna.  I hired Eddie Banegas of "Digital TV & Media Services" (http://digitaltvandmediaservice.com/ (469) 855-0707) to install the antenna and amplifier and run coax cable to my "OnQ" wiring distribution box located in the laundry room.  It cost me $420 to have the antenna & amplifier installed.  I now have over-the-air HDTV service to every room with a coax outlet.  I get over 100 HDTV channels, including the major ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates.  
 
For my Internet streaming service, first it's imperative that you have high-speed Internet.  For me, AT&T U-verse's DSL-based service didn't measure up.  While I could use AT&T U-verse's DSL-based Internet service for Netflix and Hulu (because both of these services dynamically optimize for lower bandwidths), using a Smart TV streaming box was out of the question.  Once I was able to get 1Gbps (gigabit) service to my home, the Smart TV streaming box performed much better.
 
Another item to keep in mind with Internet streaming is that a wired connection is better than a wireless connection.  You'll want to force the devices (Televisions, Smart TV boxes, etc.) that are involved in video streaming to use the wired connection.  In my home, I have COAX (television) and Category-5 (CAT-5) (data) outlets in every room.  The data outlets are the ones to use for streaming.  The wires for the outlets terminate in a distribution box located in my laundry room.  The Internet service also comes into the house at this distribution box.  In order to distribute the Internet service to every room in the house, you'll need a "switch".  There are many makes & models to choose from, but I recommend a 1Gbps (gigabit) switch containing as many ports on it as you have rooms in your home with a data outlet.  For me, I have a 16-port, 1Gbps switch ($80) installed in the distribution box in my laundry room.  This provides wired Internet service to every room in the house.
 
Once you have wired Internet service to your room, you’re ready for Internet streaming.  Many of today’s “Smart TVs” can be connected to the Internet directly using either a wired or wireless connection.  Again, use a wired connection for the best, most-reliable results.  Smart TVs generally come pre-loaded with one or more streaming “Apps” such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.  Use these apps as you normally would.
 
Now, what about premium channels and content such as HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, ESPN, CNN, etc.?  This is where the Smart TV box comes into play.  If you’ve plugged your TV directly into the Internet using the data outlet in your room, you’ll first need to “split” this connection so that the TV can access the Internet alongside the Smart TV box.  To do this, again you’ll need a “switch”.  The switch you use in the room does not need to be as big as the one used in the distribution closet.  Whereas the switch in my distribution closet contains 16 ports, switches in my bedroom or media room only contain 4 ports ($40), or 8 ports ($65), depending on the number of devices in the room that need to access the Internet.  Again, you’ll want these switches to be 1Gbps (gigabit). 
 
For the Smart TV box itself, I highly recommend the Kodi box.  They can be purchased at www.xbmcmart.com.  They generally only have a few models available and any one of them will work.  They range in price from $100 to $165 each.  There is no monthly subscription charge.  You’ll get access to virtually everything on television.  Now, one thing to keep in mind is that you are watching “streams” of video and each “stream” is only as good as (1) the person (connection) uploading the stream, and (2) the person (connection) downloading / watching the stream.  Not all streams are created equal.  Some uploaders have limited bandwidth and your bandwidth will directly impact the quality of your experience.  This is why you must have extremely good Internet service.  I own two Kodi boxes; one is installed in my media room and the other is installed in my bedroom.  Both perform great.  There will be a little bit of trial-and-error involved as you learn how to operate the Kodi box, but rest assured, you’ll figure it out.  The menus are intuitive and no prior experience is necessary.  Each Kodi box comes with a remote.  I do not recommend purchasing the mini-USB keyboard remote from xbmcmart; it’s a piece of crap and there are better options available on Amazon. 
 
Lastly, I don’t have DVR (digital video recording) capability.  With the setup above, I have found it to be obsolete since virtually everything is on-demand.  Now, if you want to purchase a DVR box for over-the-air recording, be my guest.  Channel Master has some great options available.
 
Good luck​!