pmi newsletter november€¦ · maps'. when we try to process a new idea, brain creates a new...

Thanks and Best Wishes

Soumen De, PMP

[email protected]

Editor’s NoteEditor’s NoteDear Friends,

Greetings from PMI Bangalore India Chapter!

We are very pleased to share the good news with you that our Chapter has been awarded

with the “Recognition of Excellence Award” by the esteemed jury members from PMI

Headquarters. The Bangalore Chapter was recognized for this award on 25th Oct 2013, in Category IV,

standing shoulder to shoulder among long standing Chapters like Washington, Houston, New York and

Japan Chapters that have been existing for much long before our Chapter. Please find more details in the

Chapter News section of this newsletter. Over the years, the Chapter has started many initiatives and

successfully sustained them. PMPC, PM Footprints, social projects with Rotary Club (e.g. Vidyadeepa

project) are just to name a few. Such seemingly complex initiatives are made possible only by our

volunteers, who notwithstanding their day's job, demonstrates great leadership skills and exemplary

team work with contagious passion and enthusiasm. This award is truly a standing testimony of this fact. I

had shared my views in last edition on how you can nurture your dream of becoming a great leader by

volunteering at the Chapter and also nurture the spirit of team work. As we all know, leadership is a core

competency of both project managers and leaders. At our Chapter, we are enabling volunteers to unlock

their leadership potential. In this newsletter we do have one good article on leadership. Hope you will like

this newsletter and share your views with us. I would like to end with this famous quote highlighting the

spirit of teamwork and leadership which I think our volunteers have embraced wholeheartedly.

"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say 'I'.

And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say 'I'.

They don't think 'I'. They think 'we'; they think 'team'.

They understand their job to be to make the team function.

They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but 'we' gets the credit....

This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done."

--Peter F. Drucker

Happy Reading.

your development process' The

speaker highlighted the advantages of

using the Kaizen blitz which can make

massive improvements in cycle time in

a very short period without adding

additional capital and without

compromising quality. Both the

programs were very well attended and

gave useful input to the members

present at the event.

Chapter News

Editorial Board

Murali Santhanam, PMPRaghavan S.S.V., PMPRama K., PMP, PMI-ACPShikha Vaidh, PMPSoumen De, PMP

Volume -1 - Issue 10 November 2013

-Capt. L. N. Prasad & Soumen De, PMP

Q. In this kind of leadership, the

leader shares power, puts the

needs of others first and helps

people develop and perform as

highly as possible.

Chapter News- Capt. L. N. Prasad & Soumen De

Transforming Team Performance- Jitendra Kaushik, PMP

Leadership Challenges Create . . . - D. John Peter, PMP

Coffee with voice of the customer - Shikha Vaidh, PMP

Paralles till Horizon- Sudeendra Koushik, PMP

Marrying Lean, Agile . . .- Usha Seetharaman, PMP

DID YOU KNOW?

Co

nte

nts

PM Footprints: During the month of Oct 2013 the

PM Footprints sessions was held on 10 and 24 Oct at

Hotel Royal Orchid Manipal Centre. On 10 Oct 2013

Mr Jitendra Kumar Kaushik spoke on

'TRANSFORMING TEAM PERFORMANCE.' This was

covered in

October Essence.

On 24 Oct 2013

session Mr. Vinod

D'Souza spoke

on the topic

'Kaizen blitz-

ReinvigoratingContinued on Page 6...

2 Page


As a leader we know it is often

very important to influence the

thinking of our team members to

carry out a successful change. In

this article, let us explore how

understanding of working of our

brain can be applied to transform

ourselves into more effective

leaders.

Working of brain – the science

behind

To store information, ideas and

thoughts our brain creates 'mental

maps'. When we try to process a

new idea, brain creates a new map

and then tries to link this new map

with the existing maps. Anything

that does not fit with our existing

mental maps creates dissonance till

it is sorted out by brain. When we

process

complex

ideas we tap

into our

visual center

– we see

flashes of

ideas in our

mind's eye.

While our

brain uses

up a lot of

energy when it is trying to process

complex ideas, there is a burst of

energy released when the brain

makes new connection. Brain is a

very energy efficient system and

processing of new ideas demands

energy.

Most of the common activities are

hard wired by the brain. This helps

the brain work without thinking –

expending much less energy than

otherwise would have been

required. Many times our internal

realities are different from our

external realities, which change

much faster.

The hardwired mental maps grows stronger as

and when they are used in more and varied

situations. Ingrained habits and thought

processes cannot be changed. It is easy to create

new thought processes and mental maps by

providing positive feedback to brain.

Improving team performance - using the

science of brain

The insights explored above points to a new way

of improving people's performance.

As a leader you help them improve their quality of

thinking. Help them process their ideas better.

Letting people come up with their own actionable

ideas provides them with motivation to see the

actions through.

Once you get people thinking keep them focused

on solutions. This is different form usual –

problem focused approach. To illustrate the

difference study the following table:

Removing 'why' from your conversations is a

great way to focus on solutions. Stretch people.

Take them out of their comfort zone.

Acknowledgement and encouragement calms

mind and allow focus on the task at hand. Plan

your conversations. These are few effective way

to get the best out of your people

We need to put aside our mental states that may

cloud our ability to listen openly. Maintain a

distance from the problem – this helps in

improving clarity.

Avoid natural biases and prejudice while listening

to others. Then you are opening yourself to listen

to them in a whole new way.

Clear and crisp communication allows the

listeners to process the information effectively.

- Jitendra Kaushik, PMP, COE Group

Transforming Team Performance

Visualize what you plan to say and then

use visual words and metaphors to

communicate your ideas. Get to the

core of the discussion point quickly to

hold people's attention and interest.

Establish permission before having a

dialogue. Establish the context and

then anchor your conversations around

that context. Creating an explicit

context, specifying where you are

coming from, what is your goal for the

conversation and what are you looking

to achieve from this conversation. In

complex conversations, it is a good idea

to refer to the context multiple times

during the conversation.

The questions you may ask in a

conversation can have multiple

categories:

• Problem questions – what is the

issue you are facing?

• Detail questions – what are the

deadlines? What resources you

need?

• Thinking questions – how important

this issue is to you on a scale of

1 to 5?

• Vision question – what are you

trying to achieve?

• Planning question – how do you plan

to deliver this?

As a leader you shall be asking

thinking, vision and planning questions,

in this order. Avoid asking problem and

detail questions.

When you help people become aware of

their dilemma, they reflect on it and if

you lead them with right questions

their brain will make suitable

connection to get its 'Aha' moment,

create insights for them. You help them

explore alternatives that are available.

This ensures people don't take the

easiest path and they are able to find

the best approach to their dilemma in

the given circumstances. At this point

people are bubbling with energy. You

help people take tangible actions

translating the just released energy

into discernible actions.

It is critical to follow up on the process

outlined above. By doing this in a

positive and supporting way, we help

our people consolidate the new habits

and thought processes. This ensures

consistent performance improvement

or team members over extended

periods of time.

PM Article

“People don't need to be managed, they need to be unleashed” --Richard Florida

Why you did not achieve your goals?

Problem Focus Solution Focus

What do you need to do next time to achieve your goals?

Why did you do that?

Why are you not able to handle this?

What do you want to do next?

How can you develop strength in this area?

Transforming Team Performance

- D. John Peter, PMP, Mindtree

He quotes the example that when his first

project failed, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai took all

responsibility and faced all the questions from

the press. The next project of Dr. Kalam was a

great success. This time Dr. Vikram Sarabhai told

Dr. Kalam to meet the press and share the

success story.

Whenever project manager stuck-up in career or

business growth then he/she will have someone

to look up and seek their guidance.

Technologies are getting developed in such a

speed that stakeholders, customer and team

members are expecting instant results. Project

Manager has to meet the expectation of

achieving the speed but they do not expect

instant results. Never compromise basics and

never try unknown shortcuts in the interest of

achieving instant results. Most of the times such

steps land in unrecoverable situations. Take

steps that produce long lasting results.

Another important aspect of STRONG project

manager is maintaining calm during project

pressure and humility at the time of achieving

project success. Project managers possessing

calm and composure can manage complex and

pressure situation without any tension.

Impatient people could not manage the situation

in turn they lose control and unable to achieve

success even though they may be capable and

talented.

A shining example is the role played by Indian

cricket captain M. S. Dhoni who made the Indian

team to take on and succeed tough challenges.

This is because of his ability to handle live-wire

situations with a calmness and because of his

willingness to accept the match outcome with

equanimity.

So project managers should learn the art of

showing patience and demonstrate humility.

The takeaways from this paper are:

Leadership skills differentiate a great project

manager from the rest

One easy way to develop skills is to accept

challenging roles

Remember the 6 rules that can guide you

through the project management career.

Rule 5 - Do not expect instant results

Rule 6 - Have Patience and Humility

Conclusion

•

•

•

Rule 2 – Never hesitate to recognize

mistakes and correct them

Rule 3 - No pain No gain

Rule 4 - Identify a Master or Guru

Most project managers refuse to accept

mistakes. It is easy to put blame on somebody

or environment for the failure of the project.

Acknowledging a problem is the first step of

solving it. So unless and until a project

manager is knowing and solving the real

issues, expected business revenue and career

growth will not happen. Failure to recognize

mistakes early would lead to more issues till

the project becomes unrecoverable.

It is important for a project manager to see

the mistakes and correct it quickly. If Project

Manager allows mistakes to happen and

hesitate to correct then issues will grow.

Going through pain and hardships are part of

project managers journey. General tendency of

project manager used to be looking for an

ideal project or project with less dependencies

and constraints because of unwillingness to

take challenges. Whoever has taken

challenges and gone through the painful

process must have learnt the secrets of

transforming challenges into opportunities.

When project manager accepts the challenges

then it opens many opportunities for learning.

In December 1964, a cyclone washed away

parts of Pamban Bridge that connected

Rameswaram to mainland Tamil Nadu. The

Railways set a target of six months for the

bridge to be repaired while Sreedharan's boss,

under whose jurisdiction the bridge came,

reduced it to three months. Sreedharan was

put in-charge of the execution and he restored

the bridge in just 46 days. The Railway

minister's award was given to him in

recognition of this achievement.

Guidance is essential right from the childhood.

Project managers too need a master to get

trained in the area of project management.

Only difference here is, Project manager has

to identify a Master or Guru. The advantage of

having a Guru is that it keeps the mind of

project manager open to criticism and advice.

Gurus make project managers feel that they

have something more to learn.

For example, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam found his

Guru in Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. He acknowledges

that he learnt a lot from Dr. Vikram Sarabhai.

World has seen successful

project managers like

Sreedharan of Metro Rail

projects. What makes them

successful? Successful

management and excellent

leadership.

Project Manager is successful

only when he/she has the

required levels of leadership

skills and experience. But how

can we spot a successful

project manager from the rest?

By looking at the scars on his

back; by learning the

leadership challenges he has

gone through.

By nature, leadership

challenges are unique,

different and special.

So this article presents 6 rules

related to Leadership

Challenges in Project

Management and how they help

Project Manager(s) to become a

STRONG Project Manager cum

excellent Leader.

How often have you heard the

statement “I have followed

process and procedures but still

things gone out of control, not

sure why (this overrun has

happened) ?”

The simple answers are over

confidence of ignoring project

constraints and

underestimating project

limitations and dependencies.

How to overcome this

syndrome? Always ask the

question like, what is unique,

special and different here?

These questions will ensure

project manager is getting into

details before taking decision

instead of just going with their

overconfidence or

underestimate.

Rule 1 - Avoid

overconfidence and

underestimation


Leadership Challenges Create a Strong Project ManagerLeadership Challenges Create a Strong Project Manager

PM Article

4 Page


PM Article Coffee

- Shikha Vaidh, PMP, Capgemini

“On time!! Right Quality”

The need to survive in the competitive

marketplace sparked the quality

revolution going on in many corporations.

That meant coming out with products of

higher and higher quality, lower and

lower cost, and faster and faster delivery.

The product battle rightly and naturally

shifted into a process battle in which

competitors tried to come out with the

leanest and meanest manufacturing

systems using just-in-time (JIT),

statistical process control (SPC) and

continuous process improvement

(KAIZEN) principles to streamline

operations. To win the quality war,

companies tried to train and empower

their employees using the concepts of

total quality management (TQM), self-

managing teams, QC circles, and

suggestion box systems. In short,

achieving quality products meant

achieving quality process and quality

people, the foundation and source of

quality.

How then does a company know its score

in the quality battle? Is it winning,

gaining ground, stalling, or backsliding?

How does one measure quality progress?

It seems that after all is said and done in

the name of quality, more is said than

done.

Understand what is actually going in

terms of real quality progress?

Has the number of customer

complaints and returns drastically

decreased?

Has the number of defects, scrap, and

rework declined?

Has quality cost - the cost of not

doing the right thing right the first

time - declined?

•

•

•

•

•

Has rework rate gone done and rework

operations diminished?

Has the company cut down on delivery

delays?

A company will usually avoid answering these

quality questions or evade addressing these

issues either because they have failed in

bringing out improvements in these areas, or it

simply does not monitor and measure these

indicators of product quality.

Progress and programs in process and people do

not mean much if they do not improve the

quality and delivery of the ultimate product.

Customers care primarily about getting on time

right quality of the product they buy. They do

not see the company's process or people, and

they will not give much importance to these if

the company provides them with low quality

products and bad service. A customer does not

care how many QC circles a company has, or

how many awards and ISO 9000 certification it

received -- if it is often late in the delivery or on

time with poor quality.

A common response to product quality questions

often heard is "Our quality is world-class

because we received no complaints from

customers - all are satisfied." External quality or

quality after the product is delivered to

customers is not the only indicator of total

quality. A traditional company that does a lot of

inspection and sorting will naturally attain zero

defect and complaints in the marketplace.

But a real TQM company

does not rely on

inspection, but on

prevention and

improvement to achieve

quality - in line with the

TQM dictum "do it right

the first time."

Very often, traditionally

managed or mismanaged

companies forget about

the other dimension of

product quality -- internal

quality or the quality of

the product before

releasing it to customer.

This includes defects and

scrap produced or

discovered during internal

QA; it also includes rework

costs. Customers do not

see internal quality, but if

left ignored, this will

increase the cost of

production and eventually

affect customers in terms

of higher prices. Moreover,

poor internal quality will

necessitate an increase in

testing efforts and internal

testing teams to achieve

perfect external quality.

The only way to describe

product quality is by

measuring both external

and internal quality. While

external quality is more

important than internal

quality, a company does

not achieve total quality

status until both are

improved continuously,

and both external and

internal failures are

reduced to a minimum if

not zero.

Customerwith Voice of the

Continued on Page 6...

Coffeewith Voice of the

Customer

Project Management is a key

concept for managing

uncertainty. In other words

when certainty is to be achieved

in prevalent or potentially

volatile situations Project

management can be a great

tool.

Innovation has always been

around for a long time and the

successful innovations are

plenty, which has changed the

life style of so many across the

globe. Be it a hard tip pen which

writes when dropped on its nib

or a dream liner aircraft with the

lightest material available for an

aircraft or in-body implants,

innovations are plenty and its

impact tremendous. While there

is a body of knowledge on

project management there is

also a lot of literature on

innovation as a process.

Innovation has at least two

relative meanings in the context

of project management. A

project could include elements of

innovation within the scope of

the project while the main goal

is already known, identified and

quantified. In such a classical

case the project management

practices are effective. In case

the project outcome itself is an

innovation, hence the final goal

is undefined and not

quantifiable, we need to assess

the Project management

practices that are applicable.

An internet search for 'Project Management'

delivered 676 million webpage hits compared to

620 million hits for 'Innovation'. A search within

PMBoK 3v1.13 for innovation gave zero search

results while a search for the word 'R&D' gave a

result which was found in the reference section.

PMBoK edition 4 states that “Projects are often

utilized as a means of achieving an

organizations strategic plan. Projects are

typically authorized as a result of one or more of

Market demand, Strategic opportunity, Customer

request, Technological advance, or Legal

requirement.”

Any innovation has to meet the strategic goals

of an organization within the constraints of the

organization. An innovation for an organization

is needed to create a new product or service. A

product or service is the currency for delivering

innovation to consumers. A product or service is

realized by an organization in a project mode.

Project management tries to achieve an agreed

outcome and does so by balancing Time, cost

and Quality. This is achieved using the 10 areas

of project management as prescribed in the

body of knowledge, for example. The table 1

shows the various key knowledge areas around

which the project management framework is

built upon. The table also indicates which

knowledge applicability to Innovation projects

whose outcome is of innovation in nature.

- Sudeendra Koushik, PMP

PM Article

A product or service is

realised by an

organisation in a

project mode.


While most knowledge areas are

very suitable for Project

Management they are not so

much suited for Innovation

management. Human resource

area is one where people are

encouraged to come up with new

ideas to solve problems. In the

risk management area new ways

of doing things are developed to

mitigate risks or generating

alternatives to an identified risk.

However in the rest of the areas

three is not much scope for

encouraging innovation.

If innovation is about selecting

the target project management

will be about hitting that selected

target. If Innovation is about

choosing the target or goal or

solution before a project takes

up the real execution.

An overview of key differences

between Innovation and Project

Execution is shown in table 2.

Innovation is about generating

idea, developing alternatives and

having a broad scope which

involves various kinds of Risk.

Project execution is about focus

on a particular idea which the

goal of the project, limiting the

variations of the scope of the

project to prevent scope creep,

managing risks to keep to the

plan.


Horizon

Knowledge area as per

PMBoK 5th edition, for

Project Management

Table - Knowledge areas and Innovation

Project Integration Management Less

Project Scope Management Less

Project Time Management Less

Project Cost Management Less

Project Quality Management More

Project Human Resource Management Yes

Project Communications Management Less

Project Risk Management More

Project Procurement Management Less

Project Stakeholder Management Less

(added in the 5th edition)

Innovation

Management

Applicability

Innovation /

Choosing a

target

Table 2 - Innovation and Project

Execution

Generate

ALTERNATIVES

Scope

DIFFUSION

Risk EXPOSURE

IDEA generation

Project /

Hitting the

target

FOCUS on

selected goal

Scope

MANAGEMENT

Risk

REDUCTION

EXECUTION of

ideas

Parallels till Parallels till Horizon

6 Page

long standing Chapters like Washington, Houston,

New York and Japan Chapters that have been existing for

much long before Bangalore Chapter. The award had

been given to recognise Chapters' contribution towards

member services, successful annual conference,

publications and outreach to students community. This

could not have come at a better time when the Chapter is

completing 15 years since it started operations on 1998.

Needless to say this was possible due to unflinching

support and participation from our members, volunteers,

speakers, Advisory Board members, corporate

organisations and vendor partners. With their help

Chapter has had achieved many milestones in the past in

the areas of member services, education, academics and

social responsibility in line with its vision of promoting the

cause for advancement of project management in the

region.

We would like to take this moment to thank all the

present and past members, volunteers, officers, advisors,

customers and associates for helping us to achieve this

distinction. This is a great motivation for all of us.

Together we can do much more. We would like to invite

you to join us to sustain these initiatives and help us take

it to the next level.

Project Management is a key concept for managing

uncertainty by having processes in place and managing

risks effectively to execute a baseline plan to achieve a

predefined goal. Innovation can be seen in pockets within

a typical project and it will be more in the form of

managing risks or solving problems as long as the main

defined goal is unchanged or further secured. In contrast

to Project management, innovation is about generating

alternatives and does not have a fixed goal upfront.

A company that does not monitor and improve internal

quality by reducing defects, reworks, and generating

scraps is not a total quality company even if its external

quality is perfect and customer complaint is zero.

A total quality states, constantly and continuously

monitors and improves quality at all stages: (Initiation,

Planning, Execution, Monitor & Control as well as Closing)

of product delivery.

Agile Foundation Program

The one day Agile Foundation Program based on the ACP Quest

program was held on 26 Oct 2013 at Dhi learning centre. Sixteen

agile aspirants attended the program and went back with some

profound takeaways from the course. The foundation program is

focused on introduction of the Agile methodology and is designed to

lay the foundation for ACP certification. Chapter will be conducting

more such courses depending on participant's interest and

feedback.

PMI Award for Chapter

Like every year, The PMI

Global Chapter Awards

program received many

outstanding applications

from a record number of

34 Chapters across the

globe. Upon review and

evaluation of all

submitted applications,

the Bangalore Chapter's

excellent programs and

member benefits has

been recognized with a

“Recognition of

Excellence Award” by the

esteemed jury members

from PMI Headquarters.

The award ceremony was

held on Oct 25, 2013 in Leadership Institute Meeting (LIM) in New

Orleans, LA, USA that had representation of about 1000 chapter

leaders from over 200+ chapters across the globe. Mr. Vijay Paul,

Director-Volunteering and Mr. Sumanth Padival, VP-Technology

represented

Bangalore Chapter

in the Leadership

Institute Meeting.

Mr. Vijay Paul

received the award

from Ms. Deanna

Landers, Chair –

PMI Board of

Directors and

Mr. Mark Langley,

President and CEO,

PMI.

The Bangalore

Chapter was

recognized for this

award in Category

IV standing

shoulder to

shoulder among


Chapter News ... continued from Page 1

Parallels till ... continued from Page 5

Coffee with voice ... continued from Page 4

The major advantages of Agile are

Time to Market:

Return on Investment

Improved Market Position

Increased Customer satisfaction

Greater Profit margins

Ability to respond to changes quickly

Close customer collaboration

The agile manifesto preaches:

Individuals and interactions over

processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive

documentation

Customer collaboration over contract

negotiation

Responding to change over following a

plan

Advantages and Disadvantages of

Scrum

Scrum is a prescriptive approach. It is a

lightweight framework that empowers

team to work efficiently with Business

partners. Scrum when implemented

efficiently exposes impediments well

ahead of time.

It advises iterations and prescribes teams

to break things into really small chunks. It

advises on the amount of time to be spent

on planning, retrospectives etc.This is a

good thing for the teams to be focused on

just the small piece of work to be

delivered and tested and move on to the

next. The downside of this is that over a

period of time, the team misses on the big

picture and tries to force-fit projects that

cannot fit in this model.

Where is Scrum Appropriate

This works best for Maintenance / Support

of existing features or adding new ones to

retain the existing business. During this

phase, incremental updates are required

to be made to the product. This is the

stage when the risk is least. The product

management focus is typically on

maximizing the return of investment: to

minimize cost and increase revenue. The

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

•

Agile emphasizes on principles adapting to

change and following iterations. Fast-

Flexible-Flow and value-stream-mapping

are the mantra of Lean. Kanban does not

specify a technique for managing how

work is done but seeks to control the

amount of WIP. The advantage of Agile

over Waterfall is that it enables in building

the project in an evolutionary fashion,

incorporating the learning throughout. Our

architecture discipline states that we

should start with the big picture, and not

create a product by building it from small

pieces but that has been ignored by Agile-

practitioners. One process sees

management as a crucial participant;

others want to be shielded from the

management's command-and-control.

The new focus is on enterprise-agility,

driving business value and optimizing the

whole. This paper suggests the strategy

and pragmatic approach of combining the

best practices of Lean-agile and Kanban

and Lean-Startup that can be used

complementarily to foster business

transformation and innovation, adapting to

change effectively and above all enjoy the

journey of creating quality product that

provides maximum business value.

Evolution of Quality Processes

The ultimate aim of any customer is:

Time to Market – Working software

Early Return on Investment

Ability to make changes quickly

We need to understand that processes

have come into existence to help and ease

the development process and not hinder

the whole process of creating value. These

issues gave rise to the evolution of

iterative development and releases. Agile

methodologies tried to focus on resolving

this problem by delivering workable

features to the client frequently and were

successful to a large extent as well.

•

•

•


innovation is low, and there is

little uncertainty about what the

product should look like and do,

and how it is built.

Experimentation and failure are

hence not desirable. The need is

to be able to churn out features

in a rhythm to support the

customers. Scrum best fits this

way of working. This stage is

more about effectiveness:

quickly resolving uncertainty by

acquiring knowledge and

correcting from mistakes. A

single product owner is

desirable to enable effective

decision making.

Time to marry Lean

In the case of new product

development, it's better to opt

for Lean + Scrum. In scrum

since the team works on small

chunks and sometimes fails to

see the bigger picture.

Advantages of Scrum +

Lean: Scrum#

Scrum # is an enhancement of

Scrum embedded with Lean

thinking. There are various tools

that lean and Kanban uses that

can be utilized to complement

Scrum's way of working.

Value Stream Mapping

Plan-Do-Check-Act (or, Adjust)

Command and Control Vs

Leading teams

View of Management in

Traditional Models

o A "command and control"

approach is followed which

makes the implicit

assumption that the

relationship between the

inputs and outputs of a

software development

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PM Article Marrying Lean, Agile and Kanban to foster business transformation

- Usha Seetharaman, PMP, Tesco


Marrying Lean, Agile and Kanban to foster business transformation

8 Page


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ValueWorks; [email protected]

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Marrying Lean ... continued from Page 7

process are stable and predictable and that the schedule of outputs will still be

relevant by the time they appear

Scrum's View of Management

o Scrum team was empowered to take responsibility of project delivery instead

of a single person running the show. Scrum practitioners say that the team should

be insulated from management. The scrum mandate to protect the team from

interruptions is misunderstood.

Lean's View of Management

o Lean understands that management is not an impediment to be removed but

provides a new paradigm of management that advocates leading teams instead of

command and control model.. Lean provides a way for management and the

teams to work together by complementing each other.

Eliminate Waste

Waste is anything that does not add direct value like defects, adding unnecessary

features, teams waiting due to dependency on other teams. By the use of various

visual controls like information radiators, Lean-Agile focuses to eliminating waste.

Limit Work in Progress

Kanban board is very similar to the scrum board with few variations. It defines the

number of items in progress in each column (Development, testing, design etc.).

This helps in controlling the number of items getting piled up in any one area. The

team tries to move and help in others tasks which are currently having more

tasks.

Finally people and organizations needs to be aware that no one process is the

solution to all problems. Instead of following a prescription the organization

should be flexible enough to make changes and eliminate and adapt the processes

as required.

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PM Article

A. Servant leadership is a philosophy and

set of practices that enriches the lives of

individuals, builds better organizations and

ultimately creates a more just and caring

world. While servant leadership is a

timeless concept, the phrase “servant

leadership” was coined by Robert K.

Greenleaf in "The Servant as Leader", an

essay that he first published in 1970. In

that essay, Greenleaf said: “The servant-

leader is servant first… It begins with the

natural feeling that one wants to serve, to

serve first. Then conscious choice brings

one to aspire to lead. That person is

sharply different from one who is leader

first, perhaps because of the need to

assuage an unusual power drive or to

acquire material possessions…The leader-

first and the servant-first are two extreme

types. Between them there are shadings

and blends that are part of the infinite

variety of human nature" A servant-leader

focuses primarily on the growth and well-

being of people and the communities to

which they belong. While traditional

leadership generally involves the

accumulation and exercise of power by one

at the “top of the pyramid,” servant

leadership is different.

[Source - Internet]

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sentence

And the best response is ...

... and the Winner is Abhishek Roy, General Motors

Running a project without a WBS is like ..........

moving towards a visible destination on an

invisible road.

Please complete the sentence below with your thoughts in 10-15 words

and send them to . The best entry will

win attractive goodies from PMI Bangalore India Chapter.

This edition's slogan

Please provide your response by 24th November 2013. Chapter will

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A project without a critical path is like .............

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