Food for Agile Thought #257: Fake Agile, Social Systems and Change, From Idea to Validation, Estima…-What?

TL; DR: Fake Agile, Social Systems — Food for Agile Thought #257

Welcome to the 257th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 26,957 peers. This week, we delve into fake Agile; we revisit the discussion on whether it is beneficial to estimate agile projects and listen to tips & tricks on how to stay united when distributed as a team.

We then turn to fundamental prioritization issues; we follow a live validation of a business idea by the two leading experts of this subject and pick up a few tricks from a recognized product mensch.

Lastly, we applaud Christiaan for his in-depth overview of social systems and the change question.

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #256?

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🏆 The Tip of the Week

Christiaan Verwijs (via The Liberators): In-Depth: What a Social Systems Perspective Teaches us About Change

Christiaan Verwijs shares an overview of scientific research on change and how science puts people at the center.

Source: The Liberators: In-Depth: What a Social Systems Perspective Teaches us About Change

Author: Christiaan Verwijs

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Fake Agile & Scrum

Mike Griffiths: Estimating Agile Projects… Or Not

Mike Griffiths summarizes the debate about the use and value of estimates on agile projects.

Source: Estimating Agile Projects… Or Not

Author: Mike Griffiths

Jen Krieger (via Enterprisers Project): How to spot an agile faker

Jen Krieger reflects on the impact of fake agile practices.

Source: Enterprisers Project: How to spot an agile faker

Author: Jen Krieger

Richard Kasperowski and Mark Kilby: Mark Kilby: How to stay together in a distributed team

In this episode, Richard interviews Mark Kilby, a coach, and mentor to distributed teams.

Source: Mark Kilby: How to stay together in a distributed team

Authors: Richard Kasperowski and Mark Kilby

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This guaranteed advanced Scrum Master training (PSM II) is an official Scrum.org class for advanced Scrum Masters, including the industry-acknowledged PSM II certification. The PSM II training class is designed as a live virtual class of 4 h per day from 9 to 13 o’clock CEST and will be offered in English.

Learn more: 📅 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master (PSM II) Live Virtual Class: September 15-18, 2020.

Product & Lean

John Cutler: Basic Prioritization Questions (and When to Converge on a Solution)

John Cutler addresses a typical product puzzle: How much of a solution should you create before starting an effort?

Source: Basic Prioritization Questions (and When to Converge on a Solution)

Author: John Cutler

Tyler Hogge (via First Round Capital): This VP is Doing Things Differently in the Product Org — Here’s His Playbook

This portrait of Tyler Hogge focusses on his idea of the main goal that product folks menschen accomplish and how to achieve it in practice.

Source: First Round Capital: This VP is Doing Things Differently in the Product Org — Here’s His Playbook

Author: Tyler Hogge

Alex Osterwalder and David J Bland (via Strategyzer): How To Get From Big Idea To A Validated Business Case: An Overview Of The Testing Process

Testing Business Ideas co-authors — Alex Osterwalder and David J. Bland — work on a real case study streaming to a live audience.

Source: Strategyzer: How To Get From Big Idea To A Validated Business Case: An Overview Of The Testing Process

Authors: Alex Osterwalder and David J Bland

📯 Agile Metrics — The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Suitable agile metrics reflect either a team’s progress in becoming agile or your organization’s progress in becoming a learning organization.

At the team level, qualitative agile metrics often work better than quantitative metrics. At the organizational level, this is reversed: quantitative agile metrics provide better insights than qualitative ones.

Read more: Agile Metrics — The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

See all upcoming classes here.

You can book your seat for the training directly by following the corresponding links to the ticket shop. If the procurement process of your organization requires a different purchasing process, please contact Berlin Product People GmbH directly.

📺 Join 2,400-plus Agile Peers on Youtube

Now available on the Age-of-Product Youtube channel:

• 🆕 Remote Agile (1) Replay: Practices and Tools for Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and Product Owners.
• Scrum Sprint Retrospective Anti-Patterns.
• Scrum Master Anti-Patterns.

✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Fake Agile: Join the 8,000-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community

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🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #256: Evolutionary Design, Product-Market-Fit, Origins of Product Ideas, Predictability.