SPaMCAST 809 features our essay discussing whether accountability and responsibility are ever separated in real life. In a corporate setting, if you are interested in instigating a no-holds-barred debate bring up the topic of the relationship between accountability and responsibility. Get your popcorn ready BEFORE you start the discussion. 

We will also have a visit from Jon M Quigley who brings his Alpha and Omega of Product Development to the podcast. Jon and I discuss a nefarious form of micromanagement. 

Learn To Tame Your Work Intake Beast!

Whether you’re creating, enhancing, or maintaining software products, work intake is a challenge you deal with constantly. Doing the right work at the right time can make or break your project, and there are surprisingly few resources to show you how to manage this process effectively. You need to know what your team is executing, what work is next, and the skill sets required to do the work.

Buy a copy of Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets

A testimonial!

“I wholeheartedly recommend this book for anyone who has suffered through work intake missteps in Agile teams and wants to find a better way to deliver predictable results.”

Jeffrey A. Miller

Purchase a copy of the book from:

JRoss Publishing: https://bit.ly/474ul6G 

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3NWOKn0 

Re-read Saturday News

We have just completed our re-read of  Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport. Newport concludes with a reminder that working deeply is a skill for getting important stuff done. We can learn and hone the skills needed for deep work by putting in the effort. The author suggests that deep work is not a moral or philosophical statement, I am not sure. Aristotle stated the most important virtue is wisdom. Deep work is required to develop wisdom. 

Remember to buy a copy of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World and read along.

Week 1: Logistics and Introductionhttps://bit.ly/43fGAMX 

Week 2: Deep Work Is Valuablehttps://bit.ly/3TznAVd 

Week 3: Deep Work Is Rarehttps://bit.ly/4afglsG 

Week 4: Deep Work Is Meaningfulhttps://bit.ly/3vRso09 

Week 5: Work Deeplyhttps://bit.ly/4aQ5Uvq 

Week 6: Embrace Boredomhttps://bit.ly/3JoBDIB 

Week 7: Quit Social Mediahttps://bit.ly/3Wk1dWK 

Week 8: Drain the Shallowshttps://bit.ly/4drJ7YX 

Week 9: Conclusionhttps://bit.ly/3WAGLRw 

Next week we begin Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Buy a copy and read along – https://amzn.to/4b5kPmb). I have read parts of this book, not the whole therefore I am going into this read with imperfect information. My biggest worry, however, is learning to pronounce the Author’s name. I am wise enough to have already started practicing!

Next SPaMCAST 

SPaMCAST 810 features our interview with D.J. Eshelman, author of Just Do This. One of the topics we will discuss is how badly implemented methodologies like Agile and DevOps are causing burnout in IT Services. Fighting words?