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  • The Software Process and Measurement Cast 796 features a conversation with Roger Turnau. Roger and I talk about prioritization using the cost of delay. Every organization and team I have ever worked with has a backlog of work and lots of people screaming that their piece of the backlog is the most important. The cost of delay is an important tool to filter out the noise and it can be as nuanced as you need it to be. Roger Turnau is an Agile Coach at Accenture. His mission is to empower and inspire leaders and organizations to create an environment where high performance feels effortless. His approach to achieving this combines an emphasis on psychological safety, building trust throughout the organization, and close attention to KPIs, OKRs and flow metrics to ensure durable results. For the past five years, Roger has specialized in enterprise and DevOps coaching, product development, and Agile transformations. Contact Information LinkedIn:  Website: (Blog) Last Call for Cohort 1! Slay Work Intake Chaos: Become a Master in 5 Weeks!   Based on Tom Cagley and Jeremy WIllet’s new book , learn to diagnose and solve work intake anti-patterns to stop drowning in work. Work intake is the biggest challenge facing organizations today. If you don’t get work intake right, you won’t be in business for very long. A 5-week cohort-based course, meeting weekly for an hour, includes teaching, peer feedback & discussion, feedback from the authors, time for Q&A, templates, and an electronic copy of our book, Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery. Are you ready to commit?  Join our cohort-based workshop. The first cohort is starting on March 1st, 2024. Details at   Re-read Saturday News This week we tackle two chapters of . Chapter 11, “Different Sampling Methods”. The chapter points out that random sampling techniques are just the tip of the iceberg in approaches. Chapter 12, ”What Percentile Do I Choose?”, discusses whether you always need to quote the 85th percentile range. The short answer is no but like most things, there is more to it than that.  Buy a copy and get reading – .   Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: –   Week 6: –   Week 7: –   Week 8: –   Week 9: –   Week 10: -    Week 11: - Next SPaMCAST  In the Software Process and Measurement Cast 797 we ponder the question, should the process save us from ourselves in every circumstance?  We will also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault who brings his Evolutionary Agilst™ Column to the podcast

  • Part of every profession is the jargon practitioners adopt. Having a language links people together and creates a sense of community. It also creates private gardens: a profession set off from those around it. Jargon is a form of secret handshake. Jargon is a two-edged sword, both gathering and excluding people. Be wary! We also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. We discussed her recent mini-sabbatical. Stepping back has the power to clear your mind.  Slay Work Intake Chaos: Become a Master in 5 Weeks! Based on Tom Cagley and Jeremy WIllet’s new book , learn to diagnose and solve work intake anti-patterns to stop drowning in work. Work intake is the biggest challenge facing organizations today. If you don’t get work intake right, you won’t be in business for very long. A 5-week cohort-based course, meeting weekly for an hour, includes teaching, peer feedback & discussion, feedback from the authors, time for Q&A, templates, and an electronic copy of our book, Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery. Are you ready to commit?  Join our cohort-based workshop. The first cohort is starting on March 1st, 2024. Details at Re-read Saturday News This week we tackle two chapters of . We begin with Chapter 9 - VoP, VoC, and Predictability which sums up Section I, Variability and Predictability. Chapter 10, titled Monte Carlo Simulation, Revisited begins Section II, Advanced Monte Carlo Simulation and Predictability. Buy a copy and get reading – .   Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: –   Week 6: –   Week 7: –   Week 8: –   Week 9: –   Week 10: -    Next SPaMCAST  The Software Process and Measurement Cast 796 our conversation with Roger Turnau. Roger and I will delve deeply into prioritization using the cost of delay. Every organization and team I have ever worked with has a backlog of work and lots of people screaming that their piece of the backlog is the most important. Cost of delay is an important tool to filter out the noise.  

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  • The Software Process and Measurement Cast 794 features our conversation with Nick Schrock. Nick and I discussed data engineering, AI, and entrepreneurship. As the Founder at Dagster Labs, Nick has the perfect standing to talk about three of the hottest topics of 2024. Nick’s Bio: Nick is the Founder and CTO of Dagster Labs, the company behind Dagster, a popular open-source data orchestration platform. Before Dagster Labs, he was a Principal Engineer and Director at Facebook from 2009 to 2017, where he founded the Product Infrastructure team and co-created GraphQL. After cutting his teeth at Facebook, he pursued his passion for working on engineers’ pain points after hearing that data infrastructure was a big issue. He founded Dagster to address this issue, highlighting how quickly open-source projects were able to make an impact at legacy companies.  Dagster couldn’t come at a more critical time as data and ML engineering are beginning to drive both human and business decision-making.   Contact Information: Linkedin: Website:   Stop Project Chaos: The Ultimate Guide to Predictable Work Intake   Feeling overwhelmed by endless tasks and unpredictable deadlines? You’re not alone. But what if you could transform your project into a well-oiled machine, delivering consistent value on time? Introducing Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery. Ditch the black hole of endless requests. Discover practical strategies for capturing, filtering, and prioritizing work effectively. Gain control of your work pipeline. Learn how to navigate different types of work at different stages, ensuring smooth flow and efficient delivery. Become a master of saying “no”. This book equips you with the tools and techniques to confidently decline unproductive work and protect your team’s focus. Stop the chaos and start delivering! Grab your copy of Mastering Work Intake today and unleash your project’s full potential. JRoss:   or  Amazon (US): Are you ready to commit to not letting bad work drag you down? Invest in your success and learn how to master work intake for a smoother, more rewarding project experience. Join our cohort-based workshop. The first cohort is starting on March 1st, 2024. Details at Re-read Saturday News Chapter 8 shatters myths!  Once upon a time in a land far, far away, I believed a few of these myths. Ok, it was just about five years ago that I was dissuaded from the last of my misbeliefs. I believe that many of my misconceptions are founded in the collision of words between classical statistics and words Shewhart used for Process Behavior Charts (PBC). Buy a copy and get reading – .     Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: -   Week 6: -   Week 7: -   Week 8: XmR Charts and the Four Basic Metrics of Flow -   Week 9: -     Next SPaMCAST  In the Software Process and Measurement Cast 795, why do teams, products, projects, and companies exist? Why do we care? (We really should!)   We will also have a visit from Susan Parente who brings her Not A Scrumdamentalist column to the podcast!  

  • Feeling overwhelmed by endless tasks and unpredictable deadlines? You're not alone. But what if you could transform your project into a well-oiled machine, delivering consistent value on time? Introducing Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery.   Ditch the black hole of endless requests. Discover practical strategies for capturing, filtering, and prioritizing work effectively. Gain control of your work pipeline. Learn how to navigate different types of work at different stages, ensuring smooth flow and efficient delivery. Become a master of saying "no". This book equips you with the tools and techniques to confidently decline unproductive work and protect your team's focus.   Stop the chaos and start delivering! Grab your copy of Mastering Work Intake today and unleash your project's full potential.   JRoss:   or  Amazon (US): Ready to commit to not letting bad work drag you down? Invest in your success and learn how to master work intake for a smoother, more rewarding project experience. Join our cohort-based workshop. The first cohort is starting on March 1st, 2024. Details at    

  • As you would suspect, I have recently been talking up Mastering Work Intake which Jeremy Willets and I co-authored. One conversation turned to the topic of whether value stream analysis was useful in controlling work intake. The simple answer is YES across the whole value stream and up and down the hierarchy. We will also have a visit from Kies Kostaqi who brings her “You Are Not Alone” column to the podcast. In this installment, we discuss whether anyone (within reason) can play the Scrum Master role.  Mastering Work Intake  by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets    Have you purchased your copy of  ?  Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively - no longer. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, project and portfolio managers, team members, and anyone who touches the software development process. Mastering work intake involves recognizing that it’s easy to say “ yes” and much harder to say “ no.” Buy a copy today!   J Ross: Amazon (US):   For physical copies outside of the US and Canada: UK and EU:   For international orders outside of Europe: (or the Amazon store for your country)   Re-read Saturday News Chapter Seven, of  , dives into the nuances of using XmR charts for the basic flow metrics including:  Cycle Time Throughput WIP WIP Age   This is a hugely useful chapter. There are three points that I draw out this week.  They are the difference between XmR and Cycle Time (scatter plot) Charts, chunky data, and Total WIP Age charting.   Buy a copy and get reading – .     Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: -   Week 6: -   Week 7: -     Next SPaMCAST  The Software Process and Measurement Cast 794 will feature our conversation with Nick Schrock. We discussed data engineering, AI, and entrepreneurship. As the Founder at Dagster Labs, Nick had the perfect standing to talk about three of the hottest topics of 2024.

  • by Thomas M Cagley Jr and Jeremy Willets, gives you the tools to prioritize and deliver the right work at the right time. The book is on the shelves today! One of the topics covered in the book 9 Core Principles of Work Intake. Today’s audio promo describes the 9 principles to promote both the book and our cohort-based workshop.  To whet your whistle, when you join the cohort waitlist (near the bottom of the Maven landing page) you will receive a copy of the 9 Core Work Intake Principles Worksheet. This is one of the handouts from the class that you can use to determine how your team or organization is doing with them. Purchase a copy of Mastering Work Intake at: J Ross:   or  Amazon (US): Sign up or join the waiting list for the workshop at   If you have any questions email me at [email protected]  

  • Happy Birthday to the Software Process and Measurement Cast.  Today we begin year 18 with our interview with Gil Broza. Gill and I discussed his new book, Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization’s Potential. The book is available NOW! I am excited by the ideas in the book and I think you will be also.  If you are involved in improving value delivery this is a must-have-book. Why? Because it identifies what organizations that successfully improve value delivery have in common and provides those ideas to you. Gill specializes in helping leaders deliver far better results by upgrading their organizations’ Agile ways of working. He is the author of , , , and Listen to the podcast and then download Chapter 1 from:   Other Contact Links:  The book: Gill’s  My website: LinkedIn:   Mastering Work Intake  by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets  Have you purchased your copy of  ?  Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively - no longer. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, project and portfolio managers, team members, and anyone who touches the software development process. Mastering work intake involves recognizing that it’s easy to say “ yes” and much harder to say “ no.” Buy a copy today!   J Ross: Amazon (US):   For physical copies outside of the US and Canada: UK and EU:   For international orders outside of Europe: (or the Amazon store for your country)   Re-read Saturday News Chapter Six, of  , is titled Detecting Signals on PBCs. Finding a signal in the noise is like separating the wheat from the chaff. Adding to the pile of quotes, one of the most enduring is “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” A more appropriate version in the context of this chapter might be “Give a person some data and they will see a trend. Teach a person to detect a signal and they won’t be as silly” – doesn’t have the same punch, but the new version encapsulates Chapter 6. Buy a copy and get reading – .   Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: -   Week 6: -   Week 7: -   Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 793 explores the relationship between value stream mapping and work intake. The whole value chain needs to understand why mastering work intake delivers more value for everyone! We will also have a visit from Kies Kostaqi who brings her “You Are Not Alone” column to the podcast. 

  • With SPaMCAST 791 we complete Year 17 with our interview with Vinnie GIl. Vinnie and I talked about conferences and staying connected with the Agile Community. One of the topics we covered was the value of conferences and meetups to the community and individuals—a great way to complete year 17.   Vinnie puts people and culture first. She enjoys connecting with people and companies to find their purpose, walking alongside them in their organisational growth journey. Her passion is influencing change at the Enterprise level to help bring about wide-ranging agile organisational transformation. Vinnie has vast industry and has deep business experience mining, engineering, retail, financial services, public sector, education, travel, automotive to name a few.  She has over 20 years in the project space and previously held roles in Project Management, Contracts, IT, HR, Strategy as well as experience working in and with start-up companies.  She is a Chartered Fellow of the MCIPD. She is deeply involved in the Agile community and volunteers her time with the Business Agility Institute, in addition to being a member of the International Consortium for Agile.  She is an IC Agile Authorised Instructor and teaches ICP Leading With Agility and Agility in Human Resources. Vinnie has a special interest in educating and education being the tool that empowers people. As an international conference speaker, she enjoys sharing real life agile learnings with a hint of banter. Mastering Work Intake by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets  Have you purchased your copy of  .  Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively - no longer. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, project and portfolio managers, team members, and anyone who touches the software development process. Mastering work intake involves recognizing that it’s easy to say “ yes” and much harder to say “ no.”   Buy a copy today!   J Ross: Amazon (US):   For physical copies outside of the US and Canada: UK and EU:   For international orders outside of Europe: (or the Amazon store for your country) Note: The Publisher indicates that it takes a while for the physical copies to get to the distributors outside of the USA and Canada.   Re-read Saturday News This week, Chapter 5 of  . The question of how much data is required to determine what is happening in a system is a perennial bugaboo. Those predisposed to acting tend to think less is more, while those with more reticence sometimes wait forever to make a decision.  The question of how much data is needed is more than just a footnote in flow. Buy a copy and get reading – .   Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: -     Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 792 begins Year 18 with our interview with Gil Broza. Gill and I talked about his new book, Deliver Better Results: How to Unlock Your Organization’s Potential.  The book explores what all successful improvements to value delivery have in common.

  • SPaMCAST 790 features our interview with Stefan Wolpers. Stefan and I talked about the Scrum Master's role in the 21st Century, his new book The Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide (), and remembering that it's all about people. Stefan’s Bio: Embarking on a Scrum career unintentionally in 2006, Stefan was initiated as a Scrum Master for a small German startup. Lacking initial knowledge but employing careful observation, note-taking, and dialogue, the author embraced the role and learned from the team’s experiences. Eighteen years into his Scrum journey, Stefan maintains an unwavering appetite for learning, humbled by the vast knowledge shared within the agile community. Recognizing newcomers’ overwhelming challenges in this field due to scarce formal education, he aspires to provide guidance, emphasising a pragmatic, common-sense approach grounded in observing human interaction and collaboration. Since 2019, Stefan has served as a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org. LinkedIn:   Email:   Websites (Other) (Other) (Company) Mastering Work Intake by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets HAS PUBLISHED!   Jeremy Willets and I have been gobsmacked by the reaction to  .  Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively - no longer. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, project and portfolio managers, team members, and anyone who touches the software development process. Mastering work intake involves recognizing that it’s easy to say “ yes” and much harder to say “ no.” Buy a copy today!   JRoss: Amazon (US): For physical copies outside of the US and Canada: UK and EU:   For international orders outside of Europe: (or the Amazon store for your country) Note: The Publisher indicates that it takes a while for the physical copies to get to the distributors outside of the USA and Canada.   Re-read Saturday News We continue with Chapter Four of , titled Process Behaviour Charts, this week. Humans often fall prey to seeing trends when they don’t exist. Today we construct an XmR chart to begin to fix that failing. Buy a copy and get reading – .   Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: –   Next SPaMCAST  With SPaMCAST 791 we will complete Year 17 with our interview with Vinnie GIl. Vinnie and I talked about conferences and staying connected with the Agile Community. A great way to complete year 17.  

  • As a coach and mentor, I often observe meetings and events so I can debrief with the person(s) I am coaching afterward and provide them with a different perspective. I was involved in observing a planning session in which a stakeholder stated, “Combine these two items, they are similar, and only count it as one toward our capacity.” What?   We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley and his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column. Jon and I talk about including technical people in sales and estimates.   New  Book! Jeremy Willets and I have written  which will be released on January 9th. Regardless of whether you’re creating, enhancing, or maintaining software products, work intake is a challenge you deal with constantly. Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively. You need to know what your team is executing, what work is next, and the skill sets required to do the work. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, project and portfolio managers, team members, and anyone who touches the software development process. Mastering work intake involves recognizing that it’s easy to say “ yes” and much harder to say “ no.” Order or preorder your copy from JRoss: Amazon (US): For physical copies outside of the US and Canada: UK and EU:   For international orders outside of Europe: (or the Amazon store for your country) Note: The Publisher indicates that it takes a while for the physical copies to get to the distributors outside of the USA and Canada. Re-read Saturday News Chapter Four of , titled Process Behaviour Charts is a trojan horse. This chapter is substantially more than a rehash of Process Behaviour Charts. The chapter corrected a misconception I have had for at least twenty years which we will get to in Part 2 of our re-read of chapter 4 (we are taking two weeks on this chapter to set up chapters 5 and 6). Thanks, Mr. Vacanti.  Buy a copy and get reading – .   Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 790 will feature our interview with Stefan Wolpers. Stefan and I talked about the Scrum Master role in the 21st Century.   

  • SPaMCAST 788 is our annual SPaMCAST panel featuring most of the podcast regulars including:  Jeremy Berriault, Keis Kostaqi, Jon M. Quigley,  Jeremy Willets, and Tom Cagley appears in the ringmaster role.  Tony Timbol and Susan Parente, regular contributors, were unable to join and we missed them (this time of year is busy). Maybe I should do the annual panel in February, no one is busy in the colder parts of February.  During this year's panel, we talked about using AIs in coaching, working in the office, Jon tent, and took a look into 2024. This is a long podcast so I will keep the chit-chat down to a dull roar.  Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine concise lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.     Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 789 we will continue on our tour of some of the least talked about and most scary work intake problems. This is in the run-up to the release of  on January 9th. Preorder your copy now! We will also have a visit from Mr Jon M Quigley who is bringing his Alpha and Omega of Product Development column to the podcast.  

  • This week we continue in the minefield of why starting everything you are asked to do is problematic that we began in SPaMCAST 785. Framing the discussion is a text from a friend of the cast which highlights those requests that you just can’t say no to. Lots of rationalizations and negative impacts. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. In this installment, we discuss the idea that everyone has a book in them.  Re-Read Saturday News Vacanti begins Chapter 3 of , by reminding the reader: “A predictable process behaves in a way we expect it to.” Further a predictable process exhibits only routine variation which means learning to distinguish signal and noise. Buy a copy and get reading - .  The current re-read entry Week 1:  – Week 2: – Week 3:   -     Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine concise lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.     Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 788 we will feature the annual SPaMCAST panel. As always the conversation will be rollicking. The topics will cover AI, working in the office, and a look into 2024.  

  • Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 features our conversation with Kevin Surace. Kevin is an AI Inventor, Futurist, and Keynote Speaker. We talk about the hype and promise of AI and whether you can ignore using AI in the workplace. My synopsis, embrace AI or live under a bridge. That might be a bit of hyperbole but if you lived through the PC revolution and the birth of the internet I think not.  Kevin’s Bio Kevin Surace, is a renowned futurist, disruptive innovation keynote speaker, and pioneer in the AI space since the 1990s He is the  CTO of Appvance.ai which applies AI in the testing space.   Kevin has an impressive portfolio of nearly 100 worldwide patents, including the groundbreaking technology behind Siri and other virtual assistants. He is the visionary creator of one of the world's first smartphones and a dynamic speaker featured in over 15 thought-provoking TED and TEDx talks. His accomplishments have earned him accolades such as Inc. Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year, CNBC's Innovator of the Decade, and an esteemed induction into RIT's prestigious Innovation Hall of Fame. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ksurace/ Personal Website: KevinSurace.com Twitter: @kevinsurace Business Website: https://appvance.ai/ Re-Read Saturday News This week we begin the read of by Daniel S. Vacanti in earnest covering Chapters One and Two. These two chapters provide a statistical cautionary tale and then go on to define variability. The definition of variability is a foundation that much of AA Volume II builds on. Buy a copy and get reading - .  The current re-read entry Week 1:  - Week 2: -     Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine concise lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.   Next SPaMCAST  In SPaMCAST 787 we continue in the minefield of why starting everything you are asked to do is problematic. Framing the discussion is a text from a friend of the cast which highlights those requests that you just can’t say no to. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column.

  • I was asked, “Why shouldn’t I say yes and start everything that comes my way?” As we celebrate the impending publication of (it is going to the printers very soon) we continue the discussion of work intake scenarios that bedevil teams and organizations. Controlling work entry is controlling WIP which helps us be our best selves. But are there times when you have to say yes when you don’t want to?   We also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault bringing his Evolutionary Agilist Column to the cast! Mr Berriault and I discussed the concept of root cause. Everybody is looking for one but very few understand the concept.  Re-Read Saturday News This week we begin the read of by Daniel S. Vacanti. This is the second of Mr. Vacanti’s books we have covered in Re-read Saturday. The 260-page book includes a Preface, 14 Chapters broken into two sections, two appendices, endnotes, a bibliography, and an index (hooray).  I am planning to cover this book in approximately 16 weeks. Reviewing the book, there are several chapters that I can see combining into a single week and a few chapters that will take a couple of weeks to think through. I also suspect that I may lose one or so weekends to holidays. I am targeting completing this read on March 31st.  Buy a copy and get reading - .  The current re-read entry Week 1:  - https://bit.ly/4adgxsC   Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine concise lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.   Next SPaMCAST  Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 will feature my conversation with Kevin Surace, AI Inventor,  Futurist and Keynote Speaker. We will discuss the hype and promise of AI.

  • Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 features our interview with Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson. We talk about their Agile Best Self Initiative. We also, and perhaps more importantly, discuss being in control of yourself so you can truly deliver value to those around you. As we start to close out 2023 it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on how you can be your best self. Michaele Gardner started out as a counselor at an emergency crisis line. Clients were too messy: clear inputs did not lead to predetermined outputs. So she moved into the world of IT and has not looked back. Becoming a developer on an XP team brought together her interests in psychology, flow, teamwork and problem solving. She quickly realized that many teams (and organizations) poured their hearts and souls into projects that added little value. Her next natural step was to help engineers and organizations understand business value at a micro and macro level. At all levels, Michaele loves giving change agents tools to define their own “why” and stay emotionally resilient. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaele-gardner-0829205/ Brian R. Hackerson is the co-creator of the Agile Best Self mindset, the VP of People Operations and Enterprise Agile Consultant at . An innovator at the intersection of Agile practices and personal development, Brian has revolutionized team engagement and performance in various leadership roles. His approach uniquely blends professional growth with personal empowerment, embodying his belief in the transformative power of aligning individual journeys with Agile principles. LinkedIn:   Agile Best Self:   Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 11 of is titled Saving The El Faro. In this final chapter, the author could have just as easily reimagined the outcomes of the Pinto design or the Deepwater Horizon disasters. The theme throughout the book is that Industrial-age thinking fails more often in the age of Knowledge Work.    My final thoughts on this book? Not to put too fine a point on it, this is Marquet’s most important book yet. Use the links below to read all of my final thoughts on and to catch up on previous installments. Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: – Week 5: –    Week 6: –   Week 7: –    Week 8: –   Week 9: –   Week 10: –   Week 11: –   Week 12: -   Next week we begin the READ (my first time) of ; which is available at LeanPub.  We re-read Volume I in 2018 () that book was life changing…I am looking forward to Volume II. Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means “no agile for you”. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone involved in deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.     Next SPaMCAST  As we celebrate the impending publication of (it is going to the printers very soon) I will continue the discussion of work intake scenarios that bedevil teams and organizations. Controlling work entry is controlling WIP which helps us be our best selves.   We will also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault bringing his Evolutionary Agilist Column to the cast!

  • Software Process and Measurement Cast 783 tackles a classic work intake problem, “Do you have the authority to ask for this work?” Work input processes need to vet more than just requirements.  We also have a visit from Jon M Quigley. Jon and I discussed taking control of your personal growth. It is not your organization's responsibility.  Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 10 of is titled, The Red-Blue Operating System. Marquet starts this chapter with the cautionary tale of the Ford Pinto. The chapter highlights the outcome of the industrial approach to leadership going wrong. My wife had a Pinto when we first started dating. It was our only car and we both remember waiting for it to be recalled, even as we drove to work every morning. We discussed the potential of the fuel tank exploding. What we were oblivious to was the reason for the problem. The failure of leadership and the failure of the decision-making model literally sentenced people to death to achieve a goal.   Previous installments of our re-read of (buy a copy)! Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: – Week 5: –    Week 6: -   Week 7: -    Week 8: -   Week 9: -   Week 10: -   Week 11: -   Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means no agile for you. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone involved in deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.     Next SPaMCAST  Software Process and Measurement Cast 784 will feature our interview with Michaele Gardner and Brian Hackerson. We talked about Agile Best Self and being in control of our agile.  

  • The Software Process and Measurement Cast 782 features our conversation with Govind Balu on the importance of data and the concept of data transformations. Data represents the gold rush of the 21st Century! Govind Balu is a visionary entrepreneur and experienced executive with a strong background in leveraging data and AI to drive business growth across different industries. As the Founder and CEO of QuaXigma, he spearheads the company’s vision to transform organizations into data-driven enterprises.  Govind observed that small and medium businesses struggle to effectively extract value from data and are unable to compete in a landscape where larger organizations more effectively leverage AI. Motivated to make data and AI easily accessible to SMBs, Govind founded QuaXigma with a clear mission to develop and deliver solutions that deliver business value by focusing on innovation, customer satisfaction, and strategic consulting. Govind’s LinkedIn Profile:  Email:   Company Website:   Re-Read Saturday News In Chapter 9 of , Marquet provides several examples of using the new plays. As a reminder, the plays in the new playbook are: Control The Clock Collaborate Commit Complete Improve Connect Each play is powerful; however, the combination of the plays is where the real power is.  For example, controlling the clock — calling a pause — allows a person or team time to think. During that pause, if they surface issues that are addressed the post-industrial plays of collaboration and improving are in evidence. Leveraging short iterations so that work can be demonstrated and inspected combines the control the clock, complete, and connect plays. Iterative planning, a hallmark of agile, combines control the clock and commit plays. Use the links below to explore more of the re-read. Previous installments of our re-read of (buy a copy)! Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: – Week 5: –    Week 6: -   Week 7: -    Week 8: -   Week 9: -   Week 10: -     Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means no agile for you. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone involved in deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - lots of people are involved which is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.     Next SPaMCAST  Software Process and Measurement Cast 783 will tackle a classic work intake problem, “Did I forget to tell you, the requirements changed?” What happens when you don’t have a clear line to the business to get feedback as you are doing work? Often you get to do things over and over and maybe over again.  We will also have a visit from Jeremy Berriault bringing his Evolutionary Agilist Coumn to the cast!  

  • The Software Process and Measurement Cast 781 begins with a discussion of prioritization and sequencing. These two ideas often get conflated. Work might be important but if it has predecessors and successors it will require sequencing. You can’t deploy a new piece of hardware unless you have it. The acquisition of the equipment comes before deployment. Not letting teams control or have input into sequencing has consequences. Let us discuss avoiding those negative outcomes. We also have a visit from Keis Kostaqi who returns with her You Are Not Alone column. Keis and I discuss the new Scrum Master that gets thrown to the wolves. Get a coach or risk being eaten? Re-Read Saturday News Chapter 8 is titled, The Enabling Play: Connect. This Chapter begins with the story of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The disaster may have been avoided if a single button had been pushed. The button went unpushed until it was too late because the person did not have permission. Marquet states  “How is it that a person could be more afraid of pushing a button without permission, than dying in a fiery explosion?” Hierarchy above all is a power play from the Industrial Age, a play that remains entrenched in corporate life. Fear supported by steep hierarchies, distorts common sense in environments with a strong culture of control and compliance.  Previous installments of our re-read of  (buy a copy)! Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: – Week 5: –    Week 6: -   Week 7: -    Week 8: -   Week 9: -     Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input, which includes prioritization and sequencing, is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. Simply put, poor work intake means no agile for you. Jeremy Willets and I have written tackling the topic that JRoss Publishing will publish in January 2024. In support of the book, we are building a live, workshop-based course for anyone involved in deciding on what work gets completed!  This includes Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers - there are a lot of people involved and that is part of the problem! The workshop will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using a survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort – link below. We will use the list to alert you when the workshop is available.  Link to Survey!      Next SPaMCAST  Software Process and Measurement Cast 782 will feature our interview with Govind Balu. We will discuss the importance of data and how organizations are tackling data transformations.     

  • The Software Process and Measurement Cast 780 features our interview with Billie Johnson. Our discussion focuses on the role of delivering outcomes and values using agile teams. We also discussed her book, which she co-authored with Kelley Burns.  Re-Read Saturday News The improve play is one of the most powerful aspects of Marquet’s suggested framework. Improve is chapter 7 of . Improve is a time for stepping back from the pressure of getting stuff done to consider whether you are doing the right thing, right. We have spoken about the need to pause, reflect, and replan periodically – this is the heart of the Improve play. Previous installments of our re-read of  (buy a copy)! Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: – Week 5: –    Week 6: -   Week 7: -    Week 8: -   Learn to Solve IT's Dirtiest Secret! Work input is how work gets to an organization or team. If you get it wrong you are throwing time and money away. SImply put, poor work intake means no agile for you. Jeremy Willets and I have written a book tackling the topic that will be published by JRoss Publishing in January 2024. In support of the book we are building a live, cohort-based course for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers on taming work intake. The cohort will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. We’ve held workshops on this topic at conferences. We even have a book coming out in January on this topic. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using this survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort:     Next SPaMCAST  Software Process and Measurement Cast 781 wrestles with whether overprioritization’s impact extends beyond poor leadership to bad products. Just because you have a prioritized backlog does not ensure delivering value. We will also have a visit from Keis Kostaqi who returns with her You Are Not Alone column.  

  • Software Process and Measurement Cast 779 wrestles with the question, When prioritization involves overly detailed or excessive control over how someone accomplishes their tasks or when it impedes an employee's ability to make their own decisions it becomes micromanagement. Let's explore and look for a path to healing. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. Susan talks about her impending sabbatical and why taking a pause can be powerful.  Re-Read Saturday News Complete is the next chapter in . This concept suggests breaking goals into smaller chunks with pauses to think and replan between each. Another solution to over-prioritization and micromanagement. Previous installments of our re-read of  (buy a copy)! Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: – Week 5: –    Week 6: -   Week 7: -      A Call to Action! Jeremy Willets and I are building a live, cohort-based course for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers on taming work intake. I wanted to see if you’d be up for sharing it with folks who would find it valuable. The cohort will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. We’ve held workshops on this topic at conferences. We even have a book coming out in January on this topic. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using this survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort:       Next SPaMCAST  The Software Process and Measurement Cast 780 will feature our interview with Billie Johnson. We will discuss her book, which she co-authored with Kelley Burns. We also talked about using business analysis to power agile teams.