Prioritization and Deep Seated Issues, A Conversation With Jim Benson, Replay, SPaMCAST 814
Software Process and Measurement Cast
Release Date: 06/16/2024
Software Process and Measurement Cast
In January of 2024, JRoss Publishing brought Mastering Work Intake by and I to the world. The activities supporting the book have been a blast! One of the common problems we have observed as we have spread the message is that often those with the biggest work intake problem get mesmerized by the symptoms and fail to see the root cause of the problem. When this happens the symptom becomes the root cause causing people and organizations to spend significant amounts of time and money fixing the wrong problem. To borrow a line from Manfred Mann, they are “.” We will discuss this topic in a...
info_outline Open Source, Learning, Careers, and Leadership with Gorkem Ercan, SPaMCAST 841Software Process and Measurement Cast
We are back from our adventure and our trips down memory lane (at least for a while). Today we feature our interview with Gorkem Ercan. We discussed open source, leadership, and learning. FYI – this podcast has a ton of great advice for anyone pursuing a career in software development! Gorkem Ercan is a founding Distinguished Engineer and CTO of Jozu. Gorkem has experience working and leading teams with various technologies ranging from building IDEs, to building mobile phones, and CI/CD systems. He is an avid contributor and supporter of open source. Gorkem is the creator of the wildly...
info_outline Revisiting Paul Gibbons and Impact, SPaMCAST 840Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . Our final trip down memory lane with Paul Gibbons. This week we step back to SPaMCAST 582 from January 2020. In this episode, Paul and I discussed his new book I. The interview started by exploring the high-level factors that influence change and then spun down into areas such as the future of work, biases, and...
info_outline Revisiting Jodie Kane and Product Owners In Retrospectives. SPaMCAST 839Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . Today we return to June 202 (SPaMCAST 605) for a conversation with Jodie Kane. Jodie and I discussed involving product owners in retrospectives. Jodie suggests the answer should not be cut and dry but rather context-driven. Master Work Intake! Join one of two upcoming Mastering Work Intake Workshops to help you learn...
info_outline Revisiting Software Measurement with Mauricio Aguiar and Christine Green December 2021, SPaMCAST 838Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . Today we return to December 2021 to remember an interview with Mauricio Aguiar and Christine Green, We discussed their vision of the state and future of Software Measurement. Mauricio, Christine, and I are all Past Presidents of the International Function Point Users Group (the largest international software measurement...
info_outline Revisiting 2019 With Al Shalloway, SPaMCAST 837Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . We return to August 2019 for a two-parter, with Al Shalloway. This was a long interview. We originally spread over SPaMCAST 559 and SPaMCAST 560. Today both parts are united. The conversation with Al was full of huge ideas, concepts, and calls to action. Al and I talked about the troubles dogging classic agile, the...
info_outline Revisiting 2019 With Al Shalloway, SPaMCAST 837Software Process and Measurement Cast
The Software Process and Measurement Cast Crew are off for an adventure. We will be back on December 8th with new content. In the interim, we share four gems from our back catalog of over 800 interviews, essays, and conversations. You can check out the entire catalog at . We return to August 2019 for a two-parter, with Al Shalloway. This was a long interview. We originally spread over SPaMCAST 559 and SPaMCAST 560. Today both parts are united. The conversation with Al was full of huge ideas, concepts, and calls to action. Al and I talked about the troubles dogging classic agile, the...
info_outline Work Intake Halloween, A Second Opinion, Essays and Conversations with Jeremy Berriault, SPaMCAST 836Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 836 celebrates Halloween. Over the years instead of just one night, people decorate their houses and celebrate for at least a month - we love a party. In celebration of what has become the seventh-largest retail holiday in the United States, let's take a spooky look at the outcome of poor work intake and celebrate that we can banish the spooks and shades of poor work intake. We also hear from in his Evolutionary Agilist column. In this episode, we discuss the impact of adding new team members to a long-lived, high-performing team when the new person wants to strike out in a new...
info_outline Cake On Tuesday, A Conversation With Elizabeth Bieniek, SPaMCAST 835Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 835 features our conversation with Elizabeth Bieniek. Elizabeth and I will discuss her new book, , and explore the basics of innovation and leadership. The insights into innovation and intrapreneurship will help all enterprises compete and deliver value to their stakeholders. Elizabeth Bieniek is an author, speaker, and consultant focused on “good peopling” as the secret to exceptional execution. As a founder and Fortune 100 innovation and engineering leadership veteran, her expertise lies in challenging assumptions, embracing diverse perspectives, and leading through...
info_outline Battling The Walls Of Denial, New Kids On The Block – Essays and Conversations with Jon. M Quigley, SPaMCAST 834Software Process and Measurement Cast
SPaMCAST 834 features our essay titled Battling The Walls Of Denial. The essay begins: One of the problems change agents face is promoting change when individuals, teams, and even organizations fail to recognize how their behavior hurts them and therefore don’t see the need for change. In these circumstances, you often hear fatalistic rationalizations such as, “This is just how we always do it.” Or the equally problematic, “You just don’t understand; we are special.” Just running away is not the only option. We also have a visit from Jon M. Quigley...
info_outlineThis week on the Software Process and Measurement Cast we have a replay of an interview of Jim Benson from 2019. Jim and I focused on prioritization and how prioritization can be a reflection of more deep-seated problems. One of the ideas Jim shares is that processes are the social contract for getting work done.
In the foreword of Mastering Work Intake, I wrote with Jeremy Willets(published in January 2024), we reflected that Mastering stood on the shoulders of Jim’s Why Limit WIP. Reflecting on this interview I continue to see the relationship between work intake and the travails of prioritization. All of us at SPaMCAST look forward to your thoughts.
Contact Jim
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimbenson
Personal Kanban: http://www.personalkanban.com/pk/#sthash.MtOA96sV.dpbs
Modus Cooperandi: http://moduscooperandi.com/
Learn To Tame Your Work Intake Beast!
Jeremy Willets and I are celebrating summer in the northern hemisphere with a summer camp. We’ll look at the primary causes of work intake problems… and how to solve them! Join us for an entertaining and informative LinkedIn Live event weekly beginning June 19th at 11:30.
Register at https://bit.ly/3HEsKK7 - registration is not necessary but it will help get a count for virtual juice boxes.
Re-read Saturday News
This week we revisit our first re-read from 2015, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement ( Dead Tree Version or Kindle Version) written by Eli Goldratt. If you are interested in the flow of work you need to read The Goal – more than once. The link is https://bit.ly/45lckB7
Re-read Saturday Instalments
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5
Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10
Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15
Next week we will return to our re-read of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, Flow.
Next SPaMCAST
On the next Software Process and Measurement Cast, more of the story of Innovatech and what happens when responsibility and accountability get muddled.
We will also have a visit from Jon M Quigley and his Alpha and Omega of Product Development.