Food for Agile Thought #181

Food for Agile Thought’s issue #181 addresses transparency, the lack thereof and other forms of dark agile. Moreover, we get a backstage view at the Scrum Master Trends Report, and we borrow from Atlassian’s team health tool.

We also get some new ideas about how to create product reviews people like to participate in; we refresh our memory why the traditional governance approach is unsuited for ’agile,’ and embrace the idea that product launches do not have to be a troublesome thing.

Lastly, Ron Jeffries asks what the agile community can do to reach out to those practitioners who haven’t yet experienced the real thing as outlined in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. What are your thoughts?

Did you miss last week’s Food for Agile Thought’s issue #180?

🏆 The Essential Read

Dave West (via InfoQ): 2019 Scrum Master Trends Report Published

InfoQ interviews Dave West and me on the key findings of the 2019 Scrum Master Trends Report.

Source: InfoQ: 2019 Scrum Master Trends Report Published

Authors: Dave West and Stefan Wolpers

Dark Agile & Scrum

Ron Jeffries: Responsibility — for our non-students?

Ron Jeffries contemplates on the responsibilities of the community regarding ‘agile’ teams that have never been in contact with the real thing before.

Source: Responsibility — for our non-students?

Author: Ron Jeffries

Jeremy Jarrell: Spotting the Dark Matter Tasks on Your Team

Jeremy Jarrell points at the importance of transparency to avoid waste.

Source: Spotting the Dark Matter Tasks on Your Team

Author: Jeremy Jarrell

Archana Rao (via Atlassian): The simple, powerful way to boost your IT team’s performance

Archana Rao explains how to use Atlassian’s health check tool for teams and why it is beneficial for everyone.

Source: Atlassian: The simple, powerful way to boost your IT team’s performance

Author: Archana Rao

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From the Blog: 📯 Technical Debt & Scrum

If technical debt is the plague of our industry, why isn’t the Scrum Guide addressing the question of who is responsibly dealing with it? To make things worse, if the Product Owner’s responsibility is to maximize the value customers derive from the Development Team’s work, and the Development Team’s responsibility is to deliver a product Increment (at least) at the end of the sprint adhering to the definition of “Done,” aren’t those two responsibilities possibly causing a conflict of interest?

This post analyzes the situation by going back to first principles, as laid out in the Scrum Guide to answer a simple question: Who is responsible for keeping technical debt at bay in a Scrum Team?

Read more: Technical Debt & Scrum: Who Is Responsible?

Product & Lean

Johanna Rothman: Cost vs Value Measurements for Agile Approaches

Johanna Rothman reflects on value, cost of delay, complexity, and why the traditional governance approach is unsuited for ’agile.’

Source:Cost vs Value Measurements for Agile Approaches

Author:Johanna Rothman

Dan Slate (via Medium): Running Product Reviews People Actually Look Forward To

Image from medium.com

Dan Slate shares his strategy for running effective product reviews to create an empowered product culture.

Source: Medium: Running Product Reviews People Actually Look Forward To

Author: Dan Slate

Derek Gleason (via CXL): Product Launches: 5 Unexpected Lessons from the Real World

Derek Gleason notes that while product launches are a risk, they’re not as risky as you might think.

Source: CXL: Product Launches: 5 Unexpected Lessons from the Real World

Author: Derek Gleason

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Food for Agile Thought #181: Dark Agile, Agile Governance, Scrum Master Trends Report, Product Reviews was first published on Age-of-Product.com.

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Best posts from last week on agile and lean methodologies, Scrum and product management. Manually curated, no robots involved.

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Stefan Wolpers

I have worked for 17-plus years as a Scrum Master, Product Owner, and agile coach. Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) with Scrum.org.