Live from #PWWCBA: Structured Conversations to Deliver Value

It was fortuitous for me that I chose to attend Ellen Gottesdiener's final session of the day "Powerful Planning, Agile Analysis: Structured Conversations to Deliver Value" as it involved an in-depth use of the Project World website as an example of finding value for customers/users.

We identified many different possible users for the site:
attenders
vendors
bookers
reviewers
approvers

(Ellen's tip: give each user type a name that describes what they do, not a job title, things ending in "er")

Each of these users has different requirements priorities such as: register securely, ease of use, find out attendee numbers, see a business case showing ROI of attending the event. You can perform discovery to find out what your users need through steps such as interviews.

These requirements can then be a means to the end of finding value.

So, what would your requirements be for the 2012 ProjectWorld® & World Congress for Business Analysts® website?

Live at #PWWCBA: The Corporate Agile Transformation: Yes, It Can Happen

Jennifer Brownson of BMC Software kicked off the after lunch sessions at the Agile summit discussing the fact that everything at BMC is run using Agile practices, from software development to accounting.

Starting with a core agile cross functional team in 2004, Jennifer was part of a group that made the original switch to Agile. Originally one large product line of about 350 people worked on intentionality, trust of the team, and risk taking. By summer of 2008, those practicing Scrum within the company numbered close to 1,000 and eventually the momentum built to where it is today.

Some growing pains are to be expected during a transformation like this, but with internal buy-in, a certain amount of peer-pressure and a dedicated evangelist team that eventually won over agile champions within the PMO, the battle wasn't entirely uphill. The tipping point: management support of agile, building a symbiotic IT/product team relationship and a structured training program that is readily available.

General Organizational Impacts of the transformation:
Everyone becomes agile
Cross functional teams
No organizational silos
Time management
Measurement driven culture

Make sure to login to crowdvine if you're attending the conference to download Jennifer's presentation for more resources.

Live from #PWWCBA: All Analysts are Bilingual

In Linda Cook's session "Kanban – Limit Work In Progress and Go Faster" we started speaking the language of Kanban. Literally meaning "Card Signal," Kanban has some manufacturing roots as cards directed employees which task to start when.

Linda made one fun observation during the session: that business analysts are key to Kanban as they have a unique skill: they are "bilingual," translating information into stories. So, let's start deciphering Kanban and translate what it is and is not:
- Kanban is not just a software development methodology, not just an approach to project management, and much more than just a card wall

- Kanban is used to control Work In Progress, it promotes incremental change and  it requires some existing process to already be in place

The core elements of Kanban are:
- Visualize workflow
- Limit work in progress
- Measure and manage flow
- Make process policies explicit
- And use models to recognize improvement opportunities

Next Linda introduced the idea of creating "Slack":
Slack can reduce variability and thus improve quality and smooth out the flow to achieve an even cadence, or rhythm of events.

Kanban methods:
Help visualize the process with workflow models
Help to identify bottlenecks when the steps of the process are drawn on a model
Encourage continuous improvement
Minimize the initial impact of changes
May help reduce the resistance to change

We then wrapped up the session by making sample Kanban walls. Look for pictures of our work here soon.

Live from #PWWCBA: Agile Summit Beginnings

The 2011 PW&WCBA kicked off just now and I'm writing live from the Agile Summit. We got our minds flowing first thing with a "human histogram" - breaking out the group to see years worked in agile, types of products worked on, and more.

Ellen Gottesdiener, our Agile Summit Chair asked participants to start the day by grouping around Agile terms from our pre-conference glossary: Retrospectives, Backlogs, Velocity and more. Participants then wrote down what question, puzzle or issue they would need addressed today to feel that the summit was a good value. Over the course of the day, they'll be checking in on these issues. What is yours? Share with us in the comments.

Next we went through our "Petcha Kutcha" - an exercise where each speaker of the day presented their session through 20 slides with 20 seconds per slide. This exercise is a great preview of what we have in store for the day - not to mention a good way to decide which session to attend during our breakout tracks.

So far we're off to an exciting, interactive start of day one at PW&WCBA. Keep watching this space for more conference coverage.

Michelle LeBlanc is a Social Media Strategist at IIR USA and the voice behind the @Project_World twitter. She may be reached at mleblanc@iirusa.com