Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

Many teams practicing Scrum adopt a mid-Sprint Review as a practice to help them ensure they are on track to deliver on their forecast by the end of the Sprint. For some teams, this involves holding an informal demo halfway through the Sprint to get feedback on the work they are doing. For other teams, the mid-Sprint review works differently and is used to provide transparency around a different set of issues. This episode of The Reluctant Agilist was recorded at the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering in Austin, TX. In the interview, EvolveAgility Founder Dhaval Panchal and I talk through how he began using a mid-Sprint review to help the teams he is working with gain awareness of their level of confidence that they will meet their commitment for the Sprint. During the conversation you’ll hear Dhaval and I discuss how it works and why. Here is a link to the Team Confidence Chart referenced during the podcast: http://bit.ly/2JL9tbl If you’d like to reach out to Dhaval directly, here is how you can reach him: Web: https://evolveagility.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/evolveagility/ Email: dhaval.panchal@evolveagility.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/evolveagility

One of the things a Project Manager and a ScrumMaster have in common is that at times, they are both called upon to act as a coach and act as a mentor. For anyone in a leadership role, creating clarity around the difference between the two can be challenging. And even for seasoned pros, knowing when to act as a mentor and when to act as a coach is not always easy. This podcast is about on mentoring and features Brandon Brown. Brandon has built a career that is deeply rooted in providing mentorship and serving others. His work focuses on creating, ensuring and sustaining safe places for young people to flourish so that they can, as he says, replace him. During the interview we dig into mentoring: what it is, how it is different from coaching, what it requires, and what the mentor and the mentee should expect from the relationship. We also spend time during the beginning of the podcast discussing some of the work Brandon is currently doing around trauma for Temple University's Lewis Katz School of Medicine. This is a subject we will be revisiting at a deeper level on an upcoming podcast. If you'd like to reach out to Brandon with follow up questions, here is how you can reach him: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brbphilly/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/b_pbs AboutMe: https://about.me/brandonrbrown

What kind of projects don’t fit with Agile? This is a very common question in the CSM and CSPO classes that I teach. My answer is always that while there are some types of work that are better suited to an Agile approach than others, it really comes down to the organization and the people involved. With the right mindset, an iterative approach that is focused on inspect and adapt can be valuable in pretty much any situation… including building a bar. Alex Brown is the Founder and Principal at Glaessel Ventures, a Boston based firm that combines strategic consulting, agile training, and co-investment to help innovative companies of all sizes bring new products to market successfully. In this interview, recorded at the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering, Alex shares his story of “Boozy Scrum," or how he used Scrum to build a bar in his basement. It offers a great case study of how Scrum can be used for personal projects that fall well outside the realm of technology. If you’d like to see some before and after pics of Alex’s work, head over to my Reluctant Agilist blog at ProjectManagement.com -> https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-post/54822/Boozy-Scrum-with-Alex-Brown-at-2019-Austin-Scrum-Gathering Contacting Alex If you'd like to reach out to Alex to follow up with questions on his Boozy Scrum project, here is his contact info: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexanderjbrown/ Email: alex@glaesselventures.com

Nic Sementa is man of many skills. He’s an Agilist, a Marketing Consultant, an Entrepreneur… he does Business Development, he’s a sales ninja, and he’s someone who spends a lot of time honing his skills in listening and communicating. This podcast began at the 2019 Scrum Gathering in Austin. Nic and I were talking and ended up on the topic of nonviolent communication. The conversation we had in Austin and Nic’s take on NVC and other communication practices was so compelling that I asked if we could pick up the topic during a podcast. For anyone who makes their living as a traditional PM or is involved with Agile and helping to support, motivate, and lead teams, studying different communication patterns and language techniques is a survival tactic. In this conversation with Nic Sementa, you’ll gain insights into several new communication tools, how and why they work, and how you can practice a language technique like NVC from a place that is both vulnerable and strong at the same time Nonviolent Communication Links Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg https://amzn.to/2J1llXI What We Say Matters: Practicing Nonviolent Communication by Ike and Judith Lasater https://amzn.to/2JvDH2b Center for Non-Violent Communication: https://www.cnvc.org Nic’s Contact Info: Web: https://nicsementa.com Formula Ink: http://www.formulaink.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicsementa LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nic-sementa-2753242b/

At the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering, I had a chance to sit down with Ilker Demirel to talk about his involvement with The Leadership Gift Program and how it has transformed his life and his work helping individuals, teams, and organizations become “free, powerful, and at choice” and move from a mindset of scarcity to a mindset of abundance. Ilker is a Certified Leadership Gift Coach and Certified Scrum Trainer. The Leadership Gift Program and the Responsibility Process were created by Christopher Avery. I’ve interviewed Christopher previously about his work and The Leadership Gift Program (https://bit.ly/2xgr0Cx). I was excited to get the chance to spend time with Ilker because he is someone who has been working with the Responsibility Process for many years. The impact that it has had on him and his ability to communicate and interact with others is inspiring. Links from the podcast The Leadership Gift Program: https://leadershipgift.com The Responsibility Process: https://theresponsibilityprocess.com To Contact Ilker Demirel Web: https://LeadershipMindset.de LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilkerdemirel/ Email: ilker@ilkerdemirel.com

The Daily Scrum is one of the simplest and most critical elements of Scrum. Unfortunately, for many, this event becomes a traditional status meeting that delivers little value. If your Development Team has lost its way with their Daily Scrum, this podcast is for you. Jason Tanner is the CEO and Co-Founder of Applied Frameworks, as well as a Certified Scrum Trainer and a Path to CSP Educator. During the 2019 North America Global Scrum Gathering in Austin, he was kind enough to block out some time to talk through the different reasons he sees teams lose their way with the Daily Scrum and what can be done about it. If you’d like to get in touch with Jason: Applied Frameworks: https://appliedframeworks.com CSP Fast Pass: https://appliedframeworks.com Email: jtanner@appliedframeworks.com

At the 2019 North America Global Scrum Gathering, I had the chance to sit down with Carol McEwan, CEO and Chief Product Owner of Scrum at Scale, to talk about her new role and what has happened since the Scrum Alliance and Scrum Inc. announced Scrum at Scale as a joint venture at last year’s Gathering.  Carol took on the role of CEO/CPO of Scrum at Scale in March, but she previously served as the Managing Director of the Scrum Alliance. She has had a deep impact in the Scrum Community and in this interview you’ll get to hear about the new things she’s been working on, as well as how Scrum at Scale is helping organizations like Saab redefine their operational model and reduce decision latency using Scrum from top to bottom, and how this is enabling business agility across the entire enterprise.  To learn more about Scrum at Scale: https://www.scrumatscale.com If you’d like to get in touch with Carol to follow up, here is how you can reach her: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmcewan/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolmcewan Email: carol.mcewan@scrumatscale.com Phone: (303) 598-5039

Charlotte DiBartolomeo is the CEO and Founder of The Red Kite Project, an organization that provides resiliency training in high pressure industries. This work involves coaching, consulting, and training centered around how to dismantle dehumanizing systems, rebuild trusting relationships, and cope with burnout. As an example of this, The Red Kite Project worked with public transit bus drivers in Philadelphia who were trained in ways to cope with conflict, how to recognize and de-escalate verbal attacks, and how to develop coping skills to help them at work and at home. In this interview, Charlotte, who has a background in conflict mediation, crisis counseling, and human services, explains why trust is an endangered species and how we can go about rebuilding it and re-humanizing people. “The problem with fear is that it kills creativity” If you work in an organization where trust is scarce, failure is not an option, and “resources” are expected to meet demands that regularly require that they sacrifice the time they need to take care of themselves and their families, or in an organization that is experiencing system-wide burnout due to constant change, you’ll find ideas in here to help you understand the toll this is taking and steps you can take to rebuild trust. During the interview, Charlotte and Dave discuss how to transform your organization into a place that can celebrate teams and the value humans can deliver when we give them a safe space to thrive. To contact Charlotte DiBartolomeo and The Red Kite Project Web: http://www.redkiteproject.com Phone: (215) 459-3518

Recorded live at the 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering, this episode of The Reluctant Agilist features a conversation with Scrum Alliance Chief Product Owner Howard Sublett. During the course of the interview, Dave and Howard discuss Dan Pink’s opening keynote at the Scrum Gathering; the Scrum Alliance Labs and volunteer work that have been done to create a free library of material aimed at helping to develop a more mature and more highly-skilled agile coaching community; an update on how things are going with the recent shift in Scrum Alliance leadership moving to a Chief Scrum Master and Chief Scrum Product Owner instead of a traditional leadership model; and the video series Unscripted, which features updates from Howard and Melissa Boggs, the Scrum Alliance Chief Scrum Master.  Note from Dave: at 15:38, something really important in this interview happens. Howard refers to a question he asked Melissa during the first episode of Unscripted. The question was “How are WE doing as a LEADER?” It is a subtle thing, but language is a virus and words matter… “WE” is plural, while “LEADER” is singular. The way the question is encoded demonstrates a very subtle, but important aspect of an Agile mindset. Howard and Melissa have complimentary but different roles in the Scrum Alliance and the two of them together function as a single Leader. Failure Bow: I got The Wonder Twins (Zan and Jana) a little confused during the interview. I have brought shame upon my family and apologize to any comic geeks who were listening. If you are not clear on who the Wonder Twins are: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Twins Links from the Podcast Scrum Alliance Labs: https://www.scrumalliance.org/labs Unscripted - To catch the Scrum Alliance Unscripted Videos, just follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scrumalliance/ Contacting Howard Sublett Email: hsublett@scrumalliance.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/howardsublett

Trying to figure out when you will be ready to ship is incredibly challenging. Many Scrum teams track historic velocity, or story points completed in a Sprint, and then use the average number of points completed per Sprint as a way of making an educated guess as to when they could deliver when they’d expect to deliver a certain number of story points in the future. There are, however, many who feel that this approach is no better than just making a completely random guess, and there is evidence to support the value in taking a different approach. In this episode of The Reluctant Agilist, Troy Lightfoot explains his approach to Probabilistic Forecasting, what it is, why it matters, and how it is a better way of planning than using a more traditional approach. Books Recommended In the Podcast: Actionable Agile Metrics for Predictability - Dan Vacanti https://amzn.to/2HT1zfe When will it be done? - Dan Vacanti https://leanpub.com/whenwillitbedone Principle of Product of Development Flow - Don Reinterson https://amzn.to/2M989DD Tools mentioned in the podcast: Throughput and cycle time calculator:  http://focusedobjective.com/free-tools-resources/ Actionable Agile http://actionableagile.com Agile Uprising Agile Uprising http://agileuprising.com Contacting Troy Twitter: https://twitter.com/g4stroy Web: http://agileuprising.com/bod/troy-lightfoot/ http://www.cookingandketones.com