TL; DR: The Sprint Review Guide — Food for Agile Thought #445 Welcome to the 445th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,591 peers. This week, Maarten Dalmijn critiques Sprint Reviews as dull and ineffective, advocating for revitalized Scrum events with the Sprint Review guide. John Cutler discusses the complexities of systems thinking and its challenges in professional contexts, while Melissa Perri and Amy Edmondson emphasize the necessity of a healthy failure culture for innovation, focusing on intelligent failure and psychological safety. David Rock identifies lea ..read more

TL;DR: Product Owner and Scrum Master? Combining the roles of Product Owner and Scrum Master in one individual is a contentious topic in the Agile community. A recent LinkedIn poll, see below, revealed that 54% of respondents consider this unification useless, while 30% might accept it in rare moments. This blog post explores the implications of merging these roles, emphasizing the importance of distinct responsibilities and the potential pitfalls of combining them. We also consider exceptions where this approach might be temporarily justified and analyze the insightful comments from industry ..read more

TL; DR: Overpriced Cheerleaders — Food for Agile Thought #444 Welcome to the 444th edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,579 peers. This week, Sam Haynes critiques the dwindling effectiveness of Agile Coaches, shifting from vital change agents to mere overpriced cheerleaders. Maarten Dalmijn criticizes Scrum for providing a blame-shifting ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, impeding real improvement, while Christiaan Verwijs advocates for scientific research to restore Agile’s credibility and effectiveness. Also, Michael Küsters emphasizes strategic alignment by rephrasing ..read more

TL; DR: Toyota Kata Coaching with Fortune Buchholtz Business and academic leaders advocate coaching as crucial for growth. In Agile, diverse methods like GROW and OSKAR thrive, yet Toyota Kata Coaching emerges as a standout for its simplicity and effectiveness. In this Hands-on Agile Meetup of May 7, 2024, Fortune Buchholtz explores its potential as a superior Agile coaching tool. Whether confirming its benefits or broadening your coaching repertoire, the recording offers valuable insights. ? Watch the video now: Toyota Kata Coaching for Agile Teams & Transformations with Fortune Buchholt ..read more

TL; DR: Scrum Theory — Food for Agile Thought #443 Welcome to the 443rd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,551 peers. This week, Francis Laleman reconsiders Scrum theory, appreciating its robust foundation in empiricism and lean thinking, and Jeff Putz advocates for Agile’s practical value over procedural adherence. Also, Todd Lankford outlines steps to enhance team autonomy and leadership. Verena Schwarzer discusses Agile’s challenges in large organizations, while Chris Matts critiques superficial Agile implementations, particularly the ineffective “Go/No Go” mee ..read more

TL; DR: Introducing the “Anti-Patterns Canvas” Join me in developing the Anti-Patterns Canvas, a dynamic and free tool that extends the insights of the “Scrum Anti-Patterns Guide” book. Share your expertise through the survey, see below, and test-drive tools, practices, and exercises through a series of upcoming Hands-on meetups. In other words, help me create a resource that enhances agile practice and value creation. ? Join the Anti-Patterns Canvas survey here. ? Shall I notify you about articles like this one? Awesome! You can sign up here for the ‘Food for Agile Thought’ newsletter and jo ..read more

TL; DR: The Value-Add Activities Metric — Food for Agile Thought #442 Welcome to the 442nd edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,518 peers. This week, we explore diverse perspectives on leadership and productivity within Agile environments: James Shore delves into the complexities of measuring productivity in software development with the Value-Add Activities Metric, while Willem-Jan Ageling identifies seven leadership missteps that destroy organizational trust. Former Cisco executive Ashley Goodall critiques traditional disruptive leadership methods, advocating for ..read more

TL; DR: Technical Product Ownership Dive deep into the benefits—or the lack thereof—of the technical Product Owner (or product manager) and their profound impact on teams, customer satisfaction, and organizational success. Uncover when their technical acumen is a game-changer, a nice-to-have, or probably detrimental. ?? Zur deutschsprachigen Version des Artikels: Technische Product Owner: Vorteilhaft oder problematisch?. ? July 1, 2024: Learn to Master Your Most Important Artifact w/ the Advanced Product Backlog Management Course for Just $99! ? Please note: The course includes membership i ..read more

TL; DR: The Hexi Approach to Scaling — Food for Agile Thought #441 Welcome to the 441st edition of the Food for Agile Thought newsletter, shared with 42,489 peers. This week, Dave Snowden and Nigel Thurlow present the Hexi approach, a multi-method strategy enhancing agility through complex adaptive systems. Joshua Arnold advocates for a Quarterly Look Ahead process, and Annie Duke and Lenny Rachitsky explore decision-making improvements using techniques like the “3Ds” framework and pre-mortems. Also, we reveal the hidden costs of offshore software consulting and delve into system-level anti-pa ..read more

TL; DR: System-Level Scrum Stakeholder Anti-Patterns Learn how outdated organizational structures manifest themselves in system-level Scrum stakeholder anti-patterns that easily impede any agile transformation to a product-led organization. We cover the perils of a lack of transparency, limited to non-existing leadership support, and why penny-pinching is the wrong approach. ?? Zur deutschsprachigen Version des Artikels: Die drei wichtigsten Scrum Stakeholder Anti-Muster auf Systemebene. ? July 1, 2024: Learn to Master Your Most Important Artifact w/ the Advanced Product Backlog Management Co ..read more