Guest Post – Self Organizing Agile Teams: The Fine Line Between Freedom and Chaos

I recently wrote a guest post for www.toolsjournal.com. Check it out:

Self Organizing Agile Teams: The Fine Line Between Freedom and Chaos

As always please feel free to leave me your comments here or on the toolsjournal.com site as well. i love feedback.

Agile Mindset Is Not A Silver Bullet

I recently did a guest post for www.toolsjournal.com. Check it out:

Agile Mindset Is Not A Silver Bullet

As always please feel free to leave me your comments here or on the toolsjournal.com site.

Apps in your Browser … Is it the beginning of the end for the Idea of the App Store?

I just read an interesting article on CNN Money about Mobile Web Apps being developed on Browsers, see Mobile Web apps escape Apple’s iron grip. And it got me thinking about the future of the online app economy. In a few years will anyone download apps to their phone or will they just access it through their browser? Will all of  these app stores continue to grow or even exists? And will the power shift even more towards the developer or will it fall back to the heavy hitters?

The App Store business model is a sound one (Apple, Amazon, Android) all take a cut of the developers revenue for providing the distribution channel, and more recently Apple announced recently that it wants to take a cut of any type of content or subscription sale made through it’s apps. As you could imagine this doesn’t sit well with most developers and from a business revenue stand point if you’re already giving up 30% and then paying taxes and operating fees your app revenue disappears quickly. So developers have started to build apps that are OS agnostic and can run through any of the widely accepted web browsers.

Thanks to HTML 5 we may all be accessing our apps through browsers very soon.

Leadership Must Have’s

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with teams over a broad spectrum; from Venture Capital Investors, to Automation Programmers, to hard working Electrical/Instrumentation/Mechanical Maintenance Crews in a mining and metallurgical plant, to Web Developers building the next killer app that’ll change the world, and finally to the Design/Maintenance/Reliability Engineers that are focused on continuously improving the operation of plant equipment and the safety of those within the plant. In each of these teams I’ve had a varying degrees of responsibility; from Engineering-Intern to Crew Supervisor, and Project Manager. It’s almost been a decade since I graduated and joined the real world, if I’ve only learned one thing since graduation it’s been that in any position you’re in it’s important to demonstrate leadership. Leadership at any level within an organization helps to get things done, however great leadership helps to get the right things done and done sooner, all while improving team morale. So here’s Ten Leadership Must Have’s for every leader out there. Which is basically everyone.

It’s important to note that I’m not claiming any credit for coming up with these, it’s more of a composite list from my journey to date. As Issac Newton said “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.“

A good leader has an honorable character that selflessly serves his/her organization, weather that organization is a company, social group, family, or sports team. What makes a person want to follow a leader? People want to be guided by people they respect and who have a clear sense of direction. To gain respect, they must be ethical. A sense of direction is achieved by conveying a strong vision of the future.

Ten Must Have’s for Every Leader:

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement. Understand yourself by continually strengthening your attributes through reading and self-study.

2. Be technically proficient. You’ve got to know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees’/coworkers’ jobs.

3. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. Search for ways to help your organization reach new heights, and when things go wrong, and they will, do not blame others.

4. Make sound and timely decisions. Use good problem solving, decision-making, and planning tools. I always try to remember the Chinese Proverb “Many a false step is made by standing still”.

5. Set the example. Be a good role model for your employees/coworkers/kids/teammates. People believe what they see, not what they hear.

6. Know your people and look out for their well-being. Knowing a bit about human nature and the importance of sincerely caring for your team, is vital. One spends the majority of their day with the people at their place of work so being a solid team-mate counts in any arena.

7. Keep your people informed. Know how to communicate with your team, seniors, and other key people within the organization.

8. Develop a sense of accountability, ownership and responsibility in your team. These traits will help them carry out their responsibilities, and the entire team will benefit from the extra effort, in along the boards or in the board room.

9. Ensure tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished. Communication is the key to this responsibility. As a manager I view myself as a multiplication symbol in the work equation. My job is to ensure that the work is organized, clear and linked to the organizations goal(s) while removing barriers to goal completion within my team.

10. Train your people as a team. By developing team spirit, you will be able to employ your organization, department, section, etc. to its fullest capabilities. My favourite analogy is the “engine firing on all cylinders”.

Here’s a few extras I think help summarize the Ten must have’s above, since everything is a process, here’s the five main steps to achieving great leadership:

1. Inspire a shared vision – use words that matter to your team, not generic terms such as: “We will provide world-class customer service in an effective and efficient manner for our clients.”… I can apply that statement to any organization on earth.

2. Challenge the process – First, find a process you believe needs to be improved the most, then work your way through each process until you’ve improved them all. Then start again at the first process, never stop reaching for full entitlement in a process.

3. Enable others to act - Give people the tools, authority and methods to solve problems themselves. Removing red-tape and reaching the teams goals are priority one for any leader.

4. Model the way – When the things get tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do; a leader shows it can be done. (i.e. I recently had to become a “junior graphic designer” to help the design team break through a creative mental barrier, instead of waiting for them to break through the wall, I got in there with them and started chipping away on the front lines until they were able to break through. It’s important to note that I did not do the work for them I just set them up for the goal, they were the one’s that deserve all the credit for their outstanding work. Check it out at pawsandtalesgames.com, be sure to “Explore Wildwood” to see their work in action.)

5. Encouragement for the Team – Share the glory with your team, keep the pains to yourself. These phrases may sound basic, well they are, and they work:

• “I admit I made a mistake.” – I am an expert on this one, however as long as it’s not a repeat offense you’re usually good to go.
• “You did a good job.” – his one only works if they actually did a good job.
• “What is your opinion?” – I like “What do you think?”
• “If you please.” – “Please” works as well.
• “Thank you,” – “Thanks” is a great substitute for this one.
• “We” – stay away from “I”.

Developing Software as a Project Manager

Software development is all about balance, between resources and conflicting requirements. The PM must deliver the software for the deadline and also design for unknown future requirements. It’s almost like you’re trying to hit a moving target with a blind fold on, but like anything, if you practice you get good at it.

The best way to tackle a problem and solve it efficiently and effectively is to apply a systematic process to it. When I was completing my first Six Sigma Black Belt project I heard allot of talk about how Six Sigma was more like Sick Sigma as the projects were always long, drawn out and painful. That’s probably why Lean Six Sigma is what stuck with companies more, over the last decade, because of the ability to only use what is required to get the job done. However, I do believe that the Six Sigma methodology will deliver results when applied properly to a project.

In the software development field a good 40-60 % of projects fail, this is usually due to poor requirements definition and larger scale software projects require something more than an ad-hock “here’s what we’re going to accomplish until the next set of, wouldn’t this be cool“, requirements from the marketing team, or worse, the customer.

So how do you complete these projects on-time, on-budget and on-scope? For most PM’s it’s a word, sacrifice. Usually it’s the time and budget that are fixed and the scope ends up being modified to allow for a “successful” completion of a project. However, I would argue that if I was asked to build a house with only $10,000 and eight weeks I may only be able to dig a hole and pour a foundation, if that.

So how do you solve the problem of scope creep? My solution is to scope out what the customer wants before any deadlines are set or any money is requested to be approved, with a clear view of what is to be accomplished the budget and time frame can be set around that. Now there are exceptions to the rule, as in everything in life, the key is to know the rules so well that you know when it’s appropriate to break them to deliver the product to the customer on-time, on-budget and on-spec.

Here’s a great article on Wikipedia titled the PM Declaration of interdependence, it discusses six management principles that were initially intended for project managers of Agile Software Development projects, however these principles were re-branded as the “The declaration of interdependence for modern management” because of their applicability to other management situations.

I like the principles so much so that I posted them here as well:

• increase return on investment by — making continuous flow of value our focus.
• deliver reliable results by — engaging customers in frequent interactions and shared ownership.
• expect uncertainty and manage for it through — iterations, anticipation and adaptation.
• unleash creativity and innovation by — recognizing that individuals are the ultimate source of value, and creating an environment where they can make a difference.
• boost performance through — group accountability for results and shared responsibility for team effectiveness.
• improve effectiveness and reliability through — situationally specific strategies, processes and practices.”

If you’re familiar with Six Sigma, or Lean manufacturing, you’ll see the overlap with the methodologies goals, and it all comes back to that fundamental skill in not only project management, but in life as well….Balance.

Agile TV for Software Development & More

It’s been awhile since my last post, and it may be a little while again before I publish another post, so I figured that I ‘d highlight a great resource that I ran across in my online travels for new and better ways of applying lean, agile and critical path analysis to projects, software and business management.

Checkout tvagile.com

It’s a great directory of videos, interviews and tutorials focused on agile software development approaches and practices: Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Test Driven Development (TDD) , Lean Software Development, Feature Driven Development (FDD), Behavior Driven Development (BDD), Continuous Integration, Pair Programming, Re-factoring and several other techniques that can be applied to making your process simple yet effective.

They even ask for suggestions, and accept contributions from their readers. Just check out their contact page.

The 8 Rules of Lean Project Management

The eight rules of Lean Project Management (LPM), re-posted from the Project Times, Summarizing the Rules of Lean Project Management by Claude Emond. A great set of  rules for any PM to follow:

Rule # 1: the “Last Planner” Rule. The one who executes the work is the one who plans the work. This saves time, money and resources due to reduced waste.

Rule # 2: the “Tracking Percent Promises Complete (PPC)” Rule. Do not track time (effort) or cost; track small promises that you can see over time.

Rule # 3: the “Expanded Project Team” Rule. Expand the project team to include and integrate all significant stakeholders, as part of the team as early as possible.

Rule # 4: the “Humans, humans, humans” Rule. Humans execute projects, and project deliverables materialize through humans and for them. So be considerate to humans as, without them, no project can be a success.

Rule # 5: the “Rolling the Waves” Rule. Roll the waves. Make your choices and commitments (promises) at the last responsible moment. Make them in the form of work packages that will deliver the desired results anticipated with a high degree of certainty. Plan the work, execute the work, learn and adapt, plan the work, execute the work, learn and adapt, plan the work, execute the work…succeed!

Rule # 6: the “Opening, Adapting and Closing Often” rule. Open-Adapt-Close, Open-Adapt-Close, Open-Adapt-Close… all the time. The IPECC (Initiate, Plan, Execute, Control, Close) cycle is a recurring process; this recurrence is the true key to successful projects, lean-influenced or not. In order to close a project, you have to open-adapt-close formally at the phase level, to open-adapt-close formally at the work package level, to open-adapt-close for each required deliverable (small concrete promises), to open-adapt-close each required activity undertaken.

Rule # 7: the “Executing Your Small Promises on Single-tasking Mode” Rule. Execute your small promises on single-tasking mode. Once your deliverables are cut into smaller pieces, deliver them one after the other, as much as possible. By cutting your project work in smaller pieces/promises, you will save on set-up time each time you are interrupted, thus accelerating delivery. This accelerating effect can be increased furthermore, if you also try to execute these promises, one after the other, this saving an additional amount of set-up time. In a multi-project/multi-tasking environment, the most productive strategy is to single-task, doing these multiple tasks in series, when possible.

Rule # 8: the “Using LPM Principles to Implement and Adopt LPM” Rule. Live and use what you preach to implement LPM; by “walking the talk”, you will succeed in increasing the speed and extend of LPM adoption and ensure a lasting and fruitful change.

New Avatar Walking Cycles

The development team added the new walking cycles for each of the 5 Avatars for the Paws and Tales Games, and I have to say, they outdid themselves great work guys. It also didn’t hurt that we were working with original assets for each character.

You can check them out by signing up for a free account at pawsandtalesgames.com and then selecting each character. If you were on the game prior to this addition you’d notice the difference as the older avatar didn’t walk as much as they shifted side to side while hovering accross the screen.

Paws and Tales Games New MMOG Website Launched

I’ve been quite busy lately with my current project, developing the Paws and Tales Games MMOG Website. Based on Paws and Tales The Animated Series®, Paws and Tales Games aims to provide a fun, safe and educational place online for children and families.

I’ve become more of a Product Manager at this stage in the game, no pun intended. With a new look and improved features such as; streaming video of the animated episodes, educational worksheets that parents and educators can go through with their kids, and easier access to some of the games within the MMOG. The team is also working to complete the new selection of in game avatars that users can choose from.

With the new branding and a new marketing campaign in place I’m looking forward to spending more time focused on the product marketing side of the fence for a while.

If you’re interested go check it out and let me know what you think of the site. I’m always interested in learning more about the overall user experience, game-play, and value that users would see in the site.

The team that I worked with deserves credit for all of their hard work and help in the development of this product, which made my task managing the development of the product both easy and fun.

• Client: Providential Pictures Inc.
• Product: Paws and Tales Games, pawsandtalesgames.com

Team Credits:

NuLayer Inc., led by Mr. J. Brenner and Mr. P. Kieltyka, performed as the Back-End Team and did outstanding work in a short time frame.

Cieo Creative Inc., led by Mr. J. Goodman and Ms. M. Plasterer, performed as the Flash Games Developer and played a key role in the Creative design of the over all game.

IWD Canada Inc., led by Mr. K. White and Mr. B. Kumarasamy, provided the manpower for the new website design and blog for the site.

“Paws and Tales Games” is currently online at: www.pawsandtalesgames.com

“Paws and Tales The Animated Series®” is currently airing on:

CTS TV
(Ontario, Calgary, Edmonton) at 7:30 AM

The Miracle Channel CJIL
(Canada) at 10:00 AM

UCB TV
(United Kingdom)

Please check your local listings for more information.

Less is More & Simplicity Rules.

Here’s a great company with great products, 37 Signals. Why are they so great, well their style is no nonsense, they get straight to the point and simplicity rules their product design philosophy. Oh, and they extracted Ruby on Rails from one of their projects. I’m not a hardcore developer, coder or hacker (or at all really), but I’ve worked with RoR in the past and it’s presently being used with the current project that I’m managing, and it’s definitely one of those tools that makes the life of the people doing the work easier, therefore making them happier and producing a better product (80% of the time).

In a sentence, what it comes down to is “Less is More”. They do less than the competition on purpose, and it’s paid off for them in a positive way. I’ve had the pleasure of using Base Camp for a few of my projects and it great for Agile Software Development. You only get what you need, the rest of the usual gravy features one finds in software don’t exist so there’s little to no learning curve when adopting it as your PM tool.

I’m also a big fan of the Agile Software Manefesto and it’s 12 Principles. It may not apply to certain safety related projects where one would be required to document and follow a process and plan for regulated purposes, however it has it’s place as a way to lower development costs and bring better software to market sooner.