Food for Agile Thought #398, Agile Laggards, Building Trust and Influence, Moving From Output to Outcome

Welcome to the 398th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 47,569 peers. My name is Stefan Wolpers.

This week, we challenge pessimism around agile laggards, arguing that they are potentially more advantaged than their precursors. Also, we explore the benefits of Continuous Delivery and advocate that high-performing teams do not stop at the ‘run‘ level. Instead, the real magic happens with full ownership. Speaking of owning your process: if you take Scrum seriously, employing agile coaches next to Scrum Masters is unnecessary.

Then, we uncover a profound challenge faced by Product Owners: fitting into their organizations and double down on the issue with Leah Tharin, Teresa Torres, and Hope Gurion analyzing how to move organizations and teams from output to outcome. Moreover, we ask regarding strategy and competitors: should we pay attention to them? Also, Anthony Murphy explores the critical components of trust in stakeholder management, offering actionable strategies to establish and foster it.

Finally, Ash Maurya discusses entrepreneurs’ challenges in juggling big-picture vision and immediate action, suggesting skipping product roadmaps in favor of traction roadmaps. John Cutler explores a theory about companies stuck in a ‘doing OK’ basin, neither thriving nor failing, slowly drifting towards obscurity. At the same time, Seth Godin reflects on projects which are promises involving coordination for future value delivery.

🏅 The most popular discussion on LinkedIn this week was: 📯 Introducing: The Minimum Viable Library — #Leadership edition!

PS: 🗞 Did you miss past issues? No worries, here we go: 396, 397.

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

🏆 Tip of the Week

Medium: Todd Lankford challenges pessimism around late adopters of agility, arguing that they are potentially more advantaged than their precursors, armed with the wisdom of early adopters and a fresh approach. Learn more about the surprising strengths of late agile adopters: "Agility for latecomers: Is it too late or a new opportunity?"

🍋 The Lemon of the Week

A futile attempt by Al Shalloway to monetize Scrum by fixing its supposedly useless structure. Two thoughts: (1) If Scrum were as useless as described, why is it still around after 25-plus years? (2) Why would you brand your new system, framework, or way of working as “Amplio Scrum?” Isn’t Scrum what you intend to replace? "To increase the effectiveness of a Scrum Master, we must shift the responsibilities of the Scrum Master as stated in the Scrum Guide […]"

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Author Stay SaaSy advises engineers aiming for amicability with PMs by valuing the power of shipping code responsibly and avoiding burdening PMs with QA or project management tasks. Moreover, be fair, don’t gang up, do not confuse technical knowledge for intelligence, and articulate tech debt in understandable terms: "How To Be An Engineer That PMs Don’t Hate."

• 🎙 Dive into Jason Knight’s engaging dialogue with Dave Farley, the renowned software development thought leader and advocate for ‘Continuous Delivery.’ Discover why it’s paramount, the hurdles in its implementation, and how product managers can facilitate it: "Build Better Products Faster by Embracing Continuous Delivery."

• Alex Ewerlöf advocates that high-performing teams do not stop at the ‘run‘ level. Instead, the real magic happens with full ownership: "You build it, you own it."
  
  

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training — August 29-30, 2023

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this 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 of two compact sessions from 9 am to 5:30 pm CEST and will be offered in English.

Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — August 29-30, 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

• Scrum.org: Dave West uncovers a profound challenge faced by Product Owners—fitting into their organizations. Conversations with a diverse array of Product Owners reveal that the difficulty often isn’t in executing daily work but navigating their role within established organizational structures: "Product Owners - The Messy Reality of Environment."
  
  

• 📺 In this talk, Leah Tharin, Teresa Torres, and Hope Gurion explore leadership, unified knowledge bases, and the harsh realities of crises like the 2008 recession. Delving into the pressure always to be right and impostor syndrome, they remind us that no framework can substitute for ‘putting in the work:’ "Teresa Torres & Hope Gurion: Moving Organizations and Teams from Output to Outcome."

• Medium: Roger Martin ponders the potential strategic oversight of ignoring competitors in business strategy. Despite leading their respective fields, Martin’s clients scarcely mention competitors in their strategy discussions. Is this a strategic mistake or an intelligent non-distraction? "Strategy & Competitors. Should We Pay Attention to Them?"

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• 📺 YouTube: This video by Anthony Murphy explores the critical components of trust in stakeholder management, offering actionable strategies to establish and foster it: "Essential Strategies for building Trust and Influence."

• Allan Kelly invites us to challenge our perception of ‘bugs’ versus ‘enhancements.’ Questioning the impact of labels on the priority and perception of work, he suggests focusing on benefit as the overriding criterion. Is the ‘bug or change request’ debate a waste of time? "Nuke the bug list when you nuke the backlog."
  
  

• Ash Maurya discusses entrepreneurs’ challenges in juggling big-picture vision and immediate action, arguing that traditional roadmaps fall short. His solution? The Traction Roadmap. It is an adaptive tool charting milestones towards a scalable business model under uncertainty: "Don't Create a Product Roadmap. Use a Traction Roadmap Instead."

🎶 Encore

• John Cutler explores a theory about companies stuck in a ‘doing OK’ basin, neither thriving nor failing, slowly drifting towards obscurity. Are companies in this zone stuck in a plateau? Moreover, what could work to overcome this status and initiate change for the better? "Stuck In The Valley of ‘Doing OK’."

• To Seth Godin, projects are promises involving coordination for future value delivery. Every undertaking dances with uncertainty, whether it is a routine meeting or constructing a skyscraper. And management? It’s indispensable, for projects don’t complete themselves: "Project management."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 🇬🇧 August 29-30 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 September 5-6 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 October 4 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Joe Justice: How Elon Musk Would Run YOUR Business — Hands-on Agile EXTRA.

Your Opinion Matters

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Best,