Impact Map for Fun and Profit 🌎

Feb 26, 2021 9:01 pm

Hi there,

I hope your week has gone well and is coming to close on a high-note. I want to share two things in this email.

I'm currently helping a team transition their work away as their contract comes to a close. One thing I've observed about these transition periods is that there is a lot of discussion about creating a smooth transition, but it seems very few people have any particular approach to actually transition. Such is the case here, so I'm stepping in. While this deserves its own complete article, the way I taught this team to work means they have almost no loose ends to document or rush to finish. They don't work in components, but work vertically, and each thing is tested at multiple levels and deployed all within the same sprint. In other words, when they're done with work, the work is truly one. This approach has made this stressful time a lot less so because for the time we have left we can focus on a few bits of documentation, and they can focus on what comes next in their career.

I also wrote this week about a scoping technique called Impact Mapping. I started using this technique about two years ago now and it is quickly becoming my default technique to use when I help groups decide what they think their scope is. A lot of agilists default to story mapping, which has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some of my favorite strengths of Impact Mapping are that it directly connects the scope to desired measurable outcomes, acknowledges not all scope is technical, and it is fast to put one together. If you're not familiar with the technique, give the article a read and let me know what you think!

🗒️ Time To Go

It winds up for almost everyone that you’ll have more than one job in your career.

This is especially true in software development.

For myself, I changed jobs nearly every single year!

The shortest time I was at a company was five months, and the longest was two years.

When you realize it’s time for you to go, what should you do?

Click here to read more

🗒️ Scoping Technique - Impact Mapping

When an idea for a new project gains steam and people gather to decide what exactly it is to do, there are many options to choose from to help with initial scoping.