Edward Kay - Making Agile work in Digital

Edward Kay, the Founder of Tall Projects, has been managing software and digital projects for over 14 years. A few months ago Edward posted an article on The Digital Project Manager called “Agency Agile: 10 Agile Methods for Agencies”. In this interview, Edward and I discuss his article, some of the key things you need to do in order to get agile to work in digital, and why Scrum may be the one thing that just won’t work in an agency model.

SHOW NOTES 

04:04 - Interview Begins
04:48 - Background on Edward and Tall Projects
05:55 - How Edward got started doing agile
06:31 - How Edward’s clients develop a desire to try Agile
09:11 - Are the clients who want to “Go Agile” aware of what that will require and willing to take the steps needed to implement the change?
11:25 - Where in the organization is agile getting started?
12:17 - Why the clients bring Edward in
13:34 - There is no one true way
14:50 - Critical challenges facing Digital Agencies trying to adopt Agile
16:32 - Understanding how to look at work across the portfolio
17:32 - Different ways of measuring work in agencies that are using Agile
20:07 - “Why don’t we just smoke crack at work?”
23:52  - Tracking Happiness
25:10 -  Quantifying value and limiting WIP
28:26 - What is the client actually paying you for?
30:50  - Determining value at the project deliverable level
32:40 - Having a conversation about limiting WIP
35:38 - Getting the client to trust the practices agile team’s employ
36:16  - Multitasking is bad and doesn’t work… but it is still expected
37:45 - What Agile practices just do not work in an Agency model
38:49 - “The on system that is not well suited for Digital Agencies in Scrum”
41:15 - Kanban as an alternative for Digital Agencies
42:10 - What Agile tool/technique is the key to making it work in an Agency model?
43:17 - What is the piece that is missing when trying to make Agile fit in an Agency model?
44:18 - How to get in touch with Edward

CONTACTING EDWARD

Website - https://www.tallprojects.co.uk/
Email: edward@tallprojects.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardkay/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/edwardkay or https://twitter.com/tallprojects
Edward’s article on The Digital Project Manager: Agency Agile: 10 Agile Methods For Agencies 

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