Category Archives: project management

Vic (@AgileCoffee) is joined by Larry Lawhead (@LarryLawhead), Ben Rodilitz (@BenRodilitz), and Curtis Gilbert for an outdoor session recorded on December 8, 2017, at the Main Branch of the Newport Beach Public Library in the San Joaquin Hills of Newport Beach, California. The Agile Coffee Podcast is a proud member of the Agile Podcast Network! Topics from today’s episode include: The relationship between Coaching and Agile A Day in the Life of an Agile Coach The Third Agile Value and the Contract Game Vic will be at the Agile Open Northwest in Seattle (Feb 5-7) and the Agile Open San Diego (Feb 15…

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Fifty is the new Thirty! Or should all episodes strive to be as great as Fifty? Either way, it’s a CELEBRATION! Vic (@AgileCoffee) is joined by Brett Palmer (@brett_palmer), Larry Lawhead (@LarryLawhead) and first-time guest L. Mark Higgins (@LMHiggins1). Today our heroes discuss the following topics: Who sets the agenda for the retrospective? Middle Managers and the Agile Transformation check out Em Campbell-Pretty’s “Thawing the Frozen Middle” The Agile project manager Scrum patterns and community at scrumplop.org Brett breaks down some distinctions between SAFe and LESS Craig Larmen is coming back to SoCal: Sept. 12-14 in Tustin, CA Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Come join…

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It’s an onsite company visit! Vic sits down with four employees representing Dev, QA & PMO at the Data Protection Unit of EMC Corp in Irvine, CA, to discuss how the transformation to Agile has changed things up. Also on hand is Scott Dunn (@sdunnRocket9), facilitating the transformation activities and coaching at many levels within the business unit. Scott mentioned the Certified LeSS Practitioner: Principles to Practices class led by Craig Larman – May 9 in Tustin, CA

Announcing the brand new Podcast Topic Index. Search and sort to find any topic discussed on our podcasts. Victor is once again joined by Dale Ellis (@theDigitalDale), Jason Kerney (@JasonKerney), Zach Bonaker (@ZachBonaker) and Garrett Borunda (LinkedIn) at the Cape Rey in Carlsbad for a lively morning of Agile and Coffee. In this episode, our Agile heroes discuss: Dale reports on the 2015 Scrum Gathering in Phoenix #SGPHX Is PO the only Agile product mgr model? With whom do Agile principles take root? Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organizations and Dr. Clare Graves’ Colour System Intentional practice (at Hunter Industries) kanban, personal kanban, Trello active listening Uncle Bob…

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Agile Inceptions are powerful and fast ways to get a team to internalize a vision. It’s a two-day investment that saves the company months of up-front planning and allows the teams to begin immediately deliver core product functionality. Overview Since mid-2013, I’ve been involved with teams adopting the Agile Inception format used by Pivotal Labs to kick off new projects. I’ve been fortunate to participate in these inception meetings with a couple teams from Pivotal, and I’d like to share my observations on their agenda and process. The inception model is a kickoff strategy that is repeatable and well-vetted. At it’s core,…

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Just read @zxed‘s post on skills you don’t have which had me reflect on my own style. I believe there are many skills (an unknowable amount and always in flux) essential to elite leadership. More than this, I believe that to become a great leader, everyday must be oriented toward greatness, no matter the increment. In my current role (technical project manager / agile coach) I have many opportunities to be great, breaking out like so: competency: It sounds like a minimum requirement, but I feel I’m deficient more often than not. I feel that if off the cuff I can…

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With the new year comes a fresh new crop of initiatives targeted for the upcoming twelve months. And those initiatives ain’t gonna drive themselves to completion. This is where the project manager / scrummaster steps in resolutely and takes control. First, the tech leads of each team get together with the SMs and POs and hold a very important conversation: yearly scoping (aka commitments). The POs & product staff define the initiatives in broad strokes, then the tech leads discuss with each other what it takes to get these projects done. Slowly a list of Ins and a list of Outs begin to take…

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Agile coffee, indeed.  I’ve had no fewer than three cups today. Resolutions for 2013: no more discussing coffee, today make most of Mike Cohn’s day with us talk through my retrospectives at SendGrid get out into the community talking about agile principles OHIO – only hit it once! That’s what’s brewing. Let’s make 2013 our best!

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