Software Process and Measurement Cast

SPaMCAST 831 features our essay, Cracking Groupthink - Solutions When Balancing Urgency and Importance. Issues occur when groupthink affects the balance between urgency and importance in decision-making. This leads to inefficiencies, risk aversion, and misaligned priorities. The key challenge is that groups tend to perceive urgency and importance differently from individuals, often influenced by psychological and social dynamics such as the diffusion of responsibility, conformity, and shared information bias. There are solutions!   We also have a visit from Keis Kostaqi who brings her You Are Not Alone column to the podcast.  Master Work Intake! Mastering Work Intake by and myself is your path to addressing IT’s most nefarious dirty little secret…poor work intake. Simply put if you don’t control work intake IT CONTROLS YOU!  Buy a copy and begin to control the flow of work for your team and organization.  Order a copy of the book from JRoss Publishing -  or via Amazon -   Re-read Saturday News Chapter 6 of (buy a copy and read along) is titled God or Atoms? discusses the Stoic view of God. As I have discussed this chapter with friends it becomes very easy to conflate Stoism with religion. I remind myself in these scenarios that Stoicism is not a religion. At a high level, the difference is that philosophy seeks to understand and question while religion often provides answers and a framework for belief and practice. The difference and the interrelationship are stark.  Week 1:  Week 2:    Week 3: Week 4: Week 5: Week 6: Week 7: God or Atoms? Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 832 is a rerun of SPaMCAST 550 (I will be hiking in the Appalachian Mountains). This cast features our essay titled, Intertwining Conway’s Law And Agile. Conway’s Law shines a spotlight on how an organization’s structure impacts its product. The “Law” states that the structure of a software product will mimic the structure of the organization that produces the software.  It can (and has) been said that you are shipping the “org structure.” How you are structured therefore will impact just how much agility you can achieve. We also visit the QA Corner with Jeremy Berriault.  Jeremy discusses the differences between test engineers and testers. We also tackle whether every person with the word test in their title should have the ability to code or script. Jeremy’s LinkedIn:

Jeremy and I will host a 4-session book club to discuss Mastering Work Intake (4 sections => 4 sessions!) beginning October 18th. We are looking forward to a great set of conversations!   Join us by registering on Maven.  Use the QR code below  at or follow the link - Note: We are charging a nominal $1 fee, which Maven requires.  Participation in the book club assumes you have (or have access to) a copy of the book and do the reading so you will be prepared.

SPaMCAST 830 features a conversation with Jeremy Berriault. Jeremy has a new book, “Beyond The Framework: Cultivating Agile Growth.” The back cover states, “Organizations that fail to embrace agility (small a-agiity) risk fading into obscurity.” we discussed the basic assumptions of agile and why business agility differs from adopting any specific agile framework.   Buy a copy of the book:  Check out Jeremy’s Company website:   Master Work Intake! This episode is brought to you by Mastering Work Intake by and myself. Buy a copy and begin to control the flow of work for your team and organization. Simply put if you don’t control work intake IT CONTROLS YOU! Order a copy of the book from the publisher -   or  via Amazon -   Re-read Saturday News Chapter 5 of (buy a copy and read along) is titled Playing Ball With Socrates. The author uses a sports analogy in the chapter to illustrate why we can be indifferent towards something and that something is still important. This chapter dives into the thorny concepts of preferred and dispreferred indifferences.  Week 1:  Week 2:    Week 3: Week 4: Week 5: Week 6: Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 831 will feature our essay on how to improve prioritization and work intake when using consensus-groupthink techniques.  will return with his Evolutionary Agilist column to round out SPaMCAST 831.

In SPaMCAST 829 we will continue to expose the sometimes insidious impact of groupthink. Groupthink can lead a team to accept less challenging work, be misaligned with priorities, and poorly assess urgency and importance. The pressure to conform and maintain agreement can result in suboptimal decision-making, hampering effectiveness. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente who will bring her Not A Scrumdmentalist column to the podcast. In this installment, Susan tackles the need for core hours for teams of all types. Master Work Intake! This episode is brought to you by Mastering Work Intake by and myself. Buy a copy and begin to control the flow of work for your team and organization. Simply put if you don’t control work intake IT CONTROLS YOU! Order a copy of the book from the publisher -   or Amazon -   Re-read Saturday News Chapter 4 of (buy a copy and read along) is titled “Living According To Nature.”  Nature is defined as the community and world. In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius states, ”Even chance is not divorced from nature.”  The laws of nature and physics define what is possible and we live within those possibilities/boundaries. There are several ideas within this chapter, I want to highlight two beginning with the relationship between nature and community. Week 1:  Week 2:    Week 3: Week 4: Week 5:   Next SPaMCAST  SPaMCAST 830 will feature a conversation with Jeremy Berriault. Jeremy has a new book, “Beyond The Framework: Cultivating Agile Growth.” The back cover states, “Organizations that fail to embrace agility (small a-agiity) risk fading into obscurity.” We will discuss the rationale behind that statement.

The SPaMCast 828 spotlights Arash Parsania. We talk about his exciting new methodology, HYPERID. The method builds on and integrates pragmatic ideas from many disciplines to create something new. HYPERID is a flexible hybrid method that fits a wide range of different types of work.  Arash Parsania is the creator of HYPERID, a hybrid methodology for project management and product development. He brings over 20 years of experience in project management, consulting, and digital business transformation. His expertise spans Software Engineering, Retail, Travel & Hospitality, Automotive, Telecommunications, Consumer Products, and Insurance industries. Throughout his career, he has advised numerous organizations on digital business transformation, process definition and optimization for project and product development, and project portfolio management. He has worked with global leaders to enhance project and product management quality, develop and establish specialized project management frameworks and methodologies, and implement audits, restructurings, and certification programs for project managers. HYPERID’s website:   Master Work Intake! Have you signed up for the Mastering Work Intake Open House on September 11th at 11 EDT?  If not, there is still time!    Mastering Work Intake by and I hit the bookshelves earlier this year. We have also been running cohort-based workshops to help expose and solve this dirty little secret. Two of the questions we have gotten as we have promoted the workshops are: What is a cohort-based workshop? What value will I get if I join?   Both are greater questions and we have an answer! Join us for a one-hour open house on September 11th at 11 am EDT to explore how to diagnose and solve work intake challenges, the most critical issue facing organizations today. This session will provide an overview of our course designed to help you master work intake and ensure your organization thrives. We’ll cover key takeaways such as effective prioritization, navigating organizational structures, measuring work intake flow, and diagnosing common work intake issues. You'll leave with actionable insights and a clear plan to address work intake problems immediately. Sign up on Eventbrite!    Re-read Saturday News Chapter 3 of (buy a copy and read along) is titled “Some Things Are In Our Power, Others Or Not.” Chapter 3 begins to get into the nuts and bolts of Stoicism.  Because Epictetus is the author’s guide the opening quote from Epictetus both sets the tone and summarizes the chapter neatly: “We must make the best of those things that are in our power, and take the rest as nature gives it.” If that does not work for you then there is always the Serenity Prayer. Check out Week 4 and all the previous weeks. Week 1:  Week 2:    Week 3: Week 4:   Next SPaMCAST  In SPaMCAST 829 we will continue to Crack Groupthink by unpacking the impact of groupthink on urgency and importance. They say knowledge is power, but I would rather consider it risk mitigation. We will also have a visit from Susan Parente who will bring her Not A Scrumdmentalist column to the podcast!

In the SPaMCast 827, we will begin cracking groupthink in prioritization with a discussion of urgency vs. importance Evaluating the interplay between urgency and importance is a powerful work intake approach. Teams and project management offices regularly use an Eisenhower Matrix or variant to visualize the relationship between these two factors. The bottom line in this approach is that you should prioritize work that is important and urgent above work that is just urgent. We also have a visit from  who brings her You Are Not Alone column to the podcast.  Keis and I discuss the career path of a Scrum Master. Is there a career path or is the role a life avocation? Master Work Intake! Mastering Work Intake by and I hit the bookshelves earlier this year. We have also been running cohort-based workshops to help expose and solve this dirty little secret. Two of the questions we have gotten as we have promoted the workshops are: What is a cohort-based workshop? What value will I get if I join? Both are greater questions and we have an answer! Join us for a one-hour open house on September 11th at 11 am EDT to explore how to diagnose and solve work intake challenges, the most critical issue facing organizations today. This session will provide an overview of our course designed to help you master work intake and ensure your organization thrives. We’ll cover key takeaways such as effective prioritization, navigating organizational structures, measuring work intake flow, and diagnosing common work intake issues. You'll leave with actionable insights and a clear plan to address work intake problems immediately. Sign up on Eventbrite!      Re-read Saturday News Chapter 2 of (buy a copy and read along) is titled “A Roadmap For The Journey.”  In recent months, my wife and I have been beginning to travel in a class B van. We are taking short trips (learning the ropes) with longer trips in the offing. We rely on GPS a lot. I guess that’s not very different from most travelers. However, the more we deviate from the heavily populated and traveled routes, the less ubiquitous and solid WiFi and cell coverage we find. GPS becomes somewhat unreliable. When the GPS is intermittent you must plan for it to be unreliable. We have discovered that we need an old-school paper map. For those of a certain age, a paper map provides turn-by-turn instructions via a static interface. It also provides a sense of the overall broad journey; an early version of a search albeit manual. Chapter 2 titled “A Roadmap For The Journey“ is a paper roadmap for the remainder of How To Be A Stoic.  Week 1:  Week 2:    Week 3: Next SPaMCAST  The SPaMCAST 828 will feature our conversation with Arash Parsania. We will talk about his exciting new methodology, Hyperid.is a flexible hybrid method that fits a wide range of different types of work.

Mastering Work Intake by  and I hit the bookshelves earlier this year. We have also been running cohort-based workshops to help expose and solve this dirty little secret. Two of the questions we have gotten as we have promoted the workshops are: What is a cohort-based workshop? What value will I get if I join? Both are greater questions and we have an answer! Join us for a one-hour open house to explore how to diagnose and solve work intake challenges, the most critical issue facing organizations today. This session will provide an overview of our course designed to help you to master work intake and ensure your organization thrives. We’ll cover key takeaways such as effective prioritization, navigating organizational structures, measuring work intake flow, and diagnosing common work intake issues. You'll leave with actionable insights and a clear plan to address work intake problems immediately. Sign up on Eventbrite!  https://bit.ly/MasteringWorkIntake

The SPaMCAST 825 features our conversation with Richmond Alake. During our conversation, we discussed AI, Machine Learning, and most importantly why being a lifelong learner is important (really important). Need more? We also will discuss what comes next now that AI Chat has been done.   Richmond’s bio: Richmond Alake is an AI/ML Practitioner with an academic background in computer vision, robotics, and machine learning. He has worked in software development and machine learning roles since 2016. Richmond has also taught online AI/ML/Data courses and written over 200 technical articles with over 1 million views. He is passionate about using technology to solve real-world problems. Try out MongoDB for free:  Get hands-on code for AI Agents: Connect with Richmond:   Master Work Intake! Mastering Work Intake by and I hit the bookshelves earlier this year. We have also been running cohort-based workshops to help expose and solve this dirty little secret. Two of the questions we have gotten as we have promoted the workshops are: What is a cohort-based workshop? What value will I get if I join? Both are greater questions and we have an answer! Join us for a one-hour open house to explore how to diagnose and solve work intake challenges, the most critical issue facing organizations today. This session will provide an overview of our course designed to help you to master work intake and ensure your organization thrives. We’ll cover key takeaways such as effective prioritization, navigating organizational structures, measuring work intake flow, and diagnosing common work intake issues. You'll leave with actionable insights and a clear plan to address work intake problems immediately. Sign up on Eventbrite!  https://bit.ly/MasteringWorkIntake   Re-read Saturday News Chapter 1 of (buy a copy and read along) establishes that the central question of all cultures and philosophies is “how to live.”  Let's begin by dispelling the notion that Stoicism eschews emotion and feeling, rather the ancient philosophy based on the importance of wisdom, character, and balance. Pigilucci states, “Stoicism is an approach to living in which moral character is the only truly worthy thing to cultivate.” While I believe Spock (Star Trek) has a high moral character, if you are expecting How To Be A Stoic to teach how to be a Vulcan, you will be disappointed. If nothing else, the Stoics have a wry sense of humor. Forewarned is forearmed.  Week 1:  Week 2:    Next SPaMCAST  The SPaMCAST 826 will explore whether urgency has more power in prioritization in collaborative events. Importance is supposed to trump urgency but when you involve many voices things are murkier. We will also have a visit from Kies Kostaqi who will bring her You Are Not Alone column to the Software Process and Measurement Cast.

The SPaMCAST 824 compares the Great Avon Lake Tornado and power outage with the purported death of Agile. Cap that off with many in the industry doubling down on Agile purity to put the blush back on the rose. My upcoming high school reunion suggests you can never cross the same river twice but crossing any river is a challenge..  Also Jon M Quigley and I talk about who is the most important person on a team.  This is a counterpoint to my recent conversation with on SPaMCAST 822. They agree but it…depends. Master Work Intake! Mastering Work Intake by and I hit the bookshelves earlier this year. We have also been running cohort-based workshops to help expose and solve this dirty little secret. Two of the questions we have gotten as we have promoted the workshops are: What is a cohort-based workshop? What value will I get if I join? Both are greater questions and we have an answer! Join us for a one-hour open house to explore how to diagnose and solve work intake challenges, the most critical issue facing organizations today. This session will provide an overview of our course designed to help you to master work intake and ensure your organization thrives. We’ll cover key takeaways such as effective prioritization, navigating organizational structures, measuring work intake flow, and diagnosing common work intake issues. You'll leave with actionable insights and a clear plan to address work intake problems immediately. Sign up on Eventbrite!  https://bit.ly/MasteringWorkIntake   Re-read Saturday News This week we begin the re-read of (buy a copy and read along). I bought this book while on a trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was there for a speaking engagement and my wife and I decided to make a weekend of it. My downfall was that the fabulous Literati Bookstore was near our Air B&B. Next SPaMCAST  The SPaMCAST 825 will feature our interview with Richmond Alake. We discussed AI and Machine Learning. We also will discuss what comes next now that AI Chat has been done.

The introduction and outro words are abbreviated this week. I will regale you with the tale of the Avon Lake Toronado next. Now I need to find a way of making everything work without electricity and the Internet.  I am not sure which is making me crazier.  The SPaMCAST 823 features a discussion with Kirk Marple, Technical Founder and CEO at Graphit, by Unstruk Data. What is a technical founder you might ask?  No?  Well, I did. More importantly, we discussed  AI, knowledge graphs, leadership, and how organizations learn as they understand their data.  Check out Graphit at  Check out Kirk on LinkedIn at Re-read Saturday News This week we have the concluding thoughts of Flow.  We will begin the re-read of (buy a copy and read along) next week.  Buy a copy of Flow and read along –   Week 1: –   Week 2: –   Week 3: –   Week 4: –   Week 5:   Week 6: Week 7: Week 8: Week 9: Week 10: Week 11: Next SPaMCAST  The SPaMCAST 824 will include the story of the Avon Lake tornado, the sound of and smell of generators in the morning, an addiction to electricity and the internet, and a conversation with Jon M. Quigley.