PMO Agility Canvas 3.0 - Redefining Your PMO for Agile

I had the chance to give a presentation last night at the NYC Scrum User Group Meetup. Despite the horrible weather, there was a really great turnout and I got to meet a lot of great folks.

Here are the slides I used during the presentation. It includes the brand new version of the PMO Agility Canvas tool I developed.

PMO Agility Canvas v 3.0 - NYC Scrum User Group - Nov 2018 from Dave Prior

If you'd like to download a Tabloid size of the canvas, you can find it here:
PMO Agility Canvas

Should the PMO go away?

(Resposted from the LeadingAgile site)
The Project Management Office (PMO) has traditionally been responsible for providing governance over projects, programs and portfolios; ensuring projects are managed according the standards set forth by the PMO; and to provide reporting on progress to leadership. When Agile is introduced into an organization, along with new ways of tracking work, self-organizing teams and new ways of understanding priority, the value the PMO provides comes into question. In a recent blog post, LeadingAgile SVP and Executive Consultant Marty Bradley addressed the question “Should the PMO Go Away?” In this episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, Marty and Dave dig deeper on this topic and explore what PMO’s (and PMO Leaders) need to do in order to remain relevant to an organization transitioning to Agile.

Show Notes

00:08 Podcast Begins

00:35 What does a LeadingAgile Executive Coach actually do 

01:40 When the Executives say “Stop saying Agile.”, it’s actually a good thing.

3:05 Should the PMO go away? Who’s asking and why?

07:12 Why do we need a PMO and governance if the teams are supposed to be self organizing?

08:38 If we do not have trust, how can we have self-organization and Agility?

09:39 All night deployments and the impact of not trusting the team

10:43 When the people who “know better” create a system that fosters missed deadlines and failure, they create a very dysfunctional form of predictability

12:15 How the PMO can maintain its’ relevancy in an organization transitioning to Agile.

13:27 How do we maintain the necessary non-agile elements when we transition to Agile?

14:55 How can we have more empathy for the members of the PMO and the massive personal and career change they are facing in maintaining the stability of a traditional approach while supporting the change to Agile?

16:29 Changing the focus and the metrics used to track the work

17:10 The impact on Development Managers

18:12 Why would I want to eliminate the need for my own position (if we transition from waterfall to Agile)

18:42 Coping with transition: “This is my job,…I got a family…What am I supposed to do?”

19:55 Maintaining a balance between preserving the necessary domain knowledge and changing as fast as you can

20:29 What PMO Leaders need to know before the Agile transition team shows up - “Not everything needs to be perfect Agile.”

23:51 If I am in a PMO and I want to get up to speed and maintain my own relevancy, what do I need to learn? 

25:10 “I’d look at my company and figure out what is value in my company?” How do you define value?

27:02 Finding your organization’s own definition of value

27:46 Closeout

Contacting Marty

Email: marty.bradley@leadingagile.com

Twitter: twitter.com/AskCoachMarty

Contacting Dave

Email: dave.prior@leadingagile.com

Twitter: twitter.com/mrsungo

Related Links:

• Should the PMO Go Away? (Marty’s blog post mentioned in the interview) bit.ly/2jwshAS
• Cost of Delay bit.ly/2jVLfx4
• Agile Governance at eVestment - A More Agile Approach to PMO  bit.ly/2khDBhq
• Agile Governance - An interview with Liana Dore from Agile 2016 bit.ly/2kRXj6F
• Kanban  bit.ly/1cXGeK9
• Lean Startup  bit.ly/1ky8H1h
• Don Reinertsen “The Principles of Product Development Flow” amzn.to/2jYlyOY

Feedback/Questions

If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: www.leadingagile.com/our-gear/training/

Rapid Start PMO - with PMI Fellow Philip Diab

PMI Fellow and former PMI Chair Philip Diab has developed a new program to help organizations get PMO’s up and running quickly. RapidStart PMO is an outcome driven approach that creates deliverables as it iterates towards understanding how the PMO can best serve the organization. And despite his stature in the PM community, Philip continues to be a practitioner, helping organizations get better at getting work done. He’s deeply wise and he’s has been kind enough to act as Yoda to me on numerous occasions throughout my career.  In this interview we discuss the profound impact volunteerism can have on your PM career, keys to success for PMOs and common mistakes many organizations make when starting up (or maintaining) PMOs.

Show Notes

00:00 Podcast begins - Dave introduces Philip

00:39 Philip talks a little about his background in Project Management and with PMI

01:22 How volunteering can help your career

04:30 Volunteering takes a lot of time and energy, but it gives back even more

06:20 PMO’s - How Philip got involved in working with PMO’s, what he learned from it and why he is so passionate about it

07:27 Yes - PMO’s are very exciting… but you have to be pretty deep with the PM geek

07:50 The work Philip has been doing to help organizations that want to start PMO’s to get them up and running quickly

08:43 The PMO as a service organization that helps projects succeed (as opposed to simply providing an auditor function

10:39 Philip’s explains S.E.R.V.E. - his five strategic principles for PMO’s 

13:41 The types of organization Philip works with and where they are in the PMO adoption lifecycle

15:41 A story about one of Philip’s favorite PMO projects

16:52 Philip’s optimism around his work “There is no room for cynicism in project management.”

18:05 What makes PMs successful and when the work moves beyond being about the project

19:01 Philip’s PM Origin Story - How to get the job when you have no experience and what happens afterwards

20:41 Giving yourself empowerment because of your knowledge and experience

21:30 “You can take charge and people will let you if what you are doing is the right thing for the organization.”

22:00 Why Rapid Start PMO exists and how it can help you build (or rebuild) your PMO

24:33 A step-by-step deliverable focused program

25:14 The main differentiator that that leads to success and five critical factors you need

27:05 Passion for the project and being the champion who motivates the team is critical, but what if the project you get is “just a pile of garbage” (Philip offers Dave some advice)

29:43 A strange definition of optimism

30:55 Making room in the PMO for experimentation

32:24 Common missteps made by organizations trying to start PMOs

35:22 What to do when you can’t don’t know (or can’t remember) why you have a PMO

37:37 How the course can help existing PMO’s

39:08 How to learn more about the course or get in touch with Philip

39:35 Philip’s new podcast “The Project Management Debate Podcast

You can learn more about Rapid Start PMO here: http://rapidstartpmo.com/p/rapidstartpmo

You can reach Philip via his website: http://philipdiab.com/

Or his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philipdiab

And you can find  “The Project Management Debate Podcast” on iTunes:  or SoundCloud