Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Chris Matts on Real Options and Commitment - the Graphic Novel About Managing Project Risk

Click here to go straight to the interview on Projects at Work
Chris Matts is an Agile though leader and coach based in the UK. He’s also co-author (along with Olav Maassen and Chris Geary) of ”Commitment: A Novel About Managing Project Risk”. What makes the book so unique is that it is a graphic novel. The purpose of the story is to help the reader gain a deeper understanding of how to make truly informed (right) decisions based on a deeper understanding of the issues they are facing. 
Real Options is the central them presented in the book. This is a process that has been borrowed from the financial sector and applied to the decision making process that is part of managing project work.  The Real Options approach helps provide clarity around when decisions need to be made, rather than just focusing on how they are made. It begins with three key ideas:
  1. Options have value
  2. Options Expire
  3. Never commit early unless you know why
For more about Real Options, go here
One of the unique things Chris brings as an Agile coach is his background in investment banking. The application of tools and techniques from this area can provide a gateway or bridge into Agile for those coming from a similar work history. (Much the same way that looking at how Earned Value can be applied in Agile can help provide traditional PMs with a reference point.)
Chris is currently focusing his coaching efforts on how Agile works in the enterprise. If you’d like to learn more about the work he is doing, check out the podcast here.

You can follow Chris on twitter.
You can check out his blog here.
You can connect to Chris on LinkedIn here.

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