Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

What does it take to be a great Product Owner? On Wednesday, May 22nd at the North American Global Scrum Gathering, Certified Scrum Trainer Richard Cheng will be leading a session called The Perfect Product Owner. In this interview Richard and I discuss some of the material he will be exploring in his session, some of the organizational conditions needed to enable a Product Owner to deliver value for the organization, and some Product Owner anti-patterns to watch out for. Towards the end of the podcast we also offer some tips for Scrum Gathering first-timers to help them get the most out of their experience in Austin. Here are the details for Richard’s session in Austin: The Perfect Product Owner 2019 North American Global Scrum Gathering - Austin Wednesday, May 22, 2019 2:45 PM - Room E To check out the full program for the Scrum Gathering, click here: https://www.scrumalliance.org/events/calendar/austin2019 If you’d like to contact Richard: Excella: https://www.excella.com/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardcheng/ Twitter https://twitter.com/RichardKCheng

This podcast features an interview with Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby about their new book "From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver" (https://tinyurl.com/yyrbhcrz). Distributed Teams present challenges for any group of people trying to work together. This is true in a traditional approach to project work, but maybe even more so in an Agile approach, where many of the frameworks are based on the idea of co-location. The challenges distributed teams face are present regardless of whether you are separated by 12 time zones or by a single flight of stairs. It can absolutely work, and there can be many benefits to working distributed. The big question is how? In their new book “From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver" (https://tinyurl.com/yyrbhcrz), Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby deliver the practical answers we all need to help our distributed teams succeed. During the interview Mark and Johanna explain who they wrote the book for and how it can help. We also walk through a few of the most critical practices that help distributed teams work well together, and the authors share some tips that they did not include in the final version of the book. Now... I generally try to remain objective in this blog/podcast, but... GO BUY THIS BOOK! YOU NEED THIS BOOK! As someone who works with and on distributed teams, I have questions of my own with respect to steps that can be taken to foster a distributed team's success. This book had answers/strategies for all my questions and it is sure to be an invaluable resource for anyone working on or with distributed teams. Links mentioned in the podcast: "From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver" can be purchased on: Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PRYM1TF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0 LeanPub https://leanpub.com/geographicallydistributedagileteams Dave interviews Johanna and Mark about writing as a Distributed Team at Agile 2018 https://youtu.be/JMxEeeCtK2I Johanna and Mark will be speaking at Agile 2019 https://www.agilealliance.org/agile2019/ Mark will be speaking at Mile High Agile https://www.milehighagile.org Contacting Johanna Web: https://www.jrothman.com Create an Adaptable Life: http://www.createadaptablelife.com Johanna's Fiction: https://www.jrothman.com/johannas-fiction/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/johannarothman?lang=en LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johannarothman/ Johanna on Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/y244gf35 Contacting Mark Web: https://www.markkilby.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/mkilby LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mkilby/

Insights from two days of Personal Kanban training w/ Amitai Schleier A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of taking a class put on by Modus Cooperandi called “Individual, Team, & Project Success: Personal Kanban" with Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria, authors of the book Personal Kanban. Even though personal kanban is a system I am very familiar with, I was psyched to be able to take the class because I was confident that spending two days with Jim and Toni was going to have a deep impact. One surprise benefit was that I finally got a chance to meet Amitai Schleier in person. Both Amitai and I had a lot of valuable takeaways from the class. In this episode of The Reluctant Agilist, we share what we learned from our time with Jim and Toni and some of the challenges each of us face day-to-day in dealing with limiting our WIP and managing flow. Both of us highly recommend taking any training you can with Jim and Tonianne. They are brilliant and come from diverse backgrounds, which is part of what makes their classes so insightful. Upcoming Modus Leadership Class in NYC: Leader Standard Work in the Office: How to Be a Lean / Agile Leader or Work... https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leader-standard-work-in-the-office-how-to-be-a-lean-agile-leader-or-work-with-one-tickets-58671636444 Amitai’s Upcoming Events Webinar: "Mob Programming Explained" https://schmonz.com/talk/2019-smartbear (April 11, 2019) Deliver Agile https://schmonz.com/talk/2019-deliveragile (May 1, 2019) Big Apple Scrum Day: "Two Midwesterners Politely Invite You To Explore Coding" https://schmonz.com/talk/2019-basd/ (May 10, 2019) Contacting Amitai Amitai on the web: https://schmonz.com Amitai on Twitter: https://twitter.com/schmonz Agile in 3 Minutes Podcast: https://agilein3minut.es Modus Cooperandi Links: Personal Kanban: http://personalkanban.com/pk/ Lean Coffee: https://moduscooperandi.com/pk-lean-coffee Jim and Tonianne’s books and classes: https://moduscooperandi.com/books-and-classes Contacting Jim and Tonianne Jim Benson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ourfounder Tonianne DeMaria on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sprezzatura The Reluctant Agilist is hosted on ProjectManagement.com. This podcast may not be copied or reused without their permission.

What we say matters. One of they keys to being a successful ScrumMaster is language. It’s not enough to just put the message out, you need to encode it in a way that allows it to be received and decoded in a way that will deliver the message you intended. Tyler Grant is a ScrumMaster who is concerned with how buzzwords and jargon can create divisions within teams, and is generally less precise than other, more technical language.  These words often lead to poor communication habits, misunderstanding, team members feeling alienated, not to mention the myriad of ways it can impact the deliverable. During this podcast, Tyler and I talk through why this topic is so important, how to become more aware of it, what to do if you find yourself communicating using less than precise language and what to do if you are on the receiving end of it. If you’d like to contact Tyler, you can reach him in the following ways: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-grant/ Email: tpgrant91@yahoo.com The Reluctant Agilist is hosted on ProjectManagement.com. This podcast may not be copied or reused without their permission.

In this episode of the Reluctant Agilist, Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile Coach, Eric Tucker, and I talk through two related questions that came from students in my classes: What is the best way to inject defects into a sprint? How do you reset expectations with stakeholders if you are going to fail a sprint? During the interview Eric and talk about why adding/removing work from a sprint is generally not something you want to do, but what you should do if it is unavoidable. We also touch on what to do if the team discovers that they will not be able to deliver on their sprint forecast, why you want to make sure the stakeholders know ahead of time and what some other options might be. If you’d like to reach Eric with follow up questions, here is his contact information: Web: http://sustainedagility.com LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericptucker/ The Reluctant Agilist is hosted on ProjectManagement.com. This podcast may not be copied or reused without their permission.

Last fall the Scrum Alliance took the bold step of changing their leadership structure from a traditional model to one that was based around a Chief Product Owner and Chief Scrum Master. Even for an organization whose mission is to “change the world of work” this was a brave experiment to run because it has never been done before. Howard Sublett returned to the Scrum Alliance as Chief Product Owner and the search began for someone to take up the challenge of defining role of Chief ScrumMaster for the Scrum Alliance.  In December the Scrum Alliance announced that Melissa Boggs had accepted the position of Chief Scrum Master. Melissa comes to the role with a background steeped in coaching, transformation and working on teams. In this interview I got the chance to talk with Melissa about her new role, what it entails and how she will bring her experience as a coach into her new leadership role at the Scrum Alliance.  (CONTEXT - If you were not aware of this, it’s a pretty significant moment. You can find examples of a Chief PO leading a group of PO’s, but for an organization to transform it’s leadership team in this way is a huge change that, if successful, could have a ripple effect impacting how organizations are structured and staffed from the very top on down.) Links If you’d like to check out the Unscripted videos Melissa mentioned in the interview you can find them on the Scrum Alliance Facebook page here: https://bit.ly/2XGTLEw And if you'd like check out the interview I did with Howard Sublett on his role as Chief Product Owner, you can find it here: https://bit.ly/2TnQKdJ Contacting Melissa If you’d like to reach Melissa here are a few ways you can reach her: Scrum Alliance Profile: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/profile/mboggs2 Email: mboggs@scrumalliance.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/hmngbirdagility LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-boggs/ The Reluctant Agilist is hosted on ProjectManagement.com. This podcast may not be copied or reused without their permission.

If you’ve achieved a certification through the Scrum Alliance one of the things you need to do to maintain your certification is to renew it every two years. In order to do this you will have to earn Scrum Educational Units (SEUs). Two of the most common questions I get at the end of each Certified Scrum Master or Certified Scrum Product Owner class are “How many SEUs do I need to renew?” and “How do I earn SEUs?” The number of SEUs you have to earn depends on the level of certification(s) you have and there are a number of ways to earn them. The Scrum Alliance has a web page explaining how SEUs work here: https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-certified/scrum-education-units. But, in an effort to help simplify all of it, I asked TJay Gerber, Global Certification Manager and Education Department Product Owner for the Scrum Alliance to let me interview him about how SEUs work, how people can earn them, and how they can figure out how many they need. In this interview we talk through the whole thing, so if you have questions, this should help. If you’d like to reach out to TJay with follow up questions, you can reach him via email at tgerber@scrumalliance.org

Jason Tanner is the CEO of Applied Frameworks. He has a widely ranging background that includes Project Management, Product Management, and professional IT training. He’s also a Certified Scrum Trainer who spends time working with individuals who are in the process of trying to become CSTs and he’s on a personal mission to save the Daily Scrum. During this episode of the podcast, Jason and I talk through how his background (which includes serving in the military) led him on the journey to becoming a CST and leading Applied Frameworks. We also dig into his process for helping CST candidates prepare for co-training, the CST submission process itself, and being on a TAC panel. If you’d like to reach Jason you can find him here: Applied Frameworks: http://appliedframeworks.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasontanner/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonbtanner And if you'd like to learn more about becoming a Certified Scrum Trainer, you can find that here: https://www.scrumalliance.org/get-certified/trainers/cst-certification

"Consistency is the junk food of management." As 2019 gets underway the Reluctant Agilist checks in with Jesse Fewell on his primary areas of focus heading into the New Year. During this episode of the podcast Dave and Jesse discuss the current state of traditional PM vs. Agile, the role of the PMO in an Agile organization and how both of these topics have evolved since they began trying to develop programming aimed at helping PMP's move to a more Agile state. Jesse and Dave both come from a background deeply stepped in traditional project management before finding their way to Agile. Since then a large portion of their time has been spent working on helping traditional PMs find an easier path to agility and in helping to solve the great question of how the PMO can remain relevant in a traditional organization that is working through Agile transformation. Links from the Podcast The Leadership Circle https://leadershipcircle.com Mastering Leadership https://amzn.to/2CQIB6h Scaling Leadership https://amzn.to/2FVHvdG Bible in a Year App on iTunes: https://apple.co/2DHqBdj Jesse's Upcoming Events PMI versus Agile: Adversaries or allies?https://www.meetup.com/Agile-Fredericksburg/events/256845346/ The Agile PMO Workshop: https://jessefewell.com/the-agile-pmo-pittsburgh-pa-february-8/ ProjectCon: https://projectconevent.com/ Global Scrum Gathering Austin 2019 https://events.scrumalliance.org/austin-2019 Contacting Jesse Web: https://jessefewell.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessefewell LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessefewell/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/jessefewell

Agile is not easy. Many organizations struggle with trying to break free of their traditional work culture and finding their path to a different way of working. Along the way, many organizations give up, or slowly slide back into the old ways of working because making the transition is just too hard. If you happen to work at one of those organizations, this episode should offer you something special to start off the new year. This episode offers HOPE. Hearst Digital Media has been working on making the transition to Agile for the past few years. As you’ll hear in the interview, what they’ve achieved is a group that has adopted and adapted a variety of Agile practices and found a way of working that is not just a great example of how to make Agile work for your organization, but how you can establish a group in lieu of a traditional PMO that exists to support, nurture and continuously improve their approach in order to deliver value for their organization and their customers. This episode of The Reluctant Agilist features Michelle Dennis, Director of Product Management, and Jacquelyn Talpalar, Director of Agile Operations for Hearst Digital Media. During the conversation we talk through how they’ve evolved the approach Hearst Digital Media has taken in transitioning to Agile and how that approach has helped them scale from 3 Scrum-ish teams to 24 teams in four years. The group is serving over 1 billion customers a year and on-boarding new products at the rate of almost one a week. Their path was not an easy one and Jacquelyn and Michelle share some of the challenges they faced along the way and offer advice for those who are currently working on making the switch. If you are in need of a good example of how Agile can help you succeed and grow, this podcast should give you a nice boost. For me, this was a truly inspiring interview. I hope you will enjoy it. Oh - and if you are looking for a gig at a place that has figured all this out… they’re hiring. If you’d like to download the graphics mentioned in the interviewt, you can find them here. https://bit.ly/2Fz3VAb If you’d like to contact Michelle Dennis: Email: michellesd02@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2AKq6QK If you’d like to contact Jacquelyn Talpalar: Email: jacquelyn.talpalar@gmail.com LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/2Hdvb9R