Part of every profession is the jargon practitioners adopt. Having a language links people together and creates a sense of community. It also creates private gardens: a profession set off from those around it. Jargon is a form of secret handshake. Jargon is a two-edged sword, both gathering and excluding people. Be wary!

We also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. We discussed her recent mini-sabbatical. Stepping back has the power to clear your mind. 

Slay Work Intake Chaos: Become a Master in 5 Weeks!

Based on Tom Cagley and Jeremy WIllet’s new book Mastering Work Intake, learn to diagnose and solve work intake anti-patterns to stop drowning in work. Work intake is the biggest challenge facing organizations today. If you don’t get work intake right, you won’t be in business for very long.

A 5-week cohort-based course, meeting weekly for an hour, includes teaching, peer feedback & discussion, feedback from the authors, time for Q&A, templates, and an electronic copy of our book, Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery.

Are you ready to commit?  Join our cohort-based workshop. The first cohort is starting on March 1st, 2024. Details at https://bit.ly/3HEsKK7

Re-read Saturday News

This week we tackle two chapters of Actionable Agile Metrics Volume II, Advanced Topics in Predictability. We begin with Chapter 9 – VoP, VoC, and Predictability which sums up Section I, Variability and Predictability. Chapter 10, titled Monte Carlo Simulation, Revisited, begins Section II, Advanced Monte Carlo Simulation and Predictability.

Buy a copy and get reading – Actionable Agile Metrics Volume II, Advanced Topics in Predictability.  

Week 1: Re-read Logistics and Preface https://bit.ly/4adgxsC

Week 2: Wilt The Stilt and Definition of Variation https://bit.ly/4aldwGN

Week 3: Variation and Predictability  – https://bit.ly/3tAVWhq 

Week 4: Process Behavior Charts Part 1https://bit.ly/3Huainr

Week 5: Process Behavior Charts Part 2https://bit.ly/424O5Wc 

Week 6: How Much Data?https://bit.ly/47GVP24 

Week 7: Detecting Signalshttps://bit.ly/3SjwfdO 

Week 8: XmR Charts and the Four Basic Metrics of Flowhttps://bit.ly/48j5AU9 

Week 9: Myths and Other Considerationshttps://bit.ly/3SvfgVU 

Week 10:VoP, VoC, Predictability, Monte Carlohttps://bit.ly/3UGdxzT  

Next SPaMCAST 

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 796 our conversation with Roger Turnau. Roger and I will delve deeply into prioritization using the cost of delay. Every organization and team I have ever worked with has a backlog of work and lots of people screaming that their piece of the backlog is the most important. Cost of delay is an important tool to filter out the noise.