This document summarizes a presentation about addressing challenges facing program management offices (PMOs) through adopting agile program management practices. The presentation discusses how agile program management can help PMOs by embracing scope changes, prioritizing work to meet deadlines, empowering teams to own their commitments, improving communication through daily stand-ups and retrospectives, and engaging teams in risk management. It also notes that integrating the value stream across tools is a missing ingredient, and that connecting tools can eliminate issues caused by a fragmented value stream by providing end-to-end visibility, accountability, and responsiveness.
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Thursday, June 22, 2017
#5 Leading Challenges Facing PMOs
And how Agile Program Management is
Changing the Game…
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Agenda & Speakers
• Intros
• Presentation by Brian Mulconrey
• Presentation by Rebecca Dobbin
• Q&A
Ben Lack
cPrime
Moderator
Brian Mulconrey, SPC4,
CSP, CSSBB, PMP, ACP
cPrime
Agile Coach
Rebecca Dobbin
Tasktop
Product Analyst
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Drive Agile and DevOps success through a
blend of unified software services
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Do these 5 Challenges sound familiar?
1. “We’re constantly changing scope
and writing change requests!”
2. “Our senior managers are
continually ‘announcing’
impossible deadlines.”
3. “Nobody seems to feel
accountable for these impossible
deadlines.”
4. “Poor communications result in
‘surprises’ late in the life of our
projects.”
5. “We aren’t very good at managing
the real risks that threaten our
programs.”
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What is Agile Program Management?
Program
Backlog
Product
Backlog
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#1 – Learning to Love Scope Changes!
Why would we want to “love” scope changes???
“Our highest
priority is to
satisfy the
customer
through early
and continuous
delivery of
valuable
software.” –
Agile Manifesto
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#1 – Learning to Love Scope Changes!
Empowered Program Level and Team Level Product
Owners…
…Versus Heavyweight and Disruptive “Change Control”
Scope
Changes
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#2 – Meeting “Impossible” Dates
>>> The Iron Triangle <<<
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#2 – Meeting “Impossible” Dates by
Prioritizing Scope!
Agile
Triangle
SCOPE
Resources Time
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#2 – Meeting “Impossible” Dates by
Prioritizing Scope!
Agile
Triangle
SCOPE
Resources Time
Leveraging the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Feedback Cycle
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#3 – Agile Teams “Own” Their Commitments
Program Release Planning with All Teams (e.g., 3 months)
• Agile Teams Plan & Estimate Together
• Program Leadership is there to resolve conflicts rapidly!
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#3 – Agile Teams “Own” Their Commitments
Sprint Planning with Team (e.g., every 2 weeks)
• Product Owner brings prioritized backlog to planning meeting.
• Team Estimates work, makes commitment, breaks down tasks.
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#4 – Agile Teams Communicate Continuously
• Release Planning –
Several teams planning
together to reach program
milestones.
• Scrum of Scrums
Meetings – Meetings to
coordinate among scrum
masters and product
owners of multiple teams.
• The User Story - A reason
to have a conversation.
• Sprint Planning – What
are we going to do this
sprint?
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#4 – Agile Teams Communicate Continuously
• The Daily Stand-Up –
Sharing your progress
with team.
• The Sprint Review –
Stakeholder
communication and
demo.
• The Retrospective –
What can we do
better? What is
working well?
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#5 – The ROAM Formula for Engaging Agile
Teams in Risk Management
• Resolved – The teams
agree that the issue
has been resolved.
• Owned – The issue
can’t be resolved in the
meeting but someone
owns the follow up.
• Accepted – Some risks
are just facts and need
to be accepted.
• Mitigated – Teams can
find ways to soften the
impact of a risk.
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#5 – The ROAM Formula for Engaging Agile
Teams in Risk Management
• Resolved – The teams
agree that the issue
has been resolved.
• Owned – The issue
can’t be resolved in the
meeting but someone
owns the follow up.
• Accepted – Some risks
are just facts and need
to be accepted.
• Mitigated – Teams can
find ways to soften the
impact of a risk.
Leveraging the “Wisdom
of Your Teams” to
identify and manage risk!
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Agile Program Management
• Establish the Program Level Backlog with
epics and stories
• Identify an Agile Program Management
framework (e.g., SAFe) and train members
of your teams
• Identify program level roles and
responsibilities
• Set a date for a Agile Program Release
Planning Meeting(s) to bring the teams
together to plan their work over the next 10-
13 weeks.
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Agile Program Management
Transforming #5 Challenges into #5
Opportunities
1. Learning to Love Scope Changes
2. Meeting Impossible Dates by
Prioritizing Scope
3. Agile Teams ”Own” Their
Commitments
4. Agile Teams Communicate
Continuously
5. The ROAM Formula for Engaging
Agile Teams in Risk Management