The Agile Executive

To listen to this podcast, download the podcast directly, subscribe to the blog/podcast feed in iTunes (or whatever), or click play below to hear it:

Kicking off our Agile Executive podcast series, I talk with Clarke Ching. We start out discussing two of Clarke’s books Rocks Into Gold and a longer version he’s working on. We then discuss the relation of Goldratt’s The Goal.

I ask Clarke to talk to his point that breaking things into smaller chunks end ups costing less. He says:

• In bigger projects (vs. smaller ones), we end up building more low-priority things, thus “wasting” time
• With a focus on delivering small chunks that work we get higher quality, rather then wiring up lower quality stuff

After this, I ask Clarke how he’s sorted out the boot-strapping problem of getting Agile started in organizations. He recommends:

• The Weetabix Sell – selling the benefits, not the ingredients or “process”
• Set expectations that it’s going to be hard work
• find quick wins, preferably “without doing anything”

Finally, I ask Clarke to give us a report on the Agile scene across the pond, which he does nicely.