The Agile PMOFrom Process Police to Adaptive GovernanceSanjiv Augustine and Roland Cuellar (‘kway-are’)February 22, 2017

About Sanjiv Augustine• Entrepreneur, industry-leading Agile and Lean

expert, author, speaker, management consultant and trainer.

• Sanjiv has served as a trusted advisor over the past 15 years to executives and management at leading firms including:

• Capital One, The Capital Group, CNBC, Comcast, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, General Dynamics, HCA Healthcare, The Motley Fool, National Geographic, Nationwide Insurance, Walmart, and Samsung.

• You can contact Sanjiv at Sanjiv.Augustine@LitheSpeed.com.

About Roland Cuellar• Has focused exclusively on Agile software

development and lean business process improvement for the last 12 years

• Clients include:• Capital One, CNBC, Westinghouse Nuclear

Power, Nationwide Insurance, US Citizenship and Immigration, the US Courts, and many more.

• Has spoken at numerous conferences and has published a number of articles on the subjects of Agile, portfolio management, quality, and Kanban.

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1. Barriers to Agile Adoption 2. Setting up the Agile PMO3. Adaptive Governance via the

Agile PMO• Project Prioritization & Selection• Portfolio Tracking• Resource Management

4. Q&A

Agenda“Anoverwhelmingmajorityof

executives(88%)citeorganisational agilityaskeytoglobalsuccess...MITsuggeststhatagilefirmsgrowrevenue37%fasterandgenerate30%higherprofitsthannon-agile.Yetmostcompaniesadmitthey

arenotflexibleenoughtocompetesuccessfully.”

TheEconomist,viaJimHighsmith

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Barriers to Further Agile Adoption6

“Our ScrumMasters Need Help!”Over the years, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve talked with customers about their ‘project management’ problems. We hear the following sorts of things all the time:

• Our SMs can’t manage our projects• Despite adoption Agile, we are terrible at project delivery• We can’t estimate• We need more project management training• Yada yada yada

These sorts of conversations are almost always fascinating and here is how they often go:

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Tell Me More• Mgr: We need training for our SMs on estimation and planning.• Me: Really! Why do you say that?• Mgr: We can’t estimate anything. We do it all the time, you’d think we’d be better at it by

now but all of our projects are late.• Me: Hmm. What do you mean when you say that you estimate “all the time?”• Mgr: We have new project requests coming in every week. We need to provide quick and

accurate estimates so that we can get these projects approved and started.• Me: Don’t you realize that every time you inject a new project into an already busy team,

or pull them out to do unplanned estimation work, you are destroying all of the estimates they provided to you previously?

• Mgr: … silence …

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Digging Deeper

• Client: Our SMs can’t estimate or drive delivery successfully. They need more training.

• Us: Are there just a few teams or SMs struggling or is this a more widespread issue?

• Client: All of them! It is a problem across our organization.

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It’s Not the SMs!

• If only a few SMs are struggling, then perhaps it is a SM training/skills/experience issue.

• But if almost everyone is struggling, then the problem isn’t the SMs. The system in which they are trying to operate is broken.

1. No effective work-intake process2. Weak management that says ‘yes’ to everyone3. Defining projects that are way too large4. Inappropriate use of ‘projects’5. No real management system

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So, how can an Agile PMO help?Agile PMOs consider Scrum teams to be their customers, and

support them in:1. Bringing lean discipline to project prioritization &

selection2. Tracking project portfolios using Agile tracking

techniques3. Moving towards a stable teams model of resource

management4. Changing the focus to delivery enablement

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Setting up the Agile PMO

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• Encourage face-to-face dialogue across levels

• Create overlapping management with “linking pins”

• Run the Lean-Agile PMO as an Agile project teamSource:TheLean-AgilePMO,SanjivAugustineandRolandCuellar(CutterConsortium2006)

Organizational Structure13

ASteeringCommitteecreatesthedirectionforagileteamstodeliverfortheorganization

Steering Committee

Projectteams

Linking pin: individual that is a member of two groups

Agile PMO

SteeringCommitteeSteeringCommittee

• Sponsorandprovidesupportfornewinitiatives• Prioritizeprojects• Establishmetricsandtrackprogress• Members

• Keyexecutivesponsorsandapplicationowners• Individualsfromtheprojectcoordinationteam

MajorBenefits• Clearvisionandprioritization• Highstakeholdervisibility• Crossorganizationalcoordinationofefforts

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AnAgilePMOenablesagileteamstoexecuteinacoordinatedway

Steering Committee

Agile PMO

Projectteams

Linking pin: individual that is a member of two groups

AgilePMOAgilePMO

• Executevisionofthesteeringcommittee• Managetheportfolioofprojectsonaniterativebasis• Trackprojects• Allocateresourcesacrossprojects• Supporttotheteams(e.g.,training,coaching,removaloforganizationalobstacle,etc.)

• Managedependencies

MajorBenefits• Abilitytomanagechange• Portfolioalignment• Coordinatedreleaseschedules• Increasedorganizationalvisibilityacrossprojects• Reducedriskacrossprojects

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Teamsarecreatedinawaythatisconducivetoagiledelivery

Steering Committee

ProjectTeams

Linking pin: individual that is a member of two groups

ProjectTeamsProjectteams

• Deliveryworkingsoftwareinaniterativeincrementalmanner

• Empoweredcrossfunctionalteams• Development• Business• QA

• Timeboxedsprints• Stakeholderprioritization

MajorBenefits• Adaptiveteams• Greateremployeeengagement• Improvedquality• Fastertimetomarket• Reducedmiscommunication• Lowerprocessoverhead

Agile PMO

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Project Prioritization & Selection

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All Agile Methods Limit Work in Process (WIP) • WIP determines speed and WE control

WIP• Scrum uses the 2-week time box to

indirectly limit WIP• Kanban uses explicit WIP limits

instead. • All agile methods achieve speed and

quality by narrowing the near-term focus

PROJECTPORTFOLIOSNEEDWIPLIMITSTOO!

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• Eachsectorisadifferentbusinessarea

• Concentriccirclesrepresenttime

• Managersputtheirapproximateprojecttimingneedsontheboard

• Thecentercirclesrepresentwhat’sgoingonrightnow

• Useittodriveharddiscussions

• Ifyoukeepsaying‘Yes’toeverything,youhaveawork-intakeproblem,notaSMproblem!

Greatphoto…notsurewhotookit

Work Intake

•“Wehave12moreeffortsscheduledtostartnextmonth”•Butwearen’tfinishedwithwhatisgoingonrightnow•Whatarewegoingtodo?

• Terminate sick projects• Split large projects in smaller ones• Prioritize projects by business value,

at least within business unit• Limit development timeframe to months• Re-prioritize projects regularly

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Development

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Little’sLawCycleTime=WIP/CompletionRate

Portfolio Realignment

BusinessGoals&Strategy Production Sunset

Backlog

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Whittling It Down• I asked one PM to write down

all of the current efforts underway

• 12 projects for a 10-person team!

• Score them on several factors:• T-Shirt Size (S,M,L)• Biz Value ($, $$, $$$)

• Do Smaller and $$$ first

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Portfolio Tracking

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Portfolio Management Framework1. Strategic Performance Monitoring: Are we hitting our business goals?2. Work Intake Process: What are the requests that are being made of us?3. Capacity Availability and Allocation: What teams are available and when?4. Delivery Performance Monitoring: Are our teams on schedule? Will we get the

capabilities that we agreed to?5. Impediment Resolution: What do we need to do to address our delivery

challenges?6. Stakeholder Communications: Who do we need to inform regarding delivery

status?7. Process Improvement: What do we need to do to improve the effectiveness of

our portfolio management?

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AgilePortfolioManagementAgilePractice

• Crossfunctionalandcrossteamprojectcoordinationteam• Coordinatedsprintplanningacrossteams• Agileportfoliomanagementisperformedbythesteeringcommitteetomanagecrossprojectpriorities

• ReduceWIP• Featurestreamorvaluestream• Portfolioalignmentwall

MajorBenefits

Managetheflow

• EarlyROI• Clearprioritizationforentireportfoliooffeatures• Visualizationofentireportfolioofoffeaturesandwork• Abilitytoprioritizehighpriorityfeaturesfrommultiplecompetingprojectsagainsteachother

AgilePortfolioManagement

Steering Committee

Project coordination team

Release Release

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Visualize the Flow

• Use visual boards to track projects • Note where they are in the process• And how long they have been there• And what is coming up next• If most projects are not flowing through to DONE then you

have a system problem (not a PM problem!)

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Portfolio Alignment Wall26

Portfolio Alignment Wall (Cont’d)

• Features laid out on index cards as per overall release plan

• Card colors identify software and non-software deliveries

• Labels identify dependent teams• Rows track feature streams• Columns track sprints/timeline

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Resource Management

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Traditional Resource Management• Run many projects

concurrently, with similar priorities

• Split resources between multiple projects

• Stress maximum resource utilization

• ROI only after projects are done

Time

Projects&Resources

ROI

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• Projects are by definition …. 1-time events• “Let’s deliver into production every month … If we do that, it’s not a

project”• We don’t do tons of documentation and artifacts for our monthly payroll

run ... Why would we do all of that for monthly software updates?• Let’s deliver frequently as a normal course of operations and focus on

DELIVERY and QUALITY and NOT on paperwork!• How much of your time could be recovered by removing the overhead?• We have several F500 clients and major govt agencies that are already

experimenting with this approach and doing very well

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The #NoProjects Movement

Evenifyouhavetosticktoprojects,youshouldtrytochunkthemdownintomultiplesmalldeliveries.

• Multiple, stable teams each focused on a single project at a time

• Dedicated to platforms or lines of business

• Platform owner prioritizes next project• Result:

• Support multiple lines of business simultaneously

• Focused effort results in quick delivery for individual projects

• Clear accountability • Stability and predictability

Source:TheLean-AgilePMO,SanjivAugustineandRolandCuellar(CutterConsortium2006)

Stable Teams31

Lean Resource Management• Lean organizations:• Dedicate core resources to each project

team• Ensure that each team has all resources

needed to complete projects• Stress maximum project throughput• ROI delivered incrementally with each

project release

ROI

Time

Projects&Resources

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Here’s how can an Agile PMO can help!Agile PMOs consider Scrum teams to be their customers, and support

them in:

1. Bringing lean discipline to project prioritization & selection2. Tracking project portfolios using Agile tracking techniques

3. Moving towards a stable teams model of resource management4. Changing the focus to delivery enablement

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QUESTIONS?

NEXT WEBINARCreating Hyperproductive Organizations with Enterprise Social Systemswith Erich BühlerMarch 8, 2017 | 4:00 PM ET (USA)Eligible for 1 Scrum Education Unit (Category F)

In this webinar, Erich will teach you the essentials of Enterprise Social Models – Social Density, Social Visibility, Blocking Collaboration and more – to create a fast pace adaptable company.

Thank you for attending

Contact Us

Sanjiv AugustineSanjiv.Augustine@LitheSpeed.com

Roland Cuellar (‘kway-are’)Roland.Cuellar@LitheSpeed.com

On the Web:http://www.lithespeed.com

+1 703 745 9125@LitheSpeed, @AgileAcad

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