SPaMCAST 663 - Prioritizing Badly, Freestyling User Stories, Essays and Conversations

This week we explore the impact of process (it really isn’t a bad word) problems in prioritization. Prioritization requires a steady hand and consistency. The process for prioritization should have more in common with a well-oiled basketball or futbol team than five-year-olds playing soccer in the schoolyard. How the moving parts work together is a process

We also have a visit from Tony Timbol discussing freestyling user story formats in his To Tell A Story column.

Re-Read Saturday News 

This week we focus on Chapter 6 of  Monotasking by Staffan Nöteberg.  This chapter is titled “Simplify Cooperation.” Cooperation requires communication. Messing communication up is a problem, a problem that is the responsibility of every person involved in trying to communicate. 

Last week’s experiment focused on evaluating each task as I put it on my short list for operacy.  One of the outcomes was that I broke work into smaller chunks which were simpler and more practical. I also found parts of the work that I did not have to do in order to satisfy the goal of the task (the agile definition of simplicity).  I am contemplating how to build the idea of operacy into how I approach and talk about user stories. This week, I am going to focus on using more deliberative communication as a way to help guide conversations.

This Week

Week 8 - Simplify Cooperation - https://bit.ly/3yAVQne 

Previous Entries in  Monotasking by Staffan Nöteberg

Week 1 - Logistics, Game Plan, and Preface - https://bit.ly/3x1oVap 

Week 2 - Introduction - https://bit.ly/2TXVfwt 

Week 3 - Monotasking In A Nutshell - https://bit.ly/3gGMb72 

Week 4 - Cut Down on Things to Do - https://bit.ly/3wt1ENL 

Week 5 - Focus on One Task - https://bit.ly/3hK2XDU 

Week 6 - Never Procrastinate -  https://bit.ly/2UXPDDp 

Week 7 - Progress Incrementally - https://bit.ly/3lk8Fi0 

Next SPaMCAST 

We talk with Sunny Han, CEO and Founder of Fulcrum.  Sunny and I talked about entrepreneurship and building an ERP system from scratch. That sounds way too tame -- we talked motivation, we talked agile development, and we talked about what it takes to see a vision through to reality.