New Chapter

Just yesterday I was complaining about my first day as a technical advisor for a contract source selection committee.  What can I say?  The PMO asked me to do it and it's important that it gets done correctly.  But being asked to sit in a room for the next 6 weeks, with no access to Internet or phone was going to be very painful.  I understand that I can't be connected 100% of the time.  I understand there needs to be balance and I can't tweet what is going on in my life 24x7.  But using modern forms of communications makes me feel informed and connected.  If I have a question about something, I feel I can reach out to half a dozen people in a moments notice to get an answer.

So, as I began my second day with the committee, I just sat there for about 10 minutes and stared at the binder sitting on the table in front of me.  How the hell was I going to survive this?

Well, I have an answer.  I got an offer to go work with someone else.  Long story short, I was offered a position with LitheSpeed and I accepted.  LitheSpeed offers premium Agile software development training, team coaching & management consulting services. They blend Agile methods like Scrum and XP with Lean process expertise to speed value delivery and drive enterprise evolution.

I'm very excited about my future with them.

I've been working with a federal PMO managing a multi-year, multi-phased, multi-million dollar program for a few years now.  I don't think anyone in the PMO knew what Agile was before I arrived.  Rest assured, I'm not turning my back on my project management roots.  I'm still very much a supporter of PMI and the PMP.  But even PMI couldn't ignore Agile forever.  It's time for me to help others to speed value delivery and drive enterprise evolution.  It's time for me to turn the page and start a new chapter.

Drawing by Pictofigo

HT: LitheSpeed

Filthy Fishbowl

I read a really great post over at Mike Cottmeyer's Leading Agile blog.  To paraphrase, he wrote about his son having a fishbowl that was in desperate need of cleaning. He described the situation as

this poor little goldfish was swimming literally in it’s own filth. The water was yellowish brown and just gross.

Mike went on to use the fishbowl as an analogy, to write about an Agile adoption and transformation client. He wrote that it’s easy from an outsiders point of view to see what’s going on, but the folks inside a company have a difficult time seeing how they can transform their environment. The challenge is that sometimes there is so much that has to change to get healthy, it’s difficult to figure out where to start.  If you are that little fish, swimming around in that filthy bowl, how do you even begin to see what can be done about it?  Have you just gotten used to the filth?

If you are in the bowl, how do you imagine getting out of the bowl, emptying the water, cleaning the glass, refilling the bowl, and getting back into a healthy environment?

I would say, if you are that goldfish, either you learn to clean your own bowl, hire someone to do it for you, or you find yourself a new bowl.  There will certainly be some who will choose to swim in their own filth, until it chokes every bit of life out of them.  I see too many analogous goldfish swimming in filth, because they lack the skills necessary to maintain their own bowl, because they believe that someone will someday come and change the water, or they think they can just live with it.

If your fishbowl becomes filthy, what would you do?

HT: Leading Agile

PICK Charts and Kaizen

I'll admit, I'm no Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.  But as I was sitting in a management meeting the other day, I was impressed by a vendor's Operations Manager, who was being touted as one.  The vendor has been running into some issues at the SOC (Systems Operations Center).  We asked the vendor to take a few weeks and do an analysis and then propose some improved processes.  I was apprehensive at first, being I've seen this vendor spend a lot of time and money to do an analysis, only to propose a solution similar to killing an ant with a sludge hammer.  That did not happen this time.  The Operations Manager offered a 15 minute presentation titled Kaizen. This caught my attention because Kaizen is Japanese for improvement or change for the better. I've heard the term used many times before, when referring to doing process improvement. A key component of this Kaizen presentation was a PICK chart.  What is a PICK chart you ask?  When faced with multiple improvement ideas, a PICK chart may be used to determine which ideas are the most benifitial. There are four categories on a 2x2 matrix; horizontal is scale of payoff (or benefits), vertical is ease or difficulty of implementation.    More expensive actions can be said to be more difficult to implement. By deciding where an idea falls on the PICK chart, four proposed project actions are given: Possible, Implement, Challenge and Kill (PICK).

Small Payoff, easy to implement - Possible Big Payoff, easy to implement - Implement Big Payoff, hard to implement - Challenge Small Payoff, hard to implement - Kill

You'll notice by my graphic below that we have 3 ideas to implement, 2 that are possible, 2 that are a challenge, and 1 to kill.  This was by far the best presentation I've seen in a while.  The entire executive team could visualize the recommendations on one screen.  All data supporting potential areas of improvement were on the other slides,  included assessments of cost (money or time).

All I can say is bravo!  When in doubt, use a visual aid.

PICK Chart

HT: Wikipedia

Social Norms at Work

I recently gave a talk in Michigan on the topic of servant-leadership.  Unfortunately, servant-leadership is something that is painfully absent in so many organizations.  Just a few years ago, it (servant-leadership) was not something I had even heard of.  Going back and reviewing the PMBOK made me realize two glaring omissions.  There is a lack of content on stakeholder or team engagement and there is a lack of content on leadership.  Fortunately, in the last few years, I have enjoyed books by authors like Clay Shirky, Seth Godin, Dan Pink, and Dan Ariely.  I've also met and interacted with some amazing people in the Agile community.  I now interact differently with my peers, as a result of these experiences.  I now apply my social norms at work.  What are social norms?  They are patterns of behavior in a particular group, community, or culture, accepted as normal and to which an individual is accepted to conform. We all go to work and we all get paid to do it.  Too many times, we take things for granted.  We don't question the things we do or the things that happen to us.  I'm pretty sure this is based on conditioning over a long period of time.  Perhaps we need to start treating those we work with more like those we socialize with.  Next time you interact with a fellow employee, ask yourself if your behavior is socially acceptable.

Social Norms

Within an organization, where we are working with other people, things can get twisted.  Some exhibit bad behavior and believe it's somehow forgivable because we're all getting paid.  Well, I don't think that's acceptable.  It's very interesting to see the same people behave differently, when not in the office environment.  Why is it some people forget basic manners or common courtesy, when in an office environment?

Case in point, I hold the door open for people, regardless if I know them or not.  I see this as socially expected behavior.  Socially, I expect a thank you.  To say I expect it is a slight embellishment.  Outside of the office, I still expect a thank you.  Unfortunately, at the office, I've started to accept not getting any reciprocation.  There are a few people in my building that I don't personally know but I still hold the door for them.  They won't make eye contact with me and they won't say thank you.  When the situation is reversed, these same people do not hold the door for anyone.  But, I refuse to accept their behavior.

We all need to strive to understand and empathize with others. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique qualities.  Assume the good intentions of your coworkers and don't reject them as people, even while refusing to accept their behavior or performance.

Drawing:  Pictofigo

HT: Business Dictionary

30 Second Agile Pitch

I was just over at the AgileScout website and read an entertaining account of his trip to the supermarket.  It went a little something like this:

This past weekend, like every weekend, I go to Whole Foods with my wife for our weekly food run. While sampling some of the very good wine, I ran into an old neighbor that I hadn’t seen in years.

We ended up having a long conversation about his company doing this whole “Agile and Scrum thing.” I found myself saying things like the following to help clarify his questions:

“Yes, that is Agile.”“No, that’s not a Scrum principle.”“Yes, that’s part of iterative development.”“Well, that isn’t explicitly in Agile…”“Well, Scrum doesn’t prescribe you to do…“No, that would be waterfall…”“Can we… I… get back to drinking free wine?…”

This reminded me of a very similar experience I had when my wife and I met some friends for dinner. One of them asked what I did exactly.  When I offered a 30 second explanation and included Agile, I got a quick “we do that at work” response. I was pleasantly surprised so I asked in what ways they leveraged Agile principles and approaches. Now, I’m no dogmatic Agilist but the follow-up response had me shaking my head. I wasn’t going to outright argue with her but she correlated doing something as fast as possible as being Agile. No collaboration, no planning, monitoring, or adapting. To her, anarchy and Agile were pretty much synonymous.

For all of you project managers, project leaders, facilitators, ScrumMasters, coaches or whatever you may call yourself, what would be your 30 second pitch?  Do you think you could explain what you do (to a layman) in 30 seconds?  I'd love hear some of your pitches.

Image: Pictofigo HT: AgileScout

CSM & PMI Agile Certification Eligibility

Though PMI has published information about what is required to be eligible to take the upcoming PMI Agile Certification exam, I'm getting quite a few emails from people asking about the upcoming exam.  One of the most intriguing was from a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) asking if (his or her) CSM training could be applied toward the required 21 PDUs. The question: Do Scrum Alliance® Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) courses qualify for the training eligibility requirement?

The answer: Yes, Scrum Alliance® courses qualify for the training eligibility requirements. Only hours in Agile training will meet the certification eligibility requirements. One hour of training equals one contact hour of education eligibility.

My GLSEC Talk on Slideshare

After my talk at GLSEC, I wanted to make my slide deck available for viewing by the general public.  I noted to the people attending that my presentation was going to be a little heavy on text, so the people reading it later could actually understand what I was talking about. The best talks I've seen have been those where the presenters only referenced their slides from time to time.  Of course, we're all thinking of a Steve Jobs keynote.  But imagine if you viewed his slide deck after the fact?  It would be pretty hard to get detailed information, unless you read a transcript of the event. After reviewing a few methods of distributing my presentation, I decided on slideshare. The original presentation lasted closed to 1 hour. We spent about 15 minutes of my talk playing two interactive games. (Simon Says and Red Light Green Light) Other than the games, the basis of the talk are all in the deck.

Breaking the Law of Bureaucracy

View more presentations from derekhuether

PMI Agile Exam Tools and Techniques

50 percent of the PMI Agile certification exam will be comprised of questions about tools and techniques.  The PMI Agile Certification team grouped the tools and techniques it 10 areas. The toolkits below are ranked in the order of their relative importance within the tools and techniques section of the exam.

1	Communications
2	Planning, monitoring, and adapting
3	Agile Estimation
4	Agile analysis and design
5	Product quality
6	Soft skills negotiation
7	Value-based prioritization
8	Risk management
9	Metrics
10	Value stream analysis

Want an example of what you will find within the Communications area? Some tools and techniques included but are not limited to information radiators, team space, agile tooling, osmotic communications for collocated and/or distributed teams, and daily stand-ups.

Remember, 50% of the exam will be dedicated to Tools and Techniques and 50% will be dedicated to Knowledge and Skills.

HT: PMI Agile Certification Examination Content Outline