A Success Story – Mixing Scrum and Waterfall
Hear about a real life Very Large, Complex, Multi-year and Distributed project at a leading corporation where using Agile practices were introduced in a very Waterfall traditional environment.
A seasoned PM Consultant, Donnla Nic Gearailt, shares her experience as the Project Manager of a team with responsibilities for the development of NEW software for businesses globally, ranging from tactical bug fixes, to complete system rewrites and re-engineering, to adding new modules to existing systems.
She shares with us in a 30 minute interview:
- How Waterfall and Scrum fit into her project lifecycle
- What happened before Scrum Sprints started
- How Estimating was done with the team and ultimately got management approval
- What the Team looked like and roles on the team (ie. Project Manager, Product Owner, Stakeholders Business Users, Development, Testing and Release)
- How her mixed project was integrated with the other waterfall-only projects
- How dependencies between projects were handled
- How the Backlog was managed and what was in the backlog
- What the Scrum Sprints looked like – duration – activities – stand-ups
- What documentation was used ?
- How Collaboration was encouraged and achieved with such a distributed team.
- LOOKING BACK – Donnla also shares what made the project a great success, and key factors any company should consider in mixing Agile & Waterfall when starting to use Agile in their Waterfall world.
SPEAKER: Donnala Nic Gearailt is a Project Management Consultant with CROM Consulting Ltd. She has been leading and participating in Agile teams for over 4 years and over 8 years in Financial Projects. She has also played the role of Portfolio Manager, Business Analyst and Developer — and now is the Project Manager of teams. She has extensive experience in managing projects with many dependencies on other teams and in dealing with the associated issues, such as getting her projects on to the relevant prioritization lists and executed.
To listen to the recording, just fill out the small form below. You will then be taken to the recording immediately to listen to at your leisure!
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NEW VIDEO – David Anderson talks Kanban, Agile and Lean
David Anderson discusses using the Kanban concept to make software development more efficient, the use of Kanban in both a large enterprise organization and as a consultant, how Kanban (in association with related systems such as CONWIP and Drum-Buffer-Rope) is catching on in the industry and helping developers improve predictability of their software, and the Lean Software and Systems Consortium.
SPEAKER: David Anderson is the author of “Kanban” and “Agile Management for Software Engineering”. He is a signatory of the PM Declaration of Interdependence and a founder of the APLN, an original member of the “Singapore Project” where Feature Driven Development emerged, and vice president of the Lean Software and Systems Consortium.
To listen to the recording, just fill out the small form below. You will then be taken to the recording immediately to listen to at your leisure!
As an added benefit we will also add you to the 1000′s of subscribers that receive our Agilista PM Newsletter email that goes out every few weeks. You can unsubscribe at any time.
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NEW VIDEO – Product Discovery using Lean Thinking (with Jeff Patton)
Think of a product you love, one you’d recommend to a friend. What makes the product valuable? While I’m not a mind reader, I’m confident you weren’t thinking: “lack of bugs” or “time to market.” The most difficult part isn’t delivery, but the discovery of products that are truly valuable to the people that use them. Jeff Patton explores applying Lean thinking to product discovery.
Find out how “Discovery finds problems to solve and the shape of solutions”
SPEAKER: Jeff Patton has focused on Agile approaches since working on an early XP team in 2000. In particular Jeff has specialized in the application of user centered design techniques to improve Agile requirements, planning, and products. Jeff is a winner of the Agile Alliance’s 2007 Gordon Pask Award.
To listen to the recording, just fill out the small form below. You will then be taken to the recording immediately to listen to at your leisure!
As an added benefit we will also add you to the 1000′s of subscribers that receive our Agilista PM Newsletter email that goes out every few weeks. You can unsubscribe at any time.
NEW VIDEO – Mary and Tom Poppendieck on Lean Software
Mary and Tom discuss the history of Lean, and what they feel are the most important things for software teams and organizations to thrive.Results are not the point, the point is growing your people, converting them into effective problem solvers who are relentlessly improving. If everybody in the organization is a problem solver, you’ll get steadily better and better.
SPEAKERS: Mary and Tom Poppendieck, teach and consult worldwide on Lean principles for software. Their practical, customer-focused approach to software development identifies real business value and enables product teams to realize that value. Mary has managed solutions for both operations and new product development. Tom is an enterprise analyst, architect, and agile mentor.
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Differences between Waterfall, Iterative Waterfall, Scrum and Lean Software Development (In Pictures!)
This simple overview of the different Agile-Lean methods found was too great to not share. Sometimes it is best to keep it simple to build a foundational understanding….then build on that. Pictures speak a thousand words.
- Waterfall Development,
- Iterative Waterfall Development
- Scrum/Agile Development
- Lean
Thanks goes out to author Tara Lee Whitaker, a digital program director of a leading consumer magazine publisher in the UK. She has over 10 years of experience in the areas of product, project and program management. – The Agilista PM
Read more
Intelligent Disobedience makes Great PMs ?
“Intelligent disobedience requires taking risks, creativity, flexibility and perseverance. We need to engage in conversations with stakeholders that are often difficult – conversations that often cause us to lose sleep at night.”
It is something that Warren Buffet admits he didn’t do in the beginning, and should have. So you are not alone if you don’t do this yet.
Agile and Lean practices can help make this easier – since you are talking with the stakeholders and customers much more often. Keeping that line of communication open. It is what allows PMs or ScrumMasters to speak up when danger is seen. Do you speak up?
Great PM’s don’t just “follow the rules”….they put the value of the customer first ! Lets take a look at a great article by Bob McGannon, PMP – that shares how great PM’s do “intelligent disobedience”. – The Agilista PM
What Burning Questions do you have?
Tell us what’s most important to YOU in learning more about Agile and Lean….and making your organizations and teams more affective with Lean-Agile practices?
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WEBINAR – Role of Management in Lean-Agile Transformations (8/25)
August 25 — 12-1 pm PDT
Management has long seemed to be the forgotten aspect of Lean-Agile organizations. Many in the agile community even talk about protecting their teams from management. This session discusses how management is an essential aspect of any lean-agile transition that involves more than just a couple of teams. While the business side of the organization must select the proper product enhancements to work on and the teams must actually do the work, management’s role is just as critical. It must provide the organizational structure that allows for the flow of ideas to be manifested as value to the customers. Lean-thinking provides new opportunities for managers to lead, coach and support their teams in order to accomplish this.
* Managers as leaders, coaches and agents of organizational change
* Why managers are essential to lean-agile transformations
* How Lean-Thinking enables managers to improve the organization
Agile Open California 2010 South (9/13-14)
THEME: “People, Principles and Performance”
LOCATION: UC Irvine Campus
TWO DAY CONFERENCE: September 13-14, 2010
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What is Agile Open California?
Agile Open California is a coalition of agile practitioners and those that want to learn about Agile. It is an opportunity for learning, networking and growth to the Agile community in California and others who are interested.
How Does it Work?
Using the Open Space Technology framework, we hold gatherings where sessions are self-organized around topics important to the participants. Topics are self-organized – you get to build the conference you want to attend. We invite you to take this opportunity to share your experiences, test new ideas and learn what other practitioners are thinking and doing!
This is the place to learn and contribute.
At Agile Open California you can attend sessions hosted by seasoned professionals, or host a session of your own. Here’s an opportunity to share your favorite topic with others. Or if you have a topic you don’t know much about, and would like to hear from people who do, you can convene a session and learn about your topic from the available expertise.
¨For more information you can visit: http://agileopencalifornia.com/2009/
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¨Special discount for AGILISTA PM readers and PMI members
Click here for Early bird Discount
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** Questions: Contact Bachan Anand at bachan.anand@conscires.com (949-232-8900)
My Speaking Engagements …..
-June 2: WEBINAR - Becoming Agile -June 15: PMI California Inland Empire -Sep 9: So Calif Quality Assurance Assoc Let’s Connect!
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