Zombie Elephant

I read a REALLY compelling post by Philippe Kruchten, who among others, was at the 10 years agile celebration meeting in Snowbird, UT, organized by Alistair Cockburn on February 12. Philippe stated on his blog post, after covering the walls with a couple of hundred issues cards, David Anderson noted that there was “an elephant in the room”. [read Philippe's post to find out what it was]  ...A small group identified a few other such “elephants in the room”, i.e., other topics that the agile community is not really willing to tackle for a variety of reasons. They ended up with a long list of about 12 such “undiscussable” topics (or at least not discussable in the open).

The elephant that jumped out at me was number eleven.

11. Certification (the “zombie elephant”) This massive elephant was reported dead a few times, but seems to reappear…

Now, I don't want to beat this proverbial dead horse but I do think it's important to talk about this.  The idea of "Agile" Project Management certification seems to drive some people super crazy.  There are arguments against certifications (in general), saying they are just a way to make money; that they don't offer any real value.  Like it or not, certifications ARE out there and they ARE here to stay.  This argument is not unique to the Agile Community.  There are almost daily debates in the blogosphere on the subject of certification value.  There is a distinct difference between wisdom and knowledge and I think the Agile community has a lot of wisdom to offer the "traditional" project management community.  If you don't have the wisdom, you need some basic foundation of education in order to help projects (and people) reach their goals.

The ongoing problem I see is some people outside our project teams perceive those with certifications as experts.  It's either that or the Hiring Managers are so damn lazy that they go looking for certifications rather than actual people who will make good culture fits.  Either way, we have the same results.  People who don't know the first thing about project management or leadership, with certifications, get hired.  This is not an issue with the certification itself.  It's a marketing issue.  The message is being controlled by the wrong people.  The communities as a whole need to be more vocal and shape the correct message.

In my post for Agile Scout, about the State of Agile, I called it mastery-based learning and the paradox of the certification.  What is the goal?  Are we trying to discover better ways to deliver value to our customers or are we just trying to get a piece of paper and a few extra letters after our names?  Some only care about getting a passing score on a certification exam versus being a good manager or leader.  I would argue that certifications do offer some value but we may need to do away with terms like "Master" or "Professional", in order to help control the message.

So, why certification and not traditional higher education?  In preparation for writing another blog post, I was reading a University of Maryland textbook on Systems Analysis. The section on Agile & Scrum were flat out wrong!  In addition, this college textbook used Wikipedia as its reference source.

I would argue, the respective communities introduce themselves to the elephant in the room and get to work on better ways to educate people and measure proficiency.  You better do it soon, before that elephant becomes an 800 pound gorilla.

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My Next Speaking Gig

I just got back Thursday night from my appearance at the AtTask Work Managment Summit 2011 (WorkOut2011).  I had an amazing time. I had an opportunity to be on a panel and be part of one of the Keynotes (YouTube videos are coming).  But, the post about the AtTask conference is still to come.  Until then, I'm happy to announce that my talk has been accepted at the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference (GLSEC).  I will be presenting my talk Breaking the Law of Bureaucracy, April 16.For the last few years, I've been advising a Federal PMO. I know, old news.  But, something has been eating away at me that I just couldn't put a finger on.  It's the amazing level of tolerated bureaucracy. See, in the Federal Government, I think the Law of Bureaucracy can be stronger than the Law of Gravity!  Sometimes (not always) people don't care what the primary goals of the project are.  They put their own goals ahead of the project.  As an example of egoism, they impede progress or the delivery of value, while furthering their own agendas. I feel life has to be more than just opportunities to complain about things.  It's a series of opportunities to help people and make thing better than how you've found them.  So, I started work on an article for PM Network magazine, with a proposal of ways to break this Law. As part of the process, I started to package my idea in a presentable "talk" format.  So, before I left for Salt Lake City, I submitted my proposal.

I actually was unsure how it would be received.  But, while I was at WorkOut 2011, I saw Donna Fitzerald of Garter unknowingly mentioned details of my talk as part of her presentation (Embracing Agile Leadership: Making Better, Faster, Cheaper a Reality).  That's justification enough for me, to believe I was on the right track.

So, though finishing my zombie book is still at the top of my list, I'm really looking forward to standing in front of a room and giving this talk.

Valentine's Day Pull System

Nothing is quite as romantic as sitting with your husband or wife, sharing a dinner of fondue.  Nothing, that is, unless you’re sitting with me.  I’m not a big fondue guy.  This is sad because my wife loves it.  She enjoys the whole process.  To counter that, I like my food to be given to me, already prepared.  I enjoy the results! So, leave it to me to point at the fondue pot half way through dinner and yell “Fondue is a pull system!  Fondue is a pull system!”

What is a pull system you ask?  Perhaps you’ve heard of Drum-Buffer-Rope or Kanban?

Businessdictionary.com defines it as a Manufacturing system in which production is based on actual demand, and where information flows from market to management in a direction opposite to that in traditional (push) systems.

The idea behind a pull system is to keep a smooth production flow.  For the sake of argument, let’s say N is a volume of work output.  It can be trouble-ticket call volume, software development, or hardware manufacturing.  Any of these work in the example.  If you and your team can consistently deliver quality N in a month, and keep a good work-life balance, you should know that a C-Level executive asking you to deliver N+10 is going to create bottlenecks in your process flow.  Your overall delivery velocity is going to slow and your team is going to work longer hours trying to deliver N+10.  This increase is unsustainable unless something changes.  You need to get back to N, either by cutting back the work, expanding the amount of people or things to complete the work, or find some efficiencies.

You limited your work in progress (WIP) for a reason!  If more is going into your process than is coming out, you’re going to accumulate a backlog.  For every unit exiting your process, you should have another unit ready to enter it.

For fondue, you limit your work in progress by the amount of long-stemmed forks you have to put into the pot (caquelon).  Before you start, you cut up all of your fruits, vegetables, meats...whatever you plan to dip.  That’s your product backlog.  You then begin dipping whatever you have, X at a time.  We had 3 forks each.  When the food is done, you take it off the fork, add another piece of food, and back into the pot it goes.  You can’t eat anything until it’s done with the process.

Am I a romantic buzz kill or what!?

Image: Recipe Tips

Mura Muri Muda

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet and listen to Jeff Sutherland a few days ago. For those who do not know who Jeff is, he and Ken Schwaber created Scrum.  It was really quite amazing to listen to him speak.  The topic of the talk was Using Scrum to avoid bad CMMI implementations.

Scrum and CMMI are often at odds with each other. What does each approach bring to the table? Scrum promotes the idea of focusing on the most important product issues first and supports frequent communication. CMMI brings a structure that promotes consistency and discipline to avoid waste and rework. So, why should we try to combine both approaches? Is this combination a good idea?

This post isn't going to go into detail about the entire talk. Rather, there were three words Jeff said that had me scrambling for my pen. "Muri, Mura, Muda".

The Toyota Production System identifies three types of waste (Muri, Mura, Muda).

Muri (無理, “unreasonable”) is a Japanese term for overburden, unreasonableness or absurdity.

Mura (斑 or ムラ) is traditional general Japanese term for unevenness, inconsistency in physical matter or human spiritual condition.  Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability.

Muda (無駄) is a traditional Japanese term for an activity that is wasteful and doesn't add value or is unproductive.

With commercial organizations, I consistently see two primary goals:  [1] Make Money and [2] Save Money

But as you drill down into an organization, these two goals are not as obvious.  So, to address this, I rewrite the two goals as:  [1] Deliver Value and [2] Eliminate Waste

When we reach this point, muri, mura, muda come into play.  In your day-to-day activities, are there areas you can make more efficient or improve?  Do you really need to go to that meeting or can someone just email you an agenda before and minutes after?  In your project lifecycle, do you really need a 10-step process workflow or can you achieve the same goal with just 5 steps?

Here is a practical exercise:  Make a list of activities you have to do this week.  Ask yourself why you need to do each of those activities. Do they map back to the core mission of your company?  Should any of these activities be postponed until the goal is clarified?  Should you just NOT do one of them?

I have a daily meeting at 10:00.  Why?  I fill find out what the team did yesterday, what they are doing today, and what impediments they have.  My job is to help facilitate their activities and remove roadblocks.  This 15 minute meeting is a keeper.

I have an invite to the Finance Working Group meeting on Monday. Why? Hmmm.  That's a good questions!  The meeting is scheduled for 1hr.  I know that it traditionally lasts 2-3hrs.  No invoice was attached in the meeting invite.  That leads me to believe they are going to review 500 pages as a group.  Though it's necessary to review the invoice, this is a very inefficient way of doing it.  I will send a request for a copy of the invoice to review when I can.  I will decline the meeting invite.

Of those activities on your list, highlight which ones just don't sit well with you.  Really listen to your gut. Are any items on your list an activity that does not directly translate into providing value?  Are any items on your list going to somehow cut into your personal life?  Are any items on your list literally a waste of time, money, or energy!?  If you can scratch any one of these items off your list, you are on the road to Kaizen (改善) (English: Continuous Improvement).

Before you accept that next task or meeting invite, ask yourself if there is a better way.

HT: Wikipedia

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The Day of The Keynote

This morning I had the honor of sharing the keynote stage with Ty Kiisel and Raechel Logan (The hosts of TalkingWork), Donna Fitzgerald (Research Director at Gartner), and Scott Johnson (Founder and CEO of AtTask). From the picture, you can see the size of the crowd that would fill the room a short time later. This was an amazing experience. It's one thing to present a topic in a conference session. It is a very unique experience to just have a good time in front of an audience of up to 500.

I really enjoyed talking to people throughout the day, answering questions about agile implementations and having them ask my advice to their challenges.

Though I'll keep this post short, I will be back to my normal posts, upon my return to the East Coast. This experience has given me the carity I needed to know I am going in the right direction.

Jeff Sutherland & APLN DC

Last night I had the honor and privilege to listen to Jeff (co-creator of Scrum) Sutherland speak. There were roughly 95 of us attending the APLN DC event. It was great to see faces of the local Agile community. I have to keep this post short. My plane is boarding for Salt Lake City. I just wanted to prove I could write a blog post on my Droid X.

Busy Week Ahead

If you don't hear from me for a few days, here's why.  Tonight I'm headed to the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) Washington DC Area Chapter event. The topic? Using Scrum to avoid bad CMMI Implementations (Presented by Jeff Sutherland). Yes, that's right! Jeff "creator of Scrum and signer of the Agile Manifesto" Sutherland. I don't sound too excited, do I? I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of people from the Agile community there. Tomorrow, I fly out to Salt Lake City to make an appearance at the Work Management Summit.  Follow it on Twitter with hashtag (#workout11) I don't know exactly what is in store for me.  I'm a special speaking guest of AtTask and I will be interviewed by @tykiisel and @RaeLogan in a live video webcast.  My instructions for my appearance: Please wear something that exemplifies your personal brand.

I will be the guy with spiky hair, horn-rimmed glasses, Doc Martens, and jeans (yes, I am wearing a collared shirt).  It's a bit of a departure from my normal office attire.  This includes, monogrammed cuff-linked shirts, wingtips, and a tie.  Though I'm much more of the Doc Marten guy, I understand C-Levels and SES don't always get it.

I'll be flying back to Washington DC on Thursday, due to time constraints.  Though I only get to spend 1 full day in Utah, this will be a great experience and I'm looking forward to meeting Ty and Raechel.  I will take plenty of pictures of the Grand America Hotel and try to blog while I'm there.

If you want to meet up for a drink, send me an email or direct message me via Twitter.

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New ScrumMaster Poster

Our newest Scrum poster(s) are ready!  We started with a poster that included the 3 primary roles of Scrum.  We then singled out each of the roles and made individual posters.  First up, the ScrumMaster.  This poster depicts a ScrumMaster with a taskboard and burndown chart behind him.  Below are the activities associated with the ScrumMaster as detailed by the Scrum Alliance. Please note, the female version of this poster will be out soon.

This poster has been discounted, compared to our others. Download the 300DPI image file for $14.99 to use on your own products or buy the poster!

Posters Mini (Size: 11" x 17") $9.99 Small (Size: 13" x 20") $17.99 Large (Size:23" x 34.5") $21.99