Food for Agile Thought’s issue #149—shared with 18,075 peers—addresses the multitasking fallacy many managers suffer from, how to design an organization that supports agile teams tasked with solving customers’ problems, and what to do when your Scrum team gets too large.
We also enjoy Marty Cagan’s follow-up post—I hope you have read ‘The Revenge of the PMO’—as well as Teressa Torres’ pitch to continuously challenge your beliefs. (Running user interviews seems to be a good starting point.)
However, what if ‘Agile’ is merely a cult, something we made up collectively that is of no importance when it comes to creating outstanding products?
Have a great week!
🏆 The Essential Read: Multitasking Fallacy
: Why Managers Believe Multitasking Works: Long Decision Wait Times
Johanna Rothman points at the difference between a manager’s short work-time and long decision-wait time and the often resulting multitasking fallacy.
Agile, Scrum & the Multitasking Fallacy
: Organizational structure in the Digital and Agile age
Allan Kelly shares his approach to organizational design based on delivery teams aligned to value stream.
: Scaling Scrum
Ron Lichty on what to do when a Scrum team grows from maximum-9 to a 10th team member.
: Seeing the System With the WADE Matrix
Zach Bonaker introduces a respective format by Derek Wade which helps create the cause-effect relationship of a system.
⁉️ Hands-on Agile 2019 Conference — I Needed Your Support
Almost three years into building this community, I believe we might now have achieved the critical mass to organize a great conference — the Hands-on Agile 2019 Conference. Currently, I would target the second quarter of 2019 for the first Hands-on Agile conference. To reduce complexity, I would plan for Berlin as its location although London might be an alternative.
Hence, the following survey is intended as a first step in the organizational process, namely gathering insights to identify a suitable location and learning about the preferred character of the conference itself.
Participate in the Hands-on Agile 2019 Conference survey now!
Product & Lean
: Scaling Agile FAQ
Marty Cagan shares the main questions he received following his last week’s article on the ‘Revenge of the PMO’ and his answers.
I’d like to close this with a quote from Jeff Bezos’ annual shareholder letter: “If you’re not watchful, the process can become the thing. This can happen very easily in large organizations. The process becomes the proxy for the result you want. You stop looking at outcomes and just make sure you’re doing the process right.”
(via Mind The Product): Don't Join the Cult by Paul Adams
Paul Adams of Intercom believes that Lean, Scrum and the like only exist in our collective imagination.
(via This Is Product Management): Critical Thinking is Product Management
Teresa Torres reflects on why product teams need to question their thinking and conduct interviews on a regular cadence.
📺 Subscribe to Age of Product’s Brand-New Youtube Channel
Now available on the Age of Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile Webinar #6 on product owner anti-patterns.
- Hands-on Agile Webinar #5 on sprint planning anti-patterns.
- Hands-on Agile Webinar #3 on agile failure patterns.
✋ Do Not Miss Out: Join the 3,500-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 #148: Unagile SAFe®, Making Self-Organization Work, PMO Strikes Back.