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...

One of the problems we hear a lot is "it is difficult to get business involvement in our IT project". While this is a problem for any project it is particularly difficult for Agile projects that rely on a fast cycle feedback loops with the business to prioritise work and ensure the project delivers maximum value to the business. Having insufficient business involvement in an Agile project erodes all four core Agile values - individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration and responding to change.

A couple of weeks ago we hosted a fascinating executive event where Simon Bennett presented on 'Why the Responsibility Process® is the key to succeeding with Agile'. He concluded that when organisations adopt Agile, either top down or bottom up, it often doesn't work because it is an 'outside in' approach of people trying to control other people. The alternative is 'inside out' where people change themselves. Simon positioned the Responsibility Process as an 'inside out' approach for achieving Agile with responsible individuals having responsible interactions.

Every year, each one of us embarks on a new journey into the unknown. Technology, our organisations, market conditions, social expectations, government policies, and many other things continuously change, and each year we need to adapt as individuals to remain relevant and add value in our professional roles. We're here to help you on that exciting journey in 2018. In this blog post we share what our consultants are learning as they adapt and ensure they add value in 2018.

In this month's post Jasmin Wilkins interviews Michael Sahota on Agile leadership and high performance organisations; Fiona Blunsdon explores using the three Scrum questions for your life; Carl Weller looks at managing bugs, Agile development hills and the CEO's role in execution; and Rowan Bunning presents on 'how your culture is shaping your Agile'.