Food for Agile Thought #427: Continuous Product Improvement, Changing Teams, Use Cases, Over-Engineering

Welcome to the 427th edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 47,634 peers.

This week, Jeff Patton outlines a continuous product improvement cycle, highlighting its critical stages, and Brian Link delves into the evolving landscape of agile practices, reflecting on the recent dynamics. Heidi Helfand shares valuable strategies from her book “Dynamic Reteaming,” while Joost Minnaar advocates personal transformation as a critical element in successful organizational change. Also, we ask whether Scrum GPTs pose a challenge to Scrum Masters.

Then, Roman Pichler shares essential tips on product portfolio strategy, while Alistair Cockburn advocates using simple use cases and user stories in Agile teams. Jason Evanish guides Product Managers on helping engineers improve feature delivery estimates, and Thiago Brant explores the importance of Business Agility across all areas of your organization, pointing to useful practices and helpful frameworks.

Lastly, Alex Ewerlöf discusses the concept of ‘tech gamble’ and the importance of informed decision-making in technology development. The Consortium for Information & Software Quality™ highlights the high cost of poor software quality in the US, and Dave Snowden reflects on his early work with matrices and their alignment with complexity science. Shane Hastie’s interview with psychologist John Fisher explores the Fisher Change Curve and its applications in change management. Finally, Economist Tyler Cowen delves into the evolving role of AI, from its potential for leveling the playing field to its broader societal implications in various domains.

📺 Sunand of CareersTalk interviewed me on Scrum Master Interview questions.

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🏆 Tip of the Week

Jeff Patton discusses the continuous product improvement cycle, a model for teaching product development. It covers the cycle’s four parts: Sense, Focus, Discover, and Deliver, explaining how they help understand customers, prioritize work, test ideas, and release new features, emphasizing tech products’ need for frequent updates: "The Continuous Product Improvement Cycle."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

We do not have a lemon this week.

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Brian Link analyzes the evolving agile landscape, attributing changes to cost-cutting, agile saturation, and coaching quality. He advises agile professionals to broaden their skills, reposition themselves, and focus on meeting current industry needs in leadership, product management, agile basics, and team support: "Why is the world of agile changing?"

• 🎙 In a podcast by Lenny Rachitsky, Heidi Helfand discusses her book “Dynamic Reteaming.” She shares expertise on the necessity and benefits of reteaming in organizations, exploring five key patterns and offering strategies for effective team restructuring and decision-making: "The art and wisdom of changing teams."

• This article from staysassy guides fixing dysfunctional teams and identifying issues like complexity and undermanagement. Key steps include appointing a new manager, improving processes, removing negative influences, introducing new members, and revising team missions: "How To Fix Broken Teams."

• Corporate Rebels: Joost Minnaar underscores the role of personal transformation in organizational change, advocating for self-reflection and autonomy to drive progressive workplace evolution: "The Importance of Transforming the Self in Change Management."

🎓 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate — February 15, 2024

The Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills (PSFS) training by Berlin Product People is a one-day official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum practitioners and agile coaches, including the industry-acknowledged PSFS certification. This PSFS training class is in English.

Enjoy the benefits of a live-virtual immersive class with like-minded agile peers from 09:00 – 17:30 o’clock CET.

Learn more: 🖥 🇬🇧 Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class w/ PSFS Certificate — February 15, 2024.

Customer review: “Great experience – “You reap what you saw.” What I really liked about it was the constant usage of facilitation techniques & Liberating Structures to engage all participants & harness the collective knowledge while reaching the goal of the exercises during the workshop. Therefore, my experience was great because I could really leave with some insights from the whole group that I could apply in my daily work starting from the next day. “You reap what you saw” and in this case, it was the collective intelligence of everyone in the training class.” (Link.)

🎯 Product

• 📺 Humanizing Work: In this interview, Alistair Cockburn advocates using use cases in Agile teams. He presents them as simple, story-like series of sentences that facilitate organization-wide discussion and critique, effectively complementing user stories in Agile product development. Cockburn suggests practical steps for integrating these lightweight use cases: "Alistair Cockburn on Use Cases & User Stories."

• Roman Pichler's article details the product portfolio strategy, which is crucial for managing groups of products like Microsoft Office. It differentiates between product portfolio, family, and line, and outlines key elements of an effective portfolio strategy. The piece also highlights how individual product strategies align with the overall portfolio, emphasizing the importance of regular management and strategy updates: "Everything You Need to Know about Product Portfolio Strategy."

• Jason Evanish advises Product Managers on aiding engineers in making better feature delivery estimates, focusing on breaking down tasks, early discussions on complex projects, flexibility in scope, clear product specs, and pre-Sprint planning meetings: "How Product Managers can help their Engineers make Better Estimates."

• Management 3.0: Thiago Brant delves into Business Agility, highlighting insights on its necessity across all organizational areas. He emphasizes the centrality of people in Business Agility and explores its concept, significance, and practices, including critical challenges and frameworks for effective implementation: "Business Agility Explained."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• Alex Ewerlöf discusses ‘tech gamble,’ a proactive yet often misguided approach to overengineering technology, contrasting it with reactive tech debt and emphasizing the importance of informed decision-making: "Tech gamble."

• CISQ: The Consortium for Information & Software Quality™ highlights the rising cost of poor software quality in the US, in 2022 at $2.41 trillion, focusing on cybercrime, supply chain issues, and growing Technical Debt: "Cost of Poor Software Quality in the US: A 2022 Report."

• InfoQ: Shane Hastie interviews psychologist John Fisher on the Fisher Change Curve, discussing its application in team dynamics, the importance of communication in change management, and the role of coaches in guiding individuals and teams through change processes: "Using The Fisher Change Curve to Build Empathy."

🎶 Encore

• Every: Economist Tyler Cowen discusses the evolving role of AI in work and life, from leveling the playing field to its long-term, less egalitarian effects and its use in travel, research, and education: "Economist Tyler Cowen on How ChatGPT Is Changing Your Job."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 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)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Mar 26-27 — Live Virtual Class: Advanced Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM II; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

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

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