Monthly Archives: December 2011

Scaled Agile Framework Big Picture Update

The Scaled Agile Framework collaborators, (Colin, Drew, Matthew, Alex (via Skype) and I) had another JAD session here in Boulder over the last three days. As per our Roadmap and schedule, the website went live at (scaledagileframework.com). However, we’ve had to scope-manage our efforts quite a bit (seems as if we all have day jobs), and have now committed to getting the newly-defined abstract pages in place asap (but not the detail pages). The abstracts are complete now for the Team level; other levels to follow.

We’ll formally announce the Framework around the first of the year, we hope to get all the abstracts in place before then.

And of course, the big Picture evolved for the umpteenth time. Here is the latest:

Changes:

  •  new logo and redesign, new icons
  •  added the Release Train Engineer icon.
  •  added a Shared resource icon. (just posted that abstract here)

July 2012 Scaling Agile Keynote and Workshop in Frankfurt, Germany

I’ll be giving a keynote on Scaling Agility with the Scaled Agile Framework at the upcoming Scaling Agile (Scrum) conference in Frankfurt on July 5th, 2012. On July 3-4, I’ll be delivering my Leading the Lean|Agile Enterprise two-day workshop. You can check it out and register here.

I’ll post additional details on the conference when more information becomes available.

Saying Goodbye to a Friend

Mauricio Gaston (“Mo”) Zamora’s (see post) memorial service and celebration of life was held Thursday at the United Methodist Church in Davidson, North Carolina. Mauricio died November 24 (Thanksgiving) while out running with his son Trey, age nine. He was 42.

Mauricio and Pam Zamora were very active in the local community and there were many hundreds of friends, family, church members, and soccer moms-dads-kids in attendance. Pam opened her house to guests thereafter and what a crush that was! (It looked like an entire soccer team was there, in uniform!)

Even though I knew Mo pretty well, I was indeed amazed to find out what an incredible Renaissance person Mo was. He was an accomplished guitarist (classical and electric), woodworker (built guitars and furniture), vinophile (has an amazing wine cellar and his own small vineyard on the property; was the resident wine expert in our partnership – at the reception, we drank only wine that he had made), photographer, soccer player (was invited to practice with a semipro team), soccer coach (see soccer scholarship program below), outdoorsman, scuba diver (his personal dream was to dive the great white sharks-I’m sure he was saving for that upcoming adventure), not to mention husband, father, brother, son, and entrepreneur, agilist and software industry executive.

Mo will be missed in so many ways and he leaves a void that will never be filled. With respect to this blog, and this industry, he was my good friend and partner, an accomplished enterprise agilist who was currently engaged in rolling out lean|agile transformation programs to a number of enterprises. Mauricio was passionate about the business results, the empowerment of self-organizing teams, and the intrinsic motivational and simple humanity benefits that agile can deliver. This was to be his next, full time, career. He’ll leave a void here, too, as now many hundreds of teams, programs, and ultimately, entire enterprises will now never be able to leverage his unique skills.

If we are going to any way make up for this loss to our industry, then we are all going to have to just pick it up a little bit, aren’t we?

For those who knew Mo or are otherwise interested, memorials may be made to:

North Meck Soccer Club, 11138 Treynorth Drive, Suite B, Cornelius, NC 28031 or Davidson United Methodist Church MC, PO Box 718, Davidson, NC 28036. I talked to one of the Meck club coaches and he said that any funds received will be used for a “Mauricio Zamora Scholarship” which will be used to help aspiring youth-athletes participate in a program that they could otherwise not afford (priced a kids soccer uniform lately?). I can just imagine the mental and physical benefits such a scholarship will bring to some number of lucky kids.

Rest in Peace Mo. You will always be missed.

Webinar Tomorrow: Agile Portfolio and Program Management

Sorry for the late post (had a nasty bug lately), but tomorrow I’m keynoting a live Rally in-person (we are here now, in Dallas, Texas ) and virtual event (live webinar) entitled  Agile Portfolio and Program Management in the Scaled Agile Framework. In this webinar, I’ll be discussing the important role that an APPMO (Agile Portfolio and Program Management) organization plays in 1) Strategy and Investment Funding, 2) Program Management and 3) Governance. I’ll also be describing some of the legacy mindsets that can prevent a truly agile approach to these functions, and more importantly, what can be done about it. I’ll provide a brief update on the development status of the Scaled Agile Framework as well.

Rally will also showcase their new solution – Rally Portfolio Manager –  which supports high-level program prioritization, team and project alignment to investment strategy, business view of program status, fact-based governance, and Roadmapping. If you are engaged in any of the portfolio or program management functions in your enterprise, you should take a serious look at this solution. (Yes, of course, a fool with a tool is still a fool, but an enterprise without an effective strategy for tooling large-scale agile development may be the biggest fools of all).

Chad Holdorf, agile ninja at John Deere, will also be describing some of his real-world experiences in bringing agile portfolio management thinking to John Deere’s Intelligent Systems Group.

The event will start at 9 AM CST and you can register here.

Rally will make the recording available post-event, so I’ll provide an update here as soon as its posted.

Lean|Agile Leadership Workshop in Wellington, NZ 28/29 Feb, 2012

I’ll be holding a rare, open-enrollment version of my Lean|Agile Leadership Workshop in Wellington, NZ on 28/29 February 2012. It will be hosted by Assurity, a Rally-enabled partner. You can register by emailing training@assurity.co.nz.

Here’s the flyer that Assurity is using to promote the workshop.

Assurity Lean Agile Workshop Description

I’ll also be holding the workshop in Sydney (7/8 Feb) and Melbourne (14/15 Feb). You can register for these workshops at Agile University.

(Since its summer then, maybe some of you colder-climate-bound folks will come down to play in the sun and also attend the workshop? We’ll be serving tea!)