The Agile Enterprise ∞ September 25, 2009

September 25, 2009

Mark Kozak-Holland presents:  Agile Leadership and Management of Change – Project Lessons from Winston Churchill and the Battle of Britain

Winston Churchill is widely regarded as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century. But as he became Prime Minister in May 1940, in a period of calamitous change, what did he actually do that we can learn from today? How did he transform his organization to turn his perilous situation around? Churchill was a Project Manager as well in the modern sense driving a project to completion. This presentation looked at Churchill as a PM managing the UK in the Summer of 1940. It described the strategies he took to overcome incredible odds. Not only did he have to stave off an imminent enemy invasion but he had to move the peacetime economy to one that could support a war. This meant acting with incredible agility, understanding the military supply chain, focusing slender resources on the immediate threat, unifying a disparate economy, and directing its output into immediate military use. With very little time Churchill had to transform his organization.  Likewise, business people today are grappling with an unprecedented level of change adversely impacting their organizations at different levels namely at the enterprise, business unit, or project. This historical analysis was done through a modern business and information technology lens, describing Churchill’s actions and strategy using modern business tools and techniques.

Dr. David F. Rico presents:  Business Value of Agile Methods

Dr. David F. Rico of Boeing Cyber Solutions at Ft. Meade Maryland presented a briefing on the Business Value of Agile Methods. Dr. Rico provided a brief introduction to Agile Methods, an overview of popular Agile Methods, and a brief survey of the benefits of Agile Methods as reported by major industry studies (including rarely seen, late-breaking economic data, and results from the top consulting firms). Dr. Rico discussed a survey of costs and benefits, a suite of metrics for quantifying business value, a discussion of parametric models, a methodology for estimating ROI, and a comparison of 11 major Agile and Traditional Methods. This briefing has been warmly received by the Central Maryland Association of .NET Professionals (CMAP), Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), Boeing Cyber Solutions, Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), and major U.S. Government Agencies. The results of this briefing have been published in a major international journal and a new book entitled, “Business Value of Agile Software Methods: Maximizing ROI with Just-in-Time Processes and Documentation” (http://davidfrico.com/agile-book.htm).

Maxwell Keeler presents: Evolution Toward an Agile Enterprise:  An Experience Report from The Motley Fool

Managing work in an Agile organization is different. Applying traditional portfolio management techniques and project management skills can be ineffective or even work against the successful delivery of value when teams are running an iterative, adaptive process. The Motley Fool has been managing all of their technical projects and teams through an Agile methodology for nearly 2 years. In this talk, we shared our experience adopting and implementing Scrum at an enterprise level and how we needed to evolve our governance and management techniques to be successful. Finally, we covered what challenges remain and how we are continuing to adapt as an enterprise.

Sanjiv Augustine presents: The Agile PMO: Scaling Agile through Adaptive Governance

How should we scale Agile methods beyond individual projects?  How can PMOs avoid being process police and instead truly support Agile teams, enable enterprise rollout of Agile methods, and sustain long-term Agile adoption?

We learned how industry leaders are scaling Agile with Agile PMOs that:

  • Support and empower agile teams through training, coaching, and organizational obstacle removal
  • Track project portfolios using Agile tracking techniques
  • Bring lean discipline to project prioritization
  • Move towards a stable teams model of resource management

Sanjiv shared principles and techniques for the Agile PMO, and discussed how those concepts are being applied in the industry to scale Agile methods through adaptive governance of programs and portfolios.

Check out LitheSpeed’s blog for useful information and resources.

Agenda

9:30 am – 10:00 am

Breakfast & Registration – Graduate Commons

10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Mark Kozak-Holland, Agile Leadership and Management of Change – Project Lessons from Winston Churchill and Battle of Britain

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Lunch – Reading Room

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Dr. David F. Rico, Business Value of Agile Methods

David Rico slides

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm

Maxwell A. Keeler, Evolution Toward an Agile Enterprise:  An Experience Report from The Motley Fool

Max Keeler slides

2:45 pm – 3:30 pm

Sanjiv Augustine, The Agile PMO: Scaling Agile through Adaptive Governance      

Related Articles

http://lessons-from-history.com.whsites.net/node/15

http://www.mmpubs.com/catalog/agile-leadership-and-the-management-of-change-book-p-286.html