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In this episode of Definitely Maybe Agile, Peter Maddison and David Sharrock explore the evolution of Agile methodologies. They discuss how Agile represents solutions to persistent problems that may be rebranded but address fundamental needs. The hosts examine why Agile has faced criticism, drawing parallels to Lean's journey from buzzword to established methodology, while exploring the challenges organizations face in implementation.

This week´s takeaways:

• The fundamental problems Agile addresses remain constant, even as attitudes toward the methodology evolve.
• Organizations often struggle with Agile implementation due to legacy architecture, leadership buy-in, and organizational context.
• Like Lean before it, Agile is transitioning from a hyped methodology to becoming part of a broader toolkit.

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In this episode of Definitely Maybe Agile, Peter Maddison and David Sharrock explore the critical role of documentation, terminology, and process definition in scaling organizational success. They discuss how leading companies like Netflix build strong cultures through well-defined terms and principles rather than rigid processes. The hosts dive deep into how architectural decisions, cultural transformation, and team empowerment all stem from having a shared organizational language. Through real-world examples and references to modern practices, they examine the balance between principle-based leadership and necessary process documentation in creating high-performing organizations.

This week´s takeaways:

• Shared terminology drives better communication and decision-making across teams and departments.
• Principles empower teams more effectively than rigid processes and controls.
• Leading with principles while maintaining essential process documentation creates the right organizational balance.

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In this episode of Definitely Maybe Agile, Peter Maddison and David Sharrock explore the evolution of quarterly planning from traditional PI planning events to more streamlined modern approaches. They discuss how effective quarterly planning reveals organizational dependencies, aligns priorities across teams, and helps maintain focus on delivering value. The hosts share insights on avoiding common pitfalls like over-planning future work and emphasize the importance of maintaining flexibility while ensuring clear direction for immediate execution.

This week´s takeaways:

• Clear, sequenced priorities shared across teams - focus on completing initiatives before starting new ones
• Detailed planning for immediate work (1-2 months), with less detail for future months
• Active dependency management to identify and address bottlenecks early

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In this thought-provoking episode of Definitely Maybe Agile, hosts Peter Maddison and David Sharrock explore how successful organizations deliver value in today's complex environment. Discover why project success demands both effective execution and tangible business outcomes. The hosts examine the crucial differences between ordered and unordered problem spaces, revealing when to apply Agile versus traditional project management approaches. Learn practical insights about balancing execution with outcomes, and why the most successful organizations master both methodologies. Essential listening for project managers, Agile practitioners, and technology leaders navigating modern delivery challenges.

This week's takeaways:

• Organizations succeed by flexibly switching between agile and traditional project management based on context
• Success comes from delivering tangible business value alongside traditional project execution
• Match your methodology to the problem: ordered problems suit traditional approaches, while complex problems need agile methods

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In this episode of Definitely Maybe Agile, Peter Maddison and David Sharrock explore the nuances of product backlogs in agile environments. They discuss the tension between emergent backlogs and fixed feature sets, the importance of backlog management, and various prioritization techniques, including "buy a feature" and impact-effort matrices.

This week's takeaways:

• Separate tactical (near-term) and strategic backlogs to reduce psychological pressure and maintain focus - avoid creating extensive long-term backlogs that will likely become irrelevant.
• Stakeholder prioritization must be balanced with technical constraints and team capabilities - product owners should communicate changes in delivery order transparently to maintain trust.
• Regular backlog refinement should include archiving rejected items instead of deleting them, helping teams avoid repeatedly addressing the same requests while keeping the active backlog manageable.

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Join Peter Maddison and David Sharrock in this thought-provoking episode of Definitely Maybe Agile as they explore the evolution of leadership decision-making in modern organizations. They dive deep into how traditional leadership models are being challenged by today's business environment and discuss the crucial shift from control-based to collaborative decision-making approaches.

This week´s takeaways:

• Executive decision-making challenges often stem from two distinct factors: emotional intelligence issues (dealing with unprepared stakeholders) and critical thinking problems (legitimate exploration of complex issues).
• The traditional "highest paid person's opinion" (HiPPO) approach to decision-making is becoming increasingly dangerous in today's rapidly changing business environment, where the speed of market changes demands faster and more distributed decision-making processes.
• Modern leadership requires a fundamental shift from centralized control to distributed authority, with leaders focusing on creating frameworks that enable lower-level decision-making while maintaining visibility of outcomes.

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In this episode of Definitely Maybe Agile, Peter Maddison and David Sharrock explore the evolving complexities of calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) in modern software development and delivery.

This week´s takeaways:

• TCO fundamentals remain unchanged, but the environment for calculating and applying TCO has become more complex.
• Organizations must distinguish between strategic proprietary development and commoditized solutions, using tools like Wardley mapping to identify where to invest versus reduce costs.
• Understanding and defining system boundaries is crucial for accurate TCO calculation - using approaches like value chain mapping, value stream mapping, or domain-driven design helps identify hidden costs and dependencies.

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In this thought-provoking episode of the Definitely, Maybe Agile podcast, Peter Maddison and David Sharrock dive deep into the evolving world of enterprise data management and its impact on modern organizations. From data hygiene to governance, discover how the definition of corporate data has dramatically shifted in recent years and what it means for your business.

This week´s takeaways:

• How regulatory compliance is reshaping data management practices
• The critical balance between quantitative and qualitative data in decision-making
• The impact of AI and LLMs on data analysis and sentiment tracking

Whether you're a technology leader, data professional, or business executive, this episode provides insights into navigating the complex intersection of data governance, team structure, and business value. Learn why traditional approaches to data management may be insufficient for today's challenges and what successful organizations are doing differently.