Episode 270 | Mike Cohn - Agile Growth

Guest:

Mike Cohn

@mikewcohn

Mike Cohn talks with Dave Rael about solving problems, programming and management, writing, orchestration, and economics

Mike Cohn is the author of User Stories Applied for Agile Software Development, Agile Estimating and Planning, and Succeeding with Agile. Mike is a co-founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance. Through his company, Mountain Goat Software, Mike Cohn specializes in helping companies adopt and improve their use of agile processes and techniques to build extremely high-performance teams. Mike is also the author of the popular and well-regarded course, www.BetterUserStories.com.

Chapters: 2:43 - Dave introduces the show and Mike Cohn4:22 - Solving problems by orchestration rather than contributing a part7:48 - Developers as managers and getting better at management12:43 - Mike, the author18:14 - Being rewarded for helpfulness20:29 - The reasons for the name of Mountain Goat Software22:16 - The content Mike is creating25:53 - How Mike got started in software31:18 - The utility of Mike's economics background32:54 - Quality and the Test Pyramid34:52 - Mike's story of failure - project failure due to falling short on inspiring application of effort in the right roles37:56 - Mikes success story - an incredible growth experience and applying agile techniques with excellent results39:44 - Mike's book recommendation42:50 - The things that have Mike most excited44:07 - Mike's causes of pain and suffering44:42 - Mike's top 3 tips for delivering more value46:43 - Keeping up with Mike

Resources: Mountain Goat Software Mike's Better User Stories Course Amazon's Mike Cohn Page Ted Neward on Developer On Fire John 13:1-17 - Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet Servant Leadership - Greenleaf User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development - Mike Cohn Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - Erich Gamma Tom Petty Principles Of Software Engineering Management - Tom Gilb Tom Gilb on Developer On Fire The Test Pyramid Josh Doody on Developer On Fire

Mike's book recommendation: Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It - Chris Voss

Mike's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Ask questions Think not about what to build, but what to build next Stop when you're on a roll