Joined LeadingAgile

I am happy to report that I have just joined the family at LeadingAgile.  LeadingAgile is dedicated to solving the challenges associated with Agile in larger, more complex enterprises. They provide Agile training and coaching, strategic enterprise Agile transformation consulting, and Agile project and portfolio management services. I've known Mike Cottmeyer since LeadingAgile was his blog, he was at VersionOne, and I was at the National Archives.

LeadingAgile is growing and I'm going to help them stand up Agile training around the Southeast and apply my enterprise Agile coaching abilities to some of the larger client engagements.

This is going to be a very easy transition for me.  The Agile community provides opportunities to know a lot of great people.  Step that up a notch to include someone you trust, respect, and enjoy hanging out with, and you've got Mike.  Come share a cup of coffee or a glass of beer with us at Agile 2012.  We'll be there!

Here are some LeadingAgile links to check out:

Website and Blog Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

Mike Cottmeyer on Twitter Dennis Stevens on Twitter

Zombie Culture

How do you refer to your company or team culture?  Do you refer to yourself and your immediate team as "we" or "us" and to your company or extended team as "they" or "them"?  If you do, do you think this is a problem?  I do. For arguments sake, let's refer to you as a non-zombie and we'll refer to your extended team or company as the potential zombies.

Though it was fun back in the 5th grade to play a game of tug of war with your classmates, it's not so cool when you're working in a corporate environment.  Projects can be challenging enough.  You shouldn't have to be distracted by other groups who don't have the same high level goals or values as yourself.  You should be working as a team in order to be successful.  But, does your team or company have clearly defined goals or values?  I'll ask it a different way.  Does your team or company have them written down; you know what they are; and you know what they mean?  If not, you and your group are at risk of being part of the zombie culture.

Zombie culture is a lot more common than you might think.  Zombies have no specific goals, other than to eat your brain.  They're not trying to make you a zombie.  Becoming a zombie is merely a byproduct to having been bitten by the undead.  They really don't care.

I've said before, don't do something unless it's applicable to meeting a goal.  But I bet you're asking yourself right about now, "Derek, if my coworker doesn't smell like rotting flesh or isn't squatting in a corner knawing on a foot, how do I know they are a zombie?"  I've compiled a list of a few indicators of zombie culture.

Zombie Culture Indicators

• Hosts meetings...long meetings... several of them...with no agenda... with several invitees.
• Stops by your desk a lot to ask what'cha doin'?
• Withholds information for personal gain
• Just shows up for work and thinks they are doing you a favor
• Farts (Actually, thinking of a farting zombie made me laugh so I thought I would add it)
• Uses the "cc" email feature by default, when the recipient has nothing to do with the conversation
• Uses the "reply-all" email feature to continue conversations that don't pertain to the group
• Is disrespectful
• Is untrustworthy (with throw you under a bus)
• Does not lead by example
• Tries to impress everyone by how smart they are. (that's a more advanced zombie type)

I can go on and on but I really don't like negative posts.  Let's turn this around.  What values can you and your team have that will have zombies avoiding you like the perfume department of the local Macy's department store?

Values to Repel Zombie Culture

• Deliver WOW Through Service
• Embrace and Drive Change
• Create Fun and A Little Weirdness
• Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded
• Pursue Growth and Learning
• Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication
• Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
• Do More With Less
• Be Passionate and Determined
• Expect to deliver the extraordinary
• Treat others with respect
• Promote collaboration and teamwork
• Encourage creativity and risk-taking
• Make and meet our commitments
• Trust and support one another
• Be Humble

I'm going to admit, I didn't think up those awesome zombie-repelling values.  I got them from Zappos and VersionOne. I'm going to go out on a limb and say I don't think either of those organizations have zombie cultures.  Can you say the same for yours?

Like the image?  Find them at Pictofigo

Week Ending Nov-13

Wow, it's been a busy week on the blog.  The amount of comments from last week's posts kept me busy clear into this week. Early in the week, I was asked about the RSS feeds that I read daily.  I listed them earlier in the year.  In just a few month, I started using Twitter a lot more and feeds less.  Read more... A retrostpecitve - daily read, then and now

Next, I wrote about how within different areas within organizations, people feel they are the true center of the universe.  Read more... about how I feel people should not forget the larger goal

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to see a webinar, from VersionOne and their Moving Agile into the Mainstream webinar series.  Read more... about AgileLive

I was then inspired to write about the need to Communicate effectively. See what I think are the best and worst ways to communicate.

On Thursday, I was interviewed for an upcoming podcast about project management and project leadership.  It inspired me to write a post titled Chasing the carrot Read more...

Like the image?  Find it at Pictofigo

AgileLIVE Webinar Series

Not seeing the productivity gains you expected?  Are you and your stakeholders losing confidence in your team's ability to deliver?  Are you sure you are measuring the right things? VersionOne and their Moving Agile into the Mainstream webinar series provides proven techniques to help you and your team with the tough issues facing agile managers, scrum masters and product owners.  Fifty-minute sessions feature case studies from teams that have succeeded in using agile methods to efficiently create better software.

Today, I saw "The Hybid PMO" by Sanjiv Augustine and Roland Cuellar of LitheSpeed

Even when agile methods succeed unequivocally at the team level, middle-management still faces two major, continuing challenges: managing a hybrid portfolio of agile and non-agile teams, and reporting progress upwards to the executive boardroom. How can PMOs bridge the gap between executive management weaned on plan-driven methods and predictability, and teams operating with agility in the face of uncertainty? How can they create a consistent reporting framework applicable to both agile and non-agile teams and communicate all-around progress effectively?

Sanjiv and Roland shared principles and techniques for the Hybrid PMO, and discussed some of the crucial management steps in establishing such a group, based upon their decade of experience in helping firms adopt agile at enterprise scale.

It doesn't matter if you want to learn from leading Agile pundits or just looking to get a few PMI PDUs.  This webinar was very enjoyable.  VersionOne will be uploading the webinar in a day or tow for those who were unable to join the live presentation.  All of this was FREE!

So, head on over to VersionOne and check out the other webinars from the series, from the likes of Dr. Alistair Cockburn, Bryan Stallings and Valerie Morris -  SolutionsIQ, and Michael Spayd - Collective Edge Consulting

The awesome Image and some of the content for this post courtesy of VersionOne

Mike Cottmeyer talks about scaling Scrum

On our current project, we have over 100 people across 14 Scrum teams.  The challenge?  How do you communicate between Scrum teams?  Well, that all depends. What are the dependencies between the teams? Though I could write a 1000+ word post about this, I figured I would just link to a short but informative video.  In it, you'll see Mike Cottmeyer talk about scaling Scrum and how you might have different types of scrum-of-scrums (the way you would communicate between Scrum teams).  Mike is a Product Consultant and Agile Evangelist at VersionOne.  You can read more from Mike on his blog, Leading Agile, or on the VersionOne blog, Agile Chronicles. I'm hoping if all goes well, we'll be bringing Mike to Washington DC to offer a few days of training.  I'm sure this will be one of the many important topics to cover.