Transforming to an Agile PMO
Here is the recording for the Transforming to an Agile PMO webinar I recently delivered for the PMI PMO Community. Would love to hear your feedback on it! I shared some of the key ‘waste’ areas within our organizations and some ideas for how the PMO can focus their efforts on addressing these areas with special attention on limiting the number of projects in execution at one time 
Please let me know what you think?
Quick Update: Due to popular demand for this webinar I recently presented a newer version of this webinar for PMI’s LEAD Community. So you now have two versions to watch!
URL to download the presentation and cheat sheets: www.TinyUrl.com/agiletraining
You might also be interested in the Agile Idea Qualification and Project Initiation Webinar!
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About Me:
I am simply a transformer. Someone who is really passionate about helping organizations move towards building lean high performing collaborative teams that can deliver value predictably. I like to find practical solutions to solve real problems and use a combination of Agile, Scrum, Lean, Soft Skills and Servant Leadership to reach the desired target.
I am the Agile Expert for the PMI Learning, Education and Development (LEAD) community of practice and I host a popular Agile webinar series and blogs on transforming to Agile. New PMI Agile Certified Practitioner PMI-ACP SM Exam Prep Workshops! Full profile/bio: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elatta |
Success Factors When Transforming to Agile
Many have asked me to summarize the top 4 or 5 critical success factors I’ve seen that have led to a successful and effective Agile transformation so I decided to blog about these. These come from our own experiences helping organizations transform.
Download our free Enterprise Agile Transformation Roadmap guide.
1. Developing a strategy for the transformation/Agile adoption upfront.
Developing a solid strategy that takes into account why you are transforming, what problems are you trying to fix or impovements do you seek? The strategy should consider both Process and People transformation needs. Inspecting and adapting it quarterly. Without this initial plan, you can easily fall into the trap of assuming the success of one or two Agile team means you have arrived at the transformation goals. This roadmap is critical to success because it helps create measurable milestones and an action plan to achieve them each year.
2. Strong Executive leadership commitment and active engagement. We’ve learned that the most successful transformations are the ones where we worked very closely with the key executives (such as the CIO) to help realize their vision. The successful executives rolled up their sleeves and were very engaged in the planning, review and tweaking of the roadmap. They played an active part in communicating the
message around the vision for the transformation to everyone in the company face to face through town halls, skip level meetings and open discussions.
3. Showing measurable results early; Getting excitement and positive energy.
This part is a must have for a successful transformation. That’s why we start with a pilot. Showing some results early, addressing concerns people will have about their roles and existing processes, and getting the business customers excited is instrumental to success.
4. Business partner engagement and buy-in early. Educate the business customers (internal or external) on how Agile can benefit them, why the organization is considering trying this out, what existing pain points we are trying to address, how they can engage effectively and manage their other duties. Doing this early along with showing them measurable results will go a long way to giving your Agile Transformation the fuel it needs to succeed. We’ve found that once the business customers try Agile the right way, they seldom want to go back to traditional methods of delivery.
5. Have a strong expert partner. Honestly, adopting Agile successfully is hard when you don’t have any experts who are helping. It’s like
learning how to swim by reading a book. You need help influencing people and changing their hearts and minds so they are open to doing things differently. ‘Go be Agile or else ‘ won’t work for too long In addition to transformational workshops, teams need some expert coaching at the beginning to hold their hands during the first initial stages until they can ‘ride the bike’ on their own so to speak. Different level of education and coaching on different topics are needed as the organization moves from Piloting to Scaling to Enterprise Adoption. You can find experts within your own organizations, hire external ones or use a combination of both (recommended!).
How To Start Agile Adoption?
I’m also frequently asked ‘Where do I start with Agile Adoption?‘ and Can you show me what an Enterprise Agile Adoption Roadmap would look like? so I’m sharing both links to these resources. What do YOU think? Any others you think are critical to the success of an Agile Transformation?
Let’s Chat!
To chat with us about developing a customized transfomation roadmap for your own oganization or team, please send us an online request, email or call us at 1.855.2Transform. We LOVE making successful Agile Transformations happen!
Answers to Top PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) SM Certification Questions
Just finished interviewing Rory McCorkle who is the product owner for the new PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) SM certification. 
For those who could not attend please watch the recorded version online, it is worth listening to! You will need a pmi.org username/password to login.
Interested in the watching previous PMI webinars in our ‘Transforming to Agile’ series? Click here.
Below are some of the top answers:
Q: What is the value of this PMI-ACP SM certification to organizations and individuals?
A: There are several benefits but here are a few:
- This certification is one of the few that crosses the methodological boundaries and does not focus on only one of the methods. Agile is an overarching framework that is a collection of methods such as Scrum, XP, Lean, Kanban and so on. Companies do not tend to use only one of these so this certification is more comprehensive in its coverage of topics and knowledge areas.
- Additionally, the certification requires actual experience with Agile instead of being training related only. Instead of only attending training and being certified (actually referred to as a ‘certificate’ in the certification arena) you have to demonstrate experience with Agile and pass a comprehensive examination with an accredited certification body (PMI).
Q: Which certification should someone choose to get? the CSM, PMP® or PMI-ACP SM certification?
A: The PMP® is designed to test your overall competence as a project manager through more rigorous examination, experience requirements and adherence to the PMI code of ethics. PMI-ACP SM certification is designed to test knowledge of Agile methods and practices so we see many PMP® add on the PMI-ACPSM to demonstrate their knowledge and ability to lead both types of traditional and Agile projects. When comparing the CSM and PMI-ACP SM certification, I would say they are for different audiences. The CSM is achieved by going into a classroom and sitting through the 2 day class. The current exam is not a pass/fail exam even though I know the ScrumAlliance is working on changing this shortly. It also focuses specifically on the Scrum method. PMI-ACP SM certification is intended for individuals looking for a certification that requires both training, experience with Agile and is more comprehensive in its coverage of topics.
Q: Which books are recommended as reading for the PMI-ACP SM certification?
A: The ones listed in the PMI-ACP SM Certification Reference Materials Guide: http://bit.ly/pmi-acp-reading-books. You should also follow the PMI-ACPSM certification exam content outline: http://bit.ly/pmi-acp-exam-content-outline
Q: What’s the update on the PMI-ACPSM Certification Pilot?
A: Since February 2011,
- 7,000+ people have signed up to receive further information about the PMI-ACP SM certification pilot
- 5,000+ individuals have responded to PMI’s “Agile knowledge” quiz
- 150,000+ individuals have visited PMI’s www.PMI.org/Agile launch page
- Since 23 May, 7,000+ applicants have opened a PMI-ACP SM certification application
- 1,300+ individuals have submitted a PMI-ACP SM certification application to participate in the pilot
Q: Will PMI create an AgileBOK? will PMI include Agile practices in the next versions of the PMBOK Guide?
A: No, there are no plans of creating an AgileBOK since Agile is such a robust framework that is very dynamic and ever changing. We are working with IEEE on a Software Extension to the PMBOK Guide over the next couple of years and will include references to Agile there.
Q: Will PMI be producing a PMI-ACPSM certification study guide?
A: No, PMI has published the reference list of recommended reading books for the exam and has never produced a study guide book for its own exams. They rely on their approved REPs to provide this education and training.
Q: What changes will happen in Dec 2011 to this certification? when will the final version be out?
A: We will not make changes to the examination outline guide itself, only to the questions based on the feedback we’re getting from the Agile Community of Practice and others on the exam. We think it will be the end of January before the final changes are incorporated into the exam itself.
Q: How does someone earn the 21 Contact Hours required for the certification? do webinars count?
A: Please refer to the PMI-ACP SM Certification Handbook to understand what qualifies for Contact Hours. Search for the word ‘contact hours’. Webinars usually count towards PDUs but not towards contact hours. The training session should have some type of assessment at the end or specify a timeline of when the assessment needs to be completed by. Self study usually doesn’t count towards the 21 Contact Hours. Your CSM training class would count towards the 21 Contact Hours in addition to other Agile related training provided by REPs, PMI Chapters and other providers listed in the handbook.
————————- End of Interview with Rory ——————————–
Resources to Help You Prepare for YOUR PMI-ACP SM Exam:
- Upcoming PMI-ACP SM Certification Exam Prep On-site and Virtual Workshops (21 Contact Hours)
- Join the PMI-ACP SM Certification Study Group on LinkedIn (dedicated to discussing this exam, feel free to post your questions or feedback after taking the exam)
- Join the PMI Agile Community of Practice (lots of great Agile information and webinars by experts and community members)
- Read my popular PMI-ACP SM Certification Detailed Exam Study Tips
- Join the PMI Learning and Education Community of Practice (I’m the Agile Expert for this community and host a ‘Transforming to Agile’ series of monthly webinars)
- http://www.AgileExams.com has created a great online test practice website with great reviews. We include access for FREE in our PMI-ACPSM certification courses!
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Sally Elatta – President
Enterprise Coach & Trainer
Agile Transformation Inc. |
About Me:
I am simply a transformer. Someone who is really passionate about helping organizations move towards building lean high performing collaborative teams that can deliver value predictably. I like to find practical solutions to solve real problems and use a combination of Agile, Scrum, Lean, Soft Skills and Servant Leadership to reach the desired target.
I am the Agile Expert for the PMI Learning, Education and Development (LEAD) community of practice and I host a popular Agile webinar series and blogs on transforming to Agile. Full profile/bio: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elatta |
PMI and PMP are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc., and PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) and PMI-ACP are service marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.
PMI-ACP SM Certification Exam Prep Online Training
Friends, we’re really excited to share that our recent PMI-ACP SM Certification Prep online training was a great success! Bryan Tew (Master Trainer!) just delivered this course and we decided to break it up to 4 days of around 5.25 hours per day so that participants could still get ‘some’ work done. Online courses are never the same as in person courses but we had just received lots of interest and we’re happy this pilot turned out excellent and valuable for our students! We also decided to give the participants access to recorded version for a few days to help them review what was covered which was requested by the participants themselves. Checkout our current PMI-ACP SM Certification Prep Training Schedule
Here is some feedback from the students who just attended (we’re not bragging, just excited )
Though the training was about 5hrs each day, at the end of the day it really did not feel that strenuous. The course was well planned and very well organized. The class I sat in was a online-virtual class, and was well suited. Sreerama N
PMI-ACP referred to a total of 11 books. I did buy them all, and had them for a while. Compared to the money on all those books (and of course, I did not read them all yet), the money I spent on the training was justified. Just four days of training helped raise my practice test scores. I feel confident that using the strategies given by Bryan Tew, I should put a decent performance in the real exam. Sreerama N
Deep knowledge of the instructor good practice high number of references – Juan M
Amazing training even with the challenges of the distributed team. Bryan managed to help us all to take full advantage of it. – Juan M
I was impressed by the different tools used during the class GoogleDoc, online planning poker estimate, drawings. – Luigi R.
Right pace, lot of real world examples and workshops. Venkat G.
The instructor was very good, understood and explained all the Agile Methodologies, and practices. This will certainly help me pass the exam. Sheila D.
Updated, from our January 2012 class:
The course was excellent. Bryan is an impressive facilitator and we had lively chats among participants (in 3 continents). Peter O.
Just a quick update…class is amazing – Bryan is doing a great job, content is awesome, very good experience. Glenn B.
So are YOU considering trying out an online PMI-ACP SM Certification Exam Prep course yourself? Checkout our schedule for our upcoming courses or let us know if you’d like us to deliver a course at your location. We travel all over the world and love it!
Looking to connect with others preparing for their exam? Join the active PMI-ACP SM Certification Linkedin Study Group.
The Agile Transformation Team
PMI and PMP are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc., and PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) and PMI-ACP are service marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.
Agile Idea Qualification and Project Initiation
I just delivered an Agile Idea Qualification and Project Initiation webinar and would love to hear your feedback on it! I shared some sample Kanban walls you can use for these stages. The webinar is below. Please let me know what you think? If you like these then I would be happy to share more
URL to download the presentation and cheat sheets: www.TinyUrl.com/agiletraining
Also Watch: Transforming to an Agile PMO (for the PMI PMO Community of Practice)
Gartner analysts have reported that 80% of all Software Development projects will be moving to Agile methods in the next few years. PMI has also recently launched its PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)SM offering as a response to the increase in Agile adoption. So what does this all mean to your PMO? Through this webinar I will provide a quick overview of Agile methods, then jump into how you can transition your PMO to support Agile Development and use some new Agile and Lean techniques for Idea Qualification, Project Initiation and Portfolio Management. Whether you are moving to Agile or not, you will definitely learn some real world tips to help you improve your current PMO activities!
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About Me:
I am simply a transformer. Someone who is really passionate about helping organizations move towards building lean high performing collaborative teams that can deliver value predictably. I like to find practical solutions to solve real problems and use a combination of Agile, Scrum, Lean, Soft Skills and Servant Leadership to reach the desired target.
I am the Agile Expert for the PMI Learning, Education and Development (LEAD) community of practice and I host a popular Agile webinar series and blogs on transforming to Agile. New PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)SM Exam Prep Workshops! Full profile/bio: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elatta |
