Free Drawings + Agile = Good

While I've been working with Pictofigo, they've developed over 800 free drawings (and a few premium drawings).  It's really exciting to discover blogs that are using Pictofigo drawings.  I see new drawings almost daily and more people will benefit from this free freehand drawing search engine. Recently, I was asked to write a guest post about an Introduction of Agile for Waterfall PMs. Now, I certainly believe if you're going to write a blog post, you have to have a drawing or graphic included.   Where else should I turn to get my drawing or graphic to capture Agile for non-agile people? For several years, I've seen people go over to Mountain Goat Software and use their illustrations and figures.  These are awesome and free!  Sometimes the users give credit to Mountain Goat, sometimes they don't (though they should).  So, to start fresh, I did a quick v1.0 mockup using free Pictofigo drawings.  It only took me about 20 minutes to do this.  What do you think?

For my first iteration, I captured the following:

• Product Backlog
• Sprint Backlog
• 2-4 week iterations (Sprints)
• Daily (Scrum or Stand-up) meeting every 24 hours
• Potentially deployable/shippable product increment

Though this is just a rough mockup, you get the idea.  Get out there an build something!  Hopefully, by the time I complete my guest post, I'll have a refined drawing for everyone to download.  Until then, iterate, iterate, iterate!

Free Webinar & PDU (The Lean BA)

I believe if you're trying to maintain your credential, particularly the PMP, you should not pay a dime for Professional Development Units (PDUs). Seriously, paying for 60 PDU's (the amount required per 3-year cycle) could break the bank. I know people make a living by selling products and services to others who are looking for an easy path to maintaining their PMP.  Though it frustrates me that people want to get PDUs without wanting to learn, it frustrates me more that there is an ecosystem supporting it.  So, this is my small attempt to continually disrupt the current system.  Below is information on 1 free webinar worth 1 free PDU.

The Lean BA

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Tuesday, February 08, 2011

12:00 pm Eastern Time 11:00 am Central Time 10:00 am Mountain Time 9:00 am Pacific Time This is a 1 hour seminar and attendees will be awarded 1 PDU for participating.

Seminar Description: The lean business analysis web seminar starts by explaining the foundations of lean IT before getting into the impacts of how lean IT affects business analysis. The presentation discusses how some existing approaches work well and others present more challenges to lean business analysis and projects.

Seminar Presenter: ASPE-SDLC instructor Jake Calabrese

Registration is open Register for this FREE web seminar

I am in no way being compensated for listing this free webinar, unless you count the satisfaction of knowing somebody out there is going to click this link and learn something (and get a free PDU).  It's that simple.

Like the drawing? Find it here, on Pictofigo

Office of Zombie Personnel Management

A few days ago, we had a snow storm come through the Washington DC area.  Just a few hours before it hit, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced Federal Employees should depart 2 HOURS earlier than their normal departure time from work.  Unfortunately, if you were anyone in the Washington DC metro area and you left 2 hours earlier, you were screwed!  I heard of people being stuck in traffic for up to 12 hours, trying to get home.  It was a combination of people not using their own brains and OPM not knowing how to react to the weather.  There were a lot of people angry at OPM for making the late call and underestimating the volume of people leaving at the same time (due to the storm). One issue is the Federal Government has been really slow to adopt telework.  When there was a threat of pandemic flu, they appeared to be paralyzed with fear, at the thought of people actually working from home.  Many of us (contractors) tried to explain we would actually get more work done, if we had the opportunity to telework.  If more people were teleworking, fewer would be out there messing up traffic.  Last year, when the Federal Government shut down for 4 days due to snow, many of us sat at home and did nothing.  It wasn't by choice, mind you.  We were not authorized to do any work outside the office.

Part of my frustration rests with the fact that in the corporate world, teleworking or having distributed teams is not uncommon.  It's not perfect but I would say it works.  We've figured it out, leveraging a combination of communication tools and approaches.

The other main issue is the lack of practical wisdom or the desire to just take care of people supporting the Federal Government.  I've previously quoted the definition of Practical Wisdom as

Have the moral will to make right by people. Have the moral skill to figure out what doing right means.

As a contractor, for the last 2 days, I've been in the office.  If I was not, I won't be paid.  For the last 2 days, this notice has gone out.

With forecast conditions for [date] highly variable and may include ice, sleet, and freezing rain, concern for safety is paramount. To protect the safety of Federal workers and our community, maintain continuity of operations and assist employees in planning accordingly, OPM has announced for [date], the option for unscheduled leave/telework.

Well, the freezing rain did not come.  Yes, the parking lots yesterday morning were icy.  But, the roads were fine yesterday and they were fine today.  If fact, the forecasted high temperature for today is 54 degrees!

Because OPM announced all Federal workers could either take leave or telework, most did.

Let's see how much work gets done today.

Like the image? Find it at pictofigo

Agile Leaders Think Like Entrepreneurs

I found a half written blog post that I never published.  Honestly, I did not know if I wrote it myself or if I was intending to quote someone.  Because I don't like to take credit for other people's work, I began a search.  After about 10 minutes, I found it.  Entrepreneur Jason Calacanis wrote the quote below, back in May of 2010. Rather than keep it hidden in the lost-and-found of my blog, I thought it was worth publishing.

Step 1: Find a need, trend and/or pain point... Step 2: Discuss possible solutions and products to address #1. Step 3: Prototype the solution in step two and share... Step 4: Discuss the possibility of scaling the prototype with the smartest folks in that vertical. Step 5: Find a team to manage the growth of this product and give it the support of a couple of partners... Step 6: Debate, iterate, engage, recruit, inspire, pivot and communicate...

Though I trimmed a few words for brevity, what I like about these 6 steps is you can take them out of context and the formula still works.  Jason was writing about how to be an angel investor & business creator.  I am writing about how to be a Product Owner or Agile Team Lead.

Like the image? Find it at Pictofigo

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PMI Statistics Through December 2010

The December Project Management Institute (PMI) statistics are in.  The PMI now has over 412,503 active Project Management Professionals (PMPs) and 334,019 members. So, what's new? Again, the one bit of data I took note of was the PMI membership numbers.  Over the last year, the data being displayed in PMI Today has changed.  It used to be, you could see how many new people got their PMPs.  The Fact File now shows only Total numbers of each credential.  It does, however, still show New (PMI) Members.

The February 2011 issue of PMI Today (page 4) indicates there are 7,803 new members.  In fact, there is an overall increase of just 2,322 members.  5,481 PMI Members chose not to renew their membership in December.  Though I don't have data to support it, I believe people are signing up for PMI memberships, with the intent of getting a PMP accreditation.  If they don't reach their goal, they don't renew their membership.

PMI needs to do a better job of selling people on the value of the PMI membership, not just an accreditation or certification.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

New PMPs (Net)

3,714

3,713

5,344

4,718

3,985

4,630

Total Active PMPs

367,619

371,014

375,959

381,111

385,096

389,726

Total PMI Members

314,721

315,106

317,962

317,787

317,989

318,421

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

New PMPs (Net)

3,687

3,965

2,681

3,161

5,939

3,344

Total Active PMPs

393,413

397,378

400,059

403,220

409,159

412,503

Total PMI Members

320,388

323,220

327,180

330,001

331,697

334,019

So, what do you think?  Why do you think there is an ever-growing gap between PMI membership and the accreditations or certifications they offer?

Source: PMI Today

Week Retrospective 110130

Posts this week

I was a guest of AgileScout Live.  I really enjoyed myself.  Check out my video interview and retrospective.

I wrote about how I’m always looking for ways to communicate with team members, vendors, and customers.  When trying to understand the range of communications, I recently reassessed what I thought the opposite of communications was.  I no longer believe it is silence.  See some of my examples on why the opposite of communications is manipulation.

I loved this 10 minute video by Mike Cottmeyer, I had to write a post for it.  Though I frequent the LeadingAgile website, I had to do a little more than just retweet a link in support of this post.  For those who are new to Agile, Scrum, or Kanban, you need to carve out 10 minutes and watch this video on blending Scrum and Kanban.

After we published our first Scrum Posters, I was asked if we were going to create Non-Scrum Posters.  The answer is YES!  This week, we completed our (first) one-of-a-kind Pictofigo Project Management poster.  The Project Management Process Groups poster is now available!

Like so many this year, I got snowed in.  Unable to go into the office, I instead blogged about how our HOA handled the situation compared to the great snow storms of last year.

I recently read a pre-published copy of the Scrum Pocket Guide: A Quick Start Guide To Practical Agile Software Developmentby Peter Saddington of AgileScout.  I'm giving away one free PDF copy of the book.  Find out how to get registered to win.

Want to use the blog image for free? Find this drawing at Pictofigo

Plan to Fail

We live at a lake property so we're pretty far in the sticks.  We have an HOA, which contracts work for snow removal and stuff like that.  Last year we had several snow storms in the Washington DC area.  The HOA was not prepared for several snow storms in succession and we found ourselves stranded for 4 days.  Yes, 4 days!  But, it wasn't all bad.  After the first storm got us, I reached out the HOA and recommend they keep the community informed of what was happening.  Though we may not see a plow for a day or 2, we would at least know it.  Each time we had a storm, the HOA got better at informing us of what they were doing. Here we are, a year later.  The forecast was for 6-12 inches of snow.  I was curious if the HOA had refined their communications and snow removal practices from the year before.  I kept thinking to myself.  People don't plan to fail; they fail to plan.

We certainly did get the snow.  It's close to 12 inches.  I left the office early to get home before the snow (thunderstorms) arrived.  As the snow stacked higher and higher, we began hearing reports of people abandoning their cars on the roads leading to our house.  (They clearly failed to plan accordingly)  We even saw one of our neighbors get stuck at the bottom of our hill, blocking the plows from getting to our neighborhood.

So, how did the HOA refine their communications process from last year?  Did they fail to plan accordingly?  To the contrary, I feel they did a great job.  They designated community representatives.  We are encouraged to have an open dialog with them.  The HOA did send out emails informing everyone when the plows were going to arrive.  This year they took it one step further, by creating a feedback loop.  When our neighborhood was not plowed, due to the abandoned car, I contacted my community representative.  Though I had to leave a voicemail, she called me back within 30 minutes.  She assured me our neighborhood will be plowed this afternoon.  Without the feedback loop, they would have not known there were any issues.  And so, our HOA process improvement continues.

Communications vs. Customer Satisfaction

Communications Level	Customer Satisfaction
0-Way (None)	Very Unsatisfied
1-Way (Email distribution)	Satisfied
2-Way (Telephone conversation)	Very Satisfied

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Process Groups Poster

Process Groups

After we published our first Scrum Posters, I was asked if we were going to create Non-Scrum Posters.  The answer is YES! Today we completed our (first) one-of-a-kind Pictofigo Project Management poster.  The Project Management Process Groups poster is now available to purchase from Cafepress. There are links below and a new link in the header of this site.  If you wish to apply this image to your own products, just go to Premium Pictofigo and purchase the high resolution file.

Are you studying for, or have recently passed, a popular project management exam? PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS GROUPS captures five process groups and playfully details several of the activities of each. Includes Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitor & Controlling, and Closing.

Mini Poster (Size: 17" x 11") just $14.99

Small Poster (Size: 20" x 13") just $19.99

Large Poster (Size:34.5" x 23") just $24.99