Today was the final day of the Scrum Gathering.

The morning started off with a wrap-up of the Open Space topics. However, before I could check whether there were any topics I was interested in, I got pulled into another side conversation in the hallway. This one was with with Stacia Broderick and some of the CSTs about what questions we wanted the “guru roundtable” to address.

After proposing some incendiary questions, I went off to setup for my talk: “PMP? ScrumMaster? What’s the Difference?”. Although PMI’s IT&Telecom SIG recorded the session, I’ll give you some of the nuggets that came out of the talk:

• First, I gave a briefing of the growth of the PMI Agile sector. For example, PMI and APLN chapters have been working together in Richmond, DC, Dallas, and Central Illinois over the last year or so. Many of those collaborations are posted in the community’s yahoo group.
• Second, I went through a summary of the insights already discussed in previous presentations.
• Finally, I opened it up to the audience the question “What tools do you need now to go back to your day job as PMP ScrumMasters?”. It took us a while to warm up to what this question was really about, but eventually, some good dynamic exchanges began to happen
• One rephrasing of the question was “What is my job as an Agilist? Execution or Transformation?” . We came to the consensus that this was a false choice; both are intertwined. Small changes in group interaction improve project success, which attracts more Agile adoption, which extends a pattern of success, and so on.
• There was also some discomfort with the term “organizational dysfunction”. Some felt the term was a knee-jerk judgment, which itself could limit change opportunities. Instead of focusing on removing dysfunction, our job as project leaders is to encourage continuous improvement, wherever possible.
• Finally, we discussed how transformation, at any level, can’t be forced. It has to be facilitated over time. The analgy was made to Alcoholics Anonymous’ policy of “attraction rather than promotion”. We have to show people a better way in everyday practice, and then wait for them to respond.

After the talk, we all moved into the large ballroom for a lunch session with an expert panel. The panel consisted of Ron Jeffries (co-founder of eXtreme Programming), Mike Cohn (Scrum guru), Jim Coplien (software guru), Alistair Cockburn (Use case guru and agile co-founder), and Ken Schwaber (Scrum co-founder). There were some excellent quotes that came out the discussion, many of which I posted in real time on the PMI Agile twitter feed. Samples include:

• Schwaber: “the best way to explain the value of Agile is show it being done well, rather than just explaining it”
• Cohn: “my daughter uses Scrum to manage her homework”
• Jeffries: “There is no really good idea that can be measured by the number of people who adopt it.”
• Jeffries: “encourage courage and teach action in the face of danger”

After the panel, I helped PMI’s IT&Telecom SIG perform a couple of interviews in the conference hallway. First, I got to interview Ainsley Nies about her role in making the Open Space a success. Then, Laurentiu Hirsescu interviewed Alistair Cockburn about his role in the Agile movement. The videos should be posted in the next week or so, at which point I’ll send out an update.

Finally, I wrapped up my day by having a very late lunch with Mike Cottmeyer, where we reflected on the events of the week and postulated about what’s next for PMP Agilists in adding the right kind of value to our projects.

All in all, it was a great 4 days. I learned a lot that will make me a better process coach, and met many other Agile-minded PMPs that I can learn from going forward.

After yesterday’s formal keynotes and presentations, today was the more organic Open Space portion of the conference. Attendees each proposed topics they wanted to discuss and explore, and then posted those topics into open room/time slots.

There were two sessions of primary interest to me: PMI (for those interested in the PMI Agile community) and anti-PMI (for those skeptical of PMI’s involvement in Agile at all). During these two sessions, some compelling observations were shared by attendees:

• The PMI/Agile “gap” is more a gap between the traditional management mindset and the Agile mindset. Traditionalists have to go through a personal journey that eventually bridges that gap
• Employees often take the easy way out. Whether using PMI/Project Management as a scapegoat for organizational dysfunction or using Agile as a scapegoat for project failure.
• Often workers have a group identity (mac vs. PC = Agile vs. PMI) that distracts us away from pragmatism and moves us more towards fundamentalism
• Scrum certification is a hook to Scrum itself, which is then a gateway drug to the Agile mindset
• The terms “project manager”, “product manager”, “product owner”, and “program manager” each carry baggage unique to everyone

I was really impressed by the insights, all of which are documented here: http://scrumorlando09.pbwiki.com/Session-Notes.

More insights sure to come tomorrow….

What an incredible day of breakthroughs

• PMI CEO Greg Balestrero gave a keynote address with some memorable quotes: “We’re here because we respect the Scrum Alliance”…”the mission here is collaboration, we can’t afford barriers”…”It’s all about results quicker, faster, with high quality”.
  

  PMI's keynote

• More than just making a statement, Greg and his COO Mark Langley stayed for a full hour afterwards chatting with skeptics, and getting a real discussion going about the nature of management.
  
  

  Agile skeptics brainstorming with PMI CEO Greg Ballestrero

• IT&Telecom SIG’s Past Chair Dave Prior gave a talk about “Scrum in the Waterfall”. He explained how a project can benefit from 2 ScrumMaster roles. One to coach the team, and one to serve management’s need for charts and metrics. The name for these two roles? The Project Manager and the Team Lead.
• After the reception, Mike Cottmeyer and I landed at a cafe table with Alistair Cockburn. Alistair weaved us through an intellectual conversation that yielded many thoughts I will be digesting for a long time.

This is just a summary, and really doesn’t capture all the details. To get all the hour-by-hour updates, follow the “official” PMI Agile twitter feed here: www.twitter.com/pmiagile

Wow. Today I landed in Orlando to prep for a 3 day conference on Agile management called the “Scrum Gathering”. Those preparations turned out to be rather exciting.

• First, festivities started with a quick get-together of some of the PMI Agile steering committee. Mostly we caught up on our work activities. Mike Cottmeyer and Doug Shimp agreed not to get into a debate over some organizational leadership/transformation thing…you’d have to ask them.
• Next, there was a reception for the speakers and sponsors. Board members from PMI’s IT&Telecom SIG and ISSIG were schmoozing with Scrum Trainers and Agilists. Eventually PMI’s CEO Greg Balestrero and COO Mark Langley arrived and got to meet a lot of the movers and shakers within the Scrum community.
  

  reception poster

• Then, in the middle of the reception, an announcement was made that we would all be able to see the shuttle launch from our hotel. So, we darted outside and caught the spectacle.
  

  Balestrero watches shuttle launch

So far, it’s been an inspiring sight to have so many management thought leaders in the same room, sharing ideas about transforming the workplace…and the conference hasn’t even started yet.

I’ll be posting daily summaries on this page throughout the week. If you can’t wait for the end fo the day, I’ll be posting on twitter every couple of hours or so here: www.twitter.com/jessefewell.