Business Agility Requires Transforming Your PMO and Annual Planning Cycles

As a leader as you think about everything that needs to happen for your organization to be and remain competitive in a world that now has the ability to change direction in a moment’s notice, you likely aren’t thinking that Agile is what you need.

You are however thinking about things that equate to Agility.
One of the primary places you need and want to have Agility is in your Technology investment. Yet, that is one area that rarely changes when we think about being agile or developing agility.

To build a foundation for business agility you MUST change several things:
1. Annual Planning cycles must be replaced by continuous planning that does not focus on large project funding for long periods of time.
2. Funding must move from projects to supporting stable long-standing teams. Work must flow to your teams.
3. Plan by Value not by Cost by developing a Portfolio Valuation Model that forms the basis for your Intake model.
4. Develop an Investment mindset.
5. Develop an Innovation mindset that focuses on identifying ideas that can be developed in smaller value components allowing for better management of costs and risks associated with your technology investments.

You can’t develop a high level of business agility by maintaining the status quo on your funding and annual planning cycles.

Agility requires that we work in smaller increments of work that is strategically aligned to value and flows to teams in a consistent manner.

Expecting to develop Agility with large projects funded by annual planning cycles is an approach that many organizations still take, leading to frustration across the entire organization as your planning and delivery capabilities are mis-aligned.

If you want to learn more about how SoundAgile can help you transform the way that you flow work to your teams then connect with us at www.soundagile.com

Agile Planning in 3 SImple Questions

Should We Do It

Can We Do It

Will We Do It

Answer these three questions before you start on any large initiative

Asking Should we do it starts a conversation around whether this is strategically aligned with our goals and objectives.

Asking Can we do it then moves the conversation to whether or not it’s technically feasible, what types of architectural enablers might we have to invest to deliver on this idea?

Once we have answered the Can we do it then we need to move onto the important aspect that will drive the final decision do it — Cost.

Just because we CAN do something doesn’t mean we SHOULD. At one organization the business came to us with an awesome idea (no really it was) but when we told them that could take more than 20 sprints to accomplish (almost a year) the business said that it would be valuable to them if it was 4–6 sprints but not more than 20. This caused them to go back to the drawing board to refine their objective goals.

Once we evaluate the strategic alignment, technical feasibility, and the potential cost of initiatives, only then are we ready to pull the trigger to invest in this idea.

Asking the Will we do it, provides everyone an ability to confirm that this is the right decision and then make that investment decision transparent to the organization.

It may sound non-Agile in approach (it’s not Discovery is an important component) but before we invest our teams in large Initiatives we should take some time to assess whether that is a good idea to do it in the first place. Just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should.

Delivery Management vs Project Management

In Agile we have evolved from a 'project' oriented mindset to a product one. That is not to say that we don't undertake a something that looks like a project to build or enhance our products.  However in Product Management we are more focused on the ongoing nature of how our product will unfold, in shorter durations and without the end in site.

I believe successful Agile Project Managers need to focus on Delivery Management over Project Management.

What is the difference?

1. Delivery Management - Is the management of work in an iterative fashion that focuses on delivering product that delights our customers.  It is not focused on Time, Scope and Budget, but rather on customer experience, high quality code and low defects. Delivery management focused on long-term value and benefits over planned short-term objectives.
2. Project Management - is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives. A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits.

Having been a project manager in a waterfall/PMI world before my move to Agile some of the mental challenges I faced included:

1. Lack of a plan - One of the first things I did as I was moving to Agile was to track the amount of 'change' that happened in one of my waterfall projects.  I created a Project Change Request for everything that was not originally identified in the Business Requirements and Technical Design Documents, assumptions that changed, scope, etc... This process drove my team absolutely crazy because as with all waterfall teams, we fear change requests, they are bad news to management.  However what this effort did was provide visibility to the type of change that happens in every single software development project (and these changes were never socialized outside of the team so they had nothing to worry about).
   1. Realization - 
      1. My project plans provided no real ability to know if a project was going to be successful, they looked good but didn't tell the real story of what was happening with the project team and what they were developing.
      2. Agile provided me with much more visibility to the real issues that a project team faced and that my project plan was really just a place holder for future Sprints.  I only needed to know that the Sprints were planned and then communicate what the team was committing to.  Once I had that information THEN I could hold them accountable.
2. Story Points over Time bases estimates - I had a really hard time initially wrapping my head around Story points over time and spent many an hour mentally putting the points back into hours.
   1. Realization -
      1. I finally stopped thinking in time once my team started 'delivering' consistent points and work for every sprint.  At that point all I ended up needing to know was the story points of work begin committed to.  The point here is as a Project Manager you need to instill good estimation behaviors with your team and hold them accountable, that IS your job.
      2. Velocity is the primary data point you want to focus on, consistent velocity = consistent delivery.  It's not your job to determine the What for the product but it is your job to ensure that what they commit to does get Delivered (though if you work to be a valued member of the team, you should definitely be able to provide input).
3. Status Reporting - Ah the bane of our existence as project managers and something that I had to deal with recently, the dreaded status report.  Honestly I hadn't been a project manager for many years and as a Manager I never needed one with Agile teams.  All I needed was a dashboard (Jira or Rally are the ones I'm most experienced with) to observe a teams backlog, Velocity and Progress towards a Roadmap they were working on.
   1. Realization - The status report will not every go away but I think you need to ensure that your reporting is consistent with the rest of your Agile processes.  Tools such as Jira and Rally provide you with abilities to manage Roadmaps, teams, budgets, etc... Everything is still there but your reporting needs to take advantage of the data elements within Agile, don't translate your Agile into a waterfall type status report.  This will only ensure that Sr. Management stays disconnected from Agile and the entire organization needs to be plugged into Agile and walk the walk.

If you are a traditional PMI type project manager and are moving to Agile here are some things you should consider:

1. You are not responsible for the success of a project/ delivery - Yeah I know it sounds wrong, but in Agile it is the TEAM that is responsible for delivery.  You need to plug into your team, get to know what they do, the challenges that they face, become a sounding board for ideas, get your hands dirty, learn how to test, etc...Becoming a valued member of the team is what moved me out of Project Management and into Quality Assurance. 9
2. Be an Agile advocate - Embrace agile so that you do more than go through the motions. Read, learn, join a meet up group, do more than just the minimum.  As a Project Manager you can help your organization get better at Being Agile, you have the connections and understanding of the organization that many in the technical side may not.
3. Don't be Defensive- As you will learn, Retrospectives should be frank and open conversations about what is working and more importantly not working in your processes.  Encourage your team to openly talk about issues, but protect them so that they can continue to work effectively as a team, remember attack the problem not the person.  For example at Disney where I both QA Manager and individual contributor my duties as QA Manager were getting in the way of my ability to test and give good feedback to the team.  They rightly called me out in a retrospective as being the issue for them not moving as fast as they could.  I was not defensive but understanding, that is what you want in Agile, because they were absolutely correct, I was the problem at that point.

So as you look at what you manage in traditional project management, understand that it is not the Project that you are delivering but a Product and Products have much longer life spans than projects.

You need to keep your teams focused in consistent and disciplined delivery that brings real value to your organization. If you are working on something that doesn't have value you should be questioning and challenging your team as to why.

Agile isn't easy, though I think it is often thought of as easy.  No Agile is very disciplined and when you undertake Agile it will highlight every inefficiency and poor process that exists in your organization today.  You simply cannot go fast until you address these issues.  As a Project Manager you can help drive this change.

PMO Role in Agile - Part 2

My initial blog seemed to have some interest judging by the number of views it's received so I'm guessing that it's a topic that many are looking for input on.   So I thought I'd provide some more thoughts as to what a PMOmight  look like in an Agile organization. One of the key things that changes with a traditional Project managed organization is that they must change to one that is Product managed.  What this means is that the organization changes the way that it funds its business by essentially providing Product Owners with Scrum teams that will deliver on their vision for their product.  Given this paradigm, along with the creation of the Scrum Master role, the PMO and subsequent project managers are left outside looking in.

Managing Product driven teams means that you are managing towards outcomes that delivery value over projects that deliver features.

In my previous post I provided some suggestions as to what individual Project Managers could do to make themselves more valuable and productive to their teams.

In this post I will suggest a PMO structure that focuses on the Portfolio view and leaves the operational execution of the roadmap to the Scrum Teams and Product Owner.

For this structure to work the organization needs good Scrum Masters and preferable ones that aren't also individual contributors for their team.

The structure of the PMO will be lighter than you might think is right, but I'll argue that if you have the same number of Scrum Masters and Project Managers you will set up role confusion that will make your entire project management process cumbersome and less productive.

The PMO structure would look something like this:

I think one of the things that a PMO organization needs to be aware of is that their focus is not on control of projects and people but on how teams are performing.

With this structure you have a thinner level of Project Managers who are focused on Program level Product Management (PPM new acryonym anyone?). Your Project Management function becomes one of oversight of Scrum Masters and working closely with Program Managers in other Product groups who probably will have cross org dependencies.  The Program Manager level in this structure is more about working to ensure that teams are working on the right things based upon the Product Roadmap and escalating when individual team priorities become out of line with the overal corporate product objectives.

What we want with a PMO is confidence and how we do that historically is to place controls, gateways and processes designed to show that teams are checking off boxes that we believe represent how a successful project should unfold (aka Project Governance)

How we do that in an Agile organization is to ensure that our teams we have a clear Product roadmap, that we are performing effective planning both in the areas of Product Discovery and Release Planning, that teams are provided time to review and estimate the work that they are being asked to commit to AND ensure that teams perform continual inspect and adapt cycles via Retrospectives.

If teams are allowed to form into solid high performing teams what you get from that is an organization that learns how to estimate accurately, which leads to consistent velocity which in turns leads to predictability....which is what we in the PMO (and Sr Management) are looking for, simple right?

What I learned years ago from my Project Management days is that Agile actually provides you with much more visibility and transparency about what is happening with your commitments,  providing you as the stewards of the product an ability to have fact based conversations with stakeholders who rarely understand the complexity of what they are asking for.

PMO Role in Agile

If you lead a PMO or are a PM and your organization is embarking on an Agile adoption you are probably thinking so how do I fit into this new paradigm and still manage the work that I'm currently managing (it won't manage itself is what you are thinking) ?

Organizations who are now moving towards Agile as a product delivery/SDLC method will find themselves trying to figure out where their PMO and subsequent Project Managers will fit.

The problems they face are several:

Traditional Project Managers:

• Are experienced at managing to a specific plan and resolving resource issues that their specific projects are facing.  They are not typically assigned to just one project and the people they work with come and go with much frequency.  Project Managers have been for many years the ones who provide confidence that 'someone' has their hands on the pulse of the projects that are designed to deliver value to the organization.
• Don't typically look at their projects as value driven, rather they are priority and resource driven.  Their focus when they are assigned to a project is about who is on my team, who can I steal from other projects and creating a plan that is often not vetted by the very people who will actually do the work and socializing that with Sr Management.
• Traditional Project Managers are excellent deflectors of blame (yep I learned quickly how to push off issues on to someone else)
• Are not typically contributing members of the team.

I don't say these things to make Project Managers angry, I was once a PM and a very good one at that (or so I believe).  And I'm not at all implying that there isn't a role for PM's in Agile, but I will suggest that how you think as a PM will need to change.

For starters you need to find a way to be a contributing member of the team and not just someone who sits on the sidelines like a reporter and records what is going on to report out.

The thing that was different about me was that I always managed my teams more like a Scrum Master would.  I found ways to contribute, I gained the trust of my team, I protected them and provided guidance for individuals when they were struggling with something about the organization that didn't make sense.  This process of engagement led me out of the PM role and ultimately into QA Management so there are growth opportunities for PM's if you are open to learning new things.

If the team needs help in testing, learn something new and help out.

Most Agilists' may tell you that the Scrum Master and Project Manager role are completely different.  Though they are different I would argue that project managers can fill the void of Scrum Master and gain great insight to their projects and be on point to resolve impediments more easily than be bystanders to the entire Agile process.

Here are some key areas that Project Managers should focus on during an Agile Transformation:

1. Planning - Is not a function of setting forth an unyielding plan.  Rather planning by the team is to facilitate an ever growing understanding of what the team is building.  Big Up Front Requirements convey a static nature to projects that simply doesn't exist.  If you disagree actually track the number of times the team has to change their plans (for architecture, etc..) during a typical non-Agile project.  Teams that try to predict the future are destined to be wrong a majority of the time.  You need to become comfortable with a plan that identifies in detail only 4 weeks out.
   1. Goal - Be an active member of the team and be able to understand both the technical issues that are facing the team and bring them a clear understanding of dependencies with projects and teams that aren't in their viewfinder.
   2. Goal - Learn different Agile planning techniques.  One of the key things that people miss in Agile adoption is that Planning needs to take place more often and that some level of upfront Discovery is not a bad thing.
2. Scrum/Agile  Activities - A Project Manager for a Scrum Team needs to:
   1. Ensure that their teams are performing effective User Story development with techniques such as BDD and Specification by Example.
   2. Ensure that their teams have a well groomed set of stories in their backlog
   3. Ensure that their teams have effective Sprint Planning and Estimation sessions
   4. Ensure that the teams utilize their Retrospectives to drive continuous improvement
      1. Goal - Become an Agile evangilist, learn everything you can about Scrum, Story writing, TDD, Continuous Integration, User Story Mappiing, BDD, Specification by Example.
3. Program Management - Is driven by the overall roadmap.  Ensuring that Scrum teams are aligning their user stories to appropriate Road Map Items keeps the organization focused on execution progress/success and provides the PMO with a clear view to all of the work that they are managing.  As an organization scales this is no small feat, so getting large sets of teams to keep up with story writing and roadmap linking is an administrative task that teams quickly tire of.  Project Managers need to provide support and assistance with the management of these types of activities in conjunction with their PO and Scrum Master.
4. Technical Knowledge - Though this isn't as big of a problem as it was 10 years ago, many Project Managers simply don't understand the underlying technical platform that their teams are working in.  I personally don't think that you can be an effective project manager unless you have this knowledge.  Take the time to learn, your team will appreciate it and you will be able to have better fact based conversations with your Stakeholders regarding issues that delay delivery of projects.