Agile “Stories” Don’t Tell a Story: Good Sprint Planning Uses Milestones (via Software Lead Weekly) Don’t get too focused on the granular user stories; pick a milestone and work backward Epics (or whatever noun your project management tool uses for…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 22
Business The Challenge of Rebuilding U.S. Domestic Supply Chains (via HBR) “We don’t recommend that the United States or any country try to be self-sufficient in everything; there are too many benefits to be derived from global sourcing. But in…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 21
Culture Why the US Can’t Handle Crises Big Sugar buried the research from the 1950s that sugar (not fat) is linked to obesity, a very expensive healthcare problem. Low-fat foods added sugar to compensate for poor flavor, thus doubling the…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 20
Agile How Project Managers Can Stay Relevant in Agile Organizations (via Harvard Business Review) Make sure you understand their organization’s goals when it comes to implementing agile workflows. Rethink your success metrics: rather than meeting a set budget, timeline, or…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 19
Agile Half Agile Ain’t Agile (via Leading Agile) Most companies “implement” Agile on the execution side (i.e., far-right) where the software is developed. Agile applies on the strategy side as well: “The ability to produce better business outcomes by connecting…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 18
Danish at gå ud fra — to assume; lit: to go out from kragetæer — chicken scratch (writing that’s difficult to read); lit: crow’s feet at høre hjemme — to belong; lit: to hear home Ethics Case Study: Protect Yourself…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 17
Communication How to talk about climate change so people actually care (via TED) Use plain, obvious, neutral language so that people understand. Ex: pollution blanket instead of climate change. Focus on the individuals, not the issues. “Awakenings are personal, locally…
Summary: A World without Email
Many of my professional connections had been talking about this book, and a former colleague was a champion of the concepts presented in Deep Work (also by Cal Newport). Given my role as an Agile subject matter expert at Lirio,…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 16
Business Don’t Hire Top Talent; Hire for Weaknesses. (via Software Lead Weekly) This post had a thorough set of descriptions to differentiate the talent mindset from the weakness mindset. Why you should invest in undervalued people (via Software Lead Weekly)…
Professional Development – 2021 – Week 15
Business Research: How to Get Better at Killing Bad Projects (via Harvard Business Review) Many of the stage gates (i.e., no/no-go decisions) may have information that’s unavailable or unreliable. Instead watch the market in which the assumptions rose to bring…