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!
🏆 The Tip of the Week
(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
: The Manager Role in Scrum Team
David Tzemach analyses quite comprehensively the role of the agile manager in Scrum.
(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.
: 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.
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
: Talking Directly with (Real) Customers
Rich Mironov reminds us of the importance of communicating directly with (paying) customers.
(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.
📅 Hands-on Agile Webinars
Download your invitations:
- April 24th, 2018: Webinar #2: Agile Maturity and Agility Assessment
- May 8th, 2018: Webinar #3: Product Backlog Anti-Patterns
Note: All webinars are aired from 06:00 to 07:00 PM CEST. (That is 12:00 to 01:00 PM EDT or 09:00 to 10:00 AM PDT.)
✋ Do Not Miss Out: Join the 3,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Team
I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack team and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.
If you like to join now all you have to do now is provide your credentials via this Google form, and I will sign you up. By the way, it’s free.
Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition
Read more: Food for Agile Thought #136: Scrum Master Endgame, Cost Per Reasonable Decision, Survivorship Bias.