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 Senior Consultant 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 Introduction - https://bit.ly/43fGAMX Week 2: Deep Work Is Valuable - https://bit.ly/3TznAVd Week 3: Deep Work Is Rare - https://bit.ly/4afglsG Week 4: Deep Work Is Meaningful - https://bit.ly/3vRso09 Week 5: Work Deeply - https://bit.ly/4aQ5Uvq Week 6: Embrace Boredom - https://bit.ly/3JoBDIB Week 7: Quit Social Media - https://bit.ly/3Wk1dWK Week 8: Drain the Shallows - https://bit.ly/4drJ7YX Week 9: Conclusion - https://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?