As you would suspect, I have recently been talking up Mastering Work Intake which Jeremy Willets and I co-authored. One conversation turned to the topic of whether value stream analysis was useful in controlling work intake. The simple answer is YES across the whole value stream and up and down the hierarchy. We will also have a visit from Kies Kostaqi who brings her “You Are Not Alone” column to the podcast. In this installment, we discuss whether anyone (within reason) can play the Scrum Master role.  Mastering Work Intake  by Tom Cagley and Jeremy Willets    Have you purchased your copy of  ?  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 - no longer. focuses on the full pipeline that work follows as it enters and exits your organization, including the different types of work that enter at different levels and times. It is a must-read for agile coaches, Scrum Masters, product owners, project and portfolio managers, team members, and anyone who touches the software development process. Mastering work intake involves recognizing that it’s easy to say “ yes” and much harder to say “ no.” Buy a copy today!   J Ross: Amazon (US):   For physical copies outside of the US and Canada: UK and EU:   For international orders outside of Europe: (or the Amazon store for your country)   Re-read Saturday News Chapter Seven, of  , dives into the nuances of using XmR charts for the basic flow metrics including:  Cycle Time Throughput WIP WIP Age   This is a hugely useful chapter. There are three points that I draw out this week.  They are the difference between XmR and Cycle Time (scatter plot) Charts, chunky data, and Total WIP Age charting.   Buy a copy and get reading – .     Week 1: – Week 2: – Week 3:   –   Week 4: – Week 5: -   Week 6: -   Week 7: -     Next SPaMCAST  The Software Process and Measurement Cast 794 will feature our conversation with Nick Schrock. We discussed data engineering, AI, and entrepreneurship. As the Founder at Dagster Labs, Nick had the perfect standing to talk about three of the hottest topics of 2024.