Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

Being a Product Owner is not easy. You are responsible for the success of the product. You have to create enough work to keep up to 9 people busy, stay 2-3 Sprints ahead of them and at the same time, stay completely in sync with the business and constantly be learning more about the customer. It’s a lot. But what happens when you are the PO, and your Manager is spending most of their day acting as BA/PO on your project? Who gets to make decisions? Who do people come to with questions? Who walks the plank if the product tanks? (Trick question - YOU!) The role of ScrumMaster is just as tough - especially when you work at a startup and the Owner/Founder/KINGOFALLIDEAS keeps coming to you demanding you add new work in the current Sprint and seems frustrated by the fact that your team did not deliver on their forecast in the last Sprint. Whenever you push back on the additional work, you are reminded that part of Agile is being able to adapt. Note: If your manager/boss/owner spends a lot of their time “helping you”, then you are the target audience for this podcast Dhaval Panchal from Evolve Agility joins Dave this week to discuss how to cope with the above situations and begin managing up so that you and your team can start delivering on your commitments. Links from the Podcast: EvolveAgility: https://www.evolveagility.com Agile Will Fail video podcast: https://www.evolveagility.com/agile-within-waterfall-episode-1/ Systems Thinking for Transformative Change: https://www.evolveagility.com/systems-thinking-for-transformative-change-webinar/ Contacting Dhaval LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhavalpanchal/ Email: dhaval.panchal@evolveagility.com TWitter: https://twitter.com/dhavalpanchal

What do you do when they start asking for cost per point? This issue often arrives wrapped in requests that are pure in their intent and seem to be reasonable requests from the business… How much are we spending each month and how many points are we delivering for that spend? or Since we are now estimating work in User Story Points, we need to be able to determine how much to charge for the work that clients are asking for. So how much does a point cost us? or We need to evaluate the change requests so we can decide which ones to move forward with and which ones to reject. We’re estimating them in User Story Points, which gives us a relative idea of risk, complexity, and effort, but not cost. We need to be able to translate points to dollars so we can understand if the value we’d receive from the change is worth the cost. I had a student recently who was qetting requests like this from the business, so I asked Agile Coach Troy Lightfoot to join me for a podcast where we could unpack the issues that often come with the cost per point question, the pros and cons of tracking it, and some things to take into account when you formulate your response to the request. Links from the Podcast Probabilistic Forecasting Podcast interview with Troy Lightfoot https://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/2019/05/probabilistic-forecasting-with-troy.html Story Points Revisited (from Ron Jeffries Blog) https://ronjeffries.com/articles/019-01ff/story-points/Index.html Contacting Troy Agile Uprising: http://www.agileuprising.com/board-of-directors/ Agile Uprising Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Je8H5C

“What advice do you have on structuring sprint planning meetings in an agency setting with different product owners and project teams (when each PM is 'competing' for the same development resources)?" That is the question I got during the Q&A portion of a webinar I did recently for The Bureau of Digital. This is a scenario where you have an agency model approach to the work, so people are spread across multiple projects with different team configurations all running at the same time. Except they are trying to do Scrum, and, in this particular case, there is no real clarity on project priority, which makes it pretty tough to figure out who gets first dibs when it comes to allocation of human knowledge workers. I did my best to respond to the question during the webinar, but I wanted to get some advice from an expert with deeper agency experience. So, I reached out to Meghan McInerny. Before stepping into her current role as Director of Strategic Experience Design at Best Buy, Meghan spent 13 years at Clockwork Interactive, the last 7 years of which she served as COO. She is also the co-author of Interactive Project Management: Pixels, People, and Process. In this episode of the podcast, we talk through the issues, risks, and opportunities that come with a “Hunger Games” approach to Sprint Planning and offer some advice on how to cope with and/or resolve the problem defined in the question above. We also talk about her current role at Best Buy and why that is such a fascinating problem space to be working in right now. Side Note: The webinar I did for the Bureau of Digital focused on the new version of my Sprint Capacity Calculator and how to get the most out of Sprint Planning. These webinars are normally available in a recorded format only to members of the Bureau, but they are very kind and have made this one public in case you’d like to check it out after listening to the podcast. Contacting Meghan Web: http://www.meghanmcinerny.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meghanmcinerny/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/irishgirl Links Meghan’s Book - Interactive Project Management: Pixels, People, and Process (Voices That Matter) https://amzn.to/3hyPRGA The Bureau of Digital: https://bureauofdigital.com Better Sprint Planning Webinar: https://youtu.be/Wlz5gSfqw74

Practicing Agile at Home with Yvonne Marcus Yvonne Marcus is on a mission to create positive home management solutions for every family and she’s using Agile to do it. In this episode of the Reluctant Agilist, Yvonne and I discuss how and why she began an Agile transformation at home, how it has impacted life for her and her family, and how you can get started bringing Agile practices into your home and personal life. If you’d like to learn more about Yvonne and how she helps others make the switch to Agile, you can check out her podcast. She also offers a free email course you can use to get started. You can access that via her website below. Contacting Yvonne Web: http://YvonneMarcus.com Podcast: http://www.yvonnemarcus.com/podcast-2/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/agileyvonne

In this episode of the Reluctant Agilist, you’ll hear the story of how a father helped his son use outcome-based planning to define his personal response to what happened to George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter events that followed. Ross Beurmann is a seasoned Agile coach (and a co-worker of mine). His son Tom just graduated from high school. When Tom learned about what happened to George Floyd, he felt a need to respond. Attending a local march was definitely an option, but Ross brought some of his coaching experience to bear in the conversation. By working together to define the results his son was looking for and exploring ways to achieve that outcome, Ross and Tom were able to define a plan of action that has impacted local officials, law enforcement, and increased local interest and awareness. This set the stage for Tom to move forward with his efforts to establish lasting local change that will have a positive impact now and into the future. This story is a little unusual for the podcast, but it provides an impressive example of how what we do at work can be applied at home and to help our friends and our families have a positive impact on the world around them. To visit Tom’s Facebook site: https://m.facebook.com/groups/689168331904305/?ref=group_browse To Contact Ross • Web: https://www.leadingagile.com/guides/ross-beurmann/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossbeurmannzcea/ • Email: Ross.Beurmann@leadingagile.com

Since the Covid-19 Quarantining began, we’ve all had to adjust to our work-life taking place 100% online. Whether you are working in a traditional environment or in Agile, this change has impacted your teams’ ability to engage, learn, and collaborate online. In this episode of the podcast, I am joined by Braden Cundiff who works in the International Division of McGraw-Hill Education serving in a Product Ownership role for international education products. Braden’s work involves creating tools and products that are used in collaborative, educational environments all across the globe. He also has a background that includes teaching, agile coaching, and transformation. This allows him to offer a unique perspective on how to create an effective online environment for your teams. At the start of the interview, Braden and I also discuss his role as a Product Owner and he offers his take on the one question that comes up in every single Product Owner class I teach … “How do I get better at saying ’No’?” Contacting Braden LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braden-cundiff-52479121/ Email: bracundi@gmail.com

The transition to Agile is challenging for any organization. It’s even worse when you do not understand the strategic and business reasons behind the change. This is one of the primary reasons so many Agile transformations fail to achieve lasting change. “There is little alignment on what it means to be agile and even less around what it takes to achieve it. Organisations are wasting huge sums of money on coaches and consultants, and no clear approach in mind.” Karim Harbott created The Business Agility Canvas to help organizations clarify the business drivers leading their change to Agile. In this episode of the podcast, Karim explains the six enablers of business agility and how to use the Business Agility Canvas. Karim is a seasoned Agile Trainer, Executive Coach, and a founding partner of Agile Centre. He also currently serves on the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors. TO LEARN MORE AND DOWNLOAD THE BUSINESS AGILITY CANVAS https://www.agilecentre.com/blog-the-business-agility-canvas/ Links from the Podcast Business Model Canvas: https://bit.ly/2MIkEDv Kotter's 8 Step Change Model: https://bit.ly/3f4siV3 Contacting Karim ScrumAlliance: https://scrumalliance.org/community/profile/kharbott Email: karim.harbott@agilecentre.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/KarimHarbott LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimharbott/

This is part 2 of my interview with Tony Johnson from Crosswind PM. In this part of the interview Tony and talk through his recent experience attending a Disciplined Agile Training event held by PMI. We also share our thoughts and opinions on why PMI acquired Disciplined Agile and Flex and how we are expecting that to impact the Project Management community. In the first part of the interview, which you can find here (https://bit.ly/3bnDXw0), Tony and I discussed some of the upcoming changes to the Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), how that will impact the PMP Exam, and the impact you can expect it have on your work in PM. If you’d like to reach out to Tony with follow up questions: Web: crosswindpm.com Email: tjohnson@crosswindpm.com Twitter: twitter.com/crosswindpm

One of the results of the health crisis we are currently facing is that large public gatherings are temporarily off the table. No in-person events. Many events have been canceled, some are working out how to move online and some new ones have been specifically created to take place in a virtual setting. The Agile Virtual Summit is taking place on Jun 1-5, 2020. It’s all online and you can earn upwards of 25 PDU’s by joining some of the most influential thought leaders in the Agile Space (and beyond.) The speaker list includes Diana Larsen, Lyssa Adkins, Jim Benson, Clinton Keith, Ronica Roth, and more.  In this episode of the podcast, Adam Weisbart and I talk about what led to the event, why he put it together, and what to expect from it. In addition to talking about the event, Adam and I also discuss some of the challenges we’ve each faced since moving to a way of working that is 100% online. We share some of the things we’ve learned and tips that can help you be more effective for your teams in this new way of working. Agile Virtual Summit: https://agilevirtualsummit.com/ Contacting Adam: Web: https://weisbart.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weisbart/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Weisbart Email: adam@weisbart.com

There is probably nothing in the last 20 years that has had as comprehensive an impact on how we work as Covid-19. Yes, there were team members who worked remote before or maybe your team was distributed around the globe, but we've never been in a situation where EVERYONE was working from home. That is a completely different thing. It comes with unique challenges that we are only starting to adjust to. For me personally, moving my work online has been incredibly challenging, and while the challenges are not always easily solved, and they are not always challenges I want to deal with, they are always rewarding. Along with the things I've learned how to do right, there are many things I have learned to do wrong. The exploration of how to get better at online facilitation and teaching led me to a point where I knew I needed to check in with an expert. As luck would have it, Mark Kilby happened to be in an online training I took recently on how to facilitate large online collaboration. Mark is the co-author, along with Johanna Rothman, of the book From Chaos to Successfully Distributed Agile Teams. If you work with distributed teams and you are looking for practical answers to struggles you are facing, YOU NEED THIS BOOK. After the class, I asked Mark if he'd be open to talking about what it has been like for him since Corona hit and what he's discovered in the way of best practices and antipatterns for online facilitation. So if you are looking for some tips on what to do and what to not do when you are working with your teams online, you'll find a lot of valuable ideas shared in this interview. Mark's Book From Chaos to Successfully Distributed Agile Teams https://amzn.to/3bPVDkT Contacting Mark: Web: https://www.markkilby.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkilby LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/