Agile Conversations

Douglas Squirrel has been coding for 40 years and has led software teams for 15 of them. He is an executive coach and consulting CTO in London, making use of his extensive experience growing teams and advising startup founders and senior managers. His previous roles included founding CTO at TIM Group and VP Engineering at e-commerce startup Secretsales. He has consulted with a wide variety of London startups including Geckoboard, Lostmy.name, DueDil, Kano, and MarketInvoice. Jeffrey Fredrick is an internationally recognized expert in software development and has over 25 years' experience covering both sides of the business/technology divide. An early adopter of XP and Agile practices, Jeffrey has been a conference speaker in the US, Europe, India and Japan. Through his work on the pioneering open-source project CruiseControl, and through his role as co-organizer of the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference (CITCON), he has had a global impact on software development. Jeffrey's Silicon Valley experience includes roles as Vice President of Product Management, Vice President of Engineering, and Chief Evangelist. He has also worked as an independent consultant on topics including corporate strategy, product management, marketing, and interaction design. Jeffrey is currently Chief Technology Officer and Head of Product & Marketing in London at TIM, an Acuris Company. He also runs the London Organisational Learning Meetup and is a CTO mentor through CTO Craft.

I think of this highly practical and immediately applicable book as the lost instruction manual to the most powerful and effective Agile tool we don't even realize we have: Conversations. If you want to be successful with Agile, RTFM: Read This Fabulous Manual.

• Introduction A Word from the AuthorsHow this Book is OrganizedThe Many Ways to Read this Book Part IChapter 1: Escaping the Software FactoryLaboring in the Software FactoryAgile: People-Driven DevelopmentLean Software: Empower the TeamDevOps: Operators are People TooDetour into the Feature FactorySidebar: The Cynefin FrameworkChapter 2: Conversations: Humanity's Secret WeaponOur Special PowerImproving and Learning from Your ConversationsSidebar: Types of ConversationsThe Four RsConversational AnalysisAnalyzing a Conversation: Reflect, Revise, and Role PlaySidebar: Conversation Scoring: A Quick BreakdownExample ConversationsConclusion: Over to You Part IIIntroduction Chapter 3: The Trust ConversationTrust Comes FirstNell's Trust StoryPreparing: Be VulnerablePreparing: Be PredictableThe Conversation: TDD for PeopleNell's Trust Story ContinuedExample Trust ConversationsCase Study: Trust Saves the DayApplying the Trust ConversationChapter 4: The Fear ConversationFear—The Default FeelingTara's Fear StoryPreparing: Normalization of DeviancePreparing: Coherence BustingThe Conversation: The Fear ChartTara's Fear Story ContinuedExample Fear ConversationsCase Study: Overcoming FearApplying the Fear ConversationChapter 5: The Why ConversationDon't Start with WhyBobby's Why StoryPreparing: Interests not Positions, Advocacy Plus InquiryPreparing: Joint DesignThe Conversation: Building a WhyBobby's Why Story ContinuedExample Why ConversationsCase Study: Stuck on WhyApplying the Why ConversationChapter 6: The Commitment ConversationCompliance vs. CommitmentMandy's Commitment StoryPreparing: Agree on MeaningPreparing: The Walking SkeletonSidebar: The Tilted SliderThe Conversation: Making a CommitmentMandy's Commitment Story ContinuedExample Commitment ConversationsCase Study: Context for CommitmentApplying the Commitment ConversationChapter 7: The Accountability ConversationWho's AccountableNicole's Accountability StoryPreparing: Theory X and Theory YPreparing: Directed OpportunismSidebar: Medieval AccountabilityThe Conversation: Radiating IntentNicole's Accountability Story ContinuedExample Accountability ConversationsCase Study: Resurrecting the DealApplying the Accountability Conversation[Conclusion: How to Keep LearningFurther Reading & ResourcesReferencesNotesAcknowledgmentsAbout the Authors