Stefan Wolpers

Scrum 2022: Getting You Started as Scrum Master or Product Owner

by Stefan Wolpers | 2022-01-03 Agile and Scrum

TL; DR: Scrum 2022 — Getting You Started as Scrum Master or Product Owner

Probably, you are considering how to further your Scrum Master career or Product Owner career in 2022. Maybe, I can support you in that regard with a set of articles, documents, and LinkedIn polls I authored that proved to be the most popular in 2021. They range from Product Owner and Scrum Master interview questions to a variety of Scrum anti-patterns to the most engaging polls on seemingly simple questions on “agile” in general and Scrum in particular. All articles feature free ebooks that delve into the problems and provide hands-on advice on how to solve them. Good luck with Scrum 2022—just stick to first principles!

Scrum 2022: Getting You Started as Scrum Master or Product Owner — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #323: Fortress Agile, The Technical PM, Why We Behave the Way We Do, Influence Mapping & Product Mindset

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-12-17 News

TL; DR: Fortress Agile, The Technical PM — Food for Agile Thought #323

Welcome to the 323rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 33,816 peers. This week, we share practical tips for the Fortress Agile on caring for the humans in your team when the organization is less agile than we would need it to be. Additionally, we share Charlie Munger’s magnum opus on why we behave the way we do, and we point to an observation that failure cultures focus on delivering things instead of value.

We then provide five highly actionable tips on becoming a more technical product manager. Moreover, we share successful product-led development patterns, and we ask: Do You Have a Product Mindset?

Lastly, we appreciate the first of a series of articles on becoming good at influence mapping, and we point at the elephant in the room: What if — despite all efforts — customer behavior isn’t moving in the right direction?

Food for Agile Thought #323: Fortress Agile, The Technical PM, Why We Behave the Way We Do, Influence Mapping & Product Mindset — Age-of-Product.com

PS: 🎄 Happy Holiday Season!

PPS: 🗞 Food for Agile Thought will be back on January 9, 2022, with issue 324. Stay tuned!

Survey 2022: Would you recommend SAFe ®?

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-12-13 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Survey: Would you recommend SAFe ®?

SAFe® has always been a controversial topic within the agile community. Therefore, back in 2017, I ran a survey on the Net Promoter Score® of the Scaled Agile Framework SAFe®. The result back then was -52. Four and a half years later, I believe it is time to rerun the poll: SAFe® has been through several iterations, and many more agile practitioners have experienced working with it. Moreover, the question still is: Would you recommend SAFe ®?

If you can spare five minutes of your time, please join the community effort and participate in the 2022 SAFe® survey.

Survey 2022: Would you recommend SAFe®? Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #322: Tech Trends 2022, Product Success Factors, Faster and More Predictable Delivery, Cynefin Primer

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-12-10 News

TL; DR: Tech Trends 2022, Product Success Factors — Food for Agile Thought #322

Welcome to the 322nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 33,755 peers. This week, we explore macro and strategic tech trends in 2022, from Web3 to Crypto to the Metaverse. Also, we point at a conceptual tool to help leaders understand that they need to change course; we suggest hands-on, practical solutions to an age-old software development problem, and we point at the downside of the growing popularity regarding “Agile,” Sociocracy, or Holacracy.

We then analyze four factors that significantly contribute to sustained product success and suggest applying those best. Next, we join Netflix’s co-founder when he elaborates on a recipe for aspiring disrupters: ‘Just focus on the market that nobody is paying attention to.’ Moreover, we point at a challenging topic for agile teams working remotely: ‘Does your manager trust that you are really working?’

Lastly, we appreciate that Venkatesh Rao shares the main slides—including notes—from his observe–orient–decide–act loop workshop, and we walk through applying a fantastic tool developed by Sakichi Toyoda in the 1930s.

Food for Agile Thought #322: Tech Trends 2022, Product Success Factors, Faster and More Predictable Delivery, Cynefin Primer — Age-of-Product.com

How to Sabotage A Scrum Master — 44 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-12-06 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: How to Sabotage A Scrum Master — 44 Anti-Patterns from the Trenches to Avoid

One of my favorite exercises from my Professional Scrum Master classes is how to best sabotage a Scrum Master as a member of the middle management. The exercise rules are simple: You’re not allowed to use any form of illegal activity. So, outsourcing the task to a bunch of outlaws is out of the question. Instead, you are only allowed to use practices that are culturally acceptable within your organization.

Read on and learn more on how to best sabotage a Scrum Master from the exercise results of more than ten PSM I and PSM II classes. (I slightly edited the suggestions for better readability.)

How to Sabotage A Scrum Master — 44 Practices from the Trenches — Age-of-Product.com

Food for Agile Thought #321: Product Sprawl, Premature Convergence, Agile Coaches—A Family Tree, The Empathy Map

by Stefan Wolpers | 2021-12-03 News

TL; DR: Product Sprawl, Premature Convergence — Food for Agile Thought #321

Welcome to the 321st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 33,718 peers. This week, we look under the hood of many presumably well-planned products only to discover product sprawl. Also, we point to the fact that the term ‘Agile Coach’ covers a whole family of roles, and we share results of a study that sheds new light on team autonomy: Teams should choose either teammates or ideas but not both.

We then explain what happens when a team decides on a direction or tactic too early, and we compare the two different concepts of product-led and engineering-led organizations to create value. Moreover, we listen to Melissa Perri talking to David Bland, covering how to identify experiment-worthy assumptions, deal with slow feedback, and generally walk the (experiments) walk. Finally, we provide a practical introduction to the preferred discovery and alignment tool to help people get on the same page.

Lastly, we share lessons learned from Redgate Software’s deliberate reteaming process and the results from a survey of ‘100 industry participants on their perception of the benefits and challenges of adopting the SAFe framework.’