Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

Suzanna Haworth gave a talk at the 2018 Digital PM Summit called "Adapting Agile: How to Make a Blended Agile Approach Work For You". Agile and Digital can be an odd fit. In her talk Suze focused on how digital agencies can begin introducing agile practices into their workflow in order to realize some of the benefits that agility can provide. The talk was very popular. So popular in fact, that I wasn't able to get in. Fortunately Suze was kind enough to let me interview her about her session once she got back home to London. In this interview she shares some of the key points from her session and explains her take on hybrid approaches to bringing agile and a traditional (waterfall) approach together. If you work at a digital agency and you're trying to figure out how to make agile fit, there are some great tips in here for you. (Also, apologies for some of the background noise - they were doing construction in the apartment above mine and it could not be helped.) If you'd like to get in touch with Suze to ask her some follow up questions, here is her contact info: LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanna-haworth-55073616/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/suzehaworth Web: https://suzannahaworth.com

Patrice Embry gave a lightning talk called “Finessing a Retrospective to Get Results” at the 2018 Digital PM Summit. After her talk Patrice and I had a chance to sit down and talk through some of the ideas she shared that you can use to hep you get more value out of the moments where you and your team stop to inspect and adapt how things are working on your project. The tips Patrice shares in the interview (and in her talk) will work for you whether you are holding a more traditional review (like a Post-Mortem or a Project Review), or if you are working with Agile and holding a Retrospective Meeting. (Including how to hold these meetings if you are working remotely.) If you’d like to get in touch with Patrice with follow up questions, here is how you can reach her via her website: http://www.patrice-embry.com.

A few weeks ago the 2018 Digital PM Summit was held in Memphis. This is the 6th year the conference has been held and the Bureau of Digital (https://bureauofdigital.com) put together another incredibly inspiring conference. The event focuses on helping PMs in who work in the Digital space amp up their ability to practice their craft. During the conference, Aaron Irizarry gave a presentation called “Laying the Groundwork: Building Foundations for High-Performing Teams”. (https://bureauofdigital.com/aaron-irizarry) Aaron is currently working as a Design Director at Capital One. After Aaron’s session we had the chance to sit down and record a podcast on how to create Personas. During the interview we talk about why personas are so important how to go about creating archetypes, personas, how to conduct proxy interviews, and how much detail you should include when you are putting them together. Aaron is also the co-author of Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/149190240X/ref=cm_sw_su_dp) If you’d like to get in touch with Aaron with additional questions or to hear more about his session at the Summit, you can reach him via Twitter at https://twitter.com/aaroni

Karim Harbott led a session at the 2018 Large Scale Scrum (LeSS) Conference on Agility and Company Culture. In this episode, Karim shares some highlights from his session and then Dhaval Panchal, Richard Cheng and I talk through some of the challenges with trying to transform different aspects of company culture and the company value system in order to foster an environment that can support business agility. Contacting Karim https://www.agilecentre.com/ https://twitter.com/KarimHarbott Contacting Dhaval https://evolveagility.com/https://evolveagility.com/ https://twitter.com/dhavalpanchal Contacting Richard https://www.excella.com/ https://twitter.com/RichardKCheng

This week in New York City the Lower East Side is host to the 3rd Annual LeSS Conference. I stopped by the conference today and had the chance to sit down with Bas Vodde to talk about Large Scale Scrum and the annual event they hold to bring the coaches, trainers and practitioners of LeSS together. The LeSS Conference is not like a standard IT Conference. During the interview Bas explains how their approach to setting up and running the event focuses on letting the on-site attendees drive the content and work together to develop new tools, games, and techniques to help the growth, adoption and practice of Large Scale Scrum. If you aren’t familiar with LeSS, this interview will help you get an understanding of how this approach to scaling has a philosophy that aims to simplify things as much as possible in order to create greater understanding of what is blocking an organization from being able to truly adopt an agile approach to work. During the conversation we dig into what happens to the traditional portfolio and program view when you adopt LeSS and take a more product focused approach to work. We also discuss the difference between LeSS and LeSS Huge, which is designed to help organizations running upwards of 8 teams create products using agile. If you’d like to learn more about Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), including case studies, please check: http://less.works If you are having trouble finding someone to help you implement LeSS, send an email to support@less.works And if you’d like to reach out to Bas directly, send an email to basv@odd-e.com

This is a frequent question in the CSPO classes I teach. Many organizations want the benefits of Agile. Sometimes they assign people to the role of Product Owner, and then continue with business as usual. For the role of PO to work effective, you need an individual filling the Product Owner role who is will and able to make decisions, even without all the information they would want to make the decisions. AND they need to be working in an organization that trust them to make those decisions.  
 If you don't have that, if you are in a PO role, but management is handing you products with deadlines and ever changing scope (cause it's agile #sarcasm), then you're in trouble.  So, how do you get started developing the skill and experience negotiating with stakeholders who may not view you as someone who has the gravitas to negotiate with them. 
 In this episode of drunkenPM radio, Steve Martin joins me to share his strategies and thoughts on how to cope with your need to develop negotiation skills. 
 Steve is the founder of Cottage Street Consulting (https://cottagestreetconsulting.com/) and you can also find him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/agilesteve/.

Emotional Science is a new book written by Audree and Michael Sahota that focuses on helping individuals discover and break through the blockers that are holding them back from becoming better leaders. It is often said that if you want to lead others, you first have to lead yourself. Many of us have the desire to be able to show up as better leaders, we read books, sign up for seminars and yet, when it comes down to doing the actual work, we struggle. The reason for this is often that, while we want the results, the work itself is often too daunting to take on. Emotional Science provides a set of tools you can begin to employ that will help you discover the blockers you have placed in your own path and work through how to remove those blockers. The book also explores how your own emotional history can impact your ability to gain clarity on how that history impacts your ability to lead yourself, and others. One of the most impactful things I have picked up from this book is the idea that emotions have no sense of time. Something from your past that is unresolved can sneak up and find it’s way into how you respond to something that is happening to you right now. This is true of humans, and, to an extent, to companies as well. In this interview Audree and Michael share what led them to writing this book and how their diverse backgrounds brought them together in a shared goal of helping us (and the organizations we work for) find a better way to show up and be clear about the work required to achieve the results we are looking for when it comes to transformation. If you’d like to learn more about Emotional Science, including the free exercises and downloads that are offered and links to where you can purchase the book, visit https://emotionalscience.com/ You can also find Michael via the links below: Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelsahota LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/michaelsahota And if you’d like to find out more about Michael’s Certified upcoming Scrum and Certified Agile Leadership Classes, click here: https://bit.ly/2NXcEgN

Iain Fraser is a PMI Fellow, a former Chair of the PMI Board of Directors and the author of The Business of Portfolio Management. The book focuses on helping businesses deepen their perception of business portfolio management, and how strengthening their practices in that area can help them thrive in a business world where the only constant is change. In this episode of the podcast, I had the chance to speak with Iain about his book, how his experiences in working in Portfolio, Program and Project management have evolved over time. How business agility fits into the work he does and the great impact that volunteering has had on his career. When you are listening to this interview, one thing I hope you will take not of is how Iain talks about the various aspects of business agility. His use of traditional practices, Lean and agile practices are all aimed at helping organizations develop greater adaptability at the business portfolio level. These various practices are discussed (and employed) without a value judgement being placed on any of them. They are used as needed all in the service of helping organizations learn to cope with change. The Business of Portfolio Management Amazon https://amzn.to/2NzAe2S PMI https://bit.ly/2LesWol Fishpond https://bit.ly/2Li99V5 Contacting Iain LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/iain-fraser-8a42b1/ ProjectManagement.com https://www.projectmanagement.com/profile/iainfraser55 Email Iain.Fraser@jacobite.co.nz PMI 2018 Global Congress Workshop Business Change Management - Heading for the Future https://bit.ly/2JLrILY

We’ve reached a stage in the evolution of work where some of the folks now entering the workforce were raised by professional Agile practitioners. This might not seem like a big deal, but consider that this is a generation that will not have to go through the process of unlearning all the dysfunctional practices that most of us had to let go of. These are folks who have been working in an agile way their whole lives and, because it is native to them, they are free from the cognitive dissonance most of us face when we move to a more Agile state. In this interview I am joined by Bria Johnson and Blake Halvorson. Both of them were raised by seasoned Agile practitioners. Bria and Blake used Agile throughout their schooling and entered the workforce already deep with knowledge of how it works. During the interview, we explore how they came to Agile, how they employed it in school, and how they’ve used it since leaving school. For me, one of the most powerful parts of the interview was when Bria and Blake explained how they approached their schoolwork in college. Their seemingly simple approach is so massively different from the way I managed my work in school—it left me very envious. Contacting Bria and Blake If you’d like to reach out to Bria or Blake with follow up questions, here is how you can reach them: Bria Johnson https://www.linkedin.com/in/bria-johnson-csm-cspo-48175931/ Blake Halvorson https://www.linkedin.com/in/blake-halvorson-csm-cspo-6b401a90/

During the 2018 North American Global Scrum Gathering in Minneapolis, (https://bit.ly/2LOd5ZD) I had a chance to interview the Interim Co-CEOs of the Scrum Alliance: Shannon Carter, Renata Lerch, and Angie Stecovich. In addition to their new roles, they also serve as VP of Education, VP of Global Marketing and Communications, and Sr. Director of Finance, respectively. Shannon, Renata, and Angie explain how their roles have changed at the Scrum Alliance and how being part of an agile leadership team has prepared them for this. They also speak about all the new things happening at the Scrum Alliance. During the interview, they share details about a number of new initiatives at the Scrum Alliance (including how the certifications offered by the Scrum Alliance have changed over the last year and continue to evolve) as well as new benefits being offered to Certified Scrum Professionals (like free access to Comparative Agility (https://www.comparativeagility.com), an online assessment tool that can be used to help organizations develop their agile capabilities). By far, the biggest announcement the Scrum Alliance made during the 2018 North American Global Scrum Gathering was the partnership with Jeff Sutherland and Scrum Inc. to form a new organization called Scrum at Scale (https://www.scrumatscale.com) that is focused on helping large organizations transform to Agile. If you’d like to check out an interview with Jeff on the partnership, you can find it here: http://drunkenpm.blogspot.com/2018/04/jeff-sutherland-at-2018-global-scrum.html For more on the Scrum Alliance: https://www.scrumalliance.org