Greta Blash

Struggling with unclear roles in cross-functional teams? This article explains how functional managers can shift from direct supervision to focusing on strategy and skill development. We offer practical steps to clarify roles, avoid delays, and improve collaboration in matrix teams. Learn more about aligning responsibilities and building agile, effective teams here. https://lnkd.in/ewsUHNx7

6

2 Comments

Wondering what happens to Scrum Masters in this evolving landscape? They don't disappear; instead, their roles expand to include broader responsibilities. Core competencies like facilitation, servant leadership, and coaching are amplified, supported by AI and new governance structures. It's an exciting time for Agile practitioners! 🤖 Link in first comment! #Agile #ProductOwner #ScrumMaster #AgileCoaching #LeadershipEvolution

10

2 Comments

I’ve seen a lot of hand-wring the past 2 weeks about the new definition of ‘project’ in the PMBOK Guide 8th edition. As a quick reminder, the old definition was: “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”  The new definition is : “a temporary initiative in a unique context undertaken to create value.” The criticism seems to be vary between A) the idea of ‘value’ is nothing new, B) the word ‘value’ is too imprecise or ambiguous, and C) it suggest the PM is now responsible for the outcome of the project achieving whatever results it was minted to achieve, even if the PM has no control over that. I’m going to talk about whether this is actually anything ‘new’ (hint: it’s not) in a different post later this week.  But today I wanted to tackle an aspect I haven’t seen addressed yet. We often see the criticism that “nothing’s changed” in the past 20 years in project mgmt. I don’t think that’s true. I think a lot of 'has' changed over the years - just not for the better. Somewhere along the last 20 years we as a profession lost the plot. We forgot ‘why’ we exist, and ‘why’ we do things, and started focusing more on ‘how’. We started created new methodologies, and then arguing over whether they were new or not, and obsessing over the word-smithing and semantics they contained. “Is it a framework, methodology, or method, or a project, program, or portfolio, or an output, outcome, or result?”  We started to focus solely on how *we* view what *we* do. And to some extent this *does* matter. As professionals we need to have a *somewhat* common understating of the vocabulary and language we use. But that’s so that we can 'communicate', not so we can 'dictate'. Worse, we started to unilaterally define these things for ourselves. We forgot ‘why’ we do things, and ‘who’ we do them for. And we forgot to speak their language as well as our own. We started to describe and define things in a way that’s almost totally insular to us, which, rather than making us ‘more effective and valuable’, served to make us seem out of step with leadership. A prime example of this is the idea of ‘positive risk’. This is a concept that exists almost exclusively in project management.  (go ahead, talk to your leaders about the ‘positive’ risks… I dare ya 😂 ) And I think this new definition is a sort of ‘course-correction’ for the back-sliding we’ve done.* Because while 'we' as project professionals may chafe at it (a bit), the real question is - “is this how leadership defines a project?” I think if we look at it those terms, then not only is the answer 'yes', but the new definition might just be another step in helping recover some of what we’ve lost over the years - a return to an understanding of why we do what we do. *I have no idea if this is 'why' the change was made. It's just a way that I'm seeing it.

28

61 Comments

In this blog, PST Ryan Brook explores the significance of Continued Development for Scrum Masters through the teaching stance. He underscores the importance of enhancing expertise, soliciting peer feedback, experimenting with innovative teaching methods, and sharing insights openly. This strategy ensures Scrum Masters maintain credibility, accountability, and exemplify continuous improvement. #ScrumMaster #Teacher #Teaching

10

Kanban is simple. Try it as described in The Kanban Guide and determine if the ideas in it help your organization achieve a workflow that gives customers what they want when they want it.

8

3 Comments

Is your online program built to last or built fast? QM Quality Matters VP of Innovation & Research, Bethany Simunich, PhD, explains why quality in online learning is more important than ever in this article. https://lnkd.in/eyPeWTvi

29

5 Comments

Trending in #ACMLearningCenter, available to members through the Skillsoft Percipio benefit: "Effective Platform Engineering," by Ajay Chankramath, Nic Cheneweth, Bryan Oliver, Sean P Alvarez (from Manning Publications Co.). Foreword by Kief Morris. #PlatformEngineering is the discipline of building #InternalDeveloperPlatforms (#IDPs) that #automate and #simplify the #SoftwareDevelopmentLifecycle. IDPs provide self-service interfaces to tools and services for #infrastructure, #deployment, #security, #observability, and #governance, and reduce the need for developers to master complex technologies like #Kubernetes. Because they match the specific needs of an organization, well-engineered IDPs can reduce #development time by half while delivering better software. Learn how to establish and administer the kind of platforms that reduce a dev team’s workload, improve consistency, and accelerate software delivery. Organized in three parts—foundations, building, and scaling—it blends #MentalModels, #patterns, and runnable examples to help you go from #MVP to #ProductionGradePlatform. You’ll learn how to treat platforms as products and demonstrate their value by improving engineering outcomes and delivering measurable #BusinessImpact. You'll learn to deliver 🕴‍ Improved business outcomes, 👩‍💼 Product management strategies, 🔐 secure, scalable Kubernetes-based engineering platforms, 🤝 effective #ServiceLevelObjectives to boost trust and adoption, and🛫 modern #ControlPlanePatterns that streamline #DeveloperWorkflows. ACM Member Access: https://lnkd.in/eU64VqTJ #DevOps #DevEx #SLAs #ServiceLevelAgreements

17