Sharing our consultant's learning - April 2018

We often are asked about the roles of Project Manager and Scrum Master for Agile projects. Are they both needed? What are the boundaries? Should they be combined?

So, last month Equinox IT Principal Consultant Carl Weller deliver the 'Agile leadership roles - let's clear up the confusion between PM & Scrum Master' presentation twice for some of our clients. Carl identified that there can be a role for both Project Managers and Scrum Masters on many Agile initiatives...

See a summary of Carl's Agile leadership roles presentation.

Sharing what our consultants are learning...

Valerie Rowe, Application Delivery Manager (see Valerie's profile)

• Why you need a damn good Product Owner for your Agile project - In this post Valerie discusses why it is vital for Agile projects, which rely on fast cycle feedback loops with the business, to have a damn good Product Owner.

Kirsten Eriksen, Senior Consultant (see Kirsten's profile)

• I’m currently reading Mindset: Changing the way you think to fulfil your potential by Carol Dweck (the Standard University Professor of Psychology behind fixed and growth mindsets). This is one of those books where it doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re at, it’s useful, if not epiphanic.

Carl Weller, Principal Consultant (see Carl's profile)

• How to mess up your agile transformation in seven easy (mis)steps - What is refreshing about this McKinsey article is that it concentrates on the right things - culture, fit, executive understanding and support, investing in people, and aligning core processes such as investment with agility (it's not just about projects). To me this article is the exact opposite of the now quite common "Let's apply the Spotify Model" approach, and is well worth a read.
• Agile: What is it? - My second article is a short piece from Ron Jeffries, who, like many in the community, seems to be trying to lead people back to the core of what it means to be Agile. Also unpicking the developer-centric view of Agile held by some of the Manifesto signatories, the more enterprise-focused view of others, and the meaning of the values and principles. This is something I am seeing playing out every day, especially now as Agile has become more commoditised and productised.
  
  I love this line “Agile is not checklists, logic, and slides. It is improvisation. It is jazz. It is art". It should remind everyone that it's not about a new set of templates or sending people on a two-day course. Its fundamentally about a massive paradigm shift and how we, as imperfect people, create stuff.