Food for Agile Thought #393: The Double Diamond Problem, Why Agile Coaches Fail, Waterfall's Comeback?

Welcome to the 393rd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 46,731 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, Jason Godesky takes a deep dive into the well-established design process, pointing to the Double Diamond problem. Also, we reflect on the hype the agile coaching industry is experiencing, causing the market entry of less qualified players, and we listen to Dave Farley interviewing Kent Beck on a classic topic of the agile community: Is Waterfall experiencing a comeback? Moreover, we offer a primer to creating ChatGPT prompts for Scrum practitioners to get you started running.

Then, John Cutler states that the (product) world does not need yet another prioritization framework. Instead, he suggests prioritizing a focus area. We share insights and examples on dealing with PMF’s evolving, fluctuating, and changing nature, and Lenny Rachitsky interviews Ayo Omojola on the aspects of creating outstanding products. Also, we point to the importance of inspecting and adapting OKRs regularly and provide a guide on how to do this.

Finally, we appreciate Mark Graban interviewing Joshua Kerievsky, discussing how ‘agility’ doesn’t strictly mean ‘Agile’ in software, and Gergely Orosz shares an “interview with the four researchers behind a new developer productivity framework: The three dimensions of DevEx.” Lastly, we close this week’s edition with a simple question: Should we be polite to chatbots?

🏅 The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was: Agile Failure Patterns in Organizations.

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 392, 391.

PPS: 🎓 📅 See all upcoming events and classes here.

PPPS: 📖 Get notified when the Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide will become available.

📅 Join your peers on June 14: Hands-on Agile 51: Fast, NoWaste Agile Estimating w/ Ron Lichty (English).

🏆 Tip of the Week

Medium: Jason Godesky takes a deep dive into the well-established design process, noting that “double diamond is a great reflection of the way we often think of innovation happening, but it’s not the way that it actually happens:” "The Problem with the Double Diamond."

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

Mark Jivko’s notion is complete nonsense: Scrum is a practical framework designed to enhance productivity in complex projects. It’s not a religion or cult because it doesn’t demand blind faith or adherence to a set of unquestionable beliefs. Instead, Scrum is not prescriptive but encourages adaptation, learning, and improvement based on empirical evidence and tangible outcomes. Furthermore, its principles and practices are grounded in clear logic and can be adapted to constraints: "Scrum fails for many reasons, but mostly because it's a religious cult."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Anton Zotin reflects on the hype the industry is experiencing, causing the market entry of less qualified players, resulting in a “decline in the overall quality of the profession:” "Why Agile Coaches & Agile Coaching Fail."

• 📺 YouTube: Dave Farley interviews Kent Beck on a classic topic of the agile community: Is Waterfall per se evil? Moreover, is it probably experiencing a comeback? "Kent Beck On AGILE vs WATERFALL."
  
  

• 🎙 Mark Graban interviews Joshua Kerievsky, discussing how ‘agility’ doesn’t strictly mean ‘Agile’ in software: "Interview with Joshua Kerievsky on the Joy of Agility -- It's Not Just for Software Companies."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — May 30-31, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Advanced Scrum Master training class including the industry-recognized PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class and will be offered in English.

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive class of two compact sessions with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CEST.

👉 New in 2023: Refresher Classes: Attend a free refresher class as a former student upon arrangement and availability.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — May 30-31, 2023.

Customer voices: “Outstanding PSM II experience: Having looked forward to attending this class, literally for years, it was everything I expected, hoped for and then some. I am so grateful that this was an online virtual class, as it added an additional dimension to the learning, and was incredibly insightful. The trainer did an outstanding job of taking us through the learning plan, facilitating discussions, guiding the outcome and believing in the structures. Whether the learning was tangible curriculum, or intangible observation, it was excellent – made even more solid by the open sharing from my classmates and willingness from everyone to participate.” (Link.)

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.

🎯 Product

• John Cutler states that the (product) world does not need yet another prioritization framework. Instead, he suggests prioritizing a focus area: "Effort vs. Value Curves."
  
  

• uxdesign.cc: andrea saez shares insights and examples on dealing with PMF's evolving, fluctuating, and changing nature: "What to do when you don’t have strong product-market fit."

• 🎙 Lenny Rachitsky interviews Ayo Omojola on the aspects of creating outstanding products: "Frameworks for product differentiation, team building, and thinking from first principles."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Gergely Orosz shares an “interview with the four researchers [Abi Noda, Margaret-Anne Storey, Nicole Forsgren, and Michaela Greiler] behind a new developer productivity framework: The three dimensions of DevEx:” "DevEx: A new way to measure developer productivity – from the creators of DORA and SPACE."
  
  

• Substack: Matt Watson observes that his career mainly comprises deprecated technology and that everything you build becomes technical debt: "My 20 Year Career is Technical Debt or Deprecated."

• Peter Kappus points to the importance of inspecting and adapting OKRs regularly, providing a guide on how to do this: "A guide to OKR check-ins."

🎶 Encore

• ethical.net: Cennydd Bowles reflects on the pros and cons of using etiquette when talking to ChatGPT & Co. After all; chatbots are not sentient, are they? "Should we be polite to chatbots?"

• Ethan Mollick reflects on the future of artificial intelligence, pointing out that “focus on apocalyptic events also robs most of us of agency:” "Catastrophe / Eucatastrophe: We have more agency over the future of AI than we think."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 May 23-24 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO II; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 30-31 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 June 13-16 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 14 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 51: Fast, NoWaste Agile Estimating w/ Ron Lichty (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 June 21-22 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Petra Wille: The Product Community of Practice — Hands-on Agile 50.

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Best,