Software Process and Measurement Cast 779 wrestles with the question, When prioritization involves overly detailed or excessive control over how someone accomplishes their tasks or when it impedes an employee’s ability to make their own decisions it becomes micromanagement. Let’s explore and look for a path to healing.

We will also have a visit from Susan Parente and her Not A Scrumdamentalist column. Susan talks about her impending sabbatical and why taking a pause can be powerful. 

Re-Read Saturday News

Complete is the next chapter in Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don’t. This concept suggests breaking goals into smaller chunks with pauses to think and replan between each. Another solution to over-prioritization and micromanagement.

Previous installments of our re-read of Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say – and What You Don’t (buy a copy)!

Week 1: Logistics, Introduction, Foreword https://bit.ly/3sTqyu3 

Week 2: El Faro https://bit.ly/3RnkUue 

Week 3: The New Playbook https://bit.ly/3Llgmki 

Week 4: Control the Clock https://bit.ly/45UFp5Z

Week 5: Collaboratehttps://bit.ly/3PzFiXI  

Week 6: Commithttps://bit.ly/46DMmsF 

Week 7: Completehttps://bit.ly/47aTDQe  

A Call to Action!

Jeremy Willets and I are building a live, cohort-based course for Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Project Managers, Program Managers, and Portfolio Managers on taming work intake. I wanted to see if you’d be up for sharing it with folks who would find it valuable. The cohort will cover why work intake is the biggest challenge to teams and organizations today. Attendees will also learn what to do to solve this challenge. We’ve held workshops on this topic at conferences. We even have a book coming out in January on this topic. This cohort-based course will combine very short lectures, discussions, and exercises. It will provide space to learn and share with peers. We’re using this survey to build a waitlist for the first cohort: 

https://bit.ly/3MdmvQa

Next SPaMCAST 

The Software Process and Measurement Cast 780 will feature our interview with Billie Johnson. We will discuss her book, Mastering Business Analysis Standard Practices: Seven Steps to the Next Level of Competency which she co-authored with Kelley Burns. We also talked about using business analysis to power agile teams.