mlevison, 1 year ago to random

#MyersBriggs #PersonalityTests is popular and that is about the only thing it has going for it. In reality it is no better than rolling die and assigning people a personality profile based on the die roll.

• Carl Jung's ideas are at the base of the test. Unfortunately Jung's work has never been empirically tested. Hint when your base level construct is unsound you might have a train wreck on your hands.

1/6

#Myths

mlevison, 3 months ago to random

As Google becomes useless and LLMs regurgitate drivel, I'm looking for Independant minded #Agile Blogs. I'm trying to curate a set of trusted sources that I can recommend to students.

Examples of what I want: https://dannorth.net/blog/, https://simplybegin.co.uk/blog/, https://medium.com/the-liberators

Please boost for reach - my current list follows.

Exclusions #SAFe

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

For the next month, I will be exploring effective meetings. I hear from far too many Scrum, Kanban, teams that the hard part isn’t the mechanics it’s getting people engaged in meetings. Engagement doesn’t come from Star War’s themed retrospective.

I’m curious as to what pain you have suffered? What you have tried? What has failed?

In the spirit of WorkOutLoud #WOL and #LeanStartup I will working in public

Help me figure out what pain you would like solved. Follow #EffectiveMeetings for more.

mlevison, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

Pivot in Public. Nearly a month of writing about #ProductBacklogRefinement I'm seeing little engagement. As a student of #LeanStartup I want to learn from my audience.

Write in candidates are also appreciated.

A ThreePercentBetter production in partnership with @bernie and @anil
#EffectiveMeetings #BuildInPublic #Pivot

Help me understand:

mlevison, 10 months ago to Evernote

Sad #Evernote continues it's sad death. I've been an Evernote user since the early betas - approx 100 Millon yrs ago.

Yesterday they laid off all North American + Chilean staff. The new owners Bending Spoons have also massively increased prices.

I've been migrating out of Evernote slowly for several yrs.

Lessons:

• VC money - be careful you don't own your journey
• Data must be portable - migrating away from Evernote is time consuming to do well.

mlevison, 8 months ago to random

What is your best human readable book on Systems Thinking? I'm trying to update my recommendations to new ScrumMasters (https://agilepainrelief.com/glossary/systems-thinking)

I've read Meadows book and it was hard work for my brain. What else can you recommend?

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

Kent McDonald offers a Kanban Board to visualize your current understanding of the state of the product backlog. https://insideproduct.co/discovery-board/ Pros: I love visualiziations and it helps the team see context and where they need to put effort. Con: any Kanban board with multiple columns can take an organic process and make it seem linear.

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

mlevison, 9 months ago to random

#DefinitionOfReady
Under some circumstances a Definition of Ready helps a Scrum (or Kanban Team) ensure their Product Backlog Items are well thought out. This means nothing is consider for Sprint work that would get probably get stuck.

I've already pointed out that ready encourages mini-waterfall/gate system.

1/2 #ProductBacklogRefinement #EffectiveMeetings

mlevison, 5 months ago to random

Substack account deleted.

Sad to lose newsletters by: Mark Kilby, @eleanorkonik Ethan Mollick and Doug Neill

mlevison, 3 months ago to random

@grimalkina so I skimmed the paper. Deeper reading before I make any real comments, except - I need a better thinking hat.

Then I checked out: https://www.pluralsight.com/developer-success-lab and I became even happier.

You knowledge of the research lit is way better than mine. So a funny question we're updating our article on Team Size: https://agilepainrelief.com/blog/scrum-team-size.html have I missed any sources?

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

“Watch the work product, not the worker” – I attribute this quote, to Don Reinertsen am correct?

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

Silent backlog refinement meetings: a more effective Agile meeting https://www.eficode.com/blog/silent-backlog-refinement-meetings-a-more-effective-agile-meeting - this will count as one of the stranger refinement tips.

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. Thanks to DevonAgent for helping me find a massive number of sources fast.

mlevison, 2 months ago to random

Eustress is a popular idea in the world of work. The idea that some stress can be positive (improving performance) to a point and then past that point the stress hurts performance.
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56acc1138a65e2a286012c54/223fd63d-1212-49f5-999c-6c0722255472/HebbianYerkesDodson.jfif?format=1500w

I can just imagine some leaders I've met sizing individuals up and asking themselves (cue the cackle): "How much pressure can I apply to this person for better performance."

#NeuroMyths #WorkMyths

1/5

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

Basic and Good Reminder - Why isn't #BacklogRefinement not just part of sprint planning? and Why isn't refinement something the product owner does on their own? from Joel Bancroft-Connors again https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/product-backlog-refinement

#EffectiveMeetings I reviewed 168 sources on #ProductBacklogRefinement so you wouldn't need to. Needless to say most of them had no useful tips. In partnership with @bernie and @anil

mlevison, 11 months ago to random

Looking for a really good summary of #BDD for non technical people.

I was just coaching some non-technical ScrumMasters, with the intent to help them understand Agile Eng Practices.

Focus on:

• Communication and agreement
• The joy of examples

What I find - badly written posts, designed for SEO that promote Outsourcing.

@mattwynne @lunivore

Psst bonus anyone know where to find Gojko and Dan here?

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

Silent Backlog Refinement Meetings - A Dream or Nightmare?

Reading Trumps listening, it engages quiet people and non-native speakers. Reading avoids domination by people who speak easily.

Rereading: Arto Kiiskinen's article https://www.eficode.com/blog/silent-backlog-refinement-meetings-a-more-effective-agile-meeting - I'm troubled. In traditional Product Backlog Refinement, I've found the back and forth discussion around what a customer needs to be the key value.

#EffectiveMeetings #BacklogRefinement

Thread 1/8

mlevison, 6 months ago to random

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense, remains one of the best concert movies, ever.

mlevison, 1 month ago to random

#Influence without Authority. To overcome the Endowment effect, it helps to highlight the cost of inaction. In the #Agile world, we often deal with teams that say, we too rushed or busy to improve. Consider showing them cost of not doing anything. Not refactoring and improving engineering practice? Highlight the increase of chaos in their code. Not improving flow? Consider measuring # of days items are stuck waiting to be worked on. Show the failure to act is already harming the team.

mlevison, 9 months ago to random

@jchyip I'm trying to help a client sort through the pros/cons of a Manager/Developer and their affects on Psychological safety, Self org especially in light of their having control of performance reviews.

Manager/Developer - feels very Spotify and so I was wondering if you (or someone else good) have written about this.

mlevison, 10 months ago to random

@marick I’m trying to remember your classic line around examples. Was it: “An example would be handy about now”?

mlevison, 2 months ago to random

Eustress in humans is poorly studied, some make the case it doesn't exist: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bies.201900238, while others https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8872528/ are attempting to measure it.

My takeaway - at worst it doesn't exist. If it does exist, then it isn't yet well enough defined to be useful.

(1) Yerkes, R.M., and Dodson, J.D. (1908). The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit formation. Journal of Comparative Neurology of Psychology, 18(5), 459-482.

#NeuroMyths #WorkMyths
4/4

mlevison, 8 months ago to random

@BasicAppleGuy planning my M3 January spending. My silly question. How long after the announcement do you typically take to produce stickers?

mlevison, 1 month ago to random

#Influence without Authority. We get kicked by the Endowment effect: It is easier to tolerate the status quo than to make change. In the #Agile world this is made worse because of a Cost Benefit Timing Gap. We pay a lot of $$ upfront and the benefit only shows up later. Sometimes much later. This tells us we need to change how we offer Change.

We must speed the time to benefit and reduce the cost/risk. Look for clever ways reduce cost of change and even make it reversible (less risk).

mlevison, 1 month ago to random

#Agile hashtag#Tools for job seekers - looking for feedback and additional ideas/tools.

https://buff.ly/3JqYljg

As I mentioned last week, I have seen hundreds of people looking for work through LinkedIn. The post is intended to 1) help people find work that is well suited for them 2) become a place where I can add additional sources for people to read.

What non-commercial sources would you add?

mlevison, 7 days ago to random

10,000 Hrs of Practice will make you...

I call this the Malcolm Gladwell myth, since it his book the popularized and distorted already questionable research.

As usual, I'm not a psychologist. I don't have a PhD in any science. I do coach Agile and Scrum. I also explode the balloons I call NeuroMyths. As a general rule, if Gladwell writes about it, tread carefully.

In "Outliers", Gladwell suggests that completing 10,000 hrs in their chosen discipline will excel.

#NeuroMyths 1/5