Episode 15: Agile Teams and Escaping Velocity with Doc Norton and Claire Podulka

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Doc Norton: Co-Founder and CEO of CTO2.

Claire Podulka: Project Manager at Table XI.

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.

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

Special Guests: Claire Podulka and Doc Norton.