In this podcast is I got to dig into the topic of Bimodal with two guys who are deeply knowledgeable about both the traditional and the Agile space. If you aren’t familiar with Bimodal yet, you definitely want to check this out because it is poised to have a massive impact on how organizations introduce and work with Agile. And if you are already up to speed on bimodal, there is a good chance some of the discussion in this podcast is going to challenge what you know on this topic.
Some links from the Podcast
Steve Elliott Interview
AgileCraft http://agilecraft.com
AgileCraft on Twitter - https://twitter.com/theagilecraft
Dennis Stevens Interview
LeadingAgile http://www.leadingagile.com
LeadingAgile on Twitter https://twitter.com/leadingagile
Dennis Stevens on Twitter https://twitter.com/dennisstevens
The blog post Dennis mentioned on Agile vs. Waterfall http://www.leadingagile.com/2013/08/agile-vs-waterfall/
Show Notes
0:00 Introduction to the Bimodal Podcast
2:50 Start Interview with Steve Elliott from AgileCraft
3:22 Background on Steve and AgileCraft
5:30 Defining Organizational Agility
6:50 The challenges of scale (with Agile)
8:00 The challenge of Bimodal
9:00 Defining Bimodal
9:40 AgileCraft’s take on Bimodal
11:15 Is Bimodal just a way of legitimizing a hybrid model
12:28 Admitting when we can’t actually go 100% Agile
13:00 The Agile Walk of Shame
13:51 AgileCraft’s decision to support Bimodal and “meet them where they’re at”
15:00 How Bimodal brings the data from both worlds into once place
16:00 Transparency and Measuring Value
17:10 Agile’s connection to strategy
18:11 Figuring out what data you need to pay attention to
20:22 The dangers of big wave planning
21:30 How the Agile space is evolving and maturing
22:30 How to contact Steve
23:15 - Dennis Steven’s interview begins
24:14 Background on Dennis and LeadingAgile
25:00 Dennis explains Bimodal
26:00 Why some things can’t move fast in an organization
27:00 Not everything (in an organization) is ready to move to Agile
27:47 Not everyone is trying to move everything to Agile
28:00 How most people are misinterpreting the message of Bimodal
29:10 Nobody thinks matrix teams are the right way to build software
29:52 People are still running by the pool with scissors in their mouths
30:15 It’s like crack for the business world
31:43 Conditions that must exist for fast feedback cycles and bimodal to work
33:50 Is transitioning to bimodal harder than just transitioning to Agile? (3 options for transformation)
35:51 Realizing when your organization has changed enough
36:45 You have to make Mode 1 be sexy and desirable
37:10 Creating the urgency for change
37:45 Do organizations have the self-awareness needed to understand what change they need?
38:20 Explaining it to Executives
40:10 Why Dennis does not have a “bimodal” conversation with executives
41:00 The value of having a pragmatic and safe roadmap for transformation that resonates with Executives
41:47 The hardest part of transforming to bimodal
42:40 How to contact Dennis