Archive for the ‘Training’ Category

• Font Matters

  Date: 2011.01.19 | Category: Class Design, Training | Response: 1

  I came across this article today about the importance of font to improve reading comprehension.  In the past four months, I have been doing a LOT of instructional design for the variety of classes my business now offers.  Much of this work is based on Sharon Bowman’s awesome, awesome book, Training from the Back of the Room, and one of the six trumps that is relevant regarding font selection for class material is below:

  Different trumps the same

  I have been mixing up fonts in my handouts because I felt if I used a standard font, it would be sightly inconsistent with the classroom experience I am trying to create.  In all my classes, I work to create a learning environment where peers are sharing experiences with another and interacting with the material.  The variety of fonts on a page were just another manifestation of my training philosophy.  Glad to hear it actually helps with retention.

• Review of Scrum Training on Nov 10th

  Date: 2010.11.16 | Category: Scrum, Training | Response: 1

  Last week, I conducted a one-day Scrum training in Irvine with Conscires.  The class was completely sold out and a great deal of fun.  Catherine Augustin wrote up an awesome review of the class.  Don’t worry if you missed out on all the fun – we are holding another class in January.

• Scrum Training – Nov 10th in Irvine, Orange County

  Date: 2010.10.28 | Category: Scrum, Training | Response: 0

  Bachan Anand and I will be partnering on Nov 10th to teach a one-day course on Scrum.  In this class we will teach the principles and practices that make Scrum effective at managing projects.  The following elements will be covered during the one day course:

  • Scrum in Practice: the course is designed to illustrate Scrum in action.
  • Understanding of the Agile Manifesto and what it means to them.
  • Essence of Scrum: values, foundations and a new way of thinking.
  • Understanding how Scrum values and foundations are related to the practices.
  • Get a sense of what self-organization is (and is not).
  • Can draw a diagram of mechanics of Scrum: framework, roles, artifacts & flow

  Together we will use the principles of Scrum to organize and deliver the course material.  Learning outcomes will be driven by the needs of the participants through a combination of expert instruction and self-directed learning.  Opportunities to reflect-and-adapt on the direction of the class will be offered at regular intervals and adjustments will be made.  At the end of the training, the participants will have the confidence and understanding to begin to socialize Scrum at their own organization and support teams in improving their processes.

  The cost is only $275.  Please sign-up today!

• Estimating & Planning for Agile Teams – Oct 2nd

  Date: 2010.09.12 | Category: Agile, Estimating & Planning, Extreme Programming, Planning, PMI, Scrum, Training | Response: 0

  Having trouble communicating deadlines to stakeholders?  Unable to get a commitment from the Team on when work will actually be delivered?  Having trouble managing dependencies?  Agile processes, like Scrum and Extreme Programming, rely on lightweight techniques to progressive guide and steer a project to completion.  In this hands-on workshop, Carlton Nettleton will review the common Agile tools used by successful Teams to produce project plans which have clear milestones and deliverables and raises risks and dependencies early.  The topics covered in this class will include:

  • Importance of creating a Definition of Done for the Team
  • The role of user stories to capture, develop and validate requirements.
  • Common estimating techniques employed by Teams.
  • How to develop and maintain a Release Plan to track progress.
  • How to use easy-to-understand Agile metrics to monitor status.
  • Link common Agile planning practices to the PMBOK.

  Participants that are PMP will earn 4 PDU.  Register today!

• Reading List (1st Half of 2010)

  Date: 2010.08.23 | Category: Agile, Coaching, Communication, Documentation, Lean, Personal, Retrospectives, Scrum, ScrumMaster, Team, Tools, Training, Transitions | Response: 0

  Wow!  I have read a LOT in the last six months!  I guess that is one of the advantages of being on the road for about six months.

  1. Understanding A3 Thinking – excellent description of how to use and create an A3: a Lean tool for executing Plan-Do-Check-Act (the Deming cycle).  This is the definitive source on A3, Henrik Kniberg has an Agile example and template on his site.
  2. Getting the Right Things Done – good description of the concept of True North, developing strategy from True North and the respectful nature of Lean, the rest is kinda dull.
  3. Pedagogy of the Oppressed – unique perspective on the characteristics of oppression, the oppressed and the oppressors; liberation for both the oppressed and the oppressors originates when the oppressed become fully engaged in the human dialogue of being, not simply exchanging roles with the oppressors.  Interesting connections to corporate life in the 21st century.
  4. Project Retrospectives – discussion on the importance of making a deep-dive examination of a software project when it finally is complete with detailed exercises and agenda.  This is great book if you want to know more about retrospectives.
  5. More Secrets of Consulting – just brilliant!  If you liked the first book, this one has so many practical gems for the consultant.  The only tedious parts of this book are the references to his other books.  My favorite tool: the Wishing Wand.
  6. The Future of Management – this book was a favorite of the CEO at my last client.  There are many Scrum concepts in the case studies provided.  Too bad that many of the principles of self-organization and empowerment supported by the executives never filtered down to the teams
  7. Coaching Agile Teams – WOW!  This is an awesome book, deep and rich with many profound insights on the various roles of an Agile coach.  In addition, Lyssa provides practical tools to improve both the coach and the individual.  This is definitely a book to return to again and again.
  8. Training From the Back of the Room – this is my favorite book from the last six months since it has had the most impact on my personal performance.  It has changed my perspective on how to train adults with its sound theory of education and myriad of exercises which bolster learning.  Share this book with anyone who trains adults (thanks to “Agile Bob” Hartman for tweeting this book title!)
  9. Practices for Scaling Lean & Agile Development – comprehensive companion book to Scaling Lean & Agile Development (which is very good on Lean and Scrum).  This book is full of good stuff, but just too long.  Unless you are a guru (or wanna be), stick with the first book.
  10. Succeeding with Agile – Mike Cohn has put out another great book based on his years of practical experience with Scrum.  This book is also pretty long, but not tedious.  A great read if you have some experience with Scrum, but want to improve the overall experience, apply targeted improvements or figure out how to expand the reach of Scrum in your organization – it covers it all.
  11. The Back of the Napkin – provides a framework on how to apply visual thinking tools to explain and sell ideas.  Since most of the work I do is conceptual, being able to draw a powerful picture is a useful skill.  A nice addition to my consultant toolkit and I look forward to sharing it with others (I didn’t find the companion book that useful, so skip it).
  12. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series (not pictured) – these books were consistently entertaining, surreal and light; most were less than 200 pages.  The pace slows down around book 3 (Life, the Universe and Everything), but delightful nonetheless.  I cannot believe I just discovered them in my mid-30′s!

  Believe it or not, there are a few books I did not get a chance to read.  I guess these will have to wait until after vacation.

  • Leading Out Loud – about finding your authentic voice in business.  I bought this to get some ideas about leadership and self-organizing teams.
  • Hope is Not a Strategy – I need to understand the sales process better and improve my ability to sell.  This looked interesting.

• Best Links of the Week – July 30th 2010

  Date: 2010.07.30 | Category: Agile, Certified ScrumMaster, Extreme Programming, Lean, Links of the Week, Open Workspace, Pair Programming, PMI, Scrum, Task Board, Team | Response: 0

  More great writings gathered from far and wide.

  1. Scrum at Mind Candy – brief video of a task board in action over a three month period.
  2. Confessions of an Agile Project Manager – PMI sponsored a video contest among PMP using Agile – check out the results on YouTube!
  3. Thoughts on two months pairing - Sarah Mei reflects on her experience pair programming and the benefits it has provided her professional & personal life.
  4. Can Agile Learn Anything from PMBOK? - Dennis Stevens looks at how the PMBOK supports, compliments and impedes Agile and proposes some solutions to make the two synchronize better.
  5. Multitasking Gets You There Later - Roger Brown discusses a common paradigm in project management when dealing with too many projects and too few people.
  6. Waterfall, Lean\Kanban and Scrum – Ken Schwaber, co-creator of Scrum, discusses why Scrum relies on empirical process control theory and why they did not choose Lean or a defined process.
  7. The Role of Middle Management in Toyota or a Lean System – special post on the new focus of management in Agile organizations.
  8. Team Room – want to get increased focus, quality and retention from your Team?  Check out this team room article by Martin Fowler.
  9. Agile + UX: six strategies for more agile user experience – how Comcast is combining good user experience (UX) practices with Scrum.
  10. June 2010 CSM class – very cool visualization of a Certified ScrumMaster class taught by Tobias Mayer and Bachan Anand.

• You’re Invited!! – An Agile Game

  Date: 2010.06.25 | Category: Agile, Coaching, Games, Lean, Training, Transitions | Response: 0

  A colleague of mine, Deb Hartman Preuss (@deborahh), tweeted “I have a strange job: getting things to happen in other people’s minds, bodies, hearts. Kind of like the faith healer who doesn’t touch you.” and it struck a chord with me.  A lot of what I do as consultant is help open people’s minds to new ideas and look at their actions, which is why I use a lot of games and simulations.  In my experience, games and simulations help people get into a safe space where they can reflect on their behaviors and understand why they might want to change.

  One of my favorite games to help people understand the corrosive effect of push systems and working in silos is the “Invitation Game” created by Chris Sims at the Agile Learning Labs.  In this game, participants are asked to make three invitations to a party with six steps to complete (see below).  The game is played in two rounds and they are timed.

  1. Fold the paper in half
  2. Put a smiley face on the front
  3. Write “You’re invited!” on the inside
  4. Add your signature
  5. Put a sticker\stamp on the back
  6. Deliver the invitation

  In the first round, individuals are teamed in groups of six and each person is given one step to do.  When they complete ALL their work, they hand-off their eighteen unfinished invitations to the next station; i.e. after folding all 18 sheets of paper, the next person makes 18 smiley faces and then passes along to the third person on the team.  Normally, the completed invitations look something like this – all look the same and are sloppy.

  

  In addition, as an observer what you see is a lot of waiting around – due to the constraints of the game only one person can work on the invitations at a time and all the rest are waiting for their handoff – and not a lot of value being generated until the very end.  Another interesting observation is what inactive participants are doing while the active person is doing their task.  Sometimes they are giving helpful, unsolicited advice to the active person on how to do their job.  Things such as “Hurry up”, “You can fold six of them at a time”, “You don’t need such fancy face”, etc., etc.  Sometimes the inactive people are just waiting around with nothing to do or talking to another inactive participant.  If you ask the participants about the experience, they normally say it was stressful and they felt a lot of pressure.  The term “fun” is not mentioned at all.  IME, teams usually deliver their invitations somewhere between 12 to 15 minutes.

  In the second round, we change the rules of the game a bit.  Each person is responsible for making three invitations, they have to make a complete invitation and deliver it before moving on to the next one.  We also time when the first invitation is delivered as well as the when the last one is delivered.  Here are the typical results from the second round.

  

  What you see here is a really interesting and creative stack of invitations.  During the entire game people are relaxed and enjoying themselves.  You also see individuals looking at other people’s work for inspiration and drawing on new ideas.  People experiment more.  Many times, while waiting for the entire team to finish other team members will start additional invitations and deliver extra value to the customer.  Finally, if you look at the statistics, i.e. the timings, you see the second round really shine.  The customer gets value within the first two minutes and all the invitations for all teams in delivered 8 to 10 minutes – a productivity increase of nearly 50%!

  When both rounds are complete, I lay out all the invitations on the table and ask the participants which invitations a customer would want.  The answer is always the same, the invitations from the second round.  The second round invitations are just so much more interesting and creative than the first.  In addition, by delivering the items one-at-time when completed, the customer gets more opportunity to provide feedback to the team on what they really want (or don’t want) in their invitations.  If the customer finds an interesting variation – they can sell it right away, show it to their stakeholders and\or ask the team to make more (“I need more invitations with stickers of ponies.”).

  I also ask which round is more like everyday work and the answer is again very predictable – the first round.  In the first round of typical batch\handoff work, the customer is obligated to accept the invitations delivered even if they are sloppy, low quality and don’t meet their needs.  What would their management and stakeholders say if the customer asked for the resources (12 to 15 minutes) to make another batch of crappy invitations?  They already spent 12 to 15 minutes of six people’s time.  They can’t go back and ask for another set.  In the batch\handoff work, there is so much waste of time where people sit around doing nothing.  Fortunately, people display a great degree of ingenuity and find something to occupy their time – criticizing and interfering with the work of the people who come after them.  A very typical behavior in most organizations.

• Welfare CSM 021 – June 7th & June 8th in San Diego

  Date: 2010.05.15 | Category: Agile, Certified ScrumMaster, Scrum, Training | Response: 1

  In order to succeed with Scrum, one needs to know, understand and experience the essential principles which are the foundation for all the practices, rituals and tools of the Scrum framework. Unfortunately, most training today focuses on the mechanics of the process, excluding the essential conversation of why these principles are important and how each element infuses the day-to-day activities of Scrum teams. As a result, most students are only able to mimic what their instructors do and are unable to improvise and adapt Scrum to the unique constraints of their environment. Ultimately, they become frustrated by their inability to drive change in their organizations and Scrum is abandoned without producing any lasting effects.

  In this two-day class, Carlton Nettleton and Tobias Mayer will examine, illustrate and play with the essential principles of Scrum – commitment, collaboration, visibility, respect, focus and accountability – in a series of exercises, games and creative activities. When you leave this course, you will come to know and understand the Spirit of Scrum and how this spirit of collaboration and change embodies each and every activity in Scrum. Most importantly, you will have learned how to facilitate Scrum among your peers and be successful with this new way of working. Scrum is not a bag of programmer and management tricks to increase productivity, but it is a transformative re-imagining of our relationship with our work and our peers.

  Come join us on the journey. It is going to be a lot of fun!

• Welfare CSM – June 7th & June 8th (date change)

  Date: 2010.05.04 | Category: Certified ScrumMaster, Scrum, ScrumMaster, Training | Response: 1

  There has a been a bit of a date change for the Welfare CSM class I am co-teaching with Tobias Mayer.  We still have plenty of openings in the class, so please sign-up today.

• Welfare CSM – June 7th & June 8th

  Date: 2010.04.13 | Category: Agile, Certified ScrumMaster, Personal, Scrum, Training | Response: 3

  I am pleased to announce a new and exciting Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) class I created with Tobias Mayer being held in San Diego on June 7th and 8th.  This class will be operating under the Welfare CSM model.  I am very honored to take part in this effort and help people who want to learn about Scrum but their organizations will not pay for the training, individuals who are unemployed and want to use this time to add to their skills or for people outside the software industry.

  For me, this CSM class is a significant departure from previous (uncertified) ScrumMaster classes I offered in 2007-2008.  At the time, I was not satisfied with the results, but could not put my finger on what was bothering me about the curriculum I was teaching.  The men and women I was training were competently trained on the pieces of Scrum, but were struggling with applying it to their environment.  In 2009, I came across this interview from Tobias and was both intrigued and inspired by Tobias’s model.  After reflecting on his interview and my experience, what was missing from my trainings became visible.

  In order to succeed with Scrum, one needs to know, understand and experience the essential principles of Scrum which are the foundation for all the practices, rituals and tools of the framework.  Unfortunately, the training I provided (which mirrored most of today’s commercial CSM offerings) focused on the mechanics of Scrum, excluding the essential conversation of why these principles are important and how each element infuses the day-to-day activities of Scrum teams.  As a result, most students were only able to mimic what I was teaching and were unable to improvise and adapt Scrum to the unique constraints of their environment.  Ultimately, they become frustrated by their inability to drive change in their organizations and Scrum was abandoned without producing any lasting effects.

  In this two-day CSM class, Tobias and I will examine, illustrate and play with the essential principles of Scrum – commitment, collaboration, visibility, respect, focus and accountability –  through a series of exercises, games and creative activities.  When you leave this course, you will come to know and understand the Spirit of Scrum and how this spirit of collaboration and change embodies each and every activity in Scrum.  Most importantly, you will have learned how to facilitate Scrum among your peers and be successful with this new way of working.

  Scrum is not a bag of programmer and management tricks to increase productivity, but it is a transformative re-imagining of our relationship with our work and our peers.  Come join us on the journey.  It is going to be a lot of fun!