Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

Sanjiv Augustine took a break from putting the finishing touches on his new book From PMO to VMO: Managing for Value Delivery to join me for an interview about Value Management Offices. “A Value Management Office is a cross-functional, cross-hierarchy and cross-silo team of teams.” This is a group with representation from across the organization. It is comprised of individuals who act as “linking pins” that work together to help the organization achieve business agility. During the interview, Sanjiv breaks down how this group advocates for all levels of the organization and can develop a more holistic view of how to help the organization shift towards a more adaptable, self-aware approach to work where voices from all parts of the company have a shared voice in achieving strategic goals. Sanjiv also shares a message of hope for any project managers out there who are “running for their lives” and see agile as a threat to their livelihood. There is still a lot of work to do, possibly even more so if your organization is moving towards agile. Links from the Podcast - You can Preorder Sanjiv’s book From PMO to VMO: Managing for Value Delivery here: https://amzn.to/3heKUFZ (September 7, 2021 Release) - You can learn more about LIthespeed’s webinars here: https://lithespeed.com/toolbox/ Contacting Sanjiv - Web: https://www.sanjivaugustine.com - Lithespeed: https://lithespeed.com - Podcast: Agile Caravansarai http://agilecaravanserai.com - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjivaugustine/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/saugustine

Scrum.org CEO Dave West discusses the importance of Product Goals in the updated Scrum Guide, offering clarity and purpose to teams. Topics include aligning product goals with the backlog, challenges of setting sprint goals, embracing change in Scrum practices, transparency in Agile, and using assets for team conversations. A new Canvas tool for product goals is also explored for team resilience and focus.

From 2019 to 2021 Melissa Boggs served as Co-CEO and Chief ScrumMaster for the Scrum Alliance. Earlier this year she stepped down from her Chief SM role and took on the position of Vice President of Business Agility at Sauce Labs. AFAIK, Melissa was the Chief ScrumMaster ever so I wanted to check in with her and see what she learned during her time in the role, what advice she could share for those headed down that path, and what new challenges she’s taken on since she started her new gig. What is truly powerful about this interview is how open Melissa is about the things she learned about herself on this journey. She offers a great example of brave vulnerability and shows how, if you are in the business of helping others transform, you have to be willing to develop an inner sense of personal agility as well. Links from the Podcast - Russel Brand Interviews Brene Brown https://youtu.be/SM1ckkGwqZI Contacting Melissa - Scrum Alliance Bio: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/profile/mboggs2 - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-boggs/ - Twitter: twitter.com/hmngbirdagility - Sauce Labs: https://saucelabs.com/

This episode features an interview with Dan Eberle. Dan is an Agile Coach, working at the New York Times and leading a few Agile-centric communities of practice. I recently attended a presentation Dan gave on Agile Coaching as part of Access Agile's Agile 20Reflect Festival (https://agile20reflect.org). Dan hit on some very impactful topics during the session so, I asked him to join me for an interview about different aspects of Agile Coaching. During the conversation, we discuss different coaching stances, how to develop your skill with employing them, how to measure your success as an Agile Coach, how being an internal coach differs from coaching at a consulting company, some tips for those moving towards a coaching role, and things to watch out for as you head down that path. Contacting Dan: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dan-e-6684a837 Twitter: https://twitter.com/daneberlefilm?lang=en Meetup: Agile-Lean-NYT: New York Times Agile Community of Practice https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/agile-lean-nyt-new-york-times-agile-community-of-practice Insurgent Agility https://www.meetup.com/insurgent-agility/

If you’ve been working as a coach or a consultant for any length of time you have run into situations where you have to make a decision about what the “right” thing to do actually is. Sometimes, it is pretty obvious, sometimes, not so much. Some professional organizations have established standards that credentialed professionals promise to adhere to. The International Coaching Federation has the ICF Code of Ethics (https://coachingfederation.org/ethics/code-of-ethics), the Project Management Institute has a Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct (https://www.pmi.org/about/ethics/code). In January of 2020 the Agile Alliance launched the Agile Coaching Ethics Initiative. In January of 2021, they launched a draft of their Code of Ethical Conduct for Agile Coaching along with a set of scenarios to help clarify what is, and is not an appropriate response in a variety of complicated situations. In this interview Agile Coaching Ethics Initiative Co-Chair, Shane Hastie joins me to talk about how the initiative came to be, how the code and the scenarios work, and how they hope Agile coaches and practitioners will begin to use it. They are also looking for feedback on the draft and scenarios, so if you’ve got time to check them out, feedback would be greatly appreciated. You can find the Agile Coaching Ethics Initiative here: https://www.agilealliance.org/resources/initiatives/agile-coaching-ethics/ You can share your feedback or scenarios here: AgileCoachingEthics@agilealliance.org You can reach Shane Hastie here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanehastie/ InfoQ: https://www.infoq.com/profile/Shane-Hastie/ ICAgile: https://www.icagile.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/shanehastie Email: snhastie@gmail.com Culture & Methods Trends Report March 2021 If you'd like to check out the InfoQ Culture & Methods Trends Report March 2021 to read more about the difference between good remote work and bad remote work: https://www.infoq.com/articles/culture-trends-2021/ Agile Sustainability Conference Shane is also giving a presentation on the Agile Coaching Ethics Initiative during the Agile Sustainability Conference which is being held virtually (hosted) in Singapore. The conference begins on April 15, 2021 and you can learn more about it here: https://sustainagile.org/2021-sustainagility-conference/

(You can find a video version of this interview here: https://youtu.be/MReNazZPvCc) Derek Huether is back to talk about his new book “Metrics Cookbook”. Organizations love collecting metrics and creating reports. Some of those metrics are critical to understanding what is happening in the organization, but a lot of them are not critical and waste a lot of time and effort. Derek’s new book offers recipes (just like in a cookbook) for how to approach metrics so that you can make sure you are collecting the most valuable data and using it to drive results. During the interview, Derek and I talk about why he wrote the book, how it can help, and then we walk through an example of how he collected specific metrics within an organization to help them understand which projects they needed to let go of in order to give the most critical endeavors a chance of survival. Derek’s Book Metrics Cookbook https://amzn.to/3uE8fo9 Contacting Derek Web: https://www.derekhuether.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekhuether/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/derekhuether Email: derek.huether@gmail.com

This interview was originally recorded in July 2013 and posted to Projects at Work. The original blog post and posting of the recording were lost when P@W became part of Project Management.com. BUT Johanna is brilliant and I learn a ton from her every time we talk. Also, Personal Kanban is REALLY important. So I found the original post and am reposting to fix the broken link on my index of Personal Kanban blog posts and podcast. (Which you can find here: https://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/2014/10/summary-of-personal-kanban-posts-for.html) This conversation centers around one of the topics in Johanna's book Manage Your Job Search (https://leanpub.com/manageyourjobsearch) and her article on how to use Personal Kanban for your Job Hunt (https://www.jrothman.com/htp/agile-job-search/2013/04/personal-kanban-for-your-job-hunt/) If you'd like to learn more about Johanna, her work and her writing: https://www.jrothman.com/

This is a completely unique version of the podcast. For the first time since 2008, I’m giving up control of the show and in this episode, Adam Weisbart interviews me about the session I’ll be leading at the Agile Virtual Summit [Bite-Size!], some of the changes in the new Scrum Guide, and iocane powder. The Agile Virtual Summit [Bite-Size!] takes place on March 31st. The event is Bite Size! because it is only 3 hours long (12 PM - 3 PM Eastern). I will be giving a presentation along with Tricia Broderick, Richard Lawrence, Nicole Spence-Goon, Dr. Dave Cornelius, and Heather Dunning. And the Keynote is being given by Lyssa Adkins, who you definitely do not want to miss. Also, it’s free! You can register for the event here: https://AgileVirtualSummit.com/Dave

The Scrum Guide got an update last November and one of the concepts introduced was the Product Goal. The Scrum Guide says: “The Product Goal describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against. The Product Goal is in the Product Backlog. The rest of the Product Backlog emerges to define “what” will fulfill the Product Goal. "A product is a vehicle to deliver value. It has a clear boundary, known stakeholders, well-defined users, or customers. A product could be a service, a physical product, or something more abstract. "The Product Goal is the long-term objective for the Scrum Team. They must fulfill (or abandon) one objective before taking on the next.” For some, myself included, taking that basic definition, extending it, and creating clarity on how the Product Goal fits in with other ways we talk about the Product Backlog has been challenging. So, I reached out for some help... In this episode of The Reluctant Agilist, I'm joined by Ryan Ripley. Ryan is the co-author of "Fixing Your Scrum", the co-host of the Agile for Humans podcast and he's also a Professional Scrum Trainer. During the conversation, Ryan and I dig into what exactly the Prout Goal is, how teams can use it to deliver value and how it fits in with some of the other aspects of the Product Backlog. If you'd like to check out the podcast Ryan and I recorded on his book Fixing Your Scrum you can find it here: https://bit.ly/3vIWNJq Links from the Podcast: Agile for Humans Podcast https://ryanripley.com/agile-for-humans/ Fixing Your Scrum https://amzn.to/2PdBz5i Web: https://ryanripley.com/ Email: ryan@agileforhumans.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanripley

Christine Converse and Ross Beurmann are back and this time we’re picking up the thread from something that came up during our previous interview. The title of the episode is Resistance to Change and the conversation centers around the problems we face when trying to create change within a team or organization. More specifically, we talk about how you can influence others to change when you have no authority, the people you are trying to help may have no desire to be helped. Whether you are working in an agile environment, a traditional organization, or something that is careening back and forth between the two, this interview is going to give you a lot to think about. CONTACTING CHRISTINE AND ROSS If you’d like to reach out to Christine or Ross, here are some ways to reach them: Christine Converse • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christineconverse1/ • Email: cepichler@gmail.com Ross Beurmann • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossbeurmannzcea/ • Email: ross96h@yahoo.com • (Ross has joined me on a few other podcasts. If you’d like to check them out you can find them here: https://soundcloud.com/search?q=ross%20beurmann)