Food for Agile Thought #273: Visual Collaboration, Cost-Saving with Agile, User Stories vs. Use Cases, Rejecting Feature Requests

TL; DR: Visual Collaboration, Rejecting Requests — Food for Agile Thought #273

Welcome to the 273rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 29,133 peers. This week, we appreciate the merits of visual collaboration; we detail the path of agility from the team level to the organizational level, and we reflect on cost-saving with ‘Agile’ and its inherent trickiness.

We then delve into the differences between user stories and use cases; we share a hands-on guide on how to move toward a balanced, outcome-driven way of product development, and we embrace an approach that allows understanding which stakeholder requests to accept or reject—without burning bridges. We also welcome a set of 50 team building activities, games, and exercises from communication to collaboration to alignment and vision.

🎉 Wishing you a joyous Holiday season and a happy and peaceful New Year. The next edition of ‘Food for Agile Thought’ will be available on January 10th, 2021.

Food for Agile Thought #273: Visual Collaboration, Cost-Saving with Agile, User Stories vs. Use Cases, Rejecting Feature Requests — Age-of-Product.com

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #272?

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Scrum Guide 2020 — Download the new edition of the Scrum Guide Reordered — Age-of-Product.com

🏆 The Tip of the Week: Visual Collaboration

Jeff Gothelf: 3 Ways Visualization Drives Collaboration, Agility, and Inclusion

Jeff Gothelf points at the benefits of collaborative visualization: quickly extracting different assumptions to figure out how to move on as a team with a shared understanding.

Agile & Scrum

(via InfoQ): Moving from Agile Teams towards an Agile Organization

Fernando Guigou details the path of agility from the team level to the organizational level.

Mike Cottmeyer (via Leading Agile): 📺 The Right Way to Think About Cost Savings with Agile

In this 8-min video, Mike Cottmeyer reflects on cost-saving with ‘Agile’ and its inherent trickiness.

Liz Keogh: How Agile Manages Out Innovation

Liz Keogh suggests running experiments simultaneously, not sequentially, when facing complex problems.

James Smart (via SessionLab): 50 Team Building Activities to Improve Teamwork

James Smart put together a collection of team building activities, games, and exercises from communication to collaboration to alignment and vision.

📅 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — January 26-29, 2021

This guaranteed advanced Scrum Master training (PSM II) by Berlin Product People 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.

🖥 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — January 26-29, 2021 — Berlin Product People GmbH

Learn more: 📅 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training w/ PSM II Certificate — January 26-29, 2021.

Product

(via UX Magazine): User Stories vs Use Cases: How They Stack up

Patrick Joseph Downs delves into the differences between user stories and use cases.

(via Medium): A 4-Step Guide for Day-to-Day Product Discovery

Sophia Höfling shares a hands-on guide on how to move toward a balanced, outcome-driven way of product development.

Andrew Quan (via Product Coalition): Tactfully Rejecting Feature Requests

Andrew Quan shares an approach that allows understanding which stakeholder requests to accept or reject—without burning bridges.

🔬 Agile Metrics Survey 2020

Let’s stop guessing and start crowdsourcing data and information on this critical topic: Who is using what metrics under which context to what success? Participate in the agile metrics survey now.

We have joined forces with empiriks.de, a German consultancy specializing in statistical analysis, and we plan to take the study to the next level. The Agile Metrics Survey already complies with academic standards. However, what we need now is more participants to improve the sample size.

So far, we have more than 750 contributors; let’s strive for 1,000 contributions by the end of January 2021 and aim to publish the report by the end of March 2021!

Agile Metrics Survey 2020 — Age-of-Product.com

👉 🔬 Start your contribution now!

📅 Scrum Training & Event Schedule

You can secure your seat for Scrum training classes, workshops, and meetups directly by following the corresponding link in the table below:

Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 7, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #61: Toyota Kata Coaching f. Agile Teams & Transformations—Fortune Buchholtz (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 May 14-15, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 May 28-29, 2024 Professional Scrum Master (Advanced) Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 6, 2024 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile #62: From Backlog Manager to Product Manager: From Outputs to Outcomes w/ David Pereira (English) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 13-July 11, 2024 GUARANTEED: Advanced Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (PBM; English; Live Virtual Cohort) Live Virtual Cohort €399 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 June 25, 2024 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Training (PSFS; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €749 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 July 9-10, 2024 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,299 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 August 27-28, 2024 Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1,189 incl. 19% VAT

See all upcoming classes here.

Professional Scrum Training by PST Stefan Wolpers, Berlin  Product People

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.

Download the Remote Agile Guide for Free — Age-of-Product.com

📺 Join 2,600-plus Agile Peers on Youtube

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

✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn about Visual Collaboration: Join the 8,900-plus Strong ‘Hands-on Agile’ Slack Community

I invite you to join the “Hands-on Agile” Slack Community and enjoy the benefits of a fast-growing, vibrant community of agile practitioners from around the world.

Large scale agile: Join the Hands-on Agile Slack Group

If you like to join 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.

Download the ’Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide’ for Free — Age-of-Product.com

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #272: Awesome Remote Teams, Agile Iron Triangle, Product Manager vs. Product Owner, Cursed Success Metrics?.

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