NEW Recording – PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) Exam Review
A friend of mine, Joseph Falhiff, just took the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI ACP) exam, and shares his immediate gut reactions to the exam on a live teleconference recording.
His co-host, Rory McCorkle, is the Product Owner of the exam. Rory gives us a brief update on the status of the exam and then Joseph goes into his experience with the exam.
Learn SCRUM in Under 10 Minutes
Learn the SCRUM software development methodology in less than 10 minutes.
By the end of this fast-paced video, you’ll know about:
- burn-down charts,
- team roles,
- product backlogs,
- sprints,
- daily scrum
- and more…
Visually Communicating Project Progress
One of the traits of a great PM is their ability to communicate visually – presenting the progress of a project in a single glance so that one can see if things are going to plan or not. When you look at your world through visual lens that help you solve problems in business in new ways !
Edward Tufte teaches the gift of visualizing information in a way that people can take action on.
Agile teams often place large charts and graphs in their workspaces to radiate important information. It doesn’t matter if you are developing software, delivering IT infrastructure solutions, building a house, hardware products or systems – you can visually see if you project is on track or not.
Burn Charts
Agile teams often track project progress through ‘’Burn charts’’ (burn-up, burn-down and cumulative flow) which are a very popular way to give visibility into a project’s progress. Burn Charts are a graphical representation of the work left to be done and of the progress that has been made. The chart is typically drawn to show progress against predictions.
They are extremely simple and astonishingly powerful. They reveal the strategy being used, show the progress made against predictions, and open the door to discussions about how best to proceed, including the difficult discussions about whether to cut scope or extend the schedule.
Read more
LIVE COACHING RECORDING – Accountability: Creating Winning Teams !
Back by popular demand…Join us at this 1 hour live coaching session where Birgit Zacher Hanson, author of Who Will Do What by When? will reveal how to change the accountability game and make it winnable. Birgit will also answer questions in real-time while coach participants on real-life-issues that relates to getting others to commit and follow-through.
Birgit helps corporations with the following – she can help you too !
- Strengthen leadership capabilities and help leaders develop coaching skills that lead to sustainable excellence
- Build collaborative teams and work cultures that enable superior project execution in alignment with business strategy
- Empower individuals to fulfill on their potential and reach new levels of success
Can you make people do anything they don’t want to do?
Holding others accountable is a myth. It’s like Sisyphus being condemned to pushing the rock up the hill… It’s exhausting. If you are a manager whose job it is to get a team to work together and get the job done, this may be bad news. I am sorry.
I know it can be extremely frustrating when nothing you say or do seems to make a sustainable difference with some people.
You can micromanage, push, scold, even threaten certain people and get what you need for a little while, but as soon as you turn them loose, the rock rolls downhill again. And you start over, doing the same thing you have been doing – pushing, scolding, complaining like a broken record.
5 Reasons Why Being Agile Is More Important Than Being Perfect for Innovation
I must agree that all my projects that leverage Agile practices produce Customers and Employees that are much more ENERGIZED and ENGAGED. By continuously releasing features and functionality – your project stays “top of mind” and “talked about” with your sponsors and customers.
A great example would be several of the projects in my current program where we have created a prioritized backlog of features we believe meet our customer’s needs. Which was done after a 2-3 month planning and analysis phase that outlined the resource, budget, technology, and architectural needs for our sponsors.
We are now putting a release roadmap together for iterative releases on a 4 week cycle. And the developers and testers are using daily standups during each iterative development cycle to keep a handle on progress, obsticles, and continuously adjusting the backlog for future releases.
A great article I read this weekend talked about the 5 Reasons Agile is much more important than being Perfect for being innovative, including:
1. Speed Wins
2. Perfection equals 2nd place
3. Who’s perfection is it anyways
4. It energizes your employees
5. It energizes your customers
Click here for the full article on OPENForum
Keep up to date on Agile-Lean News with Paper.li
One of the greatest tools I’ve found to stay up to date on what is going on in the Agile/Lean space is Paper.li. It is a tool that sends you daily emails from all kinds of social media resourcs on the Agile topic – in newspaper format. So you don’t have to goto twitter, facebook, RSS feeds — it does it for you. Talk about saving you time.
You type in some key words and Paper.li will give you a list of newsletters available to you to subscribe to.
When you subscribe to one – you will get a newsletter emailed to you….
If you don’t see something you want – then create one yourself ! It is super easy. Enjoy !
Agile Open Southern California Conference 2011 (Sep 15-16)
THEME: People, Principles and Performance
WHEN: Thursday and Friday, September 15 & 16
WHERE: University of California, Irvine
What is Agile Open California?
You don’t want to miss this! Imagine an event where experienced Agile practitioners and newcomers alike come together for two days to discuss, examine and otherwise brainstorm the most timely and relevant topics in Agile development today.
Agile Open California is a coalition of agile practitioners and advocates intent on providing an opportunity for learning, networking and growth to the Agile community in California and to others who are interested.
What Will I Get?
- A 2-day conference pass – up to 24 sessions to choose from each day
- Continental breakfast and lunch both days
- A networking reception on Monday evening
- Free Agile Alliance 1-year Membership - a $100 value! With your registration and attendance, you can receive a free one-year membership in the Agile Alliance, which is a $100 dollar value. Just check the option when you purchase your ticket!
Read more
Agile / Lean / Waterfall in the same Project – Is that possible?
I was asked recently:
“Do you believe Agile and Lean methods can be used along side traditional waterfall in the same project ?”
I quickly answered,
“YES I do – and I’ve done it with amazing results”
Agile methodology evangelists often find it difficult to obtain management support.
They are often seen as trying to implement dramatic changes. Or trying to fix something that is not broken. Agile requires that developers, managers and users alike must change the way they work and think – when I’ve found that people resist change – especially change that they don’t understand.
XP practices is an example of this: where pair programming, test-first design, continuous integration, and an on-site customer can seem like almost impossible changes to implement.
So is there another way to become Agile?
TOP 200 AGILE BLOGS
There are hundreds of great Agile blogs and software development blogs to read, but do you ever wonder which Agile blogs everyone else is reading? Ever wonder which ones are worth reading?
Here are the best 200 Agile blogs out there for 2011. Ranked using well known algorithms, not just personal preference. And it always being updated.
Some focus exclusively on Agile and coaching, while others are more on leadership, news, consulting, Product Ownership, ScrumMastering, and specific Agile methods. Regardless of how you label them, these are the world’s most popular Agile blogs written by many of today’s most influential Agile leaders, practitioners, coaches, consultants, and hippies.
NEW RECORDING: COACHING – Accountability: Creating a Winnable Game
Can you make people do anything they don’t want to do?
Holding others accountable is a myth. It’s like Sisyphus being condemned to pushing the rock up the hill… It’s exhausting. If you are a manager whose job it is to get a team to work together and get the job done, this may be bad news. I am sorry.
I know it can be extremely frustrating when nothing you say or do seems to make a sustainable difference with some people.
You can micromanage, push, scold, even threaten certain people and get what you need for a little while, but as soon as you turn them loose, the rock rolls downhill again. And you start over, doing the same thing you have been doing – pushing, scolding, complaining like a broken record.
Let’s Connect!
My Speaking Engagements …..
-Nov 10: HOW TO PLAN, MANAGE, and TRACK ITERATIONS (ProjectTimes) -Dec 16: DEALING WITH THE TOP 10 ISSUES DURING & AFTER AN ITERATION (ProjectTimes) -Jan 13: AGILE REQUIREMENT GATHERING & DOCUMENTATION - BEYOND USER STORIES (ProjectTimes) -Feb 10: DEALING WITH THE TOP 10 ISSUES IN AGILE ADOPTION (ProjectTimes) Some Agile User-Groups and Links…
