TL; DR: Bureaucracies — Food for Agile Thought #474
Welcome to the 474th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,8883 peers. This week, John Cutler examines the tension between adhocracies and bureaucracies in tech, while Miljan Bajić uses Kuhn’s paradigm shift theory to frame the transition from Waterfall to true agility. Christoph Roser warns against “Dark Lean,” where cost-centric misuse of lean practices undermines safety and respect. Maarten Dalmijn highlights the importance of simplicity and emergence in navigating uncertainty, and John Rauser champions probabilistic thinking and adaptive systems for large-scale software delivery success. Also, we consider whether “pure Scrum” is actually applicable.
Next, Richard Mironov emphasizes the need for product managers to tailor communication to diverse audiences, aligning with stakeholder needs. Pavel Samsonov highlights the pitfalls of focusing on product problems over customer needs, advocating outcome-driven planning. Aakash Gupta shares strategies for proactive product quality, including pre-mortems, lifecycle planning, user testing, and robust monitoring to build trust and avoid reactive issues.
Lastly, Gergely Orosz and Sean Goedecke discuss navigating Big Tech projects, blending technical expertise with management savvy, and Jason Yip challenges traditional productivity metrics, focusing on value and impact. Tejas Kumar introduces the TJS Collaboration Model to foster meaningful professional relationships, while Madeleine Wyatt explores navigating office politics with integrity to build authentic and effective connections.
