Where is the Passion? (Project Management)

Conjecture ONE – Agile doesn’t work 😥

Firstly I know agile works! but does it work in big companies? Or maybe the big company is fine, maybe it’s the team I’m in, perhaps the team just don’t get it!

The team is geographically dispersed and I would say that this (geographical dispersion) is a huge disadvantage for a fledgling agile team, nothing beats a board full of post-it‘s but if no-one walks past the board, what’s the point in the board?

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The team I’m currently working with use the virtual scrum board from Jira Software – Project Tracking, it’s not bad, it’s not amazing, there are some quirks and as with many things, it tries to be everything to everyone, so it can be over-engineered in places, but it should work. Other teams (dev teams) in this big old company use it fine.

Conjecture TWO – Scrummerfall = death of agile!

The practice of combining Scrum and Waterfall so as to ensure failure at a much faster rate than you had with Waterfall alone.

The big companies IT Group claim to be migrating to agile and indeed, there is a programme running alongside the Cyber Security Programme to transition the IT Teams into agile experts.

However, the difficult situation today is that the projects and programmes are led, managed and reported on using waterfall, yet the teams are free to run in agile. Essentially, I’m one of the folks that sings the agile song and I was quick to take this path.

I should clarify that both before and just after I joined this team I was under the impression that I had much more freedom to lead my project teams using agile and that the waterfall stuff was going to be very lite-touch. As we moved forward, that was clearly not the case, the waterfall remains entrenched and if anything, it seems like it’s making more gains at the expense of agile.

I still believe I can manage projects and programmes using either agile or waterfall, but this half-half situation is energy sapping, difficult to explain to the team and just plain rubbish!

Conjecture THREE – Project/Programme/Portfolio Management = undefined…

This is a huge furstration for me. I am a part of the Strategic Transformation team (PMO, Project & Programme Managers) I have a vested interest in the success of the big-companys’ transformation programme, in fact, the transformation programme is probably the biggest reason that I have a job in this company.

This Transformation team is relatively new. There was always Project and Programme Managers in this big old entity of course, but the current transformation programme is a new stage for this company. The number of new hires, the costs incurred, the risks facing such a huge transformation, this all requires a level of governance not seen before in this place.

New governance = new ideas, New ideas = trial + error.

This means that not only are we jumping between agile and waterfall but that we’re also updating or changing documents, templates, spreadsheets, schedules, etc, constantly.

The number of places I have to update a budget is mind-blowing!

The project/programme/portfolio governance is learning as it grows in maturity. I believe many of the folks leading these efforts are amongst the best I’ve ever worked with. Indeed a couple of them are world-class in my opinion. But the constant changing as well as the battles between methodologies and the usual internal office politics etc, it takes a toll!

This frustration is not just felt by me, I know my colleagues are feeling the pain as well.

Every Monday I turn up with my a-game ready to sell the virtues of agile to my project teams and update all of the paperwork in my waterfall world, but by Friday, I feel so exhausted, every week feels like a battle at the moment.

Is this the end?

No, of course not, it’s Valentines Day and not every post you read on Valentines day needs to be about love.

Happy Valentines day 😍