Food for Agile Thought #137: The Agile Manager, Scrum Master Trends 2018, Talking to Customers, Bug Prioritization

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #137—shared with 16,261 peers—focuses on the role of the agile manager, from cracking the whip to servant leadership.

We support the ‘Scrum Master Trends 2018’ initiative of Scrum.org and Age of Product and learn from Semco’s example that becoming self-organized is a lucrative investment.

Lastly, we address common product creation issues, from talking to paying customers — and not to the folks in the cubicles next to you — to communicating roadmaps to stakeholders.

Have a great week!

Food for Agile Thought #137: The Agile Manager, Scrum Master Trends 2018, Talking to Customers, Bug Prioritization

🏆 The Tip of the Week

Ian Borges (via Corporate Rebels): Why Semco Doesn’t Want Your Company To Be Like Semco

Ian Borges points at Semco’s learning from 35 years of trial and error, and the resulting success driven by self-organization.

Agile Manager & Scrum

David Tzemach: The Manager Role in Scrum Team

David Tzemach analyses quite comprehensively the role of the agile manager in Scrum.

Shaaron A Alvares (via Agnostic Agile): Agnostic Agile from the Trenches – 3. Managers and Team Retrospectives

Shaaron Alvares illuminates background and context of management, leadership, and agile and how these meet in a ceremony — the retrospective.

Mike Cohn: Defect Management by Policy: Prioritize Bug Fixes Efficiently

Mike Cohn shares a defect policy matrix to prioritize bugs.

📯 Scrum Master Trends Survey 2018 — Join Scrum.org and Age of Product

The purpose of this the anonymous Scrum Master Trends Survey is to create a clear, data-backed benchmark that allows everyone in the agile community to get an understanding of Scrum Masters, their background, how they got there and where their compensation falls in comparison to others in the community.

Scrum Master Trends Survey 2018 — Join Scrum.org and Age of Product

By the way, the report will cover Scrum Masters as well as Agile Coaches, both employed and freelancing.

Join Scrum Master Trends the survey now: Scrum Master Trends Survey.

Product & Lean

Rich Mironov: Talking Directly with (Real) Customers

Rich Mironov reminds us of the importance of communicating directly with (paying) customers.

Teresa Torres (via Product Talk): How Much Time Should You Spend in Product Discovery?

Teresa Torres suggests not to focus on time spent on product discovery as it is not a one-time chunk of work but a continuous task.

(via UserVoice): 7 Hacks for Communicating Your Product Roadmap to Stakeholders

Colin Lernell outlines a template for your stakeholder communication of everything product roadmap related.

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Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #136: Scrum Master Endgame, Cost Per Reasonable Decision, Survivorship Bias.

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