Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

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

“Agile is not something you become, Agile is something you become more of.” For organizations that are engaged in Agile Transformation, it is often very challenging to get a sense of where you are with respect to successfully adopting a new way of working. Comparative Agility is a tool that has been designed to help Agile coaches and organizations get a deeper understanding of their progress towards Agile transformation. In this interview, Jorgen Hesselberg, co-founder of Comparative Agility, and I discuss how the tool has evolved since it was created in 2008 and how it is now being used by coaches and organizations to not only understand how their transformation is going, but how they are doing compared to others within their vertical, as well. We also talk about the work that Comparative Agility has been doing with the Scrum Alliance and how the tool has been extended to include things like Security and DevOps, in addition to discussing Jorgen’s book “Unlocking Agility.” If you’d like to check out Comparative Agility, you can find it here: https://www.comparativeagility.com If you’d like to read “Unlocking Agility”, you can find it here: https://amzn.to/2setHly Contacting Jorgen Email: jorgen@comparativeagility.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/jhesselberg

Earlier this fall at the 2018 Large Scale Scrum Conference in NYC, Ellen Gottesdiener and Andy Repton led a session called “What is Our Product” (https://less.works/sessions/2018-less-conference-new-york-what-is-our-product-88). During the course of their presentation they showcased many of the tools they use with clients to determine what the product they are building actually is. In this interview Ellen and Andy explain why this question is not as easy to understand as it seems and why it is so critical to product success. During the course of our conversation they walk through some of the tools they use to help clients deepen their understanding of the product, how to make sure it is strategically aligned, and how this can even be done with massive organizations that are developing infrastructure products. Andy and Ellen’s “What is Our Product” session from the LeSS Conference The session description is here: https://less.works/sessions/2018-less-conference-new-york-what-is-our-product-88 As soon as the recording of the session is available, the link will be posted here. In the meantime, you can find their slides here: https://www.slideshare.net/ellengott/what-is-our-product Contacting Andy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyrepton/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/reptonandy Contacting Ellen Web: https://www.ebgconsulting.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ellengott Email: ellen@ebgconsulting.com Ellen’s Books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ellen-Gottesdiener/e/B001KD7PRW Ellen is working on a post on the Product Canvas and I will update the link when it is available, in the meantime, you might want to check out “Am I a Product Manager or a Product Owner” Part 1 https://www.ebgconsulting.com/blog/product-manager-product-owner/ Part 2 https://www.ebgconsulting.com/blog/product-manager-product-owner-part-2/ Discover to Deliver As soon as the downloadable PDF is available, the link will be posted here. In the meantime, for ore on Discover to Deliver, check out: https://www.ebgconsulting.com/blog/right-things-not-everything-product-management-ownership/

The Scrum Alliance and Forbes Insights recently released a report called the “The Elusive Agile Enterprise” (https://www.scrumalliance.org/forbes/). The report presents the findings of a survey that involved over 1,000 C-level executives across the globe in a range of industries. In this interview, Scrum Alliance Vice President of Global Marketing and Communications, Renata Lerch (https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/profile/rlerch) and I talk through the results of this survey and what they mean for organizations adopting Agile. We also explore some of the more valuable insights that came out of the report including the 3 elements determined to be critical to a successful adoption of Agile and how the findings have helped the Scrum Alliance make a decision to target Human Resources as an area of growth in the future. Download the Report You can download a copy of the report at https://www.scrumalliance.org/forbes/ Contact Renata Lerch: Scrum Alliance site: https://www.scrumalliance.org/community/profile/rlerch Twitter: https://twitter.com/limalerch?lang=en Email: rlerch@scrumalliance.org