Thank You Guys and Agile Community of Practice

I was asked the other day if it was worth being a member of PMI.  I wasn't completely sure.  See, you can be a PMP in good standing but not have to be a member of PMI.  It's strange to me but true.  Granted, as a member, you get discounts to attend events and go to networking events (if you're into that).  But, was there real value to me? Last night I had the pleasure of hanging out with Mike Cottmeyer, Jesse Fewell, Brian Bozzuto, and Dennis Stevens.  They were all in Washington DC, attending the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting (LIM) and representing the PMI Agile Community of Practice (CoP).  Now, I will be at the PMI Global Congress Sunday through Tuesday but these guys are in town this week.

Well, last night I spent 6 hours with them.  So, ask me again if it's worth being a member of PMI. My answer is now a confident yes.  I say yes, not so much for being a member of PMI but rather being a member of the Agile CoP.  These four fellows are the kind of Agile thought leaders you want to talk to, if you ever need some inspiration.  If these four are what you get when you team PMI and an Agile CoP, I see a great future.

I was going to go into some details of our conversations, but it would probably be 5-pages of me ranting about stuff with stopping points when one of the guys hands me another beer.

I genuinely had an awesome time and am inspired by each of them.

If you are a PMP and are passionate about Agile, I would strongly recommend you get involved with the PMI Agile Community of Practice.  Not sure quite yet?  Then at least do yourself the favor of looking these guys up, read what they have written, go listen to them speak, or get some training from them.

If you're reading my blog and you're in need of some Agile Training, Agile Coaching, or Agile Transformation, send me an email and I will reach out to my ever-growing Agile circle of friends.

Why Ask Why

Before you spend the next week, redesigning the TPS report, you need to stop and ask yourself a simple question.

Why?

Why are you doing it?   If you can not map the task back to a stakeholder or customer objective/requirement (goal) you better stop now.  Some people call this gold-plating.  Additionally if you can not map the task back to one of your personal goals, you better stop now.  I call that flushing time down a toilet.

Do you sometimes feel like you're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?  Are you spending all of your time doing stuff that is not getting you any closer the real goal?  Well, stop for a minute and pretend you are a 5-year-old.

Whenever you ask a 5-year-old to do something, they never seem to do it without first asking why.

Go sit down Why?

Because it's dinner time. Why?

Because you need to eat your dinner. Why?

Because I don't want child protective services saying we don't feed you. Why?

Because we're trying to get you to adulthood without scarring you too much.

What's our main personal goal as it relates to our son?

Goal 1: Get him to adulthood without scarring him too much

Now, as project managers and leaders, what are your primary goals? Is it keep the project on schedule? Is it keep the project from going over budget? Or, is it one of the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto?  Whatever your answer(s), when asked to do something, keep asking why until you reach your main goal(s).

We want to add this change to the next deployed version Why?

Because it is now a priority Why?

Because it will either save time, money, or both

What's one of our documented goals related to our project?

Goal 1: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Like the image?  Find it at Pictofigo

Using Stories on my Personal Kanban

A colleague on Twitter asked how do I break down my stories, acceptance criteria etc?  As a reference point, "stories" refer to my use of User Stories on a task board or Kanban.  It's a method of representing requirements or scope.  In upcoming posts, I'll also write about acceptance criteria, size, blocks... Let's say you have some work that needs to be completed or delivered (scope).  Rather than the old fashioned shall statements to define the scope or requirement (system shall do this; system shall not do that), we're going to write a little self-contained story on an index card, post-it note, or something similar.  When we're done, we're going to add the story card to our kanban board.  Our user stories are written from the perspective of the user.  In the case of the personal kanban, that's me.  What you put in your user story may vary. But, for me, the stories have to be self-contained and they have to pass my "why" test.  Though I don't write it in the user story or on the card, I map work I do back to higher level goals.  If the work can't be mapped back to previously defined goals, I'm just wasting time.  Let's try not to do that.

When writing a user story, this is the format I follow

As a <type of user>, I want <goal> so <reason>.

Here it is in action

As a blogger, I want to write a blog post about user stories, so people will understand how I use them.

Now I ask myself "why". What is my predefined goal that it maps back to?

Spend more time writing, speaking, and mentoring and less time directly managing or leading projects.

So, there you have it!  Because I use both an electronic kanban and a physical one, I keep all of the details in the electronic version and use the physical one a visual reference.  It is a constant reminder to myself and others of what I am committed to do, work in progress, work that is blocked, and work recently completed.

Have any question?  Feel free to leave a comment.

Principles Behind The Twitter Manifesto

We follow these principles: Our highest priority is to satisfy the follower through early and continuous delivery of valuable tweets.

Welcome a changing Twitter stream, even late in the day. Twitter processes harness change for the follower's informative advantage.

Deliver working links frequently, from a couple of hours to a couple of days, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

Tweeters and followers must work together continuously throughout the day.

Write tweets around motivated followers.  Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the retweet done.

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within the Twitter community is continuous conversation.

Reading informative tweets is the primary measure of progress.

Twitter processes promote sustainable tweeting and retweeting. The tweeters, followers, and twibes should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

Continuous attention to tweet excellence and good spelling enhances retweeting.

Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of letters not used--is essential.

The best blog posts, pics, and links emerge from self-organizing twibes.

At regular intervals, the twibe reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Thank you to the authors of the Agile Manifesto.  Without it, my life would have less direction and this post would have even less value.

Graphic: Pictofigo

The Funnel Effect and My Kanban

GuyKawasaki tweeted about a really cool infographic on Alltop titled Why freeways come to a stop. I checked it out and what most interested me was the graphic The funnel effect (I circled it in red).

WIP

The funnel effect is a really good analogy of why you should limit your work in progress, like I do on my Personal Kanban.  In the analogy, just the right amount of water can go through as fast as it's put into the funnel.  But add extra water to the funnel, and the whole thing backs up.

Personal Kanban

In reality, keeping focus on just the right amount of work can allow you to finish more than if you didn't. Personally, I limit my work in progress to 3 items. I never thought it would have such a positive impact. So, what do you have to lose? Do you have a long list of to-do's, doing a little here and doing a little there?  Do you ever feel like you're not actually getting anything done?  Today, rather than trying to multitask, focus on just a few tasks until they are DONE. If you complete one task, you can add another to your focus list. Remember, 99% done is still not done.  At the end of the day, you'll feel a sense of accomplishment, preventing a traffic jam of work and actually getting stuff done.

The Iron Law of Bureaucracy versus ICAgile

I was listening to This Week in Tech #264  and one of the guests was Jerry Pournelle. Though it's not necessary to go into the details of the NetCast, Jerry said something that had me scrambling for the rewind button.  He referred to his Iron Law of Bureaucracy. (Jerry) Pournelle'sIronLaw of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. One example in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, versus union representatives who work to protect any teacher (including the most incompetent). The IronLaw states that in ALL cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

I then watched a Ted Talk titled The Child-Driven Education.  There were three statements by Sugata Mitra that I want to reference.

1. Self-organizing system: Is where the system structure appears without explicit intervention from outside the system.

2. Emergence: The appearance of a property not previously observed as a functional characteristic of the system.

3. Speculation: Education is a self-organizing system, where learning is an emergent phenomenon.

So, what does this have to do with Project Management?  The organizational machine that is the Project Management certification ecosystem has become that second group Jerry Pournelle identifies.  There is now an entire industry dedicated to certifying people and keeping them certified, including the most incompetent. There is no focus on educating people in best practices, delivering value to customers, or increasing project success rates.

On the other end of the spectrum are the visionaries, the mentors, and coaches.  This is where I make my speculation.

Keep your eyes on the International Consortium of Agile (ICAgile).  At ICAgile, the certification path is divided into three main phases; a Fundamentals Phase, a Focus Track Phase, and a Certification Phase.  It's not all about getting certifications.  It's about educating and learning.  In the Fundamentals Phase, the goal is to educate the attendee with the values, principles and basic practices of Agile.  Having garnered the fundamentals of agile in the first phase, The Focus Track Development phase will have different tracks to choose from.  This will allow people to focus being educated in different functional areas like Project Management, Business Analysis, and Testing. Only after completing the courses in a focus track, will the applicant is eligible for the ICAgile "Professional" certificate.

I'm very bullish on ICAgile educating and people learning.

Being Agile is self-organizing by nature, does ICAgile have the unique opportunity to prove the Iron Law of Bureaucracy wrong?

Graphic: Pictofigo

Why Agile Might Not Work (Video)

I was minding my own business when I noticed a tweet by Alistair Cockburn.  He clearly thought something was funny so I figured I'd check it out.  What awaited me was this video.  If you understand Agile or just interested about it, you should spend the next 3 minutes and 14 seconds enjoying a creative perspective on why Agile might not work for you.  It's very tongue-and-cheek.  The slideshow it was based on was located on the PMI website.  Since the site was updated, it isn't clear where it went. 

The Pepsi Challenge of Waterfall, Agile, or Kanban

I kind of enjoy it when people get all in a huff over which soda is the best.  It's bad enough they can't even decide what to call it. Is it soda, pop, or soda-pop?  I've even heard a few refer to any brown carbonated non-alcoholic beverages as a "Coke".  I don't get that at all.  I'm going to assume these people just don't care.  All they want is a brown carbonated non-alcoholic beverage that will satisfy their thirst.  As far as soda-pop, I am the complete extreme opposite.  I drink Coca-Cola.  I don't drink Coke; I don't drink Pepsi.  If I ask you for a Coca-Cola and you ask me if Pepsi is OK, I'm going to respond with a stern but polite "No".  But, at the end of the day, I am also just looking for something to satisfy my thirst.  But, I digress. Since the Pepsi Challenge in the mid-70's, there has been another battle raging.  Let's call it the Delivery Challenge.  Regardless of what facts may be reports, detailing which approach lowers risk the most, which approach delivers the most value up front, or which approach leaves the stakeholders feeling the most satisfied, we all have our favorite.  If delivery approaches were soda-pop (yes, soda-pop) in a blind taste test, chances are we'd stick with our favorite regardless of what we may have picked.

From my own perspective, I don't believe we should be so blind to these opportunities.  We should be open to the idea that formulas can be improved and we should be open to the idea that processes can as well.

When I'm dealing with the government client on a particular contract, I use Waterfall.  We're talking Waterfall the size of Niagara Falls.  It's not that I choose this approach (drink).  It's all that is currently offered. When I'm managing my own personal projects and deliverables, I use Agile and Kanban.  I'm not saying one is better than the other!  But, when the choice is mine, I know what I like from each.  I ala carte the way I do things, so (as the customer) I get the most value while not bastardizing the original processes.

I know there are those out there who are cursing me.  They are strict Coke, Pepsi, and Dr. Pepper zealots.  Think of me as that kid down at the local Kwik-E-Mart who takes his cup and adds a little of each soda-pop in his 64 ounce cup.  It may look nasty but it sure tastes good.

...and at the end of the day, isn't it important that I just satisfy my thirst?

Image source: USAGeorge