Regardless of whether you’re creating, enhancing, or maintaining software products, work intake is a challenge you deal with constantly. 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. You need to know what your team is executing, what work is next, and the skill sets required to do the work. Mastering Work Intake: From Chaos to Predictable Delivery 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.”

Table of Contents:
Section One – Work Intake Section One Introduction Chapter 1: What is Work Intake? A Simple Example of Work Intake in ScrumWork Intake and AgileEnd-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 2: What Does Good Work Intake Look Like? Introduction Nine Core PrinciplesEnd-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 3: Basics of Work IntakePush vs. Pull Story-Driven vs. Interrupt-Driven Utilization Maximization Fallacy Flow The Happy Path End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 4: Who Cares About Work Intake? Executives Customers Internal Stakeholders End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 5: Three Levels of Work Intake Organization Level Work Intake Middle-Level Work Intake Team Level Work Intake Hierarchy and Fatalism: A Caution End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 6: Work Intake Anti-Patterns: When Work Intake Goes Wrong Disrupted Work Everything Else is Late Reduced Trust Leadership and TrustLack of Safety Everything is Started, Nothing is Done Herding End-of-Chapter Questions Section One Conclusion Section One Introspection A Work Intake Case Study as a Business Novella Chapter 1: Executing New IdeasSection Two – Work Intake Basics: Prioritization and Sequencing Section Two Introduction Chapter 7: Prioritization Priority Why We Prioritize What is a Priority? End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 8: The Who, When, and How of Prioritization Who Participates in Prioritization When to Prioritize How to Prioritize End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 9: Prioritization at All Three Levels Prioritization and Work Intake End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 10: Prioritization Anti-Patterns“ I can’ t prioritize between these items.” “ That’ s a high priority.” “ What’ s the next thing on the priority list?” “ Everything is a high priority.” Prioritization Anti-Patterns ConclusionEnd-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 11: SequencingWhy We SequenceWhat is Sequencing? End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 12: The Who, When, and How of Sequencing Who Participates in Sequencing When to SequenceHow to SequenceEnd-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 13: Sequencing at All Three LevelsSequencing and Work Intake Approach to Sequencing End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 14: Sequencing Anti-Patterns“ That work isn’ t in our backlog of product work. It’ s in our backlog of technical work.” “ That’ s not on our backlog.” “ We’ re going to need to do that work eventually, so let’ s just do it now.” End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 15: Prioritization and Sequencing — Related but Different End-of-Chapter Questions Section Two Introspection A Work Intake Case Study as a Business Novella Chapter 2: Executing New Ideas Section Three – Work Intake Visualization: Metrics That Matter Section Introduction Chapter 16: Flow Defining Flow Why a Definition is Important Four Common Attributes of Flow End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 17: Flow Metrics Introduction Flow Metrics Basics Basic Metrics of Flow End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 18: Flow Metrics Palette Dashboard Metrics End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 19: Flow Metrics at All Levels Organization Middle Management Team End-of-Chapter Questions Chapter 20: Metrics Anti-PatternsStory Points (As Throughput and/or Velocity Measures) Measuring IndividualsTeam vs. Team The Data is the Whole Story Measuring Everything (or Nothing)Inconsistent Measurement Definitions Measuring Hours (and Estimating in Time) Measuring the Wrong Thing (And Believing It’ s Right)Metrics Fire DrillsLocal OptimizationThe “ Tragedy of the Commons” Time vs. Productivity End-of-Chapter Questions Section Three Introspection A Work Intake Case Study as a Business Novella Chapter 3: Executing New Ideas Section Four – Work Intake Problems and Solutions Section Introduction Chapter 21: The Primary Causes of Work Intake Problems Cause #1: Goal Conflict Cause #2: Need Outstrips Supply Cause #3: Pay Practices Cause #4: Project Thinking vs. Pr