Getting Started

Here are a few basic agile distinctions and definitions.

• Practices: the habits, meetings, events, and processes often “prescribed” by a particular methodology (most often Scrum or Kanban)
  
• Roles:  in Kanban there are no formally prescribed roles but in Scrum there are Scrum Masters (a team facilitator and team coach), Product Owners (the role ultimately responsible for maximizing the value of what the team produces; they prioritize the work and determine if it has met target outcomes), and (on technology teams) sometimes a technical lead or architect
• Agile Teams vs. Programs:  teams can indepentently use agile practices to foster closer alignment with customer needs and agile practices can also be used in a “team of teams” format; often, there are trade-offs when more teams are involved and processes across teams require alignment
• Organizational Transformation:  let’s be honest, this is a buzzword, but it’s a popular one; it encompasses a wide variety of areas that ultimately result in cultural, process, structure, and often tool changes to enable greater flexibility
• Scaling Agile:  there are a variety of frameworks and practices commonly used to incorporate agile principles and practices across groups of teams, programs, and entire organizations; common frameworks are:  SAFe, Scrum at Scale, and LeSS
• Leadership & Management:  the folks who most often get forgotten (unless they have a formal role in one of the scaling frameworks) and yet through their action (or lack of action) they permit and promote behaviors that either create or detract from desired business outcomes; supporting leaders effectively is key for success

Here are a few distinctions about project management
and facilitation to get some thoughts flowing.

• Project Management: The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project management as the use of specific knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to deliver something of value to people.  A few exmples of each are:
  • Knowledge & Skills:  how to “work backward” from a large goal into small, tangible steps, creating and adjusting plans based on learnings throughout your efforts, communicating progress effectively based on audience
  • Tools & Techniques:  use of project & delivery focused tools to schedule, track, and report on work planned, progress, and projected delivery
• Facilitation:  A fluid process using a variety of tools, techniques, and activities to empower participants, create clarity, invite collaboration, and increase commitment to the solutions created by the group in order to maximize productivity.   A few facilitation concepts & skills are:
  • An effective meeting framework that encompasses:  before the meeting, opening meetings effectively, getting work done in meetings, closing conversations (without leaving ‘open loops’), and following up after the meeting
  • Creating an effetive container for focused discussion
  • Techniques for gathering information, questioning, listing, decision-making, capturing follow-up actions and ensuring follow-through occurs.

Effective leadership often requires intentional focus on
personal development (not improvement).

• Leadership:  when leaders are effective it can result in incredible outcomes; when leadership is lacking or even detrimental to teams, it can tear teams apart and have widespread impacts on individuals and organizations; there are an almost infinite concepts and distinctions in leadership that shape who a leader is and how they show up… a few that barely scratch the surface are:
  • Sources of followership such as position, relationship, results, propagation, and respect
  • Management vs. leadership
  • Accountability vs. trust
  • Setting clear expectation vs. micromanaging
  • Psychological safety and feedback conversations
  • Levels of delegation and strategies
  • Being vs. doing
• Personal Development:  intentional development (vs. reacting to stimuli) creates more resourcefulness and creativitiy; both leadership and personal development are supported through:
  • Effective goal setting:  creating target outcomes in a way that are held loosely, support our desired direction, and build increasing skill and comptency over time
  • Knowledge and skill building:  intentionally choosing areas of knowledge to pursue and then putting that knowlede into effective practice creates flexibility and resiliency over time and builds the “muscle” of self-directed learning