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Software Process and Measurement Cast


The Software Process and Measurement Cast provides a forum to explore the varied world of software process improvement and measurement.  The SPaMCast covers topics that deal the challenges how work is done in information technology organizations as they grow and evolve.  The show combines commentaries, interviews and your feedback to serve up ideas, options, opinions, advice and even occasionally facts. 

 

Sep 1, 2024

In the SPaMCast 827, we will begin cracking groupthink in prioritization with a discussion of urgency vs. importance Evaluating the interplay between urgency and importance is a powerful work intake approach. Teams and project management offices regularly use an Eisenhower Matrix or variant to visualize the relationship between these two factors. The bottom line in this approach is that you should prioritize work that is important and urgent above work that is just urgent.

We also have a visit from Keis Kostaqi, MBA  who brings her You Are Not Alone column to the podcast.  Keis and I discuss the career path of a Scrum Master. Is there a career path or is the role a life avocation?

Master Work Intake!

Mastering Work Intake by Jeremy Willets and I hit the bookshelves earlier this year. We have also been running cohort-based workshops to help expose and solve this dirty little secret. Two of the questions we have gotten as we have promoted the workshops are:

  • What is a cohort-based workshop?

  • What value will I get if I join?

Both are greater questions and we have an answer!

Join us for a one-hour open house on September 11th at 11 am EDT to explore how to diagnose and solve work intake challenges, the most critical issue facing organizations today. This session will provide an overview of our course designed to help you master work intake and ensure your organization thrives.

We’ll cover key takeaways such as effective prioritization, navigating organizational structures, measuring work intake flow, and diagnosing common work intake issues. You'll leave with actionable insights and a clear plan to address work intake problems immediately.

Sign up on Eventbrite!  https://bit.ly/MasteringWorkIntake 

 

Re-read Saturday News

Chapter 2 of How To Be A Stoic by Massimo Pigliucci (buy a copy and read along) is titled “A Roadmap For The Journey.”  In recent months, my wife and I have been beginning to travel in a class B van. We are taking short trips (learning the ropes) with longer trips in the offing. We rely on GPS a lot. I guess that’s not very different from most travelers. However, the more we deviate from the heavily populated and traveled routes, the less ubiquitous and solid WiFi and cell coverage we find. GPS becomes somewhat unreliable. When the GPS is intermittent you must plan for it to be unreliable. We have discovered that we need an old-school paper map. For those of a certain age, a paper map provides turn-by-turn instructions via a static interface. It also provides a sense of the overall broad journey; an early version of a search albeit manual. Chapter 2 titled “A Roadmap For The Journey“ is a paper roadmap for the remainder of How To Be A Stoic. 

Week 1: Logistics and Opening Thoughts

Week 2: The Unstraightforward Path  

Week 3: A Roadmap For The Journey

Next SPaMCAST 

The SPaMCAST 828 will feature our conversation with Arash Parsania. We will talk about his exciting new methodology, Hyperid.is a flexible hybrid method that fits a wide range of different types of work.