An Open Letter to Executives Leading Agile Transformations

Dear Executive, Let me congratulate you on your decision to introduce agile methods within your organization. It is a wise decision that holds incredible potential for your employees, your company, and its customers. If you are just beginning your improvement, or are yet to begin, the journey upon which you are about to embark is one that will be well worth the effort. And it will take effort—long, arduous, and at times frustrating effort. Although Machiavellians do exist, my experience is that they are exceedingly rare. In general, people are good, honest, and hard-working and really want to do the... Read More»

Retrospectives and Getting Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

The tension is palpable and suffocating, as if a pillow is being held over my face in anticipation of drawing my last breath. The last team member enters the room and it’s time to begin. “Welcome to the sprint retrospective,” I say with conviction. Perhaps I’m trying to convince myself that I’m emotionally ready. Or, maybe I’m trying to be an insulator to the electricity of anticipation coursing through the team room. Welcome to the retrospective. For me, and many other coaches or ScrumMasters, the sprint review is the most difficult undertakings. Yet, in my view, it is one of... Read More»

Story Maps - Your Path to Product Success

Personally, I tend to grasp things better visually. Tell me the directions to your house and, while I'll get there, it will probably take me longer and cause me more frustration than if you had also provided a map. It can also be helpful to create a map of functionality when developing products. In their simplest form, products are bundles of functionality that end users utilize for benefit. Early in the agile product development life cycle it can be very difficult to develop an initial prioritized product backlog of user stories. The story map is one tool we can use... Read More»

Scrum is Not the Goal

Every day I witness teams doing Scrum, each operating at varying levels of maturity. Scrum is a great way of working because, as a lightweight framework, it dictates nothing about how the actual work inside of a sprint is done. It does provide a number of roles, ceremonies, and artifacts, but stops short of instructing a team how to do its work. How the works actually gets done is determined by a number of factors such as how the team self-organizes, interacts, and how the individual members relate to one another. Sometimes a weakness is simply a strength overdone. I... Read More»

Agile Project Management, Yes! Agile Project Manager, No!

There are two primary camps in the agile community concerning the role of project managers. One camp, the agile purist, contends there is no project manager in agile; while the other, whom we’ll refer to for purposes of this discussion as the traditionalist, argues that there is absolutely a place in agile for the project manager. My colleague and fellow blogger Kent McDonald explored the topic in two blog posts (1, 2) and I also contributed an earlier post on the topic. First, to ensure we’re all on the same page I will give an overview of the argument from... Read More»

Time Management Mythology

I recently heard a story told that recounted the experience of a teacher who was demonstrating the concept of volume. The teacher filled a glass jar with rocks and asked her class if it was full. The class responded enthusiastically and with certainty—yes! She then took sand and poured it into the jar and it filled the space between the rocks. She then asked, “How about now, is the container full?” Once again, with a little less certainty this time, the class responded, yes! She then poured water into the jar which filled the space between the sand, thereby occupying... Read More»

What's Your Role - Umbrella or Funnel?

Hi, my name is Brian and I deliver no value! There, I said it. I'm glad I got that off my chest. Read that first sentence again and replace it with your own name. Now, go back and read it again. Take it in, contemplate it, and ponder it deeply. Read it carefully and think very hard about what you do each and every day as a project manager. Note that I did not say that I wasn't valuable or that I provide no value. I purposely stated that I deliver no value. Most project managers I know do not... Read More»

The Project Manager and Agile

As more organizations transition from traditional waterfall to agile methodologies, confusion often abounds around the role of project manager. What happens to the project manager and the project management role during an agile transformation? Like most questions in life, the correct answer is—it depends, and is very contextual. Initially, there may be very little, if any, change in the project manager role. Project managers will largely find themselves doing a lot of the same work they always have. However, this is a very low maturity level indicator. If the expectations of traditional project management aren’t updated and managed to align... Read More»

Does Your Agile Organization Have Cancer?

Every (yes—EVERY!) organization that I’ve ever worked for or with has had cancer. Indeed, several of the projects I’m aware of have also had cancer. This has largely been true regardless of the methodology used. The specific stage of cancer has varied, as has each prognosis; however, all organizations I’ve encountered have been diseased with one type of particularly aggressive form of cancer. The specific type of organizational cancer I’m talking about is having an excessive amount of work in progress (WIP) at any given point in time. For organizations in general and agile organizations, in particular, the result can... Read More»

The Night Before the Deadline

In all aspects of life, I believe it’s important that we not take ourselves too seriously. With the holidays squarely and firmly upon us, I’ve decided to take a little creative liberty with a popular holiday story. I hope you enjoy the project management version of this holiday classic. ‘Twas the night before the deadline, when all through the plant Not a milestone was met, not one on my Gantt; The status reports were all sent to the sponsor with care, In hopes hopes he would see pending trouble to beware; The team were all nestled all snug in their... Read More»