Long Way Around the Barn: Recent Episodes
Matthew D Edwards
Matthew D. Edwards discusses industry challenges, goals, and available options to accomplish desired outcomes in today’s technology landscape including adoption, complexity, security, and privacy. There are always options – some of them longer, some shorter than others.
The creator of the Scaled Agile Framework, known to many as SAFe, sits down to discuss what it means to develop and invest in a framework that encourages engineering rigor, predictable and repeatable outcomes, and personal fulfillment.
Dean Leffingwell, a methodologist, author, entrepreneur, shares his life's journey, starting with how Sputnik sparked his passion for space travel, then led him to biomedical engineering and the life of engineering and delivery patterns, frameworks, and ultimately delivering value.
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In this episode, Derek Lane and Matthew D Edwards deconstruct the final two principles of the Agile Manifesto to help software developers and engineers bring more value to clients but also, become better barbecue pitmasters.
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In this episode, Derek Lane and Matthew D Edwards deconstruct principles 7-10 of the Agile Manifesto to help software developers and engineers bring more value to clients but also, become better barbecue pitmasters.
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In this episode, Derek Lane and Matthew D Edwards deconstruct principles 3-6 of the Agile Manifesto to help software developers and engineers bring more value to clients but also, become better barbecue pitmasters.
In this episode, Derek Lane and Matthew D Edwards deconstruct the first two principles of the Agile Manifesto to help software developers and engineers bring more value to clients but also, become better barbecue pit masters.
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In this episode, Derek Lane and Matthew D Edwards dive into the Agile Manifesto word-by-word to help software developers and engineers bring more value to clients but also, become better barbecue pitmasters.
Key Takeaways
- They are both “people sports.” Barbecue and software are meant for someone to enjoy it.
- Mastery and knowledge wins over equipment every time.
- Get the fundamentals down before scaling. However, you don’t have to understand all the fundamentals to make progress.
- Be ready for the things that will get in the way before you even start.
- The best recipes (comprehensive documentation) adapt to what you have on hand.
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In this episode, you’ll learn how Derek Lane’s journey in technology and study of the Agile Manifesto coincided with his pursuit of barbecue craftsmanship. These two pursuits eventually mapped together for Lane, and he’s sharing how you can apply the Agile Manifesto and its principles to making better barbecue.
Along his journey, he created the 20-Day Agility Challenge, a free program where participants commit 15-30 minutes a day to focus on improving their agility. He and a group of colleagues also founded a free online community, Unlimited Agility, where people can take the challenge with others and continue to enable, equip, and educate one another.
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The Agile Manifesto is often thought of as a historical event or document, but Derek Lane is hoping to redefine how it’s introduced and revisited because the principles are time- and battle-tested in how it brings value to people. As 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto, Lane and fellow colleagues have formed a community, Unlimited Agility, where you won’t find answers, but you will find like-minded individuals to challenge your beliefs and help you grow in your thinking and your work.
Key Takeaways
- The Agile Manifesto isn’t a one-stop visit, it doesn’t make sense until you continually revisit it and recalibrate your understanding.
- Parallel concepts exist – Craftsmanship, Servant Leadership, Lean, Scrum, Kanban – and looking at the Agile Manifesto through their lenses help to broaden understanding
- Take the 20-Day Agility Challenge and join the community.
The third Unlimited Agility Conference is being planned for November 2021. This conference was created to promote practitioners of servant leadership who are local and regional leaders who work every day, side-by-side with individuals, teams, and organizations.
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Science is the iterative testing, results change over time with variables. For data science, what’s true today could dramatically or incrementally change tomorrow based on one variable. The art of it is accepting that there will be exponential opportunities to discover more, learn more, and communicate more to find value and purpose in data.
This final episode with Jacey Heuer provides insights into how individuals can seek opportunities in this field and how organizations can purposefully mature data science and advanced analytics.
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Show Highlights
In the second episode of this three-part series, Jacey Heuer helps us dive into the evolving roles and responsibilities of data science. We explore how individuals and organizations can nurture how data is purposefully used and valued within the company.
Missed the first part? Listen to Part I.
Individual Takeaways
- Adopt a scientific mindset: The more you learn, the more you learn how much more there is to know.
- Hone storytelling capabilities to engage and build relationships that ensure the lifespan and value of data is woven into the culture.
- Set one-, five-, and 10-years goals and aim to achieve them in six months to fail fast and advance the work faster than expected.
- Create buy-in using the minimum viable product (MVP) or proof of concept approaches.
- Prepare to expand your capabilities based on the maturity and size of the team focused on data science work. As projects develop, you’ll move from experimenting and developing prototypes to developing refined production code.
Organizational Takeaways
- When your company begins to use data analytics, roles and responsibilities must expand and evolve. Ensure your people have opportunities to grow their capabilities.
- Data must be treated as an “asset” and viewed as a tool for innovation. It can’t be tacked on at the end. Ideally, it plays a role in both new and legacy systems when aggregating data and capturing digital exhaust.
- Engage and find common ground with all areas of business by helping them comprehend how data science "expands the size of the pie" rather than take a bigger slice.
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You wouldn’t think a data scientist would tout vulnerability and storytelling as requirements for success, but that is exactly what Jacey Heuer has learned across multiple industries and projects that have failed and succeeded. In the first of this three-part series, Heuer shares that “what you think you know today should change tomorrow because you’re always discovering something more.”
Key Takeaways
Success in data science means:
- Acknowledging that 80% of projects never make it out of production, and not because of a failure of science but a failure in communication and being vulnerable.
- Putting yourself out there by connecting with different people.
- Acquiring and honing new skills and behaviors that support a deeper understanding of systems thinking and the dynamic variables within those systems.
- Always iterating and reinventing. The work is never done, and it’s never easy.
Three distinctions for roles and responsibilities:
- Data Analysts work with stakeholders in-depth to understand the problems, goals, and outcomes needed.
- Data Scientists focus on prototyping and exploring and twisting and turning data – looking for the algorithm.
- Machine Learning Engineers productionalize the output.
(Read the full transcript) Guest BioWith a history of project experience in the financial services industry and advanced degrees in business and data science, Heuer can step into many environments and discover the knowledge needed to deliver a well-polished final product. Having gained expertise from several industries, he’s learned each one often serves as a springboard into other ones and his skill sets have ranged from simple analytic and data modeling to advanced probability theories and machine learning techniques. Heuer is also a Pluralsight author focused on the use of R in data science for business.
Show Highlights
Matthew visit with Todd Dunsirn who founded True Process, a medical software engineering company known for building a platform that integrates biomedical devices and captures clinical data. He sold the company to Baxter Healthcare in 2018.
Key Takeaways
- Having a natural curiosity in other people opens you to new ideas and leads to life-changing opportunities. Those ideas can’t be forced and often arrive while doing something else.
- Reflecting on your actions (what you say and do) is important as it impacts everyone in the company.
- Realizing everyone plays a vital role in a company. Listen to them, be humble, and empower them to do their thing (including making and learning from their mistakes).
- Reinvesting in the company if possible. If you believe there is something bigger and better on the horizon, this helps ensure you have the resources to make it happen.
- Understanding the financial state of your business at all times.
- Building a company takes a toll on you, so take care of your physical and mental health.
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Show Highlights
In this episode, I visit with Damon Poole, who has provided Agile coaching to countless people at some very recognizable companies. He opened up about his journey in Agile, as well as what led up to publishing, “Professional Coaching for Agilists: Accelerating Agile Adoption,” with Gillian Lee (available at InformIT as well as other places you’d expect).
Key Takeaways
- Effective coaching helps people move forward when they are stuck.
- Teams who are coached do move faster.
- Great coaches have qualities that make for great humans. No one embodies all of them, but you work on building better relationships on your teams and in your personal life.
If you are interested in applying both agile and coaching principles, consider reading the book. Preview sample content on InformIT.
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In this episode, Matthew talks with Paul Clayson of Agile PQ, who as a young boy couldn’t wait to leave the Idaho cattle ranch to find easier work. Now, after 20 years in the startup world, he’s very fondly missing those days. Early in his career, he learned you only get one shot, so you better develop a winning strategy and stick to it. This knowledge came from his days of serving as Chief of Staff for two congressmen and worked for two presidents in Washington, D.C.
The shot he’s taking now is with AgilePQ. His startup has the solution for today’s computing power and tomorrow’s quantum one with lightweight end-to-end encryption. The majority of industries – from energy, transportation, manufacturing, and the ones building consumer devices – must leverage the power of connected things and that means protecting their number one asset – data.
We were also lucky enough to hear his most valuable lesson from his father, who served as a medic on Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Key Takeaways
- There is an even greater explosion in IoT devices to come in the next five years.
- Everyone is in a race to get to market first in an industry that is not well regulated.
- Current encryption methods will be powerless when quantum computing is fully adopted.
- AgilePQ’s solution provides the only security and encryption that fits on all IoT devices, no matter how small.
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Jesse O’Neill-Oine is a multi-time tech entrepreneur and one of the original co-founders of SmartThings, a company purchased and now run by Samsung. In this episode, he discusses what he’s learned about himself on his journey in solving problems through technology and his most recent endeavor, One Tap Away – a next-generation platform aimed at bringing “contactless” access to amenities at multifamily properties.
Key Takeaways
- While O’Neill-Oine and his partners have always had overlapping and complementary skills, what matters most is working with great people – from his first business, Refactr, to SmartThings and now One Tap Away.
- Lean on other solutions when possible: In the build vs. buy debate, the answer is most often buy. A sweet spot is always a "glue company" where you are integrating existing things and pulling them together into a seamless package.
- When it comes to information security, treat your users as first-class citizens and choose good partners who have a security-first mentality, saving yourself from having to go back and solve security issues later.
- Not being afraid to ask questions is what helped O’Neill-Oine be a better technologist and solution provider, and while he has always loved technology, his focus has always been solving problems for people.
- There’s no shortcut for becoming more and mastering your craft.
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In the sixth episode of this series, Andrew Guillemette and Mark Heston of In Motion Care join Matthew D. Edwards to discuss how their startup is tackling the surmounting challenges of 34 million additional baby boomers retiring in 2025 by streamlining the burden of data collection and securely sharing that information with caregivers, care facilities and the families.
Key Takeaways
- Caregivers and senior living communities face several existing challenges that will be insurmountable when even more seniors need care: Access to information, cognitive fatigue, effective and efficient delivery of care, staff stretched too thin, etc.
- In Motion Care has developed technology that provides real-time location of staff and equipment and collects data on when care is delivered that results in real-time availability of information and data – making the role of caregiver easier.
- The startup is seeing great results with its early adopter community as it addresses new regulations, policies, protocols, and benchmarking due to COVID-19.
- By leveraging IoT and geofencing technology, In Motion Care collects data that allows for better decision-making by those running the senior living community and more caregiving time for those working directly with the seniors.
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About Our Guests
Andrew Guillemette is a Founder of In Motion Care and serves as technical lead. His strong technology background and entrepreneurial spirit have allowed him to successfully develop innovative solutions for multiple start-up tech companies. Over the past five years, he has consulted with tech start-ups in the unmanned aerial systems, agriculture, construction, and senior living industries.
Mark Heston is a Founder of In Motion Care and brings 16+ years of leadership experience in the senior living industry to the organization. His experience also includes founding and building a successful management consulting firm. Mark has a passion for serving seniors and is committed to leading IMC in developing solutions to improve resident care and increase efficiencies for senior care providers.
Show Highlights
In the fifth episode of this series, Matthew D Edwards and Brent Willett, President of the Iowa Health Care Association, discuss opportunities for humane technology to improve care and increase interaction with caregivers and family for patients in long-term care.
Key Takeaways
- How patient vitals collected in electronic charts can be mined for predictive diagnostic care and planning, and how COVID-19 has created urgency for this technology to improve care and the spread of infectious diseases.
- How wearables can protect patients from a security standpoint but also improve their quality of life and care by providing real-time insights on their vitals.
- Monitoring devices that educate, remind, and confirm health care programs can be a game-changer for long-term care patients to remain in their homes.
- Identify activities, such as sorting medication, to enable caregivers and nurses more 1:1 time with patients.
- Providing more dignity in the dying process by using technology to connect them to loved ones and reconnect them to their past.
- How the roles of chief information security officers and privacy officers are evolving in order for the organizations to remain compliant as new technology is adopted.
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About Our Guest
Brent Willett is President & CEO of the Iowa Health Care Association (IHCA). IHCA’s more than 1,000 member organization spans the continuum of long term services and supports health care in Iowa. In his role, Willett is responsible to the IHCA Board of Directors for overseeing the strategic vision for IHCA and the Iowa Health Political Action Committee.
IHCA and its affiliates and divisions, the Iowa Center for Assisted Living, Iowa Center for Home Care, Iowa Center for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care, Extended Care Services of Iowa, and the Iowa Health Care Foundation, serve the long-term services and supports the profession as a nonprofit trade association.
Show Highlights
In the fourth episode of this series, Matthew D Edwards and Mark Goetz, President of The HomeCare Advocacy Network, discuss how technology plays a role in empowering seniors to age in their homes.
Key Takeaways
- For successful outcomes overall, companies must include training and education for everyone involved – from the caregivers and families to the seniors themselves.
- The next big disruption or evolution is to establish more interconnections and connections to the actual care through a “virtual private network” for the family – from fall risk technology to a comprehensive communication suite.
- In recent years, home care technology has developed due to a competitive marketplace, and COVID-19 has sped up new purchasing by senior living providers missing communication links.
- Collecting data enables more opportunity and also increases responsibility, accountability, and liability 100 percent, so companies must have more in-depth organizational plans for data management and data privacy when adopting technology.
- Address the diminishing returns on the data collected and ensure only necessary data is collected and stored to serve the clients and improve decision-making.
- Letting the client and caregiver connection drive your mission forward when it comes to technology and how it can improve that connection.
(Read the full transcript)
About Our Guest
Mark Goetz, President of The HomeCare Advocacy Network, a premier provider of home care related benefits and services, ensures the organization delivers what people need to live their best life and enables local franchise owners to leverage the HCAN brand.
Show Highlights
How the traditional business model must adapt and evolve in the face of these three megatrends:
- The fastest-growing age segment is 85+ and its effect on every developed system.
- Healthcare delivery is moving from a fee-for-service and volume-based model to outcomes.
- Digitalization of everything and this industry’s ability to adapt and succeed.
Other key takeaways include:
- Leading a cultural change of a large distributed network that needs autonomy and a certain amount of uniform systems and processes to unlock a digital future that meets business and security requirements.
- The foundational work required for a future where big data and artificial intelligence analytics truly play a very predictive and prescriptive role.
- Getting an organization and its people to leverage digital-enabled tools and think differently about how care is provided – while ensuring regulatory compliance.
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About Our Guest
As Chief Executive Officer of Home Instead, the leading global provider of home care services for older adults, Jeff Huber leads the company and its franchises in their commitment to addressing the challenges of the aging global population by promoting consumer choice in care. In his four years as CEO, he has also increased the organization’s commitment to leadership development and training to empower professional and family caregivers and to advance the mission of Home Instead Senior Care: To enhance the lives of aging adults and their families.
Show Highlights
In the previous episode, we focused on purchasing and securing IoT monitoring devices, implementing platforms, and securing the data associated with them. This time, Rebecca Herold and Nathan Gibson join Matthew to explore the role and value of whole organization information security and privacy plans. Do you have them? Should you have them? And what do they look like?
- Creating an Information Security Plan that achieves compliance and ensures the data is protected in the manner the organization needs.
- Putting a framework in place that addresses the full lifecycle of data and ensures human behaviors follow the plan with regular checks, tests, communication, and training to confirm everyone in the organization is aware and following the plan.
- How senior leaders must stay aware of how well the organization is implementing and evolving the plan.
- Successful security and privacy programs are the ones that coordinate closely and often report to the same person in the organization.
(Read the full transcript)
About Our Guests
Rebecca Herold has over 25 years of IT, info sec, and privacy experience. She is the owner and CEO of The Privacy Professor, founded in 2004, and Privacy Security Brainiacs, founded in 2020. Rebecca hosts the radio/podcast show, "Data Security & Privacy with the Privacy Professor." She is an expert witness, entrepreneur and author who has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work throughout the course of her career. Rebecca has written 20 books to date, chapters in many books and hundreds of articles. Learn more about Rebecca.
Nathan Gibson is the Chief Security Architect and Director of Enterprise Security Architecture at Allstate. Nathan’s information security journey spans multiple industries including our nation’s Air Force, healthcare, fintech, residential and commercial security, with a heavy focus on cloud engineering security.
Show Highlights
Matthew and his guest address critical factors when purchasing monitoring devices, securely storing, moving, and using the collected data that is exponentially accumulating, and how to mitigate the exploitation of these systems.
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About Our Guests
Xavier D. Johnson is the Founder of Enterprise Offensive Security in Detroit, Mich. He also serves as a Secondary Cybersecurity Instructor at the University of Michigan, the Director of #MISEC, a Founding Organizer of DEFCON Group for Detroit, Show Host on How They Got Hacked, and Founder of Red Team Clothing
Nicholas Starke is a highly skilled security researcher and penetration tester focusing on Internet of Things (IoT) security evaluations. Nick's primary area of interest within IoT is networking equipment, ranging from Small office / Home office routing equipment all the way to carrier grade/ISP equipment – and everything in between. Right now he is focused on enterprise-grade networking devices as part of his role as a Threat Researcher at Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.