Building A Business And A Leader, An Interview With Alex Natskovich, SPaMCAST 821
Software Process and Measurement Cast
Release Date: 07/28/2024
Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . Today we return to December 2021 to remember an interview with Mauricio Aguiar and Christine Green, We discussed their vision of the state and future of Software Measurement. Mauricio, Christine, and I are all Past Presidents of the International Function Point Users Group (the largest international software measurement...
info_outline Revisiting 2019 With Al Shalloway, SPaMCAST 837Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . We return to August 2019 for a two-parter, with Al Shalloway. This was a long interview. We originally spread over SPaMCAST 559 and SPaMCAST 560. Today both parts are united. The conversation with Al was full of huge ideas, concepts, and calls to action. Al and I talked about the troubles dogging classic agile, the...
info_outline Revisiting 2019 With Al Shalloway, SPaMCAST 837Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . We return to August 2019 for a two-parter, with Al Shalloway. This was a long interview. We originally spread over SPaMCAST 559 and SPaMCAST 560. Today both parts are united. The conversation with Al was full of huge ideas, concepts, and calls to action. Al and I talked about the troubles dogging classic agile, the...
info_outline Work Intake Halloween, A Second Opinion, Essays and Conversations with Jeremy Berriault, SPaMCAST 836Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 836 celebrates Halloween. Over the years instead of just one night, people decorate their houses and celebrate for at least a month - we love a party. In celebration of what has become the seventh-largest retail holiday in the United States, let's take a spooky look at the outcome of poor work intake and celebrate that we can banish the spooks and shades of poor work intake. We also hear from in his Evolutionary Agilist column. In this episode, we discuss the impact of adding new team members to a long-lived, high-performing team when the new person wants to strike out in a new...
info_outline Cake On Tuesday, A Conversation With Elizabeth Bieniek, SPaMCAST 835Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 835 features our conversation with Elizabeth Bieniek. Elizabeth and I will discuss her new book, , and explore the basics of innovation and leadership. The insights into innovation and intrapreneurship will help all enterprises compete and deliver value to their stakeholders. Elizabeth Bieniek is an author, speaker, and consultant focused on “good peopling” as the secret to exceptional execution. As a founder and Fortune 100 innovation and engineering leadership veteran, her expertise lies in challenging assumptions, embracing diverse perspectives, and leading through...
info_outline Battling The Walls Of Denial, New Kids On The Block – Essays and Conversations with Jon. M Quigley, SPaMCAST 834Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 834 features our essay titled Battling The Walls Of Denial. The essay begins: One of the problems change agents face is promoting change when individuals, teams, and even organizations fail to recognize how their behavior hurts them and therefore don’t see the need for change. In these circumstances, you often hear fatalistic rationalizations such as, “This is just how we always do it.” Or the equally problematic, “You just don’t understand; we are special.” Just running away is not the only option. We also have a visit from Jon M. Quigley...
info_outline Keeping Secrets Secret, A Conversation With Brian Vallelunga, SPaMCAST 833Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 833 features our interview with Brian Vallelunga, founder & CEO at Doppler. Brian and I discuss the importance of managing secrets. Brian states, “Secrets are the keys to the kingdom.” Today any organization that does not secure the data they manage is asking for trouble (with a capital T).. Brian Vallelunga is the Founder and CEO of Doppler, the first secrets management platform for developers. Doppler empowers tens of thousands of engineering and DevOps teams to seamlessly orchestrate, govern, and manage their secrets across environments at scale. Brian has been...
info_outline Conway’s Law and Agile. Testers and Test Engineers, Essays and Conversations With Jeremy Berriault, SPaMCAST 832Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 832 is a later summer-early fall rerun! In July 2019, SPaMCAST 550 premiered. The cast included an essay titled, Intertwining Conway’s Law And Agile and an episode of the QA Corner with Jeremy Berriault. Jeremy discussed the differences between test engineers and testers. These topics are favorites of mine, so…while I am hiking and camping I would like to reshare the core content of SPaMCAST 550 with you. Remember all 18 years of content are available at . We will be back next week with new programming. Master Work Intake! Mastering Work Intake...
info_outline Cracking Groupthink - Solutions When Balancing Urgency and Importance, SPaMCAST 831Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 831 features our essay, Cracking Groupthink - Solutions When Balancing Urgency and Importance. Issues occur when groupthink affects the balance between urgency and importance in decision-making. This leads to inefficiencies, risk aversion, and misaligned priorities. The key challenge is that groups tend to perceive urgency and importance differently from individuals, often influenced by psychological and social dynamics such as the diffusion of responsibility, conformity, and shared information bias. There are solutions! We also have a visit from Keis Kostaqi who brings...
info_outline Upcoming Book Club: Mastering Work Intake AnnouncementSoftware Process and Measurement Cast
Jeremy and I will host a 4-session book club to discuss Mastering Work Intake (4 sections => 4 sessions!) beginning October 18th. We are looking forward to a great set of conversations! Join us by registering on Maven. Use the QR code below at or follow the link - Note: We are charging a nominal $1 fee, which Maven requires. Participation in the book club assumes you have (or have access to) a copy of the book and do the reading so you will be prepared.
info_outlineThe Software Process and Measurement Cast 821 features our interview with Alex Natskovich. We talk about the attributes of a leader when building a business but even more importantly learning to be a leader. Success requires knowing how to handle the transitions.
Alex’s Bio
Alex is a seasoned engineering leader and CEO. Born in Belarus, he harbored a lifelong dream of becoming an engineer. After graduating from university, he moved to the USA.
During the initial years, he resided in New York, working as a software engineer in various companies. One of the most notable was the startup Conductor, where he joined as the 5th employee. It has now evolved into the leading global SEO and content intelligence platform. During his tenure there, Alex was responsible for building and maintaining an industry-leading link-building system. Simultaneously, he embarked on building his own company, MEV (named after the mega-electron-volt) – a strategic software development partner for fast-growing companies. Afterward, he decided to settle in the Bay Area.
While at the helm of his company, he assisted esteemed companies such as Cartier, Novo Nordisk, Daiichi Sankyo, and Avadel in overcoming complex business challenges through software solutions. Additionally, he aided numerous startups in developing stable and scalable digital products, making them attractive for acquisition.
Alex is passionate about empowering businesses with the right technology. He firmly believes in the power of teams. Building a high-performing team, in his view, necessitates being open-minded and always striving to thoroughly understand the team’s objectives and needs for success. This solution-oriented mindset and team focus form the cornerstone of his company.
Website: https://mev.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natskovich/
Email: [email protected]
Learn To Tame Your Work Intake Beast!
Work Intake Summer Camp is in session! Like a swimming pool, there is always time to join the fun. Jeremy Willets and I are celebrating summer in the northern hemisphere with a summer camp. We’ll look at the primary causes of work intake problems… and how to solve them! Join us for an entertaining and informative LinkedIn Live event. The next weekly session begins at 11:30 EDT on July 31st (LinkedIn).
Each session will:
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Define one work intake problem per session,
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Identify how to recognize the problem,
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Offer a pragmatic approach to tackling the issue, and
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At least one scary story of work entry gone wrong (this is summer camp)
We would like you to register at our Maven page https://bit.ly/3HEsKK7 so we can remind you when the session goes live. If you register we also have a Work Intake Problem Worksheet that we use in our workshops that we will email. However, if you’d rather not register on Maven you can set a reminder on LinkedIn (Session 7). In either case, we will announce when the sessions go live on LinkedIn.
Replay Week 2: Need Outstrips Demand
Replay Week 4: Project Thinking v Product Thinking
Replay Week 5: Urgency v Importance
Replay Week 6: Classes of Service
Share the invitation with others, wear sunscreen, and be kind to your fellow campers!
Re-read Saturday News
Three main ideas struck me during this read of Chapter 9 of Flow. Chapter 9 is titled: Cheating Chaos. The chaos we are working to cheat is the random energy pushing us in random directions from inside and outside ourselves. Creating order provides a space for optimal experience and flow.
Logistics note: Including this week, we anticipate completing this re-read in 4 weeks. Are there recommendations for the next book in the Re-read series?
Buy a copy and read along – https://amzn.to/4b5kPmb
Week 1: Preface and Logistics – https://bit.ly/3WLjFHU
Week 2: Happiness – https://bit.ly/4dUSpNg
Week 3: Consciousness – https://bit.ly/4bEu3pN
Week 4: Enjoyment and The Quality of Life – https://bit.ly/4eeknDQ
Week 5: The Conditions Of Flow
Week 6: The Body In Flow
Week 7: The Flow Of Thought
Week 8: Work As Flow
Week 9: Enjoying Solitude and Other People
Week 10: Cheating Chaos
Next SPaMCAST
The Software Process and Measurement Cast will feature Jeremy Willets and me discussing Urgency versus Importance. We thought the Work Intake Summer Camp discussion was so important (not just urgent) that we decided to share it.
We will also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault, the Evolutionary Agilist.