Software Delivery in Small Batches

Proto-Epics with Jocko Selberg

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -1000

This is the first in a series of episodes on software delivery flow. This is a remix on the typical episode format. It features a snippet from my ongoing conversations with my friend Jocko Selberg. Jocko and I discuss the idea of "Proto-Epics" as the artifact that joins the discovery and delivery process.

Find Jocko on LinkedIn and check-out his own show the Complexity Lounge on YouTube.

(00:00) - Proto-Epics
(00:21) - Intro
(01:17) - Background
(03:37) - Adam & Jocko on Proto-Epics
(11:10) - Outro

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The Zen of Programming: New Manuscripts

Adam Hawkins — Sun, 30 Nov 2025 20:41:04 -1000

Better late than never. Small Batches returns in 2025. In this episode, Adam shares his learnings over the past year through the works of the Zen master Kaizenji. This is special follow-up episode to the previous episodes on the Zen of Programming.

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Small Batches returns in 2025

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 15:39:01 -1000

Small Batches will return in 2025. Until then, I recommend checking out the Complexity Lounge on YouTube, hosted by my friend Jocko Selberg.

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The Zen of Programming: Part Six

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 11 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -1000

In this episode, Adam reads haikus from The Zen of Programming (1988) by Geoffrey James. This book is unlike any programming book you've encountered. So, let's try something new for the podcast to showcase this poignant, accurate, and funny book.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 The Zen of Programming by Geoffrey James

Chapters

(00:00) - The Zen of Programming: Book Five
(00:22) - The Zen of Programming
(01:08) - Support the Show
(01:34) - The Zen Nun Yoshiko
(02:16) - Haiku One
(02:38) - Haiku Two
(02:58) - Haiku Three
(03:33) - Haiku Four
(03:41) - Haiku Five
(04:02) - Haiku Six
(04:14) - Haiku Seven
(04:21) - Haiku Eight
(04:53) - Dedication
(05:41) - Haiku Nine
(06:46) - The Small Batches Way

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The Zen of Programming: Part Five

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -1000

In this episode, Adam reads book four in The Zen of Programming (1988) by Geoffrey James. This book is unlike any programming book you've encountered. So, let's try something new for the podcast to showcase this poignant, accurate, and funny book. This episode features koans from the fabled zen Master Lan-Hsi.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 The Zen of Programming by Geoffrey James

Chapters

(00:00) - The Zen of Programming: Book Four
(01:09) - Support The Show
(01:34) - The Master Lan-Hsi
(01:48) - Koan One
(03:19) - Koan Two
(05:01) - Koan Three
(06:10) - Koan Four
(07:52) - Koan Five
(08:15) - Koan Six
(09:22) - Koan Seven
(09:31) - Koan Eight
(09:56) - Koan Nine
(10:30) - The Zen of Software Delivery

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The Zen of Programming: Part Four

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -1000

In this episode, Adam reads book three in The Zen of Programming (1988) by Geoffrey James. This book is unlike any programming book you've encountered. So, let's try something new for the podcast to showcase this poignant, accurate, and funny book. This episode features analects from the fabled zen Master Rinzai.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 The Zen of Programming by Geoffrey James

Chapters

(00:00) - The Zen of Programming: Book Three
(00:21) - About the Book
(01:10) - Support the Show
(01:39) - Master Rinzai
(02:03) - Analect One
(02:37) - Analect Two
(03:02) - Analect Three
(04:04) - Analect Four
(05:14) - Analect Five
(05:39) - Analect Six
(05:59) - Analect Seven
(07:26) - Analect Eight
(08:23) - Analect Nine
(09:06) - The Small Batches Way

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The Zen of Programming: Part Three

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 30 Sep 2024 18:58:32 -1000

In this episode, Adam reads book two in The Zen of Programming (1988) by Geoffrey James. This book is unlike any programming book you've encountered. So, let's try something new for the podcast to showcase this poignant, accurate, and funny book. This episode features folktales from the fabled zen Master Noa-Op.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 The Zen of Programming by Geoffrey James
☕️ Small Batches #84 - Deming

Chapters

(00:00) - The Zen of Programming: Book Two
(00:21) - Introducing the Zen of Programming
(01:09) - Support the Show
(01:35) - Master Noa-Op
(01:56) - Folktale One
(02:46) - Folktale Two
(04:46) - Folktale Three
(06:29) - Folktale Four
(07:26) - Folktale Five
(08:11) - Folktalk Six
(08:47) - Folktale Seven
(09:50) - Folktale Seven
(10:06) - Folktale Eight
(11:16) - Folktale Nine
(12:05) - The Small Batches Way

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The Zen of Programming. Part Two.

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 The Zen of Programming by Geoffrey James

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(00:22) - The Zen of Programming
(01:06) - Support the Show
(01:31) - Master Ninjei
(02:06) - Chronicle One
(02:31) - Chronicle Two
(03:14) - Chronicle Three
(03:50) - Chronicle Four
(04:36) - Chronicle Five
(05:18) - Chronicle Six
(05:35) - Chronicle Seven
(06:07) - Chronicle Eight
(06:41) - Chronicle Nine
(08:42) - The Small Batches Way

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Reading the Zen of Programming. Part One.

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 19:57:29 -1000

In this episode, Adam reads the preface, forward, and introduction to The Zen of Programming (1988) by Geoffrey James. This book is unlike any programming book you've encountered. So, let's try something new for the podcast to showcase this poignant, accurate, and funny book.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Release It!"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 The Zen of Programming by Geoffrey James

Chapters

(00:00) - The Zen of Programming - Intro
(00:23) - The Book
(01:50) - Foreword by Dr. C.P. Yu
(03:59) - Introduction by Charlie (Chuck) Babbage
(15:19) - Preface
(18:05) - Outro

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Incidents & Operations with Dan Slimmon

Adam Hawkins — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -1000

In this episode, Adam welcomes Dan Slimmon, an experienced Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) to discuss aspects of incident response and troubleshooting in software engineering. Dan explains his methodology for clinical troubleshooting, the importance of maintaining a common mental model, and techniques for leading effective incident response efforts. They also delve into the value of continuous ops reviews and ongoing mental model updates to prevent issues, emphasizing the need for structured processes and effective communication.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Release It!"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
🧑‍🎓 Dan's course on leading incidents (Code SMALLBATCHES24 for 24% off!)

Chapters

(00:00) - Incidents & Operations
(01:14) - Guest Welcome
(01:40) - Dan's Career Journey
(02:33) - Evolution of Tech Stacks
(04:59) - Clinical Troubleshooting Explained
(11:53) - Incident Response Fundamentals
(17:41) - Effective Communication in Incidents
(26:09) - Training for Incident Response
(33:22) - The Essence of Incident Response
(33:53) - Balancing Short-Term and Long-Term Fixes
(35:01) - The Firefighting Analogy in Software Incidents
(37:11) - Postmortems: Learning from Incidents
(42:14) - Building a Shared Mental Model
(42:41) - Looking for Trouble: Proactive System Monitoring
(47:59) - Ops Reviews: Continuous Improvement
(54:37) - The Importance of Closing the Feedback Loop
(59:40) - Final Thoughts and Resources

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Strategic Thinking with Alex Nesbitt

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 19:45:55 -1000

In this episode of Small Batches, host Adam Hawkins welcomes Alex Nesbitt, a strategy expert and member of the Flow Collective, to delve into the nuances of strategic thinking. The discussion covers different types of strategies, pro-tips on strategic thinking, and how strategy relates to the concept of flight levels.

Nesbitt shares insights from his extensive consulting career, touching on topics like identifying leverage points, the relationship between strategy and tactics, and why being strategic is often more critical than having a strategy. The episode also stresses the importance of having a clear vision, enabling organizational constraints, and the roles of resilience and maintenance in strategic planning. Alex mentions practical examples, resources, and tips to help software and business leaders enhance their strategic approach.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Playing to Win"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 Playing to Win by Lafely & Martin
📘 Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Rumelt
📘 The Effective Executive by Drucker
🧠 Effectuation Theory

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(01:17) - Alex's Background
(04:52) - What is Strategy?
(08:10) - The Shadow Strategy
(12:56) - How to Practice Strategy
(22:03) - Software Architecture & Strategy
(25:33) - Strategy & Being Strategic
(29:50) - Five Pillars of Strategic Thinking
(34:46) - Pain of Bad Strategy
(37:22) - Alex's Tip for Surviving Ambiquitous Strategy
(38:38) - Strategy Deployment & Hoshin Kanri
(42:47) - Tip of Software Development
(48:03) - Alex's Recommend Resources
(52:47) - Adam's Takeaway & Segue into AI
(55:19) - Alex's Links
(57:19) - Outro

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Playing to Win

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:26:43 -1000

Adam discusses strategy in preparation for the next episode.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Playing to Win"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 Playing to Win by Lafely & Martin

Chapters

(00:00) - Playing to Win
(00:46) - Flight Levels
(01:53) - What is strategy?
(03:45) - Strategy for SRE at Skillshare
(05:16) - Outro

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On the Gemba

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam discusses three (new-ish) ideas from time on a new gemba.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Modern Software Engineering"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 Flight Levels by Klaus Leopold

Chapters

(00:00) - On the Gemba
(00:22) - What's new
(00:44) - Sequencing over Prioritization
(03:44) - Flight Levels
(05:11) - Thought Experiment
(06:50) - Outro

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Hexagonal Architecture

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam describes using Hexagonal Architecture, also known as Ports and Adapters, for software delivery excellence.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Modern Software Engineering"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership
📘 Hexagonal Architecture by Alistair Cockburn
☕️ Small Batches #17 with Dave Farley

Chapters

(00:00) - Hexagonal Architecture
(00:23) - Reflections on Ruby and Rails
(01:41) - What is Hexagonal Architecture?
(02:45) - The Repository Pattern
(04:32) - Dependency Injection
(06:43) - Thinking in Pipelines
(08:03) - Development Environments
(09:09) - Outro

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Flow Engineering with Steve Pereira & Andrew Davis

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis to discuss their new book, Flow Engineering. They discuss the book's origin story and the use of cybernetics to drive effective action.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Modern Software Engineering"
🧭 Get the Small Batches Way guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Buy Flow Engineering: from value stream mapping to effective action
🧠 Join the Flow Collective
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership

Chapters

(00:00) - Flow Engineering
(00:23) - Intro
(00:59) - Free June Giveaway
(01:38) - Andrew's Intro
(02:38) - Steve's Intro
(03:46) - Book's Origin Story
(06:49) - Adam's Thoughts on the Book
(13:03) - The Five Maps
(19:16) - Value, Clarity Flow
(23:46) - What is Essential?
(27:12) - Cybernetics & Effective Action
(39:51) - The Principles & Visual Management
(53:21) - Wrap up
(56:53) - Outro

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T1 and T2 Signals

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 20 May 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents the mental model behind T1 and T2 signals, a necessary lexicon for understanding production operations.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Flow Engineering"
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #103 - Understanding Production Operations (The MMIVM episode)
☕️ Small Batches #90 - As Measured By
☕️ Small Batches #88 - Golden Signals
☕️ Small Batches #26 - SLOs with Alex Hidalgo (Google SRE and author of the SLO book)
🥋 Software Kaizen: My One-on-One System for Engineering Leadership

Chapters

(00:00) - T1 & T2 Signals
(00:23) - Can you answer this question?
(01:27) - Flow Engineering Giveaway
(02:30) - Tier 1 & Tier 1 Signals
(03:49) - Example: Datadog Spending
(06:13) - Example: a Web Service
(08:23) - Example: Video Transcription
(09:26) - PROTIP One
(09:57) - PROTIP Two
(10:27) - PROTIP Three
(11:07) - PROTIP Four
(11:43) - PROTIP Five
(12:38) - PROTIP 6
(13:22) - PROTIP Seven
(14:24) - Study Guide Announcement
(15:07) - Announcing more Paid Perks
(17:25) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Rules of Flow

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam answers a listener's request of advice on succeeding in high-level company or project environments with seven tips.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE giveaway for a copy of "Flow Engineering"
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Buy "Goldratt's Rules of Flow"
📘 Buy "Playing to Win" (my favorite book on strategy)
☕️ Small Batches #99: Wiring the Winning Organization
☕️ Small Batches #82: Leadership is Language

Chapters

(00:00) - Rules of Flow
(00:23) - Listener Request
(00:48) - May Giveaway: Flow Engineering
(01:30) - Rules of Flow
(04:15) - Goldratt's Rule of Flow
(04:52) - Tip One: Control WIP
(05:16) - Tip Two: Full-Kits
(06:02) - Tip Three: Set a Cadence
(06:51) - Tip Four: Right-Size
(07:42) - Tip Five: Buffers
(08:39) - Tip Six: Visual Management
(10:11) - Tip Seven: Language
(10:49) - Bonus Tip: Information Diet
(11:12) - Outro

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Skill Zero: Test Driven Development

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 09:47:02 -1000

Adam presents TDD as skill zero, the one that unlocks all the others.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 April 2024 Giveaway instructions
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #65: Systems Thinking
☕️ Dave Farley on Small Batches
📘 Tidy First? by Kent Beck

Chapters

(00:00) - Skill Zero: Test Driven Development
(00:25) - Intro
(01:32) - Free April Giveaway
(02:27) - Skill Zero
(04:06) - Learning from Management
(05:11) - TDD in Teams
(06:03) - Systems Thinking
(06:39) - Balancing Feedback Loops
(08:00) - Reinforcing Feedback Loops
(09:13) - Batch-Size Controls
(13:04) - Outro

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On Ops Reviews

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 18:07:23 -1000

Adam presents a catch-all episode on ops reviews, visual management, call-to-actions, and SLOs.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 April 2024 Giveaway instructions
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #104: Blue-Yellow-Black Visual Management
☕️ Small Batches #26: Service Level Objectives with Alex Hidalgo
☕️ Small Batches #103: Understanding Production Operations
🥋 How to Find your Initial SLOs on Software Kaizen

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(00:35) - This Month's Free Giveaway!
(01:17) - On Ops Reviews
(09:13) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

DevOps Patterns for Private Equity with Dave Mangot

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Dave Mangot returns to discuss his new book "DevOps Patterns for Private Equity". Don't let the title fool you, this is best introduction to DevOps and many related software delivery topics. Buy this book for anyone in leadership.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 Enter the FREE March 2024 book giveaway
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 DevOps Patterns for Private Equity (Dave's Book)
☕️ Small Batches #37: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team with Dave Mangot

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(00:48) - FREE Giveaway
(01:38) - Dave's Introduction
(02:28) - Why this book?
(05:14) - How Private Equity wins with Software Delivery
(08:13) - Communicating these ideas
(11:43) - A common entry point?
(16:21) - Quaterly Roadmaps?
(21:48) - Drift into Kanban
(31:54) - On Monitoring & Operations
(39:59) - Wrap Up

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Blue-Yellow-Black Visual Management

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 08:01:32 -1000

Adam presents visual management using simple blue, yellow, and black color grading. This is an essential episode.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🎁 March 2024 Giveaway instructions
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn (Katie's Book)
☕️ Small Batches #102: Chain of Learning with Katie Anderson
🥋 The Toyota Way on Software Kaizen

Chapters

(00:00) - Blue, Yellow, Black
(00:22) - Background
(01:20) - March Giveaway
(01:55) - Origin Story
(05:49) - Blue-Yellow-Black In Ops Reviews
(08:11) - Blue-Yellow-Black In 1:1s
(11:55) - Blue-Yellow-Black In A3s
(14:40) - Wrap-up
(15:45) - Farewell Alex
(16:14) - Outro

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Understanding Production Operations

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:09:23 -1000

Adam presents a series of questions to understand production operations, plus a method to practice: MMIVM. That's Model-Measure-Instrument-Visualize-Monitor.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
🎁 Enter the February 2024 Book Giveaway!
☕️ Small Batches #90: As Measured By
☕️ Small Batches #88: Golden Signals

Chapters

(00:00) - Understanding Production Operations
(00:23) - You Build it, You Run it
(01:27) - Feburary Giveaway
(01:59) - To What Aim? By What Method?
(02:19) - Question One
(02:45) - Question Two
(03:30) - Question Three
(04:13) - Question Four
(05:24) - Question Five
(06:14) - The Exercise
(06:24) - Model
(06:45) - Measure
(07:11) - Instrument
(07:40) - Visualize
(08:28) - Monitor
(09:03) - Recap
(10:31) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Chain of Learning with Katie Anderson

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam's welcomes Katie Anderson to the show to discuss her book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn, lean thinking, and the powerful growth mindset.

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn (Katie's Book)
🎧 Chain of Learning (Katie's Podcast)
☕️ Small Batches #77: Managing to Learn

Chapters

(00:00) - Chain of Learning with Katie Anderson
(00:23) - Today's Episode
(01:13) - Feburary Giveaway!
(01:40) - Katie's Background
(03:06) - Katie's Origin Story
(13:59) - The Toyota Boat?
(25:47) - Katie's Japan Study Trips
(29:26) - The Impact of Culture
(36:31) - Growth Mindset
(49:32) - Katie & Adam's self Kaizen
(54:59) - Connect with Katie
(56:11) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Words of the Year

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -1000

Adam's two most common words (verbal ticks even) from 2023. Is it a party foul to bring lean thinking into a New Year's Eve party?

Want more?

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #77: Managing to Learn
☕️ Small Batches #87: Set-Based Concurrent Engineering
📘 Managing to Learn
📘 Lean Product & Process Development

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(00:47) - News: Website Updates
(01:10) - News: Free Giveaways
(01:35) - Viable
(05:29) - Go and See
(07:55) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge with John Willis

Adam Hawkins — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 06:18:20 -1000

Adam welcomes John Willis to discuss his new book, Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge. We discuss why John wrote the book, Deming's career arc, and how we put Deming's ideas into action. The print edition is available now. Listen through to the end for announcements from Adam and John.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start here.
🧭 Get your FREE guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Buy Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
🎁 Enter my FREE giveaway from a copy of Wiring the Winning Organization
☕️ Small Batches #84 - Deming

Chapters

(00:00) - 100 - John's Book
(00:00) - Intro
(01:47) - John's Bio
(04:00) - John on Why this Boo
(10:44) - Deming's Arc
(18:24) - SPok & Software
(24:04) - Deming in Japan & Humanism
(30:15) - Problem Solving
(33:49) - Learning from Failure
(38:09) - John's Advice
(47:13) - By what method?
(56:40) - What's next for John?
(59:12) - Wrap Up
(01:03:05) - Outro

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Wiring the Winning Organization

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 09:18:12 -1000

Adam presents the ideas in Wiring the Winning Organization with a vignette from his time on gemba. Plus, a giveaway!

Here's how to win a FREE copy of Wiring the Winning Organization. First, follow me on LinkedIn. Second, post a link to Small Batches podcast episode with what you learned using the #SmallBatchesGiveaway hashtag. The giveaway runs through January 2024. The winner will be announced on February 1st. You can enter as many times as you like.

Want more?

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
🚀 New listener? Start here.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Buy Wiring the Winning Organization

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro
(01:21) - Giveaway!
(01:52) - Vignette: Rejigging Pagerduty & Datadog
(11:38) - My Thoughts
(12:30) - Lexicon
(12:46) - Slowification
(12:59) - Simplification
(13:13) - Incrementalization
(13:33) - Modularization
(13:50) - Coherence
(14:10) - Linearization
(14:51) - Amplification
(15:04) - Outro

Tips for New Managers

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -1000

Twelve tips for first-time engineering managers. Want more?

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
🚀 New listener? Start here.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence

Boundaries

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents thinking about boundaries, testing, and software design.

Want more?

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
🚀 New listener? Start here.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
🖥️ Alistair Cockburn's posts on Hexagonal Architecture
📘 New Book! Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge by John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #22: Derek Comartin on Service Boundaries

Estimates

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 17:39:26 -1000

Adam presents how he thinks about estimates and delivery. Plus, a special announcement on something new!

Want more?

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
🚀 New listener? Start here.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
🥋 The Software Kaizen Substack
📘 Principles of Product Development Flow
📘 Making Work Visible
☕️ Small Batches #86 - Flow: A Mental Model

Chapters

(00:00) - 096 - Estimates
(01:13) - Intro
(01:33) - Estimates
(03:41) - Problem One: Dynamics
(04:01) - Problem Two: Priority
(04:36) - Problem Three: Time
(05:01) - Problem Three and a Half
(06:10) - Problem Four: WIP
(07:16) - Problem Five: Confused Priorities
(07:48) - Problem Six: Time Horizons
(08:30) - The Alternative
(10:17) - Outro

The Mental Model

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 19 Jun 2023 12:01:49 -1000

Adam presents mental model behind lean and agile. The mental model accepts we don't know the path forward, thus we must optimize for learning it.

Are you just beginning your path to excellence? Then start here.

Already on the path? Continue your self-study with any of these:

🧠 The Small Batches Way study guide
📘 The Fifth Discipline
📘 The Learn Startup
☕️ Small Batches #39 - The High-Velocity Edge

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Language Choice

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents the rationale behind choosing a language or tech stack. Spoiler alert: it's irrelevant to software delivery performance.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start here.
📘 Accelerate - The science of software delivery performance
📘 The DevOps Handbook
☕️ Small Batches #65- Systems Thinking
🧠 The DORA report

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Drift into Failure

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 22 May 2023 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents thoughts on Sidney Dekker's book "Drift into Failure".

🚀 New listener? Start here.
📘 Drift into Failure by Sidney Dekker
📘 The Field Guide to Understanding "Human Error" by Sidney Dekker
☕️ Small Batches #65- Systems Thinking
📹 The Pursuit of Success & Averting Drift into Failure - Sidney Dekker (DOES 2017)

Editor's note: There is an error in the recording. Adam mistakenly refers to Challenger when he means Columbia.

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The Agile Manifesto

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 08 May 2023 19:49:38 -1000

Adam revisits the historic Agile Manifesto.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start here.
🧠 The Agile Manifesto
📘The Art of Agile Development by James Shore
📘The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim
☕️ Small Batches #63 - Modern Software Engineering

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Iterations & Increments

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 20:33:24 -1000

Adam shares an example of breaking work into increments and iterations.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start here.
📘 Modern Software Engineering by Dave Farley
☕️ Small Batches #63 - Modern Software Engineering

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As Measured By

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 19:34:20 -1000

Adam shows how the phrase, "as measured by", encourages empirical and scientific thinking.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start here.
📘 Measure what Matters by John Doerr
☕️ Small Batches #88 - Golden Signals
☕️ Small Batches #84 - Deming & The System of Profound Knowledge
☕️ Small Batches #69 - Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

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Introduction

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 20:35:44 -1000

Adam describes the aims of this podcast and what listeners can expect. Here's the best way to start down the path:

1. Envision the ideal: Small Batches #83
2. Study the origin: Small Batches #84
3. Build a mental model of the software delivery value stream: Small Batches #73
4. Follow me on LinkedIn for daily software delivery education
5. Create a self-study plan: Small Batches #71
6. Supplement with my catalog of episodes
7. Go to the gemba and start iterating 💪🏼

Want even more? Try these 101 episodes:

Small Batches #75 - DevOps 101
Small Batches #73 - Software Delivery 101

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Golden Signals

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:49:09 -1000

Adam presents the four golden signals for steering production operations.

Are you just beginning your path to excellence? Then start here.

Already on the path? Continue your self-study with any of these:

📘 Release It! Design & Deploy production-ready Software
📘 Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
☕️ Small Batches #26 - Service Level Objectives with Alex Hidalgo
☕️ Small Batches #75 - DevOps 101
🧠 The USE Metrics Framework
🧠 Monitoring Distributed Systems

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Set-Based Concurrent Engineering

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 19:32:14 -1000

Adam comments on the importance of creating a menu of viable alternatives when problem-solving.

Show notes

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Understanding A3 Thinking
📘 Toyota Kata
📘 Lean Product & Process Development
☕️ Small Batches #77 - Managing to Learn
☕️ Small Batches #62 - Four Types of Problems

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flow: A Mental Model

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 13 Feb 2023 18:44:23 -1000

Adam introduces the idea of "flow" beginning with the Theory of Constraints and ending with value stream networks.

Are you just beginning your path to excellence? Then start here.

Already on the path? Continue your self-study with any of these:

📘 The Goal
📘 Making Work Visible
📘 Principles of Product Development Flow
📘 Goldratt's Rule of Flow
📘 Value Stream Mapping
📘 Project to Product (introducing the Flow Framework)
☕️ Small Batches #42 - Kanban & Jidoka

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Core Ideas

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 15:35:07 -1000

Learn More

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dr. Deming

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 08:55:35 -1000

Adam connects Deming's trips to Japan in 1950 with modern software delivery. This is an essential episode.

Deming on Small Batches:

☕️ Small Batches #100: Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #67: The Red Beads (Deming's experiment to introduce SPok)
☕️ Small Batches #49: Variation
☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #51: System of Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #52: Understanding Variation with John Willis

Down the Deming Rabbit Hole:

If Japan Can, why can't we? (Video), NBC Special Report, 1980
"Deming to DevOps" presentation by John Willis
Deming's Speech in Hakone to industry leaders in Japan, 1950
Deming's Visualization of Japan as a System from 1950
The Deming Institute
📘 Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
📘 The New Economics
📘 The Essential Deming
📘 Out of the Crisis
🎙️The Profound Podcast

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Ideal

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Adam shares an end-of-year reflection on pursuing the lean ideal. This is the last episode of 2022. Small Batches will return in 2023.

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Leadership is Language

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents the language used to call the plays from Leadership is Language as told in The Project Banana episode.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #80: Project Banana
☕️ Small Batches #77: Managing to Learn
☕️ Small Batches #76: The Coaching Habit
📘 Leadership is Language

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Redwork / Bluework

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents the concept of redwork and bluework presented in the book "Leadership is Language".

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #80: Project Banana
☕️ Small Batches #77: Managing to Learn
☕️ Small Batches #76: The Coaching Habit
📘 Leadership is Language

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Project Banana

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Something completely different. This episode is a short story about leadership, communication, and collaboration.

Chapters

(00:00) - 080 - Project Banana
(00:37) - Project Banana
(03:38) - Launch Day
(07:10) - Preflight Checks
(08:02) - Deploy the Proxy
(11:27) - ANDON!
(14:55) - Collaborate
(26:40) - The Coach
(32:46) - Complete
(35:50) - Improve

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #80: Project Banana
☕️ Small Batches #77: Managing to Learn
☕️ Small Batches #76: The Coaching Habit
📘 Leadership is Language

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Product Management with Saeed Khan

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 07:21:15 -1000

Learn More

NEW! The Small Batches Slack App
Toyota Kata Pocket Guide
The Flow Collective (Come join Saeed and I)
Saeed's post on the Business Vision, Product Vision, Product Objectives, Product Strategy, and Roadmap hierarchy

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Lean Leadership

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Learn More

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Managing to Learn

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 16:50:17 -1000

Adam summarizes John Shook's book "Managing to Learn" on the A3 problem-solving process.

Show Notes

☕️ Small Batches #53: The Toyota Way
☕️ Small Batches #39: The High-Velocity Edge
📘 Managing to Learn
📘 Understanding A3 Thinking
🧠 More on the A3 Process with Examples
🎁 My Annotated A3 Template Miro Board

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Coaching Habit

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 12 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Learn More

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

DevOps 101

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 17:35:51 -1000

Recommend Reading

📘 The New Economics by Dr. Deming
📘 The High-Velocity Edge by Dr. Steven Spear
📘 The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
📘 The Toyota Way by Jeffery Liker
📘 The Toyota Kata by Mike Rother
📘 The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald Reinersten
📘 Making Work Visible by Dominica de Grandis
📘 Modern Software Engineering by Dave Farley
📘 The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick de Bois, John Willis
📘 The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Stafford
📘 Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais
📘 The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday (Bonus!)

Recommended Listening

☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #39: The High-Velocity Edge (Part One)
☕️ Small Batches #65: Systems Thinking
☕️ Small Batches #53: The Toyota Way
☕️ Small Batches #60: The Principles of Product Development Flow
☕️ Small Batches #59: Making Work Visible
☕️ Small Batches #63: Modern Software Engineering
☕️ Small Batches #1: The Three Ways of DevOps
☕️ Small Batches #16: The Story of Parts Unlimited
☕️ Small Batches #18: Team Topologies

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

System Archetypes

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:01:28 -1000

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Lean Software Delivery 101

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:26:18 -1000

Recommend Reading

📘 The New Economics by Dr. Deming
📘 The High-Velocity Edge by Dr. Steven Spear
📘 The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
📘 The Toyota Way by Jeffery Liker
📘 The Toyota Kata by Mike Rother
📘 The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald Reinersten
📘 Making Work Visible by Dominica de Grandis
📘 Modern Software Engineering by Dave Farley
📘 The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick de Bois, John Willis
📘 The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Stafford
📘 Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais
📘 The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday (Bonus!)

Recommended Listening

☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #39: The High-Velocity Edge (Part One)
☕️ Small Batches #65: Systems Thinking
☕️ Small Batches #53: The Toyota Way
☕️ Small Batches #60: The Principles of Product Development Flow
☕️ Small Batches #59: Making Work Visible
☕️ Small Batches #63: Modern Software Engineering
☕️ Small Batches #1: The Three Ways of DevOps
☕️ Small Batches #16: The Story of Parts Unlimited
☕️ Small Batches #18: Team Topologies

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Percent Complete and Accurate

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Recommend Reading

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 10:49:22 -1000

Recommend Reading

📘 The New Economics by Dr. Deming
📘 The High-Velocity Edge by Dr. Steven Spear
📘 The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
📘 The Toyota Way by Jeffery Liker
📘 The Toyota Kata by Mike Rother
📘 The Principles of Product Development Flow by Donald Reinersten
📘 Making Work Visible by Dominica de Grandis
📘 Modern Software Engineering by Dave Farley
📘 The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, Patrick de Bois, John Willis
📘 The Phoenix Project by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Stafford
📘 Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais
📘 The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday (Bonus!)

Recommended Listening

☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #39: The High-Velocity Edge (Part One)
☕️ Small Batches #65: Systems Thinking
☕️ Small Batches #53: The Toyota Way
☕️ Small Batches #60: The Principles of Product Development Flow
☕️ Small Batches #59: Making Work Visible
☕️ Small Batches #63: Modern Software Engineering
☕️ Small Batches #1: The Three Ways of DevOps
☕️ Small Batches #16: The Story of Parts Unlimited
☕️ Small Batches #18: Team Topologies

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Deployment Pipelines

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 11:24:52 -1000

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 19:07:18 -1000

Explore the tip of scientific thinking, lean, and kaizen with Dr. Deming's PDCA loop.

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Inflection Points

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 23 May 2022 20:01:53 -1000

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Red Beads

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 09 May 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The 5S Method

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 06:11:50 -1000

How to use the 5S method plus the PFEP (Plan for Every Part) to reach the target condition of stable production operations.

Free Resources

Links

Get Involved

Follow @smallbatchesfm on Twitter and tweet me with your comments. Want a topic covered on the show? Then call +1-833-933-1912 and leave your request in a voice mail. Preference goes to to listener requests.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Systems Thinking

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 21:03:03 -1000

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Canary Deploys

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -1000

This one comes from the episode jar. Canary deploys use deploy an experimental change prior to a larger change. If the canary change is successful, then proceed as normal. Otherwise, back off and readjust.

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Modern Software Engineering

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -1000

A look into the ideas of empiricism, iteration, and incrementalism applied to software engineering. These are the code ideas of Dave Farley's 2022 book "Modern Software Engineering".

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
📘 Modern Software Engineering
📘 The Pragmatic Programmer
☕️ Small Batches #17: Continuous Delivery with Dave Farley
☕️ Small Batches #61: Extreme Programming Explained
📺 Dave's Continuous Delivery YouTube Channel

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Four Types of Problems

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents "The Four Types of Problems" by Art Smalley. The types are troubleshooting, gap from standard, target condition, and open-ended.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #53: The Toyota Way
☕️ Small Batches #77: Managing to Learn
📘 The Four Types of Problems
📘 The Toyota Kata

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Extreme Programming

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 07:24:49 -1000

Let's go back in time to linger on the works of the master thinkers. This episode presents Kent Beck's book "Extreme Programming Explained". I'm hard-pressed to find anything that's irrelevant or that I disagree with.

Links

Modern Software Engineering by Dave Farley
Extreme Programming at Pivotal

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The Principles of Product Development Flow

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents a summary of Donald Reinertsen's 2009 book. Tl;DR: understand the price of work, optimize for flow through queues, use WIP constraints, reduce batch sizes, and prefer decentralization.

Learn More

🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
🧭 Get your FREE Guide to software delivery excellence
☕️ Small Batches #59: Time Thieves
☕️ Small Batches #58: Queuing Theory
📘 Principles of Product Development Flow

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Time Thieves

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents the "five time thieves" described in Dominica DeGrandis' book Making Work Visible. The thieves are: too much WIP (work-in-progress), unknown dependencies, conflicting priorities, neglected work, and (the most annoying of the bunch) interrupts.

Learn More

☕️ Small Batches #60: Principles of Product Development Flow
☕️ Small Batches #58: Queuing Theory
📘 Principles of Product Development Flow
📘 Making Work Visible
🧠 Dominica DeGrandis on the Profound Podcast

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Queuing Theory

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Adam presents applying the mathematics behind queueing theory to software delivery. Also, an announcement!

Links

NEW! The Small Batches Slack App for Teams
🚀 New listener? Start with the introduction.
☕️ Small Batches #59: Time Thieves
☕️ Small Batches #60: Principles of Product Development Flow
📘 Principles of Product Development Flow
📘 Making Work Visible

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Software Delivery Glossary

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 14:35:25 -1000

Entries include:

Software Delivery KPIs
Lead Time
Deployment Frequency
MTTR (Mean-time-to-resolve)
Change Failure Rate
Jidoka
Kaizen
Type 3 Problems: target-condition

Subscribe to this podcast and join the small batches newsletter to keep up with the project.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flow Mapping with Steve Pereira

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -1000

The third of a three-part conversation on flow engineering with Steve Pereira.

Steve Pereira, aka "The Value Stream Guy", is the author of the Flow Engineering ebook, founder of Visible Consulting, and co-founder of the Flow Collective peer group.

Adam and Steve come back to the fractal nature of flow, value streams, and where to start with improving flow.

Do you like this topic? Come join Steve and I in the Flow Collective.

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flow Engineering with Steve Pereira

Adam Hawkins — Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -1000

The second of a three part conversation on flow engineering with Steve Pereira.

Steve Pereira, aka "The Value Stream Guy", is the author of the Flow Engineering ebook, founder of Visible Consulting, and co-founder of the Flow Collective peer group.

Steve goes deeper into flow engineering and the four maps: outcome, value streams, dependencies, and capabilities.

Do you like this topic? Come join Steve and I in the Flow Collective.

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Flow and Value with Steve Pereira

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -1000

The first of a three part conversation on flow engineering with Steve Pereira.

Steve Pereira, aka "The Value Stream Guy", is the author of the Flow Engineering ebook, founder of Visible Consulting, and co-founder of the Flow Collective peer group.

Steve recounts his career and how he became so passionate about business value and how it flows across organization. Part one wraps with an introduction to the flow engineering.

Do you like this topic? Come join Steve and I in the Flow Collective.

Free Resources

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Toyota Way

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Adam revists the ideas that created Toyota after learning from The High Velocity Edge and The New Economics.

Jeffery Liker's "The Toyota Way" presents 14 principles grouped into four categories: Philosophy, Process, People, and Problem Solving. Adam gives a summary of each and how they relate to past material covered on the podcast.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dr. Deming on Variation with John Willis

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 30 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This is the third episode in a three-part conversation on Dr. Deming with John Willis. Adam and John dial in on one of the core tenets of the System of Profound knowledge: understanding variation. They discuss special and common cause variation and how to deal with each. Also, why have most people not heard of Deming when he has such an impact on lean theory?

John Willis is a coauthor of the DevOps Handbook and host of the Profound podcast dedicated to discussing Dr. Deming.

The Deming Rabbit Hole:

☕️ Small Batches #100: Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #84: Dr. Deming
☕️ Small Batches #67: The Red Beads (Deming's experiment to introduce SPok)
☕️ Small Batches #49: Variation
☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #51: System of Profound Knowledge with John Willis
📘 Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
📘 The New Economics
📘 The Essential Deming
📘 Out of the Crisis
🎙️The Profound Podcast

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

System of Profound Knowledge with John Willis

Adam Hawkins — Wed, 28 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -1000

The second episode is a three-part conversation on Dr. Deming with John Willis. Adam and John focus on Deming's second book The New Economics which introduces the system of profound knowledge. This is why John's podcast is named "Profound". Nice reference.

John Willis is a coauthor of the DevOps Handbook and host of the Profound podcast dedicated to discussing Dr. Deming.

The Deming Rabbit Hole:

☕️ Small Batches #100: Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #84: Dr. Deming
☕️ Small Batches #67: The Red Beads (Deming's experiment to introduce SPok)
☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #52: Understanding Variation with John Willis
📘 Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
📘 The New Economics
📘 The Essential Deming
📘 Out of the Crisis
🎙️The Profound Podcast

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This is the first of a three-part conversation on Dr. Deming with John Willis. Adam and John Willis introduce Dr. Deming through his books Out of the Crisis, The New Economics, and impact on lean theory over the course of a multi-decade career.

John Willis is a coauthor of the DevOps Handbook and host of the Profound podcast dedicated to discussing Dr. Deming.

The Deming Rabbit Hole:

☕️ Small Batches #100: Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #84: Dr. Deming
☕️ Small Batches #67: The Red Beads (Deming's experiment to introduce SPok)
☕️ Small Batches #49: Variation
☕️ Small Batches #51: System of Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #52: Understanding Variation with John Willis
📘 Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
📘 The New Economics
📘 The Essential Deming
📘 Out of the Crisis
🎙️The Profound Podcast

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dr. Deming on Variation

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This is the first episode of a few episodes on Dr. Deming's works. Adam recaps Dr. Deming's "System of Profound Knowledge" principle: understanding variation. There are two types of variation: common and special causes. Misunderstanding the type of variation leads to wasted effort and lost resources. Understanding variation helps optimize system performance.

The Deming Rabbit Hole:

☕️ Small Batches #100: Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #84: Dr. Deming
☕️ Small Batches #67: The Red Beads (Deming's experiment to introduce SPok)
☕️ Small Batches #50: Introducing Dr. Deming with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #51: System of Profound Knowledge with John Willis
☕️ Small Batches #52: Understanding Variation with John Willis
📘 Deming's Journey to Profound Knowledge
📘 The New Economics
📘 The Essential Deming
📘 Out of the Crisis
🎙️The Profound Podcast

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge with Steve Spear

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Steve Spear to the show to discuss his 2009 book "The High-Velocity Edge." This is the last episode in the series.

Adam and Steve reflect on the fundamental thesis in the book: apply the scientific method everywhere to everything all the time. This leads to a conversation on how the ideas directly apply to software, deployment pipelines, the ideal flow, and applying the coaching and improvement katas.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear (👈🏻 you are here)

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge: Part Nine

Adam Hawkins — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -1000

My closing thoughts on the book before the next episode featuring my conversation with Steven Spear. Part nine of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear (👈🏻 you are here)

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge: Part Eight

Adam Hawkins — Wed, 02 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This episode demonstrates the third capability, knowledge sharing, and the fourth, developing skills in others, through Toyota's "jishuken" exercise. It's a process for improving problem-solving processes. Part eight of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

📘 The High-Velocity Edge

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The High-Velocity Edge: Part Seven

Adam Hawkins — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 00:00:00 -1000

The episode covers applying a disciplined problem-solving method to achieve the second capability. Part seven of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge: Part Six

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 31 May 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This episode completes the discussion on the first capability: system design and operation by identifying the four levels of system design and their associated checks. Part six of a ten-part series on the 2009 book "The High Velocity Edge" by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High Velocity Edge: Part Five

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 28 May 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This episode continues discussing system design and operations with a focus on using "jidoka" to build in quality control into systems. Part five of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge: Part Four

Adam Hawkins — Thu, 27 May 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Part four of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear. This episode introduces the two pillars of the first capability: design systems to reveal problems. The first pillar is Taiichi Ohno's "kanban", or pull-based, philosophy on system design. The second pillar is Sakichi Toyoda's "jidoka", or self-regulation, philosophy to identify problems when they happen.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge: Part Three

Adam Hawkins — Wed, 26 May 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This episode tells how Admiral Hyman Rickover demonstrated the four capabilities while creating the US Navy's nuclear reactor (or NR) program. Part three of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Helocity Edge by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High Velocity Edge: Part Two

Adam Hawkins — Tue, 25 May 2021 00:00:00 -1000

This episode demonstrates the four capabilities through Alcoa's commitment to changing its safety culture. Part two of a ten-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The High-Velocity Edge: Part One

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 24 May 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Part one of a nine-part series on the 2009 book The High-Velocity Edge by Steven Spear.

This episode demonstrates how complex systems fail through the story of Mrs. Grant and the four capabilities to overcome such failures.

The High-Velocity Edge on Small Batches

☕️ Part One: Introduction (👈🏻 you are here)
☕️ Part Two: The Four Capabilities at Alcoa
☕️ Part Three: The Four Capabilities in the nuclear reactor program
☕️ Part Four: Kanban & Jidoka
☕️ Part Five: Systems Thinking
☕️ Part Six: System Design & Operation
☕️ Part Seven: Problem-Solving
☕️ Part Eight: Knowledge Sharing
☕️ Part Nine: Reflections
☕️ Part Ten: Interview with Dr. Steven Spear

Links

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Dev Environments with Bryan Finster

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 21:38:35 -1000

Enjoy this meme-ready episode with Bryan Finster.

Bryan Finster leads a DevOps dojo at a Fortune 50 enterprise where he helps teams deliver to production daily. This episode continues recurring discussion topics on the post: integrated vs isolated development environments, software architecture and team owner, and their relationship to delivering to production daily.

Check out episodes #15 (for philosophy) and #22 (for boundaries) for more background on the ideas in this conversation.

Bryan s Links

Adam's Links

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The Five Dysfunctions of a Team with Dave Mangot

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 22:13:52 -1000

Adam welcomes Dave Mangot to the show for a book discussion. The classic leadership and management book is "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team". Adam & Dave discuss the dysfunctions through a lens of software delivery, DevOps, and SRE.

Dave Mangot's Links

Adam's Links

The Cognitive Neuroscience of Empathy - You're a DevOps Natural

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Transforming Conversations with Jeffrey Fredrick & Douglas Squirrel

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Level up your soft skills with this episode on "Agile Conversations". The episode begins with a short introduction to the book then dives into the content with the authors.

Topics include: "TDD for People", The four R's, The trust conversation, the fear conversation, the why conversation, the commitment conversation, and the accountability conversation.

Adam Hawkins' Links

Troubleshooting Agile Podcast

Jeffrey Fredrick's Links

Douglas Squirrel's Links

Free Conversational Dojo Kit

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Value Streams with Carmen de Ardo

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 01 Mar 2021 21:56:06 -1000

Adam welcomes Carmen de Ardo to the show. Carmen is a senior VSM strategist at TaskTop and author of numerous books on value streams, leaderships, DevOps, and product transformation.

This episode is a response to a listener request for an episode on value streams. So we start from the beginning of "what is a value stream" and work up towards toward value stream mapping, the flow framework, and peak of continuous improvement.

Adam's Links

Carmen's Links

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Team Topologies with Matthew Skelton

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 10:36:09 -1000

Adam welcomes Matthew Skelton to the show. Matthew is co-author of the book "Team Topologies" and a DevOps Enterprise Summit speaker. This episode builds on the previous podcast introducing the team types and interaction models.

Adam and Matthew discuss the first principles in Team Topologies, building internal platform products, and the impact on software and team architecture.

Adam's Links

Matthew Skelton's Links

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Developer Principles with Markus Schirp

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Markus Schirp to the show. Markus is an independent software professional. He calls himself a "dynamic language exorcist." He's also the man behind the Mutant mutation project for Ruby.

Adam and Markus discuss the first principles for software development, laddering up to higher-level abstractions, and how tooling helps developers.

Markus Schirp's Links

Adam Hawkins' Links

Software Architecture Talk (2014)

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Saltside Chronicles with Sebastian Dahlgren

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 10:53:07 -1000

Adam welcomes Sebastian Dahlgren to the show. Sebastian is now the CTO at Saltside. Sebastian joined Saltside just after the rewrite completed and continues to work there today.

Adam & Sebastian worked closely together to grow the team in Bangalore until Adam left Saltside in 2017. Adam & Sebastian discuss if the rewrite delivered on its promise, what worked, what didn't work, and if those architectural bets made years ago paid off.

Sebastian Dahlgren's Links

Adam Hawkins' Links

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Saltside Chronicles #5: Retrospective

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam worked at Saltside from 2014-2018. These episode tell the story for how events created a ground up, big-bang rewrite from 2014 through 2015. This is a five part series. Small Batches will back back in 2021.

Adam's Links

Shipping Code at Saltside (DevOps Days India 2016; a day in the life post-rewrite)

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Saltside Chronicles #4: A New Architecture

Adam Hawkins — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam Hawkin's Links

Shipping Code at Saltside (DevOps Days India 2016; a day in the life post-rewrite)

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Saltside Chronicles #3: The Snow Ball

Adam Hawkins — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam's Links

Shipping Code at Saltside (DevOps Days India 2016; a day in the life post-rewrite)

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Saltside Chronicles #2: Technical Debt Calls

Adam Hawkins — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam's Links

Shipping Code at Saltside (DevOps Days India 2016; a day in the life post-rewrite)

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Saltside Chronicles #1: Overview

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam's Links

Shipping Code at Saltside (DevOps Days India 2016; a day in the life post-rewrite)

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Service Level Objectives with Alex Hidalgo

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 07 Dec 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Alex Hidalgo to the show. Alex is the Principal Site Reliability Engineer at Nobl9 and author of Implementing Service Level Objectives.

Adam & Alex discuss the ins-and-outs of SLOs. It's assumed you are already familiar with the basic concepts of SLIs & SLOs so please listen to the previous episode (linked below) before listening to this conversation.

Some of the take-aways: run your SLOs for a least a month before you consider them ready and alerting on SLOs is a really hard problem! Lots of great pro-tips in this episode.

Adam Hawkins' Links

Alex Hidalgo's Links

Implementing Service Level Objectives (Book)

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Software Delivery at Buildkite with Keith Pitt

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Keith Pitt to the show. Keith Pitt is the founder as CTO of Buildkite.com. Buildkite is CI/CD platform.

Adam invited Keith on the show to discuss software delivery inside a company building software delivery tools. It turns out that Buildkite has a fearless continuous deployment pipeline. So listeners, if you need a software delivery North Star then just listen to Keith. It's all here in this episode.

Keith Pitt's Links

Buildkite

Adam Hawkins' Links

Continuous Deployment to K8s using Buildkite

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GitOps & ArgoCD with Viktor Farcic

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 09:39:30 -1000

Adam welcomes Viktor Farcic to the show. Viktor Farcic is a Principal DevOps Architect at CodeFresh, a member of the Google Developer Experts, Continuous Delivery Foundation Ambassadors, and Docker Captains groups, and a published author.

Adam & Viktor discuss the how and why of GitOps and how ArgoCD fits in the deployment pipeline. Many fun sidebars in this conversation into the role of docs vs code and why you should never compromise on your workflow when quality is at stake. This is a fun and easy conversation. Best served with a beer instead of the usual coffee. Enjoy the laughs.

Viktor Farcic's Links

Adam Hawkins' Links

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Open Policy Agent with Torin Sandall

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Torin Sandall to the show. Torin is the Vice President of Open Source at Styra and the co-creator of Open Policy agent.

Adam & Torin discuss the origin of the project, why create new language from scratch called Rego, why that language is awesome, how Adam fell in love with Conftest, and how to use all these tools to create more secure systems.

The first five or so minutes are for Small Batches housekeeping and a special announcement!

Adam Hawkins' Links

Torin Sandall's Links

Open Policy Agent

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Service Boundaries with Derek Comartin

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Derek Comartin to the show. Derek is a Microsoft Most-Valuable-Professional and distributed systems architect. He also co-hosts the Loosely Coupled podcast.

Derek discusses the ideas behind his talk the "Loosely Coupled Monolith" and "Context is King: Finding Service Boundaries". Great high level conversation on how software design principles inside applications scale out to distributed systems as a whole.

Adam Hawkins' Links

Derek Comartin's Links

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The Flow Framework with Dr. Mik Kersten

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Dr. Mik Kersten to the show. Dr. Mik Kersten is the author of the best selling book "Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework". This is a follow up to the earlier "Four Types of Work" episode.

Adam & Mik cover the Flow Framework's origin story, the relation between The Flow Framework and DevOps, the importance of structure & dynamics, and why organizing for fast flow is the prime directive.

Adam Hawkins' Links

Mik Kersten's Links

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The 12 Factor App with Joe Kutner

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Adam welcomes Joe Kutner to the show. Joe is a Software Architect at Salesforce Heroku. He's been writing and speaking about the 12 factor app for years and continually evaluating the practices at Salesforce Heroku.

Adam & Joe discuss the misconceptions of the 12 factor app and the gaps between the 12 factor app and continuous delivery requirements. This is really a follow up discussion to the earlier episodes on the 12.1 Factor app.

Joe Kutner's Links

Cloud Native Build Packs

Adam Hawkins' Links

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Automated Testing with Jason Swett

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 20:00:00 -1000

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Team Topologies

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 21 Sep 2020 06:22:32 -1000

Today I’m covering the 2019 book "Team Topologies: Organizing Business & Technology Teams for Fast Flow" written by Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais.

Let me read off their official bio:

Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais - co-authors of the book Team Topologies - have worked together on organisation design for modern software systems with many clients around the world. Their training sessions on Organisation Design for Modern Software Systems have helped numerous organizations to re-think their approach to team intercommunication and software architecture, improving flow and the effectiveness of software delivery.

So I’m stoked to finally discuss Team Topologies on Small Batches. This book has come up so many times in my work as an SRE at Skillshare and tangentially related to everything I’ve discussed on Small Batches to date. This is because team architecture and software architecture are directly related to software delivery performance.

That’s particularly why I enjoyed Team Topologies so much because it’s truly a book about high velocity software delivery. In fact it’s right there smack in the title. Plus it provides a language to discuss this facet of software delivery.

You’ve likely encountered some of these concepts before, so this time around it may just be a new language.

I’ll share a personal anecdote from earlier in my career to set the stage for this episode.

Roughly fives years ago I lead the platform team through a complete ground up rewrite at a previous company. We were divided into technology teams: The web, mobile, and platform team. Given these boundaries each of respective team lead set out to create their internal architecture. Nothing to see here: just Conway’s law in action. It worked well here because we had isomorphic technology and team architecture.

Then something happened out of the blue shortly after the rewrite completed.

The organization went through a total re-org that changed the team structure, their responsibilities and how they interacted without doing anything to address the underlying technical architecture. This created confusing boundaries, ownership responsibilities, and left so called "independent feature teams" at the mercy of the small number of capable backend engineers capable of working across the various internal services.

These problems could have been avoided with some foresight and planning. Plus it’s especially bothersome because the entire engineering team had just finished a ground up rewrite that architected a system to support an entirely different team topology! If there was ever a time for a reverse Conway maneuver that was not it.

This example speaks to the importance of Conway’s law and how team and software architecture fit together to create fast flow or on the other hand just inhibit it.

Team Topologies provides a framework that avoids this problem from the outset by optimizing for fast flow.

Links

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Continuous Delivery with Dave Farley

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 10:05:33 -1000

This is a special episode of Small Batches. I interview Dave Farley in this episode.

Dave, along with Jez Humble, is the co-author of "Continuous Delivery" published in 2010. The book introduced the ideas that grew into DevOps. So, no surprise that DevOps and continuous delivery are the same most people.

Together Dave and Jez introduced continuous delivery to the world. The practices and ideas still hold true ten years on.

Time and research have demonstrated that continuous delivery is the most effective way to develop software. If you’ve read Accelerate then you know what I’m talking about. That’s partially why am so passionate about it and that doesn’t even account for the fun I have working in that environment.

Dave and I talked about different aspects of continuous delivery beginning with the difference between software development and software engineering. Or as Dave put’s it: scientific rationalism.

We also speak about the connection from delivery, feedback, and experimentation. Or, as he put’s it: "just doing engineering".

He also shared why he doesn’t like the term DevOps. I gotta say I tend agree with him after hearing his reasoning.

Lastly I get his view on the Preflight Checks I mentioned in an early episode of this podcast. Go to smallbatches.fm/11 for that episode.

Now I give you my conversation with Dave Farley.

You can find Dave at:

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The Story of Parts Unlimited

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:46:06 -1000

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Dev Environments

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 00:00:00 -1000

If you enjoyed this format then tweet me @adman65 or @smallbatchesfm.

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

SLIs, SLOs, & SLAs

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Start Here

SLOs defined from the Google Site Reliability Engineering Book
Implementing SLOs from the Google Site Reliability Engineering Workbook
The Art of SLOs workshop by Google

Freebies

Mastering the Third Way of DevOps use the Toyota Kata for continuous improvement
Free DevOps Course much more detailed than what we can cover in the podcast

Resources

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Pre-Commit Hook

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 21:25:26 -1000

Freebies

Mastering the Third Way of DevOps use the Toyota Kata for continuous improvement
Free DevOps Course much more detailed than what we can cover in the podcast

Resources

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

DevOps for Beginners

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 00:00:00 -1000

Show notes: https://www.codewithjason.com/rails-with-jason-podcast/adam-hawkins-2/

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Preflight Checks

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 11:00:00 -1000

Preflight Checks

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Testing Your Deployment Pipeline on Rails with Jason

Adam Hawkins — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 19:00:00 -1000

https://www.codewithjason.com/rails-with-jason-podcast/adam-hawkins/

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The Four Types of Work

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 23:30:00 -1000

The Flow Framework & Four Types of Work

My free Project to Product email course covers expanding flow, feedback, and learning to the entire organization
The Flow Framework
The Flow Framework Poster
Project to Product (book)
Project to Product: How Value Stream Networks Will Transform IT & Business presentation by Mik Kersten
Mik Kersten's podcast

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

12.1 Factor Apps: Dev/Prod Parity

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:00:00 -1000

The 12.1 factor approach prefers locality over fully integrated environments. Doing so promotes fast and independent iterations on discrete services using automated tests to verify correctness. End-to-End issues that may have been identified with a fully integrated environment with dev/prod parity should be pushed downstream in the deployment pipeline in accordance with test pyramid principles. If a regression is identified, then it may quickly addressed by adding tests to the relevant service’s test suite.

Topics Mentioned in the Show

Resources

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

12.1 Factor Apps: Logs

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 18 May 2020 00:00:00 -1000

The 12 factor app states that applications should log to standard out and standard error, thus not concerting themselves with the storage and processing of their log stream. That's a good start point, but we need more than that. The 12.1 factor app does these three things:

Supports a LOG_LEVEL configuration option
Uses a machine readable format, such as JSON, in production
Treats log streams as a telemetry source

Mentioned in Show

Resources

The 12 Factor App
Jay Kutner on the 12 Factor App via SE Radio

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

12.1 Factor Apps: Config

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 04 May 2020 05:00:00 -1000

The 12 factor app states that applications should read config from environment variables. It implies separation of code and config. That’s about it, but there’s good bones here. I want something bigger from this factor. Specifically that applications may be deployed to new environments without any code changes. This requires a few additions:

Configure the process through command options and environment variables
Prefer explicit configuration over implicit configuration
Use a dry run option to verify config sanity
Fail fast on any configuration error

Mentioned in Show

Where, What, and How to Test on the Ruby Testing Podcast

Resources

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

12 Factor Apps

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:15:00 -1000

In the modern era, software is commonly delivered as a service: called web apps, or software-as-a-service. The twelve-factor app is a methodology for building software-as-a-service apps that:

Use declarative formats for setup automation, to minimize time and cost for new developers joining the project;
Have a clean contract with the underlying operating system, offering maximum portability between execution environments;
Are suitable for deployment on modern cloud platforms, obviating the need for servers and systems administration;
Minimize divergence between development and production, enabling continuous deployment for maximum agility;
And can scale up without significant changes to tooling, architecture, or development practices.

The twelve-factor methodology can be applied to apps written in any programming language, and which use any combination of backing services (database, queue, memory cache, etc).

Resources

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Principle of Improvement

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 09:00:00 -1000

This episode completes our introduction to the three ways of DevOps. The previous two episodes introduced flow and feedback. Flow, the first way, establishes fast left to right flow from development to production. Feedback, the second way of DevOps, establishes right to left feedback from production to development, so using the state of production informs development decisions. The Third Way of DevOps, establishes a culture of experimentation and learning around improving flow and feedback.

Be sure to check out the Toyota Kata for more continuous improvement.

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Principle of Feedback

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 23 Mar 2020 08:00:00 -1000

The DevOps Handbook & Accelerate are the source material for this episode.

The Principle of Feedback, or the second way of DevOps, describes using right to left feedback in the value stream. This episode explores how telemetry is more than error data or alerts. When used right (i.e. paired with experimentation), telemetry provides an objective way to move towards shared goals.

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Principle of Flow

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 14:00:00 -1000

The DevOps Handbook & Accelerate are the source material for this episode.

The principle of flow, or the first way of DevOps, calls for building fast feedback from development to production. In practice this mean implementing continuous delivery.

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Three Ways of DevOps

Adam Hawkins — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 20:00:00 -1000

The DevOps Handbook & Accelerate are the source material for this episode.

The DevOps Handbook is the best introduction to DevOps available. It puts the value stream at the center of an IT company, thus it’s in the company’s best interest to optimize the value stream. The DevOps Handbook presents the “Three Ways”: flow, feedback, and learning.

Accelerate picks up where the DevOps Handbook left off. The three ways cover theory and relevant technical practices, but does not precisely define success criteria. Accelerate defines four metrics for measuring IT performance: lead time, deployment frequency, MTTR, and change failure rate. Research done by the authors also presents low, medium, and high performance targets for each metric.

Combining theory and practices from The DevOps Handbook and metrics from Accelerate provide a solid philosophy for software development and measuring performance. That’s “DevOps” in a nutshell.

Books

The DevOps Handbook by Gene Kim, Jez Humble, John Willis, Patrick Debois
Accelerate by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, Gene Kim

★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★