In October 2012 Superstorm Sandy hit New York City. The results are still being felt today. Relief agencies struggled to keep up with the demand for food. Six months later, people in Rockaways are still hungry. Toyota will donate up to 1 million meals, if you watch this video. You’ll learn about things like Kaizen, Muda, and Toyota Production Systems.
Improvements
Eliminate Muda (Waste)
Create continuous flow
Result? Kaizen (Continuous Improvement) and more people getting food with less waste.
Original distribution time: 3 hours
Current distribution time: 1.2 hours
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Though I’ve been doing Enterprise Agile Coaching with LeadingAgile for over a year now, I haven’t been doing a lot of training (or blogging). I’ve been sticking to agile transformation work and the occasional private class.
Well, it’s time for an update. Dennis Stevens and myself co-authored the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) Agile Project Manager learning objectives back in February. The result was a solid certification even a PMP could respect.
New Classes and Locations
LeadingAgile has decided to offer more public training. We’re offering classes in Atlanta, Denver, Orlando, and Washington DC.
Ever asked yourself how you could be successful with Agile at scale? Let me show you how we’ve done it at LeadingAgile.
In this one hour session that I presented to the PM Symposium in Washington DC, I explained how we’ve been successful by focusing on culture last and predictability first.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Earlier this week, I facilitated a backlog refinement meeting. In the past, the team was used to all of the requirements being completed (in advance) by the analysts. The delivery team would then execute on those requirements. The problem, of course, was no shared understanding.
We came into the meeting with everyone agreeing they were on the same page. That was true for about 15 minutes. The more we talked, the more they realized they were looking at things from individual perspectives.
At the beginning of the meeting, we had less than 10 user stories, from an analyst’s perspective. By the end of the meeting, we had a prioritized backlog with over 100 user stories at different levels of granularity. It’s not perfect and it’s never done. But, it’s a start. For the first time, developers and testers were engaged at the beginning. At LeadingAgile, we call this the Product Owner team. When the highest priority stories get to a “ready” state, they will be pulled into a delivery team’s queue. Until then, we need to answer some of the more complicated questions, mitigate risk, and achieve that shared understanding.
Image Source: Based on hand drawn image from Pictofigo
What is the number of the parking space containing the car?
I was on Google+ last night when I came across a brain teaser. It took me about 20 seconds to figure it out. On average, I’m finding others taking about 2 minutes. Others just gave up, getting angry with me for asking the question.
I have a theory for how long it will take you to figure it out. The more empathetic you are, the less time it will take you. Counter to that, if you are more apathetic toward others, it will take you longer.
The question:
What is the number of the parking space containing the car?
The purpose of backlog refinement (grooming) is to make improvements to the product backlog. Though there is no official ceremony detailed in the Scrum Guide, the activity of refining the Backlog is.
Who does it?
Backlog Refinement is a collaborative effort involving:
(Optional) facilitator – (like a ScrumMaster) keeps the session moving toward its intended goal
(Optional) representative(s) from the Management Team – clarify the high level priorities
(Mandatory) representative(s) from the Product Owner Team – clarify the details of the product backlog items
(Mandatory) representatives from the Agile Delivery Team – define the work and effort necessary to fulfill the completion of agreed upon product backlog items. It is recommended to have at least one developer and one tester when refining the backlog, to ensure alternate viewpoints of the system are present.
When is it?
Before development of a user story in the current sprint (iteration), generally sometime during the previous 1 or 2 sprints, the team sits down to discuss the upcoming work. Do not wait too late to add details, because the delay will slow the team down. Do not refine your stories too far in advance, because the details might get stale. Depending on the delivery rate of your teams, you should be meeting once or twice a week to review the backlog.
Before You Begin
We need to ensure:
The product backlog is top-ordered to reflect the greatest needs of Management Team and the Product Owner Team
Candidates for grooming include stories identified as not ready to complete within the next sprint or will require multiple days of research
Epics, features or other items on the Management Team roadmap are reviewed periodically
The Backlog
The product backlog can address anything deemed valuable by the Product Owner Team. For the purpose of sprint planning, when using Scrum as the delivery framework, product backlog items must be small enough to be completed and accepted during the sprint and can be verified that they were implemented to the satisfaction of the Product Owner team.
Estimate
Backlog items must be completed in a single sprint or split into multiple user stories. While refining, give stories an initial estimate to see if they are small enough. If not, split them. The best way to split product backlog items is by value and not by process.
Acceptance Criteria
All stories require acceptance criteria. Without it, you can not define the boundaries of a user story and confirm when a story is done and working as intended. Ensure acceptance criteria is testable. This is what your testers should be writing tests against.
Rewrite Written Stories
Ensure the user story format is consistent, INVEST criteria is being met, and is written from a business not technical perspective. Know who the customer is. It may not be an end user. Rather, the story may be for something like a service, to be consumed by another team.
We’ve all seen it happen. Though we try to show organizations the benefits of using a mature agile delivery framework, we still run into roadblocks. Though the status quo is killing their organization, some barriers to further Agile adoption happen way too often among organizations that need it most. I recently had a client ask me to introduce the elephant in the room. I was asked to actually list some common barriers others have dealt with. I want to thank our friends over a VersionOne for distributing an annual survey of the Agile space. One of the questions? What is preventing you from further agile adoption? Within the last published survey, 4048 people responded and they were able to vote for more than one barrier. The responses may sound familiar. Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Barriers of Agile Adoption
#
Percentage
Barrier
1
52%
Ability to change organizational culture
2
41%
General resistance to change
3
35%
Trying to fit agile elements into non-agile framework
4
33%
Availability of personnel with right skills
5
31%
Management support
6
26%
Customer collaboration
7
26%
Project complexity
8
22%
Confidence in the ability to scale
9
14%
Perceived time to scale
10
14%
Budget constraints
Did they miss any in the list? How did you overcome your barrier?
Do you lead or do you manage? Do you believe in command-and-control or do you believe in team empowerment? Recently, while presenting an Agile Enterprise Workshop, we discussed Theory X and Theory Y with our workshop attendees.
Theory X and Theory Y are two extremes introduced by Harvard Professor Douglas McGregor in his book “The Human Side of Enterprise”. It was published over 50 years ago. Still, you can find both theories in practice today.
Though the theory of x and y are not absolute in how human nature plays out in our places of work, there will always be those among us who are polarizing and think of life as a side of a coin.
I’m asked on a regular basis how Agile or Lean practices can be applied during the holidays. Let’s face it, we have a limited amount of time and todo lists as long as our arms. Truth be told, people have limited success using the ever-growing todo list. You either forget your list at home, you take on too much at one time, or you forget why some of the items on your list just aren’t getting done. Several years ago, I found the answer to my “get stuff done” problem and it is known as Personal Kanban.
Personal Kanban borrows from several Lean principles and practices. With just two simple acts – visualizing work and limiting work in progress – Personal Kanban gives us clarity over our work and our goals, and the unprecedented ability to deal with distractions, manage expectations, make better decisions, and ultimately find a healthy balance between our professional, personal, and social lives. – See more
Using Personal Kanban
I’ve leveraged Kanban for Agile Teams with great success. But I used a physical board, complete with sticky notes and painters tape. I also had a small board in my office, for personal stuff. Unfortunately, the more I traveled for work, the less physical boards worked. I always seem to have my laptop or phone with me but I didn’t always have a wall to apply sticky notes. What is an Agile coach to do!? Of course, in this digital age, there are several inexpensive solutions. I use LeanKit. It works on the web, phones, and tablets. Everything is synced all the time. There are other solutions out there but this has worked for me (and my family) for quite a while.
Here is the 50,000 foot view of how it works. On a surface that is in plain view all the time, visualize your workflow. It could be as simple as ToDo, WIP (work in process), and Done. Being this is personal, label the columns anything you want. Identify what you need to get done on cards. I like the title to be actionable (Call, Find, Do, Finish, Get…). I then color code the cards so I know if it is for work or not. Let’s say you are traveling during the holidays: “Pack clothes, book hotel room, reserve rental car, get boarding pass”. Use specific card colors and you’ll know at a glance if you forgot to do something. Limit the stuff you work on at any given time. If you haven’t discovered it yet, multitasking is a big lie. You don’t get more done! You just keep really busy. Focus on getting stuff done, not starting more stuff. Don’t exceed WIP limits in a column. If there is no room for a card in a column without exceeding a self-imposed WIP limit, you do not pull a card into the column! This is important. By limiting what we agree to start, we will in turn finish a lot more.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Kanban Cards
Here are the cards for my “Holiday” Personal Kanban. My board doesn’t go away after January 1. It just focuses on other stuff. The yellow cards are going to drop off after New Years. I left them on the board so you could see how we can have three groups on a board and it still have clarity. Colors of cards are optional. I use every visual queue I can, including blocked and high priority indicators.
Red cards – Christmas and my birthday
Orange cards – LeadingAgile (work)
Yellow cards – Chanukah
Ready
I keep a backlog of stuff that isn’t “ready” for me to work on so I don’t even include those on my board. Even after having the highest priority cards appear at the top of the board, having too many cards on your board can paralyze you with choices. I only add cards to my ready column, if they have limited dependencies and are ready to complete within the next few weeks.
WIP (Work in Process)
One of the secrets of a pull system is you only work on things you actually have capacity to work on. When you have capacity in the next step of your workflow, you can pull work into that step. Limit the amount of stuff that you’re working on at any given time and I can pretty much guarantee you’ll get more done. Personally, I know that I can only deal with three things at a time before things start to get dropped. Know your personal limits and set them accordingly. If you’re working on something and you get blocked, don’t pull in more work. Add a visual indicator that indicates the item is blocked. and continue pulling working through to done. Once you unblock the work, you can pull it the rest of the way through your system.
Focus
I’m a strange combination of a little OCD, a little ADHD, a lot of grit, and a lot of drive. I need a focus column. If I walk away from my desk, read an email, or get a cup of coffee, I can pretty much guaranteed to forget what I was working on. The focus column is my visual reminder of that one thing I’m trying to focus on right now. Notice the image of my personal kanban above that I’m trying to wrap up this blog post. Everything else can wait. I need to get this done!
Done
Ah yes, the done column. It is where all work needs to go. When I look at it, it makes me feel pretty darn good. We all feel busy but we commonly ask ourselves if we’ve actually gotten anything done. Well, this will show you. I recommend you reflect on what you’ve accomplished, feel good about it, and clear the column on a periodic basis. I do it either once a week or every other week.
Summary
I know this is a lot to put into a single blog post. But if you’re wishing for a more productive and balanced 2014, I would recommend you give this a try. It’s super simple to start and over time, if you’re persistent, you’ll see it will bring more clarity to your work and your goals.
Keywords: Learning, Process, kanban, flow, personal, WIP, Personal_Agility, process improvement
Abstract:
With a world of constant distraction, it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to get stuff done, regardless if it’s on a personal or organizational level. At some point, we’ve been sold the lie that multitasking is great and maximum utilization is even better. If we all drank the Kool-Aid, why are we doing more and getting less done? If there were a relatively simple way for you to get more stuff done, wouldn’t you want to know what it was? If there were a way for you to measure and improve your processes over time, wouldn’t you want to know how to do that as well? When getting stuff done is a primary measure for success, we need to introduce people to concepts that are simple but can be leveraged at scale.
In this session, participants will be introduced to the principles of Lean and the application of Kanban to visualize their personal work, limit distraction and waste, and get stuff done. I’ll cover the core concepts outlined in Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry’s book, Personal Kanban, to get you started. I’ll talk about how Kanban can be applied to everyday work and why you should do it.
Through my years of struggling with ADD/ADHD and my years of management, leadership, and coaching, I have learned and applied Personal Kanban techniques in my everyday life and Lean Kanban at both government and private organizations. This is your opportunity to experience what I am like after a few cups of coffee and for you to learn a few simple strategies that you can start using before you even leave Agile 2014. This workshop can help you map your work and navigate your life.
Information for Review Team:
My first blog post about my Personal Kanban story happened in August of 2009.
Since that time, I have evangelized the use of Personal Kanban for people who had tried everything from To-Do lists to Franklin Covey Planners to GTD, with little or no success. It gives me a profound amount of joy sharing this information to people ranging from parents who struggle to get their kids to bed to CEOs trying to make sense of a portfolio backlog. This workshop will begin with me telling me story and my challenges of staying focused and getting stuff done. It will conclude with people realizing how easy it is to grasp the basic concepts behind Personal Kanban, benefit from them, and then tell others.
Logistics:
Each table will have 3 sheets of 25 x 30″ easel pad paper with pre-designed Kanban boards, a stack of index cards with different (effort) activities listed and predetermined values. (Writing what teams will be asked to do would spoil the surprise but I promise we’ll have some fun) I will explain to everyone how a Personal Kanban works. Each 10-minute practice session is designed to bring to light the daily struggles we may have in completing our work. After each session I will ask how the room would approach their work differently. The expectation is that more work will get done during practice session two and then even more during practice session three, based on what the attendees will learn in the previous sessions and improving their processes.
Agenda:
• Introduction and Overview [10 minutes]
• Core Concepts [10 minutes] [20 minutes elapsed] What is the history of Kanban? What’s the difference between Kanban and Personal Kanban, what makes up a Kanban board, how do we design a Personal Kanban board, what is WIP, what is flow?
• Practice [10 minutes] [30 minutes elapsed] Round 1 / Our first board
• Retrospective [5 minutes] [35 minutes elapsed] What worked and what didn’t?
• Practice [10 minutes] [45 minutes elapsed] Round 2 / Our second board design
• Retrospective [5 minutes] [50 minutes elapsed] What worked and what didn’t?
• Practice [10 minutes] [60 minutes elapsed] Round 3 / Our third board design
• Retrospective [5 minutes] [65 minutes elapsed] What worked and what didn’t?
• Conclusion and Questions [10 minutes] [75 minutes elapsed] What did you learn? What were you surprised by? What other questions do you have?
Background Info:
• I have been successfully leveraging Kanban on an organizational level since 2008 and evangelizing Personal Kanban since August 2009.
• Jim and Tonniane’s book, which provides the basis of this session, is widely available. Here is a slide deck on the basics of Personal Kanban: http://www.slideshare.net/ourfounder/personal-kanban-101
Prerequisite Knowledge:
None
Learning Outcomes:
Understand key definitions and terms of Lean and Kanban
Understand how to apply Kanban to your personal and professional life
Understand how you can measure and improve your processes
Presentation History:
I have been presenting since 2011, when I appeared at the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference. I’ve since been a guest at the Work Management Summit in 2011, and then presented at AgileDC in 2011, and 5 Project Management Institute events, including the Project Management Symposium 2012 (Washington DC), PMI Global Congress 2012, PMI Puerto Rico Simposio Anual 2012, Project Management Symposium 2013 (Washington DC), and most recently PMI SoMD Chapter 2013.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I took the family to Popeyes this weekend. I’m not the fast food type so this is about as close as it gets for me. I’m also not one who eats biscuits or drinks a lot of soda. Why eat at Popeyes, you ask? It was Sunday and Chick-fil-A was closed. Lastly, I am not a UX (user experience) expert.
I scanned the menu and I noticed a 2 Loaded Chicken Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Wrap option. It’s basically 2 chicken tenders, beans and rice, wrapped in a tortilla. I was good with that but I only noticed the price for the combo at $6.59. As noted in bold letters at the bottom of this menu sign, combos include a regular side, a biscuit and regular sized drink. I figured that was a reasonable price and would work for me. I would normally just get the main course, some beans and rice, and a cup of water. My plan was to give the biscuit to my son.
What happened? I received 2 chicken wraps, a side of beans and rice, and a 22 ounce cup. I’m not complaining about being charged for a massive 22 ounce cup for soda, when I would have been happy to get a free cup of water. What I was a little pissed about was I didn’t get a biscuit to give to my son.
I informed the cashier that she forgot my biscuit. She pointed at the sign and stated, I’m sorry but number 10 and 11 don’t get a biscuit.
I then looked at the sign again. My eyes drawn to the word combo. I then looked at the wickedly small text next to the word wraps.
Biscuit not included
Are you kidding me? It’s not like I’m trying to buy $9.99 knives off an infomercial and the shipping and handling will cost me $49.99 (written in the footer in super tiny sub-text). I’m at a restaurant getting a sandwich.
I looked at all of the other menu cells that had combos 1-9. None of them included the combos statement in the footer. So, they inaccurately framed this message and deceived me through bad design. I will never order a combo from Popeyes again. If I return, I will only order a sandwich, a side, and a water. They will actually lose money from me over time.
Word to the wise. Don’t try to trick your customers. Be upfront with them. Be honest with them. Use simple design and language so things like this don’t happen. You’re only hurting yourself.
Have you every been tricked by bad UX? I would love to hear your story.
It was based on an interesting exchange I had on Google+ about Agile process transformation successes and failures. Here is one of the comments from the other person. Tell me if it sounds familiar.
My previous employers had big problems with Agile. Attempted to use it multiple times and had a nice failure rate of 100%. As far as I know, they are trying again. I’m rather curious. Would be interesting to know how it turns out this time.
If you like it or not, I can pretty much guarantee that company mentioned above will fail again, if they don’t have the proper organizational structure, governance, and clearly defined criteria for progress and success. In other words, their agile process engine is going to stall.
If you’ve never started a car built before 1990, you need to realize that just turning the key won’t get the engine running. All it will do, especially if it’s cold, is crank away until the battery is dead as a door nail. Instead, you need to set the choke to allow the engine to suck in lots of raw gas so some of the vapor will ignite.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.On March 11, 2014, I presented a talk to IIBA Baltimore on the topic of the Product Owner and the Scrum Team. I have to say, this was an awesome bunch of people to talk with. You know you’re at the right place when they offer beer and crab cakes with dinner. Gotta love Charm City!
The last 10 years of Agile have focused on the team. I believe the next 10 years of Agile will focus on the enterprise. That said, should the Product Owner continue to be a single person or does it need to evolve as well? Let’s cover the basics and then see how LeadingAgile has been successful at leveraging the Product Owner role at scale.
As a thank you to IIBA, I was able to get a promo code for 50% off an upcoming Agile Requirements Workshop. The code “IIBA” is limited to only 5 seats. Are you a business analyst in the Atlanta area or want to go visit some friends in Atlanta? Take advantage of this limited offer.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.It’s official. I’m going to be presenting at Agile2014 in Orlando this summer. My 75-minute session will be part of an Learning track that is targeted at anyone who struggles with getting their work done.
My session will be on Wednesday, July 30 at 09:00 in the Sarasota Room.
Hope to see you all in Florida!
At home and work, how to get more stuff done. An introduction to Personal Kanban.
Keywords: Learning, Process, kanban, flow, personal, WIP, Personal_Agility, process improvement
Abstract:
With a world of constant distraction, it feels like it’s getting harder and harder to get stuff done, regardless if it’s on a personal or organizational level. At some point, we’ve been sold the lie that multitasking is great and maximum utilization is even better. If we all drank the Kool-Aid, why are we doing more and getting less done? If there were a relatively simple way for you to get more stuff done, wouldn’t you want to know what it was? If there were a way for you to measure and improve your processes over time, wouldn’t you want to know how to do that as well? When getting stuff done is a primary measure for success, we need to introduce people to concepts that are simple but can be leveraged at scale.
In this session, participants will be introduced to the principles of Lean and the application of Kanban to visualize their personal work, limit distraction and waste, and get stuff done. I’ll cover the core concepts outlined in Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria Barry’s book, Personal Kanban, to get you started. I’ll talk about how Kanban can be applied to everyday work and why you should do it.
Through my years of struggling with ADD/ADHD and my years of management, leadership, and coaching, I have learned and applied Personal Kanban techniques in my everyday life and Lean Kanban at both government and private organizations. This is your opportunity to experience what I am like after a few cups of coffee and for you to learn a few simple strategies that you can start using before you even leave Agile 2014. This workshop can help you map your work and navigate your life.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.All Agile teams should be holding a daily standup meeting. Don’t think of it as a daily planning meeting. Think of it as a daily opportunity to have a shared understanding of what is getting done and what lies ahead. During a daily standup meeting, participants sometimes exhibit negative behavior that will detract from the meeting. As an empowered team, it is your job to self-manage and encourage good behavior. Some of these behaviors are so common, we don’t even realize people are doing them. So, I’m giving them some names. Next time you hold a daily standup, see if anyone (including yourself) exhibits any of these 10 behaviors.
Rather than using the list as a means to label others, use it to reflect on yourself. How might others be perceiving you? Is the persona you are projecting counter to your goals?
If you think of some behaviors that should be added to the list, I would love to see them.
Daily Standup Meeting Negative Personas
10. Pat Decker the Obsessive Phone Checker
This person does not always pay attention and is constantly look at her (or his) phone. Did a BFF just like something? Did someone on Twitter just favorite that pic of the team board? In addition to checking her phone, she likes to share what she sees with others during the standup. “Pssst, Bob, check out this Vine video or pic on Instagram”. She’s not so loud that she’s overly disruptive but now Bob missed what someone else said during the standup.
9. Stephen Craig who is Always Too Vague
This person can get stuck on the same task for days but doesn’t want anyone to know. When speaking to the team, they are crazy vague. Stephen will offer very few details until the team pushes for a deadline. He (or she) will use language like “Yesterday I was working on task 123 and today I will be working on it some more”. No other information is volunteered. When asked if they need any help, they clarify they have no blockers or risks.
8. Bobbie Bainer the Team Complainer
When the attention is on Bobbie, get ready for the positive energy to be sucked right out of the room. Bobbie complains, complains, and complains some more. Management, teammates, or the technology is all fare game. Everything and everyone sucks and no one knows just how bad they have it. Don’t bring up religion or politics unless you want Bobbie to go right into a 20 minute tirade.
7. Jess Jewler who loves the Water Cooler
Jess comes to the daily standup to talk, but not about what needs to be done today. Instead, he or she will talk about just about everything else. The next 15 minutes is dedicated to the water cooler. Did you see the last episode of House of Cards or The Walking Dead? Are you going to watch the Ravens play this weekend? My son plays Minecraft and constructed this totally awesome building with redstone. Anything is fair game, as long as it’s not about work.
6. Billy Platitude with the Bad Attitude
Billy is a leftover from a bygone era. He was the best of the best mainframe developers and all he needs is a DLD and he’ll give you what you need… in a few months. You want any changes between now and then? Forget it! He thinks all things agile are stupid and just plays along begrudgingly. You may catch him make cynical “funny” comments at standup to point out how right he is about how stupid agile is.
5. Will Funky the Non-Committal Junkie
Will does not want to be painted into a corner. Typically, he uses language like try, maybe, pretty sure, I’ll get back to you, we’ll see, would like to think, soon, almost. You’ll also see Will be the last person to comment on something and will usually go with the crowd.
4. Tom Mater the Specialty Updater
Tom only gives vague commitments, usually understandable only by those in his discipline. The overall team gains little value from the statements. If you ask him for details, he’ll either tell you to look it up in a tool or he’ll be very technical in his response. Half of the team doesn’t understand what the hell he’s talking about.
3. Drue Gru who thinks he’s Better Than You (and the team)
Drue has been around for a long time. He’s better than you and he knows it. If you need him, you know where to find him. He either arrives to the standup meeting late or he doesn’t come at all. He has little to say because you wouldn’t understand what he’s talking about. He already knows everything so what is he to gain by slumming with you and the team for 15 minutes? Let him know when something important happens. *sarcasm*
2. Pearl Revolver the Problem Solver
Pearl means well but she lacks a sense of time. She wants to have in-depth problem solving discussions on obstacles identified during the standup meeting. She’s very curious what issues others are having because she’s going to want to talk it out and fix it right then and there. Even if there is a reserved 15 minutes after the standup, Pearl figures there is no better time than the present to tackle a challenge.
1. Ian Krumpter the Interrupter
Do you listen or do you wait to talk? Stop and think about that. There is a difference. Ian waits to talk. People can be binary in that way. If you’re talking, you’re less likely to be listening. He wants to prove just how awesome he is so you’ll see him interrupt even if the topic doesn’t really apply to him.
Thank you to the other coaches at LeadingAgile for their contribution to this post. The original post was dated March 17 over at the LeadingAgile blog.
Professor of project management at Durham College, Geoff Crane, just published an ebook titled 52 Tips to Break Into Project Management. Back in early May, he told me he was compiling an ebook for his students and asked if I would be a contributor. Geoff and I have (virtually) known each other for several years. He’s written really on-point stuff over on his blog, Papercut PM. One of my favorite pieces is titled How Relevant is a PMP?
So, what did he ask me?
I teach project management at Durham College in Ontario. My first batch of students will graduate next month and as a gift I’m looking at putting together an ebook for them…
What advice do you have for project management students fresh out of school who want to break into the discipline?
This is a burning issue for most of them–they’re really looking for advice. As someone with a vested interest in the field, I know your insights will be valuable.
The resulting ebook was really well put together. I’m honored to be included in the list of contributors.
You can even click through the ebook via Slideshare (see below).
Tips to Break Into Project Management
So, what did I have to say? I wanted to keep it short and sweet. I have nieces and nephews still in college, so I can empathize with Geoff’s students. I limited my response to a bulleted list of 10.
1. Grab the first opportunity that comes your way. Don’t play hard to get.
2. Get in there and really hustle. Work smart and hard.
3. Give all the credit to everyone else. It’s the experiences you’re looking for.
4. Pay attention to what others are doing around you. This includes people who are not project managers.
5. Try to learn a little something from everyone, even those whom you may not like.
6. Don’t get too upset if things don’t go as planned. Things are going to get messy.
7. Focus on what is valuable to your customer first, to your boss second, and yourself last.
8. Share what you learn with others.
9. Ask a lot of questions (even dumb ones).
10. Be honest.
Lean Coffee is a structured, but agenda-less meeting. Participants gather, build an agenda, and begin talking. Conversations are directed and productive because the agenda for the meeting was democratically generated.
Where is it?
Mad City Coffee opens at 07:00 and is a coffee shop/coffee roaster minutes from the Columbia Mall and moments away from Howard Community College. We’ll be about equal distance between Baltimore and DC for this event at 10801 Hickory Ridge Rd, Columbia, MD.
