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Food for Agile Thought #315: Fulfilling Working Experiences, Sustainable Disruption, Toxic Company Culture, Jira: Razor Blades?

TL; DR: Fulfilling Working Experiences, Sustainable Disruption — Food for Agile Thought #315

Welcome to the 315th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 33,364 peers. This week, we will learn how kindness, consideration, and respect can transform any team into a fulfilling working experience. We also look at using our current knowledge to nudge the post-pandemic world into a better place. Finally, for the sake of contrast, we also list six attributes of a dysfunctional corporate culture, from information hoarding to recreational complaining to high top performer turnover.

We then refer to Star Trek’s transporter tech to visualize software creation in an agile context. (Okay, it is about many backlog items turning into a releasable Increment.) Moreover, we delve into successful decision-making, pointing at drivers, constraints, and floats, and we propose a pivot for startups from technical diligence to product diligence before funding rounds and deliver a framework for the task.

Lastly, we analyze the evaporating illusion of long-term planning when you start using OKRs to target outcomes, and we summarize the whole story point thingy. (Maybe, some people will learn this time.)

Did you miss the previous Food for Agile Thought’s issue #314?

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🏆 The Tip of the Week

Richard Kasperowski and Woody Zuill: 🎙 Knowing When to Stop a Conversation Is Knowing When to Listen

Richard Kasperowski interviews Woody Zuill, who points at how kindness, consideration, and respect can transform any team into a fulfilling working experience.

➿ Agile & Scrum

David Burkus: Signs Of A Toxic Company Culture

David Burkus lists six attributes of a dysfunctional corporate culture, from information hoarding to recreational complaining to high top performer turnover.

Ron Jeffries: Jira: Razor Blades?

Ron Jeffries considers Jira a tool that is “far easier to use badly than well: Jira is razor blades to babies.”

Alistair Cockburn, Jutta Eckstein and Gabrielle Benefield (via Agile Alliance): Sustainable Disruption, Where We Go From Here

Alistair Cockburn, Jutta Eckstein, and Gabrielle Benefield look at how we can use our current knowledge to nudge the post-pandemic world into a better place.

🎓 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: November 2-5, 2021

Discover Scrum’s four success principles in this guaranteed official Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner training class, leading to and including the industry-recognized PSPO I certification. The class will be offered in German.

Enjoy the benefits of an immersive class of four sessions with like-minded agile peers in the morning hours from 09:00 – 13:00 o’clock CEST.

Learn more: 🖥 💯 🇩🇪 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training w/ PSPO Certificate — Online: November 2-5, 2021.

Customer review: “Excellent class, revealing more hands-on practices and strategies to find solutions in the role of PSPO than I expected.” (Link.)

👉 From time to time, we can offer last-minute seats for training classes at cost to individuals who do not have access to a corporate training budget. If you like to be notified about these opportunities, please register here.

🎯 Product

Jeff Patton: Keep actual effort and outcome visible – Help your organization focus on successful outcomes

Jeff Patton refers to Star Trek’s transporter tech to visualize software creation in an agile context. Okay, it is about many backlog items turning into a releasable Increment.

John Cutler: The Secret to Initiative Success (D, LC, F, EC)

John Cutler delves into successful decision-making, pointing at drivers, constraints, and floats.

Drew Falkman (via Mind The Product): Product Diligence: The New Technical Diligence

Drew Falkman proposes a pivot for startups from technical diligence to product diligence before funding rounds and delivers a framework for the task.

📯 My Top Ten Worst Scrum Anti-Patterns

I recently was invited to a Scrum.org webinar. I picked a topic close to my heart: the worst Scrum anti-patterns, from the ‘coders code’ fallacy to the hardening Sprint to micromanagement to the lack of a product vision.

Learn more: My Top Ten Worst Scrum Anti-Patterns.

🛠 Tools & Measuring

Jeff Gothelf: Planning work with OKRs

Jeff Gothelf analyzes the evaporating illusion of long-term planning when you start using OKRs to target outcomes.

(via Contino Engineering): You Are Using Story Points Wrong: How to Make Story Points Suck Less

Chris Hart summarizes the whole story point thingy. Maybe, some people will learn this time.

📅 Scrum Training Classes, Workshops, and Events

Date Class and Language City Price
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 April 20-21, 2022 GUARANTEED: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 April 25-26, 2022 GUARANTEED: Professional Agile Leadership Essentials Training (PAL I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 9-10, 2022 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇩🇪 May 17-20, 2022 Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO-A; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.399 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 💯 🇬🇧 May 30, 2022 GUARANTEED: Hands-on Agile 42: The Skinny on Lean Roadmapping and OKRs with Janna Bastow (English; Live Virtual Meetup) Live Virtual Meetup FREE
🖥 🇬🇧 May 31-June 1, 2022 Advanced Professional Scrum Master Online Training (PSM II; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 June 7-10, 2022 Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇬🇧 June 20-23, 2022 Professional Scrum Master Training (PSM I; English; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT
🖥 🇩🇪 June 28-July 1, 2022 Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German; Live Virtual Class) Live Virtual Class €1.189 incl. 19% VAT

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.

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✋ Do Not Miss Out and Learn more about Fulfilling Working Experiences — Join the 10,000-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.

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.

🗞️ Last Week’s Food for Agile Thought Edition

Read more: Food for Agile Thought #314: Tech Revolutions, Benefits of Negative Feedback, Better Scrum w/ Cards & Games, The Art of Interviewing.

Categories: News
Stefan Wolpers: Stefan—based in Berlin, Germany—has been working for 17-plus years as an agile coach, Scrum Master, and Product Owner. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org and the author of Pearson’s upcoming “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide.” He has developed B2C as well as B2B software, for startups as well as corporations, including a former Google subsidiary. Stefan curates the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and organizes the Agile Camp Berlin, a Barcamp for coaches and other agile practitioners.
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