Archive for the ‘ Agile ’ Category

Agile for Executives

This is a webinar that my colleague Lalig Musserian and I did a webinar on the benefits of Agile for Executives. There is an overview of Agile fundamentals but it is largely focused on what the C-suite needs to know. Learning outcomes include: Understand Agile Methods and how they can help an enterprise Understand how Agile helps provide business

I was a Project Manager before Agile. Am I now a dinosaur?

I was a Project Manager before Agile.  Am I now a dinosaur? Jeff Sutherland is one of the developers of Scrum. At a recent webinar, he was heard to say this: “When I created Scrum, I specifically assigned all responsibilities for the project leader to the Scrum Master and the Product Owner in order to get the performance that we get with Scrum.

The Agile Transformation (Part 2) – Challenges

As mentioned in the previous article, Agile involves moving to a new way of working on projects, a new paradigm if you will. Therefore it brings its own set of issues that must be dealt with. Here are a few of the more common ones: Organizational Culture Organizations are typically top-down in nature, in that there is a clear chain of command,

The Agile Transformation – Part 1

What pushes organizations to embrace Agile and what projects waterfall won’t serve. Organizations that run projects are increasingly looking at transforming the company toward using the Agile methodology. For one example, GE – who is heavily involved in the “Internet of Things” – is having not only developers but also managers trained

A Brief Introduction to Agile Scrum

Agile:   Is an approach to managing work Is supported by a manifesto that outlines principles and values Has a key phrase – inspect and adapt   There are several types of Agile (XP, lean, etc.) but the most popular is called Scrum. Unlike traditional project management which is command-and-control based, in Agile there is no

Learn about Agile at the Small Business Expo, Washington DC April 19

I’m going to be speaking at the Small Business Expo in Washington, DC on April 19th. It’s free. I’ll be speaking that day on “Introduction to Agile.” In 45 minutes you’ll get a pretty good idea of what it is (and is not.) Also, what are the top three challenges to introducing it into your environment and how

Tech Startups and Agile – A Perfect Fit

Check out my blog post today on the International Institute for Learnings’ blog page: To begin, let’s differentiate large traditional organizations from tech startups by identifying some of their typical attributes. Large established organizations tend to be more risk-averse and have detailed processes in place. Usually, they apply the

Join my Introduction to Agile (Scrum) webinar

Join me on Thursday, 4/20 at 2pm EDT for an “Introduction to Agile (Scrum) webinar. This 45-minute presentation will serve as an introduction to Agile, specifically the Scrum variant. I will provide a quick overview of the other types and then delve more deeply into Scrum. We’ll look at the various roles involved, what a daily scrum

A Few Thoughts on Establishing the Agile PMO

A while ago, I posted an article entitled Lessons Learned in Establishing a Project Management Office (PMO.) That article was largely freighted towards discussion of plan-driven projects, typically manifested by the waterfall methodology. I subsequently spoke on this topic at a Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter and was asked to incorporate

Thoughts on Scrum

As mentioned in my previous post, I recently took a class on Scrum Master certification. As such, I wanted to put my thoughts down on paper while they were still fresh in my mind. And I figured if I was doing that, I might as well post something on it to my blog. Now, a two-day class hardly makes me an expert on the subject. I confess that I have

Thoughts on Scrum – Part 2

So in the last post I gave an overall description of Scrum. In this post I want to lay out more about the roles. Now, you can find this information anywhere. What I thought might be helpful is to give you my impressions as they compare to traditional or waterfall PM. Again, these are my thoughts not the Scrum Alliance’s per se. They seem to