Happy New Year! I’m guessing many of you are thinking “Good Riddance” to 2020. Yes, it was an incredibly difficult and challenging year. Instead of dwelling on 2020, let's start 2021 on a positive note. If we didn't learn anything else from 2020, it is that we must embrace change more than ever to be successful in both our personal and professional lives. Working from home forced us to re-think the way we do our jobs, that it is possible to collaborate with our teams as long as we are willing to adapt to virtual meetings, digital task boards, Zoom, and the myriad of other technology solutions that most of us didn’t even know existed before Covid. We also learned that technology alone is not a guarantee of success. We needed to up our game, learn new skills, and be open minded about our approach to the PM profession. Give yourself a pat on the back! Kudos for not just "surviving" but for becoming better project managers!
2021 will be an exciting year. While we will begin the year with virtual events, we hope to make the transition to face-to-face events by late spring. We already have several great speakers lined up for the first quarter. As a reminder, please check our website (www.pmicoc.org) for details on all our events and training.
Speaking of training, you have heard us talk about Disciplined Agile for over a year. Disciplined Agile is now a reality! I participated in our first offering in December and understand why PMI has embraced the Disciplined Agile mindset. PMICOC will offer a full suite of Disciplined Agile certification courses in 2021 to accentuate the traditional PMI certifications. Check out the DA focused article below from Dave Davis and keep an eye on the Chapter website for more information. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention our premier annual event. Planning has already begun for the PMICOC Professional Development Day, which will be in November this year.
Our chapter is only as good as our volunteers. We start 2021 with an amazing team of dedicated volunteers who are committed to the development of programs for our members and a new board. I'd like to welcome the 2021 Board! If you have a passion for the PM profession and would like to be a member of our leadership team, please send me a note at: president@pmicoc.org. In fact, in general, I welcome your ideas and suggestions on how we can better serve your needs.
Thank you for being a member of our chapter and for supporting our many programs. I look forward to leading the chapter and the board this year as the President. It is a great time to be a member of our chapter!
Rich Schmelzer
PMICOC President
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The New 2021 PMICOC Board Members
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Well, we did it! We finished an unprecedented year in an unprecedented way! This past year, PMICOC transitioned from in-person to virtual and still offered our members 18 different events from knowledge sharing to training to our annual Professional Development Day. We more than doubled our Volunteer Leadership Team and we’ve got a new Board ready to run on Day 1. I couldn’t be prouder of our Chapter’s accomplishments and fortitude in getting through the amazing year that was 2020.
While I start the new year once again just a member of our humble organization, I can reflect on my year as President knowing that I did everything I could to serve you, our membership. Once again, I will ask you to volunteer and share your talents and your time to helping others. Joining the VLT is a great way to grow your network, build your skills and contribute to the project management community right here in Central Ohio. I assure you that you will receive far more than you give.
I’m looking forward to all that PMICOC will bring to its members in 2021 and I hope you will join me in actively participating. Best of luck to our new President, Rich Schmelzer and all of our Board and VLT members. May you go forward with confidence and courage. I am so glad that I had this time with you.
Jennifer Stacy
PMICOC Past President
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Professional Development Day 2020: Recap
Because of the many unusual challenges in 2020 and to thank our members, the PMI COC board made the decision to provide PDD 2020 to our members free of charge. Our first ever virtual PDD on October 30, provided the same PDU opportunities as our previous face-to-face events, plus the added benefit of offering the sessions for on-demand viewing through the end of December. Approximately 850 registered for PDD and viewed the sessions on October 30. During November and December, an additional 920 PDUs were earned as attendees viewed individual sessions on-demand.
PDD sessions included:
- 2 keynote speakers
- 11 breakout sessions:
- 4 15-minute yoga classes
- 4 networking chatrooms
- 2 recorded words-from-our-sponsors
- 1 round table discussion
- 13.5 total availble PDUs both during the live event and on-demand:
- 5.5 Leadership
- 5 Technical
- 3 Strategy
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Save the Date for PDD 2021:
Friday, November 12
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We want to hear from you!
Please reach out to info@pmicoc.org with any suggestions and ideas for speakers and topics that you would like to see!
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Start Somewhere
Dave Davis PMICOC Chapter Champion
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As the PMI Central Ohio Chapter Champion for Disciplined Agile, I have had the opportunity to discuss an agile journey with various organizations. The discussions range from discussing experiences that were very successful to very painful. And when the discussion turn s to Disciplined Agile, I hear resistance expressed in comments like: "we already have an existing process" to "it's too complicated" to "we kinda like it, but how do we begin?" All valid questions and we will discuss in this article, but first, let's establish the mindset that we need to start somewhere.
 DA Is A Toolkit
Kiran Bondale provides a concise definition of Disciplined Agile in Figure 1. This concept of a process-decision toolkit that provides guidance is key to starting. It does not prescribe an explicit start up. Instead, it claims to be a foundation for business agility. You start with what you are currently using and ease into a full-scale DA implementation. You can use what you have and build a DA framework with that IP. If your tools use some SCRUM techniques, and you add a ceremony called an Estimation Party - go with it. The important action is to act. DA embraces the concepts of continuous improvement; it does not say to "be perfect before starting anything." The team leaders will guide the organization into doing what makes the most sense for the organization.
Start Where You Are At
One of the principles of DA that I like is the idea of start where you are at. You do not need to wait for a long process heavy roll out before you start to implement the DA toolset. Actually, DA recommends that you start with where you are at and adopt DA implementation via a concept know as Continuous Improvement (more on that topic in another article). This translates to taking action now that uses the DA mindset and principles. Organizations and people often fail because they are waiting for too many answers to too many questions before we even start. The Agile mindset encourages iterative gains and frequent review of what you did (what worked, what didn't, how can we improve, and what can we try next). Therefore, taking the plunge and growing as we go will help you implement your Way of Work (WoW).
From the book: Choose Your WoW: A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working, authors Scott Ambler and Mark Lines encourage you to start from where you are at when implanting a Disciplined Way of Work:
A common mistake that teams make is that they believe that just because they face a unique situation that they need to figure out their WoW from scratch. Nothing could be further from the truth. When you develop a new application, do you develop a new language, a new compiler, new code libraries, and so on, from scratch? Of course not, you adopt the existing things that are out there, combine them in a unique way, and then modify them as needed. Development teams, regardless of technology, utilize proven frameworks and libraries to improve productivity and quality. It should be the same thing with process. As you can see in this book, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of practices and strategies out there that have been proven in practice by thousands of teams before you. You don' need to start from scratch, but instead can develop you WoW by combining existing practices and strategies and then modifying them appropriately to address the situation at hand. DA provides the toolkit to guide you through this in a streamlined and accessible manner.
(PMI PDF copy page 15)
We Already Have an Existing Process
Then use it. Leaders should spend time thinking about why our processes have evolved to this point. Ask yourself, what iteration goals is our existing process best at delivering? What works and what doesn't and where in our workflow do we decide to use this process. Eventually, you will build process goals that are embedded in your workflow that will help guide decisions and make this process the best tool base on the context. Thus, the term "process driven toolkit." Your process may be informal or formal - but you have a process to make these decisions today. Now align this decision-making activity part of the process. DA is not prescribing the workflow/practice to use, it is providing structure, and discipline, to make sure this is the most appropriate one to use based on your iteration goal.
It's Too Complicated
It is as complicated as you want to make it. Yes, there are many blades and practices in the entire DA domain. Do not try to implement them all at once. Leverage what you know and what you have. A PMO should treat implementing DA as an Organization Change Management (OCM) opportunity. You need to Evaluate the Change Impact and the Organizational Readiness and develop a plan. Do not expect it to be perfect on day 1 and that teams will suddenly become self-governing. You need a Change Manager and a DA coach/evangelist/sponsor, etc. This person needs patience, enthusiasm, and thick skin. People will resist that DA is too complicated, the coach needs to help reduce the complexity anxiety and guide the team through the ups and downs of implementation. Whole scale change threatens power structures, and the journey may start with more negatives that positives. Which is why the recommendation is to start somewhere, with something you are familiar with.
How Do We Begin?
A simple way to start is to put structure around something you are probably already doing. I challenge you to use a DA principle as you plan your next iteration. Take the time to define: "What is our goal?" for this iteration. In other words, what observable results are an outcome of an iteration? Are we trying to build an organization agile mindset? Or, are we writing stories, decomposing them into features, and incrementally developing a product? If we are, then you most likely are implementing a construction workflow. Do you know what iterations you are doing prior to the construction? Do you have good visuals that demonstrate the effectiveness of the construction? Do you have an estimate of how many story points you are doing in an iteration? Are you creating a burn down chart that shows the progress? This can be a start. First step - do we use DA principles in our current iteration?
Next step - what are the inputs into our construction iterations? Can we define what we need in order to start a construction session, or do we need to get better at planning? Continuously improve - it takes time. And as a side note - providing visuals to key stakeholders helps drive discussion. Status should not be a one-way street; it needs to be a two-way dialog.
The conversation should evolve into one in which we discuss what is our short term (next iteration goal) and what's the best approach to achieving that goal? Figure 2 Best Way to Achieving a Goal provides a graphic that demonstrates what you just read. We analyze our current situation - we decide what our goal is for the next iteration and then we choose from our toolkit which is the best tool to meet that goal. We are now implementing the DA workflow. It's not complicated, but we need to grow into it.
Figure 2 Best Way to Achieving a Goal
Conclusion
The best way to implement Agile is to start somewhere. There is no well-defined recipe that states how much mindset we put around the initiative and then how many cups of story writing we need to do and what temperature to bake it at. A strong advocate and coach with an OCM mentality is the best way to start. Will it be perfect? No. Will you do some things right? Yes. Will you do some things wrong? Yes. Are there things you did that you shouldn't have? Yes. Are there things you didn't do that maybe you should? Yes - try them next time.
In the words of the late singer, Harry Chapin, "When in doubt - do something." It won't be wrong; it will be a step in your organization's evolution to adopting Disciplined Agile.
Dave Davis
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DISC - Understanding Behavior & Communication Style | 1/21/2021 2 - 3pm
DISC Workshop - Understanding Behavior & Communication Style | 1/29/2021 1-5pm
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Build Skills with Virtual Resource Hub
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To help individuals continue their professional development from home, check out PMI's Virtual Resource Hub. Explore a variety of free online resources, virtual events, and a sneak peek of what digital offerings to help you connect with the global community, build skills, and prepare to advance in a post-COVID-19 world.
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The PMP® Certification Exam Has Changed Effective January 2, 2021
The new version of the Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification exam launched on January 2, 2021. Click below to find out what has changed and how to prepare for the new exam.
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