Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Avoid the Agile Logjam
Categories:
Agile
Categories: Agile
| Not all Agile teams are created equal. Some commit to their work and complete requirements throughout -- not just at the end. Other teams struggle. Their sub-tasks may make progress, but their overall requirements or "stories," which express requirements in ways that customers can relate to, seem to get stuck. They finish on the last day of the iteration, if at all. What makes these teams different? Often requirements haven't been sub-divided. Queuing theory teaches that the same amount of work divided into smaller pieces flows faster. Teams with stories divided into work durations of one to three days see their work fly through the system. They can finish some requirements and then pick more. Teams with stories that take a week or more are at risk of a traffic jam. Moreover, we're less aware of the delay until later -- when it's harder to take corrective action. One correction is to refocus on a smaller number of requirements, but dedicate to finishing those. Another method is to split a story, even though the iteration is underway. Or, remove a story from the current iteration so it can be fully completed in another. If none of these ideas seem enough, make sure the team is committed. Per the principles in the Agile Manifesto, team members need to self-organize to dedicate themselves to finishing whatever work is planned. How have you avoided Agile traffic jams in your projects? Has splitting stories to a manageable size helped avoid bottlenecks? |
Finding a Project's Intangible ROI
| If you're new to project management, you might be surprised to learn that some projects -- maybe some of yours -- do not generate any actual profits. That can make it difficult to demonstrate how talented you are as project manager and how great your project delivery team is. So, how can you show you've created value if you cannot show revenue or profits as a direct result of your project? Look at ROI in a different light. Instead of using profits as a benchmark, consider intangible benefits, such as cost-savings that will result from the project, or a positive swing in public relations or team dynamics My team and I were working on a project that involved automating a conference room. A user could walk into the room, push a single button and the automation would do the rest. The project didn't generate any profit, but the feedback from stakeholders was 100 percent positive: My team had created an environment that worked as advertised and made users' work lives easier and less frustrating. And that translated to a huge upswing in stakeholder influence. When we needed buy-in on the next project, the stakeholders were more than happy to offer support. They even understood if the project would affect them negatively (i.e. space being unavailable for use during project, or a feature being disabled for a short time). It may be hard to say that stakeholders' good graces (for example) increased by exactly 42 percent, but it's very obvious when your ability to influence them has increased. Things seem to just run more smoothly. Have your projects generated intangible ROI? How have your project teams benefited from it? |
How Arguments with Stakeholders Hinder Project Managers
| Arguing with your stakeholders is never good. The basis of an argument is to defend your position while defeating the other person's in the process. It's easy to suggest using active listening to understand the other person's viewpoint, but this advice overlooks the inevitable build up of emotions inherent in any argument. Asking the help of a third party to mediate an argument with a stakeholder can be very useful. First, the presence of an observer helps contain excessive emotions. Secondly, a third-party observer can bring fresh insights to help move the argument to a constructive discussion and, ultimately, a solution. Transitioning from a sides-based argument to an "us"-based solution does not require the third-party observer to necessarily solve the problem. Rather, the mediator should help those arguing to develop a solution. An ancient legend demonstrates this concept beautifully: A farmer died and left his herd of 17 camels to his three sons. In his will, he left half of the camels to his eldest son, one third of the camels to the second son and one ninth of the camels to his youngest son. The three brothers were having great difficulty working out a fair way of implementing their father's will and could not agree on who would have more and who would have less than the amount willed. Before their relationship became too stained, the brothers went to visit a wise old woman who lived in their village to seek advice. She told them she could not solve their problem but would give them her only camel if it would help. The brothers thanked her and took the camel back with them. With a herd of 18 the problem simply disappeared; the first brother took 9 camels, the second six and the youngest two. But, 9 + 6 + 2 = 17, so they gave the spare camel back to the wise old lady with their thanks. The point of the story, from a project management perspective, is that belaboring arguments with stakeholders will only succeed in delaying the project. For the sake of keeping the project within the triple constraints, it's best to resolve arguments promptly and for the good of the project. In your projects, how have you handled arguments? Do you seek help before positions become entrenched? |
Reinventing the Project Management Career
| In my previous post, I said, "I can't be sure but I have a feeling that the nature of the project management game is changing." I'm becoming more certain of that all the time -- especially in terms of what that means for my career. Recall that I articulated three trends that "give me pause:"
• Project management jobs are following other IT jobs to emerging markets Each of these injects a fair amount of uncertainty into my career plans. In a project context, uncertainty is interesting in that it has the potential to positively or negatively affect project objectives. The same is true of career objectives, which makes those three trends very interesting to me. So what are my career objectives? Simple:
1. Continue to manage projects To what extent might the aforementioned trends affect those objectives? It depends on the timeframe. Thinking about the state of the profession over the next four or five years, two questions come to mind: • Within that time, what is the likelihood that one or more of the three trends I outline will have an impact (positive or negative) on my two career objectives? • What might that impact be? You tell me. What are your overall goals for the next five years, and how will the shifts we see in project management affect those goals? |
Social Responsibility in Program Management
| Program managers are looking to the future and how best to serve business -- and society -- in a more responsible way. Global trends in corporate responsibility now include sustainable energy, combining improvements in efficient use of energy and renewable energy sources. Enterprises that join this trend will likely prosper. Program managers are responsible for aligning an enterprise's business with its long-term strategy, and for sensing emerging trends that need to be embraced. "Green" technologies, for example, are one such trend program managers should recognize and plan projects and programs around. Organizations like Nike, Taiwan Telecom, Delta and Corning have recently built "green" factories, for example, using such technologies. If program managers don't follow worldwide trends like this, it will affect the organization's long-term ability to compete and prosper. In this way, program managers echo the role of the program management office (PMO). The PMO and the program manager are the main force for business strategy alignment. They adjust the resource allocation and business priorities within projects and programs by launching projects they believe fit the organization's business strategy, and stopping those that don't. The best that we have to offer in our profession is to be forward-looking and socially responsible. What are you doing to be socially responsible? |