Food for Agile Thought #452: Agile Implementation Differences, Output to Outcome, LeSS Scrum Guide, Alignment Tools

Welcome to the 452nd edition of the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter, shared with 42,633 peers.

This week, Alistair Cockburn and Jon Kern discuss differences in global Agile implementation. Hrishikesh Karekar explores evolving Scrum Master roles, and Maarten Dalmijn critiques overreliance on the Agile Manifesto. Yossi Kreinin advocates for incompetent management benefits, while Derk-Jan de Grood balances stable and restructured teams. We also enhance team effectiveness with alignment tools.

Next, Teresa Torres emphasizes the shift from outputs to outcomes for product success, and Vladimir Kalmykov champions the ‘MVP Razor’ for efficient feature development. Ian Vanagas outlines strategies for deciding what to build next. Moreover, Lenny Rachitsky interviewed Jeff Weinstein about customer obsession and impactful metrics at Stripe.

Lastly, Craig Larman and Bas Vodde introduce the LeSS version of the Scrum Guide, enhancing multi-team alignment. Prateek Singh explores the value of small-batch deliveries and continuous learning, and Ben Kuhn stresses the role of trust in team efficiency. Finally, Jim O’Shaughnessy advocates for handwritten journaling to maintain accurate self-reflection.

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🎙 InfoQ interviewed me on Technical Excellence, Team Productivity, and Scrum Anti-Patterns.

🎓 Launch on September 1, 2024: Learn How to Master the Most Important Artifact in the Advanced Product Backlog Management Course!

👉 Please note:

• The course includes membership in a new community of agile professionals.
• The course will only be available until September 8, 2024, for sign-up!

🏆 Tip of the Week

📺 YouTube: Alistair Cockburn and Jon Kern discuss the global differences in implementing ‘Agile.’ They emphasize the importance of low power distance for effective communication and early problem discovery while critiquing the resurgence of process-heavy approaches in the US: "Jon Kern & Alistair Cockburn Discuss Agile’s Global Implementation Differences and Challenges."

🍋 Lemon of the Week

Medium: Our Lemon hilariously bungles Sprint Planning for Scrum teams, missing the mark with misguided emphasis on over-preparation, redundant goals, impractical prioritization, and tedious facilitation, proving once again that some folks struggle to apply first principles: "10x More Effective Sprint Planning for High-Performance Scrum Team."

➿ Agile & Scrum

• Medium: Hrishikesh Karekar explores the evolving role of Scrum Masters, highlighting the impact of emerging technologies, such as AI, remote work, and the need for new skills to thrive in Agile environments: "Scrum Master — What Lies Ahead. Evolution or Obscolesence."

• Maarten Dalmijn argues that the C-level doesn’t get Agile because we over-rely on the outdated Agile Manifesto for explanations. Instead, we should focus on what matters to them without “Agilesplaining:” "Agilesplaining: Why the C-level Doesn't Get Agile."

• Yossi Kreinin shares his unorthodox perspective on how the very nature of managerial competence often leads to inefficiency and resource wastage, advocating for the unexpected advantages of incompetent management: "Advantages of incompetent management."

• AgileConnection: Derk-Jan de Grood explores the balance between stable and restructured Agile teams, emphasizing that while stability enhances collaboration, periodic team changes can foster employee growth, knowledge sharing, and alignment with organizational goals: "To Move or Not to Move: Optimizing Agile Teams."

🎓 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Master Cohort of August 29-September 26, 2024

Discover the Product Owner success principles in this guaranteed engaging Product Backlog Management cohort class and accelerate your professional growth and career perspective with tried & tested, hands-on practices:

• Excel at delivering value regularly — your #1 career success factor.
• Learn to distinguish between valuable and useless ideas.
• Abandon the feature factory. Instead, learn to contribute to customer and organizational success.
• Gain actionable insights, learn supportive tools, and practice everything in a safe community of like-minded peers.
• Learn to say no and build trust and rapport with stakeholders while focusing on creating value.
• Create engaging feedback loops.

Additional bonuses:

1. You will become a member of an exclusive community of product professionals comprising participants from all my classes since 2019.
2. You will have free access to the corresponding online course; revisit all topics of the cohort at your convenience.

Quote: “If you are looking to move beyond merely delivering features and want to start consistently delivering outcomes and valuable deliverables to your customers, this course is essential. Stefan provides the focus and tools necessary to embark on a journey toward excellent product management. With a curriculum that includes vision, strategy, roadmap, product discovery, continuous delivery, idea management, hypothesis management, and backlog management, this course promises less than it delivers—a truly transformative experience.” (Hector Feliciano.)

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive cohort class and its community with like-minded agile peers on August 29, September 12, and September 26, 2024, from 3-6 pm CEST. The class will be offered in English.

👉 Join now: 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Product Backlog Management Class of August 29-September 26, 2024.

🎯 Product

• Teresa Torres explains why shifting from outputs to outcomes is crucial for product teams, detailing the steps to define, measure, and achieve meaningful outcomes that drive business success: "Shifting from Outputs to Outcomes: Why It Matters and How to Get Started."

• Product Coalition: Vladimir Kalmykov advocates using an ‘MVP Razor’ to minimize features during product development, emphasizing efficiency and resource management by focusing on essential elements to validate and iterate on ideas quickly: "‘Can I Make It Smaller?’ How to Use an MVP Razor to Build Features."

• 🎙 Lenny Rachitsky interviews Jeff Weinstein on the power of customer obsession in product development, choosing impactful metrics, techniques for productivity in large companies, and the global mission behind Stripe Atlas: "Building at Stripe: craft, metrics, and customer obsession."

• PostHog: Ian Vanagas explains how to decide what to build next in product development, emphasizing shared principles, mapping user wants, prioritizing effort vs impact, clear ownership, and minimal effort testing: "How we decide what to build."

🛠 Concepts, Tools & Measuring

• LeSS: Craig Larman and Bas Vodde present the LeSS version of the Scrum Guide, aligning Scrum principles with Large-Scale Scrum for consistent and effective multi-team product development and emphasizing the importance of adhering to Scrum’s core elements. "The Scrum Guide (LeSS Version) by Craig Larman & Bas Vodde."

• Medium: Prateek Singh investigates the central claim of Agile, demonstrating that delivering work in smaller batches (Right Sizing) significantly increases value delivery and economic outcomes, especially when combined with continuous learning: " Investigating the Central Claim of Agility — Does Frequent Delivery Create More Value?."

• Ben Kuhn emphasizes that trust is essential for scaling team collaboration. Without it, increased supervision and inefficiency occur. Building trust requires proactive efforts like sharing mental models, one-on-one communication, trial tasks, and consistent feedback: "Trust as a bottleneck to growing teams quickly"

🎶 Encore

• Jim O'Shaughnessy highlights how handwritten journaling can counteract our brain’s tendency to rewrite memories, fostering accurate self-reflection and better decision-making by maintaining an unaltered record of our beliefs and decisions: "Your Memory is Lying to You 🧠."

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Aug 20-21 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Aug 27-28 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Aug 29-Sep 26 — Live Virtual Cohort: Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Sep 3-6 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Sep 5 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 64: Mastering Work Intake: The Key to Sustainability and Flow (English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Oct 9 — Live Virtual Meetup: Hands-on Agile 65: The Lean Tech Manifesto with Fabrice Bernhard (English)

See all upcoming classes here.

📺 Youtube Channel

• David Pereira: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager.

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