Have you replaced your weekly status update with a daily status update and called it “Agile”? You are not alone, and that sucks. Many companies working to transform into an Agile organization struggle with this most fundamental shift in culture. Most often the culture of an organization is very static and requires huge effort to…
On February 18th, I will be presenting at the annual conference of ASEE:DFW in Dallas, Texas on the topic of Project Survivability:Antifragile. This is my first time appearing with this group. A friend is one of their officers and a former colleague is also presenting this year after a successful presentation last year. I will be…
I recently had a conversation with a functional manager that was concerned with the transition of her organization to agile. It wasn’t any tool or process or the manifesto but the perceived lack of control. She wanted to know how to maintain the illusion of control. “How can I manage my team when they get…
About a year ago, I had an experience with Lufthansa that made me really sit and think about the customer experience and how companies need to focus on the results, not the process. Process at the expense of the results is about as anti-agile as it comes. I was trying to buy a ticket on…
2016 is the most miles so far since starting this level of tracking in 2013. It also saw international travel overtake domestic in a lot of measurements. Lots of new airlines, all European, but also an exciting new airplane, the Avro RJ85. These birds are getting hard to find anywhere, but they are very rare…
I have been re-reading Frank Herbert’s Dune anthology and I remembered one of the very first lessons I received in leadership: “Put the people you lead first. Everything else will take care of itself.”
There is no place in Agile for a traditional PMO, but the need for strong coaching, portfolio management, and reporting expertise does exist, in a very real way. This is where an Agile Coaching Team, or ACT comes in. It is a team that handles the responsibilities of a PMO, but in an Agile supportive way.
What is the place of Earned Value in an Agile environment? There is no right answer, but we need a way to merge Agile with traditional value based budgeting. Earned Value can be a great bridge.
For those of you thinking about attending a Scrum Gathering, even a regional one, trust me, just make it happen. In October, I attended the Global Scrum Gathering Munich and it was the first conference in many years that I did not feel like I was wasting my time.
I have been tossing around the idea for quite some time to focus a blog on the challenges, successes, and yes, failures of Scrum and Agile in my professional life and personal life for quite some time, but never was quite sure of what to do with it other than continue to evangelize and practice…
