Food for Agile Thought’s issue #152—shared with 18,406 peers—focuses agile estimates: are they always waste or are there situations where agile estimates are useful? Moreover, in the latter case how to make sure that you provide the right estimates?
We also enjoy a sample chapter from a good book on product design, listing nine critical tools, and shed light on the questions whether infrastructure teams need product management, too.
Finally, John Cutler shares his observations on how coaching engagements often start and also come to an end. (Let’s create a list of these signs — so we can prepare yourselves for next time when it is our turn.)
Have a great week!
🏆 The Essential Read
(via Medium): The Canary Dies
John Cutler reflects on a personal pattern of how coaching engagements start—and end.
Agile Estimates & Scrum
: #NoEstimates isn't crazy
Ron Jeffries’ view on estimates is simple: they are always waste.
(via HPE): IT project estimation techniques that will keep you out of trouble
Johanna Rothman shares how to deliver the ‘right estimate’ if your organization (still) requires estimations.
(via Hackernoon): #WhyEstimates
John Cutler’s article lists 20 reasons why estimates may be useful in your organization.
📅 The Agile Fluency Game ™ — August 24th, 2018, in Zurich
Join me in Zurich on August 24th, 2018, for a round of the Agile Fluency Game ™.
The Agile Fluency Game ™ is designed to simulate these situations, gives room to play through these processes in different ways and helps you to make informed and conscious decisions for your organization.
Learn more: The Swiss Agile Association presents The Agile Fluency™ Game in Switzerland.
Product & Lean
(via O'Reilly Radar): 9 critical tools for designing a product
Laura Klein shares a chapter from her book ‘UX for Lean Startups: Designing for Validation.’
: Do Infrastructure Teams Need Product Management?
Rich Mironov advocates that a development team deserves a product manager—why burden an engineer with the associated tasks?
(via ProdPad): Product Management approaches: top down, bottom up or both?
Liz Love suggests pursuing a hybrid of the top down as well as the bottom-up PM strategy.
📺 Join 550-plus Agile Peers on Youtube
Now available on the Age of Product Youtube channel:
- 🆕 Hands-on Agile Webinar #4 on agile failure patterns 2.0.
- Hands-on Agile Webinar #6 on product owner anti-patterns.
- Hands-on Agile Webinar #5 on sprint planning anti-patterns.
✋ Do Not Miss Out: Join the 3,650-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 #151: Beyond Budgeting, Open Workspace Horror, Product Vision Principles.