Archive for the ‘Training’ Category

• 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!

• 8 Great PDU on May 13th @ 7th Annual PMI San Diego Conference!

  Date: 2010.04.09 | Category: Agile, PMI, SIMSOC, Team, Training | Response: 1

  Are you looking to have some fun and do something hands-on & different during the conference? Want to learn about teamwork and motivation? Then sign-up for my one-day seminar – Leaping to Success with High Performing Teams – at the 7th Annual PMI San Diego Conference.

  Building high-performing teams is the result of a complex interplay of six essential skills: leadership, team building, motivation, communication, decision making and negotiation. In this one-day interactive seminar, you will learn how to develop, nurture and sustain high-performing teams by improving your skills in these area while participating in a fast-moving, rich simulation designed to mirror real-life challenges and situations. This thought-provoking, fun game has powerful insights on team dynamics and interpersonal interactions for any manager or senior leader in your organization.

  If you are interested please read this review of the simulation and be sure to sign-up when you register for the 7th Annual PMI San Diego Conference. Hope to see you there!

  Sign-up for the 7th Annual PMI San Diego Conference today.

• Speaking at PMI San Diego Conference – May 13th & 14th

  Date: 2010.03.25 | Category: Agile, Conferences, PMI, Presentations, SIMSOC, Training | Response: 0

  Just wanted to let folks know that I will be speaking at the PMI San Diego 2010 conference.  I will be running a full-day seminar on May 13th and a 60-minute tutorial on May 14th.  I am very excited about this opportunity and encourage folks to attend either day.

  • Leaping to Success with High Performing Teams – in this May 13th seminar, I will be running a SIMSOC.  This is a great opportunity to participate in this exciting and interesting simulation to earn about what factors help teams self-organize and that high-performing state.  The last time I ran this class, it got great reviews and was a lot of fun.
  • Agile Playground – on May 14th, I will be leading a tutorial which uses games to help people experience Agile principles.  I have found to really begin to understand Agile, one needs to experience the principles and values at an emotional level, rather than an intellectual level.  The exercises I will be using in the tutorial will open your mind to what Agile is all about.

  That is what I have scheduled for the month of May, I have more exciting stuff planned for June.  Stay tuned, in the meantime, please register for the PMI San Diego 2010 conference today.

• Submissions to PMI San Diego Conference

  Date: 2010.01.07 | Category: Agile, Conferences, Presentations, SIMSOC | Response: 0

  Here are my submissions to PMI San Diego’s 7th Annual PM Conference scheduled for May 12th to 14th.  I am hoping that one of them gets accepted.

  1. Leaping to Success with High Performing Teams: this is a one-day workshop on the importance of team building through SIMSOC.
  2. Debunking Myths About Agile Software Development: this is a new presentation for me and I am really excited about the format.  Instead of your typical powerpoint presentation where I dissect each of the common myths I have and the the audience passively listens to me, I am going to engage the participants in collecting the myths and we’ll have a conversation about the myths they are interested in learning more about.
  3. Agile Playground: another one-hour tutorial where we are going to play games to illustrate common Agile principles and concepts.  Hat tip to Tobias Mayer for the great name.

• Developing High-Performing Teams Class at PMI San Diego

  Date: 2009.10.28 | Category: Agile, Presentations, Training | Response: 0

  Tonight I will be promoting my upcoming class on Nov 12th to the monthly meeting of PMI in San Diego.  In addition, I have five minutes to talk about what I do and talk about the upcoming class.  I am not exactly sure when I will be “on”, but networking starts at 5:30 PM and the keynote speaker begins 7:45 PM.  This should be a lot of fun!

• Developing High-Performing Teams on Nov 12th

  Date: 2009.10.18 | Category: Agile, Communication, Team, Training | Response: 0

  Does this sound like your team?

  • Boring stand-up meetings that never end.
  • You need ten people in the room to make a decision.
  • Planning meetings are just about handing out work assignments.
  • Everyone has a different reason for why the current release is important.
  • Difficulty expressing your ideas at the whiteboard or in front of the computer.
  • An upset stomach just thinking about having to work with the “difficult” person.
  • Just writing the code people tell you to write and not contributing to the design.
  • Rather be at an all-hands meeting than a code review.
  • Blind to what other teams in your company are doing.
  • Having nothing to say at retrospectives.

  If your team feels listless and like more of the same but with all these new “Agile” labels attached, then perhaps you could use a refresher of some essential interpersonal skills to improve your daily interactions with your peers and management.

  In this one-day course, we will reawaken the parts of your brain which govern communication, observation, collaboration, conflict resolution, teamwork, decision making, facilitation, critical thinking and listening.  Through the use of simulations, we will strengthen these skills, give you a chance to try out a few new ones and prepare you to become a contributing member of a collaborative, self-organizing team.  Oh, did I mention it is going to be a lot of fun?

  Sign up today!

  Your day will start off with some basic introductory exercises and explanations and then we begin the first session of the simulation, named SIMSOC.  SIMSOC (pronounced sim-sock) can be thought of as a live-action version of “The Sims” combined with the cutthroat drama of “Survivor”.  The goal of each session is to remain “alive” and further your personal goals.  Some patterns of behavior will be more successful than others and it is up to you to discover the right strategy so you remain alive by the close of the day.  At the conclusion, you will be able to identify the forces at work in the simulation, how they are relevant to the workplace, the key interpersonal skills needed for a collaborative, self-organizing team and what you can do to make your Team better.

  Your facilitator will be Carlton Nettleton, President of Look Forward Consulting (www.lookforwardconsulting.com) .  Carlton has been coaching individuals and teams on how to implement Agile principles and practices and is passionate about helping your business and team succeed. He has nearly ten years of experience working with software products and services in both a technical and business capacity from small start-ups to FDA regulated medical products.

  Sign up today!