Food for Agile Thought #425: Change Agent Tips, Engineering Mindset, Utilization Fetish, Is Diversity Beneficial?

Welcome to the 425th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 49,156 peers.

This week, John Cutler presents 20 insightful tips for effective change management. In two academic studies, Kristin Geffers, Karen Eilers, Sarah Oeste-Reiß, and Ulrich Bretschneider explore Agile Leadership’s key roles, while Christiaan Verwijs and Daniel Russo examine diversity’s impact on software teams. Moreover, Charity Majors discusses the necessity of engineering managers.

Then, Jason Cohen shares WP Engine’s eight-step journey to success, emphasizing fit and strategic, retention-focused development, and Lenny Rachitsky interviews Will Larson on systems thinking and productivity in product and engineering. Also, Petra Wille explores impactful product culture and leadership, and Maarten Dalmijn introduces ‘humble planning’ as essential in Agile practices for creating valuable products, discussing friction and intent-based leadership.

Lastly, J. Meadows critiques the belief in maximum staff utilization in software organizations, showing its negative impact on productivity and innovation. Adam Tornhill explains Brooks’ Law, where adding staff to delayed projects increases delays, and Kent Beck discusses the complexities of measuring engineering productivity and suggests a balanced approach. Finally, Dave Hora explores the changing role of research in organizations, stressing the importance of understanding current states for effective product integration.

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🏆 Tip of the Week

John Cutler offers 20 insightful tips for change agents, focusing on self-awareness, patience, learning, and relationship-building to foster meaningful and sustainable change: "20 tips for self-described change agents."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Medium: This week’s Lemon is a classic rant, where the practice is dismissed as a colossal failure, nostalgically yearning for the ‘good old’ project management days of the 1990s. It’s a prime example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, mixed with a heavy dose of nostalgia and a sprinkle of sarcasm: "Agile has failed. Officially."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• ResearchGate: Geffers, Eilers, Oeste-Reiß, and Bretschneider identify Agile Leadership as critical to agile transformations, outlining its five perspectives and emphasizing its role in fostering organizational adaptability and success: "Leading Teams in Today's Dynamic Organizations: The Core Characteristics of Agile Leadership."

• Christiaan Verwijs and Daniel Russo explore the impacts of diversity on software teams, finding age and gender diversity influence effectiveness and conflict moderated by psychological safety: "The Double-Edged Sword of Diversity: How Diversity, Conflict, and Psychological Safety Impact Software Teams."

• Charity Majors debates the necessity of engineering managers in startups, arguing their importance in organizational structure, information management, and team coordination.: "Questionable Advice: ‘My boss says we don’t need any engineering managers. Is he right?’"

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — February 6-9, 2024

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 a compact immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 13:00 o’clock CET.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — February 6-9, 2024.

Customer review: “Since about 12 people have already asked me these last 2 days: Yes, taking one of Stefan Wolpers classes is a mind-blowing experience. He’s actually the most adroit facilitator I’ve met after Guy Kawasaki & Roland Busch. It all flows like a silk ribbon in a soft spring breeze but with a strong authenticity that prevents the thing from feeling all Del Monte Canned Corporate Facilitation(tm). It may be due to his seemingly effortless mastery of the Liberating Structures. He doesn’t “teach to the test,” yet when you take the open practice assessments, you somehow score 95+ the first time. I dunno, it’s magic or Mozart, you pick.” (Link.)

🎯 Product

• Jason Cohen outlines an eight-step process leading WP Engine to unicorn status, emphasizing personal and market fit, customer interaction, and strategic, retention-focused development: "The roadmap to Product/Market Fit."

• 🎙 Lenny Rachitsky’s interview with Will Larson, CTO of Carta, covers systems thinking, managing product and engineering teams, measuring developer productivity, and developing company values: "The Engineering Mindset."

• Notion: The article discusses how B2B Product Management drives business growth by focusing on customer retention, addressing churn causes, and utilizing Gross and Net Revenue Retention strategies: "Churn to Earn — products role in managing retention."

• Petra Wille delves into the essence of a great product culture, focusing on leadership behavior and the integration of values throughout an organization beyond just the scope of a Community of Practice: "What Makes a Great Product Culture? A Guide for Product Leaders."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Medium: J. Meadows challenges the entrenched belief in software organizations that maximizing staff utilization is beneficial, highlighting the detrimental effects on productivity, quality, and innovation: "Utilization Considered Harmful. Why It’s Costly Keeping Everyone Busy."

• CodeScene: Adam Tornhill visualizes Brooks’ Law, demonstrating how adding more people to a late software project can paradoxically delay it further due to increased coordination and communication overhead: "Brooks's Law."

• Kent Beck highlights the tradeoffs in measuring engineering productivity, warns against data distortion from metrics, and advocates for a balance between measurement and direct executive engagement with teams: "Productivity Measurement as a Tradeoff."

🎶 Encore

• Dave Hora discusses the evolving role of research in organizations, emphasizing the need to understand current states and trajectories for effective product and customer context integration: "Where Research Is Working."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Jan 23-Feb 20 — Live Virtual Class: Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Jan 30-Feb 2 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 6-9 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 15 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Mar 5 — Live Virtual Meetup: “Agile” Does Not Work for You? Tackling Fake Agility w/ Johanna Rothman (English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Mar 5-6 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Mar 12-15 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• Maarten Dalmijn: Humble Planning Humble Planning: How To Make Your Plans Suck Less.

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