Project Management
A Certification/Training Company Stole Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property and Used It Word-For-Word: This Scandal is a Big "Dumpster Fire"
25 June 2024
Including supporting information, this article is organized into nine sections:
- Introduction
- Overview of Graffius' Copyrighted 'Phases of Team Development' Property
- CertiProf Violated of Graffius' Intellectual Property Rights — CertiProf Infringed on Graffius' Copyright
- Conclusion
- About Scott M. Graffius
- About Copyright and Other IP Rights
- References/Sources
- Attributions and Other Notes
- How to Cite This Article
Introduction
It's important to be optimistic and focus on a bright future. However, we must also take a stand against those who commit evil acts, such as the violation of intellectual property rights. Copyright infringement, in particular, is a deplorable act of intellectual theft that displays a blatant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a shameful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice. Those who engage in copyright infringement should be identified and held accountable for their actions. Taking a stand against those who commit evil acts helps ensure that justice is served and that others are protected from harm.
IP rights are so important that IP theft is a federal crime.
Scott M. Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyrights and other IP rights. When others infringe on Graffius’ IP rights, situations generally fall into one of two categories:
- IP owner Graffius notifies the offending party of their infringement and the required remediation, and the matter is resolved; or
- IP owner Graffius notifies the offending party of their infringement and the required remediation, and the offending party’s action or inaction necessitates that qualified attorney and/or a U.S. agency is engaged, and the matter is resolved.
Most situations fall under category 1. However, some offending parties seem determined to make an already bad situation worst; they fall under category 2.
This article covers the news that certification/training company CertiProf violated Scott M. Graffius’ intellectual property rights by misusing his ‘Phases of Team Development’ copyrighted 2018 property.
- CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP.
- CertiProf used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP word-for-word.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP commercially — in its certification/training program, for its own financial benefit.
- CertiProf did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius, thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP.
For those reasons, CertiProf violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use’ — not even close!
Copyright infringement is a deplorable act of intellectual theft, displaying a flagrant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a disgraceful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice.
Ensuring the integrity of intellectual property is paramount. Graffius is resolute in protecting and enforcing his copyrights and other IP rights.
This article presents facts — including visuals and additional evidence — and a critical analysis of this serious category 2 situation. It also covers the serious, multiple cases against CertiProf.
Overview of Graffius' Copyrighted 'Phases of Team Development' Property
Informed by the research of Bruce W. Tuckman, Ph.D. and Mary Ann C. Jensen, over 100 subsequent studies, and Scott M. Graffius’ first-hand professional experience with, and analysis of, team leadership and performance, Graffius created his ‘Phases of Team Development.’ It’s a unique perspective on the five phases of team development — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — and it’s inclusive of the characteristics/features/traits and strategies (based on data, and crafted in ‘plain English’ for optimal clarity and utility) for each phase.
The body of Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ article has text in typical — not bullet point — format. That content (typical format text from Graffius’ copyrighted article) was infringed upon by CertiProf.
(For reference only, Graffius’ same article includes a visual which incorporates a graph showing how performance varies by phase, as well as the characteristics/features/traits and strategies for each phase. The visual has text in bullet-point format. Again, the body of the article has text in typical — not bullet point — format; that typical format text was infringed upon by CertiProf.)
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
He initially developed his material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. An authorized respective example of his IP (2018 version) is here: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/Using-Bruce-Tuckmans-Phases-of-Team-Development.html and other locations. It is shown below as well.
The relevant (2018) version of Graffius’ copyrighted ‘Phases of Team Development’ is at the preceding link. He promoted his 2018 work via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottgraffius_team-teamdevelopment-teamdynamics-activity-6567890493282361345-vrWP/ and other social media platforms.
(For reference only, the most current [2024] edition of Graffius' ‘Phases of Team Development’ is here: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/teams-2024.html.)
Here’s a macro/wide view of Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development.'
Here’s a zoomed-in view of Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development,' showing the relevant text.
Here’s a zoomed-in view of Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development,' showing his copyright statement.
As shown above, Graffius' copyright ownership details are clearly noted. Specifically: “© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.”
Conference organizers, businesses, professional organizations, government agencies, and universities around the world engage Graffius to deliver compelling talks and workshops. To date, he’s presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. His ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is central and key to many of those sessions. His rate card and a listing of his engagements are at https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Exceptional-PPM-and-PMO-Solutions-Rate-Card-for-2023-2024-v23110907.pdf and https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html, respectively.
With an authorization/license from Graffius, many organizations have featured and used his ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP. Select examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- Boston University,
- Cisco,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- Ford Motor Company,
- GitHub,
- Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
- IEEE,
- Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network (LTEN),
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Torrens University Australia,
- UC San Diego,
- TBS Switzerland,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- University of Waterloo Canada,
- U.S. Army,
- U.S. National Park Service,
- U.S. Tennis Association,
- Verizon,
- Virginia Tech,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
CertiProf Violated Graffius' Intellectual Property Rights — CertiProf Infringed on Graffius' Copyright
CertiProf’s website at https://certiprof.com/pages/about-us asserts that: “Through deep partnerships and a steadfast dedication to listening to our community, CertiProf has been enhancing professional lives since 2015.” And CertiProf reports at https://certiprof.com/ that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.
CertiProf shows at https://certiprof.com/blogs/news/certiprof-launches-agile-leader-certification-to-help-develop-agile-leadership-skills that “CertiProf launches Agile Leader certification to help develop agile leadership skills” on May 22, 2023. CertiProf indicates at https://certiprof.com/collections/agile/products/agile-leader-professional-certification-alpc that the Agile Leader training/certification product costs $150.00 and that it includes “Student Material in PDF Format.”
CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP. Nevertheless, CertiProf included Graffius' 2018 IP in its 2023 respective student material for Agile Leader. And CertiProf used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP. And CertiProf used Graffius’ IP word-for-word. And CertiProf used Graffius’ IP commercially — in its certification/training program, for its own financial benefit. And CertiProf did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius, thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP. For those reasons, CertiProf violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use.’
Evidence is archived and shown below. (Also see the 'Attributions and Other Notes' section. It's located towards the end of the article.)
For reference, here’s the cover image to CertiProf’s infringing 2023 publication.
Here’s page 63 of CertiProf’s infringing 2023 publication.
Here’s a zoomed-in view of page 63 of CertiProf’s infringing 2023 publication.
Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Forming, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Forming.
Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Storming, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Storming.
Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Norming, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Norming.
Here’s a view showing Graffius’ 2018 copyrighted content on Performing, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Performing.
Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Adjourning, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Adjourning.
CertiProf’s infringement of Graffius' copyright is also delineated next.
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the characteristics of Forming:
“Characteristics of Forming include questioning, socializing, displaying eagerness, focusing on group identity and purpose, and sticking to safe topics.”
🔴 This is an example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the characteristics of Forming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Characteristics of Forming include questioning, socializing, displaying eagerness, focusing on group identity and purpose, and sticking to safe topics.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on strategies for Forming:
“Strategies for this phase include taking the 'lead,' providing clear expectations and consistent instructions, and quick response times.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on strategies for Forming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this phase include taking the 'lead,' providing clear expectations and consistent instructions, and quick response times.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the traits of Storming:
“Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the traits of Storming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Storming:
“Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies of Storming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the features of Norming:
“Features of Norming include reconciliation, relief, lowered anxiety, members are engaged and supportive, and developing cohesion.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the features of Norming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Features of Norming include reconciliation, relief, lowered anxiety, members are engaged and supportive, and developing cohesion.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Norming:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and group efforts, providing learning opportunities and feedback, and monitoring the 'energy' of the group.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies for Norming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and group efforts, providing learning opportunities and feedback, and monitoring the 'energy' of the group.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s my content on the characteristics of Performing: content on the characteristics of Performing:
“Characteristics of Performing include demonstrations of interdependence, healthy system, ability to effectively produce as a team, and balance of task and process orientation.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the characteristics of Performing in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Characteristics of Performing include demonstrations of interdependence, healthy system, ability to effectively produce as a team, and balance of task and process orientation.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Performing:
“Strategies for this stage include celebrating, 'guide from the side' (minimal intervention), encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving, and providing opportunities to share learning across teams.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies for Performing in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this stage include celebrating, 'guide from the side' (minimal intervention), encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving, and providing opportunities to share learning across teams.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the traits of Adjourning:
“Traits of Adjourning include a shift to process orientation, sadness, and recognition of team and individual efforts.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the traits of Adjourning in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Traits of Adjourning include a shift to process orientation, sadness, and recognition of team and individual efforts.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Adjourning:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations, and providing an opportunity for acknowledgments.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies for Adjourning in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations, and providing an opportunity for acknowledgments.”
The conclusion is next.
Conclusion
Certification/training company CertiProf violated Scott M. Graffius’ intellectual property rights by misusing his ‘Phases of Team Development’ copyrighted property.
- CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP.
- CertiProf used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP word-for-word.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP commercially — in its certification/training program, for its own financial benefit.
- CertiProf did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius, thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP.
For the above reasons, CertiProf violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use.’
Copyright infringement is a deplorable act of intellectual theft, displaying a flagrant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a disgraceful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice.
CertiProf's outrageous infringement has damaged the marketability and value of Graffius' ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP.
Ensuring the integrity of intellectual property is paramount. Graffius is resolute in protecting and enforcing my copyrights and other IP rights.
Graffius will seek, and obtain, the maximum penalties allowed by law. It will include special remedies against CertiProf for “willful infringement.”
Additionally, the U.S. Copyright Office informs that: "In cases of willful infringement for profit, the U.S. Attorney may initiate a criminal investigation."
Furthermore, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) recently received details on this case. The IPR Center combats copyright infringement and other intellectual property theft and related crimes through coordinated efforts with domestic and international partners. It operates under the auspices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
These are serious federal cases against CertiProf, involving significant financial and other consequences.
CertiProf might find themselves wishing they had a certification in avoiding legal entanglements.
To learn more, check out the following additional sections to this article:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- About Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Rights,
- References/Sources,
- Attributions and Other Notes, and
- How to Cite This Article.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker. Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, he has generated over $1.9 billion for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Tennis Association, Yale University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. His full bio is available here.
About Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Rights
For copyright/IP infringement cases, it is recommended that you consult a qualified attorney.
Infringement of copyright and other intellectual property (IP) rights is a deplorable act of intellectual theft, displaying a flagrant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a disgraceful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice. IP rights are so important that IP theft is a federal crime.
To learn about copyrights, visit the United States Copyright Office’s website at https://www.copyright.gov.
The Reporting Intellectual Property Crime: A Guide for Victims of Copyright Infringement, Trademark Counterfeiting, and Trade Secret Theft publication by the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is a good resource.
The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Center coordinates the U.S. government’s response to intellectual property crimes. Visit their website at https://www.iprcenter.gov to learn more.
See References/Sources — the next section of this article — for additional information.
References/Sources
Select bibliography:
- Agile Alliance (n.d.). Agile Alliance. Available at: https://www.agilealliance.org. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI) (n.d.). American National Standards Institute. Available at: https://www.ansi.org. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- Bartlett, Tom (2021, August 12). The Vaccine Scientist Spreading Vaccine Misinformation. The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/robert-malone-vaccine-inventor-vaccine-skeptic/619734/.
- Blaskovic, Andrew K.; Rusk, John-David; Parker, Victor C.; and Payne, Bryson R. (2022). Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Theft: An Analysis of Modern Digital Forensics. In book: Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2022, Volume 2. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-18458-1_36.
- CertiProf (n.d.). CertiProf. Available at: https://certiprof.com.
- Credly by Pearson (n.d.). Credly by Pearson. Available at: https://info.credly.com. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- Dolgin, Elie (2021, September 14). The Tangled History of mRNA Vaccines. Nature. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w.
- Dyer, Jeff; Furr, Nathan; Lefrandt, Chris; and Howell, Taeya (2023, January 17). Innovation Depends on Intellectual Honesty. MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-innovation-depends-on-intellectual-honesty/.
- Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (n.d.). Rate Card for 2023-2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Exceptional-PPM-and-PMO-Solutions-Rate-Card-for-2023-2024-v23110907.pdf.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, January 4). Phases of Team Development (Update for 2021). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22040.42246.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, January 4). Using Bruce Tuckman's Phases of Team Development to Help Your Team Grow and Advance: 2021 Update. Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/team-21.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (n.d.). Intellectual Property (IP). Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/intellectual-property.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (n.d.). Public Speaker. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
- Hartline, Devlin (2016, September 26). Criminal Copyright Infringement is Crime of "Moral Turpitude." George Mason University Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy. Available at: https://cip2.gmu.edu/2016/09/26/criminal-copyright-infringement-is-crime-of-moral-turpitude/.
- Huppert, Elizabeth; and Levine, Emma (2023, August 31). The Rise of Dishonest Leaders: Causes and Solutions. Academy of Management Perspectives, 37 (3). DOI: 10.5465/amp.2021.0063.
- IT Certification Council (ITCC) (n.d.). IT Certification Council. Available at: https://itcertcouncil.org. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- Kenton, Will (2022, August 23). What Is a Whistleblower? Protections, Law, Importance, and Example. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/whistleblower.asp.
- McGregor, Jena. (2017, May 15). More CEOs are Getting Forced Out for Ethical Violations. Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2017/05/15/more-ceos-are-getting-forced-out-for-ethics-violations/.
- National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) (n.d.). About the Center. Available at: https://www.iprcenter.gov/about.
- Popomaronis, Tom (2020, August 20). These 11 Famously Disgraced CEOs Have Entered the Reputation Hall of Shame. Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/these-11-famously-disgraced-ceos-have-entered-the/354739.
- Rivera, Kristin; and Karlsson, Per-Ola (2017, June 6). CEOs Are Getting Fired for Ethical Lapses More Than They Used To. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2017/06/ceos-are-getting-fired-for-ethical-lapses-more-than-they-used-to.
- Smith, Isaac H.; Kouchaki, Maryam; and Wareham, Justin (2021, April 14). The Price Leaders Pay for Cutting Ethical Corners. MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-price-leaders-pay-for-cutting-ethical-corners/.
- Steffen, Thomas (2019, May 24). For CEOs, Integrity Is the Best Policy. Yale School of Management. Available at: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/for-ceos-integrity-is-the-best-policy.
- Sterne, Robert; and Chaplick, Trevor (2005, February). Why Directors Must Take Responsibility for Intellectual Property. Intellectual Asset Management Magazine. Available at: https://www.wsgr.com/PDFSearch/IP_RESPONSIBILTY.pdf.
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- Thomson Reuters (2022, December 16). Copyright Litigation 101. Available at: https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/copyright-litigation-101/.
- United States Copyright Office (USCO) (n.d.). Can I Use Someone Else's Work? Can Someone Else Use Mine? (Excerpt: "In cases of willful infringement for profit, the U.S. Attorney may initiate a criminal investigation.") Available at: https://copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html.
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- United States Department of Homeland Security (US DHS) (n.d.). Intellectual Property Rights. Available at: https://www.dhs.gov/intellectual-property-rights.
- United States Department of Justice (DOJ) (2006, September). Prosecuting Intellectual Property Crimes (Third Edition). Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. Available at: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-J31-PURL-gpo24938/pdf/GOVPUB-J31-PURL-gpo24938.pdf.
- United States Department of Justice (DOJ) (n.d.). Reporting Intellectual Property Crime: A Guide for Victims of Copyright Infringement, Trademark Counterfeiting, and Trade Secret Theft (Third Edition). Available at: https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ccips/file/891011/dl.
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Attributions and Other Notes
Certification/training company CertiProf violated Scott M. Graffius’ intellectual property (IP) rights by misusing his ‘Phases of Team Development’ copyrighted 2018 property. CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP, it used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP, it used Graffius’ IP word-for-word, it used Graffius’ IP commercially (in its certification/training program, for its financial benefit), and it did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius (thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP). For those reasons, CertiProf clearly violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use.’
In accordance with the fair use doctrine, thumbnails of two (out of 89) pages from CertiProf’s 2023 Agile Leader Professional Certification (ALPC) document are used with attribution for purposes of news reporting and critical analysis. Those highly limited excerpts are of the cover page and page 63 (on page 63, CertiProf illegally includes Graffius’ 2018 copyrighted property). Those excerpts provide crucial insight into CertiProf’s violation of Graffius’ IP, allowing readers to better understand the context and implications of the copyright infringement. This approach enhances transparency and facilitates informed public discourse.
CertiProf name, marks, and content — except for what they stole from others — are the property of CertiProf LLC.
Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, June 25). A Certification/Training Company Stole Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property and Used It Word-For-Word: This Scandal is a Big "Dumpster Fire." Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/dumpster-fire.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20473.89445.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/evil-cp
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius Named a Top Thought Leader and Influencer in Four Domains: Agile, Digital Transformation, Change Management, and GovTech
10 May 2021
Content from Scott M. Graffius's award-winning books on agile project management, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Loughborough University London, and others.
Thinkers360 previously named Scott a global thought leader and influencer in three domains: Agile, Digital Transformation, and GovTech. Today, Thinkers360 added Scott to another list—the one on Change Management thought leaders and influencers. Announcements are here, here, and here.
Thinkers360 is the world’s first open platform for thought leaders and influencers. Their patent-pending approach to rating thought leaders and influencers factors each candidate’s diverse contributions and content such as articles, books, media coverage, podcasts, social media, speaking events, videos, and more.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius has generated hundreds of millions of dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. He is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from Scott's books, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway), Loughborough University London, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps client organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to governance and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 9781072447962), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. Scott and his works have been featured by media outlets and publications including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, the Boston Herald, MobileAppDaily, NBC WRAL, Thinkers360, Informa (UAE), the Dallas Business Journal, Innovation Management (Sweden), the PM World Journal, ip-label (United Kingdom), BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, NASSCOM (India), Software Quality Management, Nimble Ways (Morocco), The Hiring Analytics Playbook, ALLAGIS (Guatemala), Business Application Monitoring, Human-Station (France), Learning Solutions, The Marketing Factory (Netherlands), Innovation Ecosystem Metrics, DZone, Savills (India), BRP Creative (Australia), People Performance (Singapore), Innovation Project Management by Dr. Harold Kerzner, TopDevs (Canada), Shelf Unbound, Epicos (Greece), Luxembourg Trade and Invest (Luxembourg), Better Humans, Serendipity (Netherlands), NHD Podcast, and others.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Scrum Foundations Educator (SFE), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott delivers dynamic and engaging talks at in-person and online events around the world. His speaking engagements include in-person and online conferences and other events in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. Scott delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For details, visit the public speaker section of his website.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
© Copyright 2021 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
"Agile Scrum" Made List of Best Scrum Books of All Time
24 March 2019
Scott M. Graffius' Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was named one of the Best Scrum Books of All Time by BookAuthority. A screen shot is available.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. Scott spoke at Techstars Startup Week and at events in London and Las Vegas. He also delivered talks at the Los Angeles chapter of the PMI, the California Central Coast chapter of the PMI, the California Inland Empire chapter of the PMI (two events), and the California Central Valley chapter of the PMI. Attendees have said “Scott is an amazing speaker,” “fantastic presentation,” and “highly recommended!” A list of his past and upcoming appearances (including the Project World conference in Canada, and more) is available here.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.com.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius to Speak at California Inland Empire Chapter of Project Management Institute
28 January 2019
Scott M. Graffius will present "How to Deliver Your Projects with Faster ROI, Competitive Advantage, and Additional Benefits Using Agile Scrum" at the California Inland Empire chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session will provide attendees with a vibrant and highly visual presentation of Scrum, the most popular agile development and delivery framework for products and services. Scott will cover the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to Scrum—spanning from vision through release—based on best practices and top factors from successful implementations. Attendees will be presented with practical information they can use. This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter. The session will be held in Murrieta, California on Saturday, February 16, 2019. For more information and to register for the event, visit here.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For infographics and additional resources, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, the IEEE Internet of Things Community, and the IEEE Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter
The PMICIE—chartered by the Project Management Institute in 2002—is based in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The chapter is committed to the advancement of the project management profession. It provides its members with networking, training, and professional development opportunities. The website for the chapter is https://pmicie.org.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Q&A with Author Chris Hare: Transforming Project Management into Time-Saving, Stress-Relieving Solutions for Parents of K-12 Students
01 November 2018
Author Chris Hare knows the meaning of “polymath”―but is too modest to use it about herself.
When you look at her resume, it’s an impressive array of roles: full-time project manager at such brand behemoths as Guitar Center, Adobe, Patagonia…and then there’s her role as Technical Editor on two Amazon best-sellers (mine included), plus her many years as a playwright and contributing editor, and not to mention, role as wife and mother―and now, a newly self-published author of a book geared towards busy parents like herself. All that said, one has to wonder:
How does she do it all?
Well, when pressed about the polymath comparison, Chris joked: “If you define polymath as someone who can do many things well―including add and subtract―then you have the wrong girl!”
It’s this kind of relatable wit that is infused in her insightful new book: “From Homework Hell to Help! A Parent’s Guide to 75 Solutions to Help Kids Save Time and Stress Less Using Project Management Techniques.” In its first two weeks on Amazon, it garnered an impressive “Amazon Hot New Releases” top ten ranking for both Parenting & Family Reference and Study Skills categories.
SMG: So, where did the idea for this book come from, Chris?
CH: Basically, it was born out of the underpinnings and underbelly of my project management career, overlaid with my role as wife and mom. I needed a way to introduce balance, time management, and organizational skills in an already hectic life, and there they were all the time―within the tenets of basic project management, something I was already implementing every business day from 9-6.
SMG: What are your thoughts surrounding project-based learning as a trend?
CH: I am happy to see that “project-based learning” has gone from buzz term and hashtag to mainstream usage in the school environment. I have personally seen an uptick in the amount of project-based work my sons have undertaken during their early school years and it’s a very favorable trend. I cannot underscore enough how critical it is for young students to learn the basic life skills of cooperation, teamwork, task management, organization, time management, people management, budgeting, risk management―and these are all part and parcel of project management.
SMG: This book is clearly for parents, but I can see it benefitting other audience types as well.
CH: “From Homework Hell to Help!” primarily targets parents/caregivers, that’s true; however, there is a section devoted to students. I call the book a “Parent’s Guide,” as it’s geared towards the parent/caregiver working in collaboration with their student(s). And, even though it is education-related, it’s not geared toward educators, but I can see them getting sufficient usage out of this content as well.
SMG: As you just mentioned, and is also apparent in your book, you take great care to use the term “parents/caregivers,” rather than simply “parents.”
CH: This was done with purposeful, inclusive intent. I wanted to make sure I was not isolating any one group who holds this very important role. In the end, this book is for parents, whether they be: stay-at-home, working, single, military, special needs, adoptive, custodial—any singular or pair of individuals who are responsible for a child or children in grades K-12.
At the same time, the “child” or “student” I refer to in the book embraces all inclusive types and neurodiversity. So, whether you have a child on the spectrum, or one with ADHD, these same modalities can be applied, and there are also some strategies that may be more effective for those with certain propensities, such as being more visually oriented.
SMG: I think you have a unique opportunity here that inadvertently markets to some other unsung audience members: the wannabe personal or professional project manager!
CH: That’s right! It’s inferred with my second, unofficial subhead inside the book: “Plus: The quickest possible ramp-up for everyone else on using project management in your everyday life!” If you’re a wannabe professional project manager, this is a great 101 that won’t bore you to tears; it takes the project management-babble and explains concepts in real-world terms that everyone can understand.
And, if you’re just a person who’s looking for ways to better manage your time and be more organized, several of the problems and solutions can be flipped and used to apply to your situation. Many others can be used directly, such as how to manage successful meetings, Outlook and email shortcuts and tips to help you work more quickly, how to write effective notes, and helpful time-saving apps.
SMG: Another thing that struck me while reading this book is how it is structured, which is unique. Can you talk a bit about that?
CH: Sure. The book, while containing background information on what project management is to set the tone, is structured around project subject matter, with a problem/solution-based schema throughout. So, for example, if you’re looking at the section covering how to work with others (aka teamwork), you will see problems that a child might encounter on this topic, such as: “My child has taken on a leadership role and is not meshing well with others.” Then, I offer real-world, easy-to-consume solutions extrapolated from project management principles to be used to solve those problems.
SMG: You mentioned giving some background information on what project management is. Do you feel people still generally need an explanation of what it is, and why do you think that is?
CH: Absolutely. As you and I both know well, being practicing project managers for the many years we have being doing so, there pervades a sense of mystery, misconception, and stigma surrounding the practice of project management. And, I hoped I have helped to crush those mysteries, misconceptions, and stigmas! I included an opening section on how I explained what the concept of project management was to my sons, who were the first to pose this basic question to me. I also go a bit into how project management evolved, for a significant historical perspective, as well as the benefits of project management, to give parents and students as sense of WIIFM.
SMG: Excellent. So, what’s next for you?
CH: Other than marketing this book, I am thinking of jumping into a new one, this time focused on helping future project managers to break into the field. I eventually would like to publish some of my fiction works, but that will have to be backlogged until there’s a bigger aperture of time.
SMG: Speaking of time, thanks for sharing yours with me, Chris! Where can readers find your book?
CH: You’re welcome, Scott! Thanks for having me; this was fun. My book can be found here: bit.ly/helltohelp
SMG: Would you like to also share where readers can get in touch with you?
CH: Sure. Here is how to reach me via various online and social media means:
- Website: https://authorchrishare.weebly.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisharepmp/
- Amazon Author Site: amazon.com/author/chrishare
- Facebook Page: @authorchrishare
- Twitter: @authorchrishare
- Instagram: @authorchrishare
- Pinterest: @authorchrishare
Scott M. Graffius Presents Thought Leadership on Project and PMO Management; Listed at SpeakerHub
15 July 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
I'm pleased to present thought leadership on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management related topics of timely importance. I've delivered talks at private and public events in the United States and internationally. Examples of upcoming and past events follow.
I'm now on SpeakerHub. My profile includes information on availability, fees, pro bono work, and more.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
I'm pleased to present thought leadership on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management related topics of timely importance. I've delivered talks at private and public events in the United States and internationally. Examples of upcoming and past events follow.
- Scheduled to present “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a public event of the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14, 2018.
- Delivered a talk—“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company”—at a public event of the Project Management Institute California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018.
- Spoke on agile project management at a public event of the Project Management Institute Los Angeles Chapter (PMI-LA) on July 25, 2017.
- Delivered a talk on innovation and project management at a private event in London, England on February 9, 2017.
I'm now on SpeakerHub. My profile includes information on availability, fees, pro bono work, and more.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” Talk at PMI-4C Chapter
28 May 2018
Scott M. Graffius will deliver a talk—“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company”—at a public meeting of the Project Management Institute California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018. For more information, and to register for the event, visit here.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Using Bruce Tuckman's Phases of Team Development
29 January 2018
Teams go through stages of development, and Bruce Tuckman established a popular framework on the subject. According to Tuckman, all phases—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning—are necessary for the team to grow, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results. This article provides a brief overview of the model, including descriptions and strategies for each phase.
1. Forming
Characteristics of Forming include questioning, socializing, displaying eagerness, focusing on group identity and purpose, and sticking to safe topics. Strategies for this phase include taking the 'lead,' providing clear expectations and consistent instructions, and quick response times.
2. Storming
Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms. Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.
3. Norming
Features of Norming include reconciliation, relief, lowered anxiety, members are engaged and supportive, and developing cohesion. Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and group efforts, providing learning opportunities and feedback, and monitoring the 'energy' of the group.
4. Performing
Characteristics of Performing include demonstrations of interdependence, healthy system, ability to effectively produce as a team, and balance of task and process orientation. Strategies for this stage include celebrating, 'guide from the side' (minimal intervention), encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving, and providing opportunities to share learning across teams.
5. Adjourning
Traits of Adjourning include a shift to process orientation, sadness, and recognition of team and individual efforts. Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations, and providing an opportunity for acknowledgments.
The illustration summarizes the above information—and it shows how performance fluctuates as teams move through each phase. This information may be helpful for looking at your team.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
5 Things You Need to Know About Leading Successful Large-Scale IT Modernization Projects
11 September 2017
As business needs change and technologies advance, organizations often take on modernizing their IT systems. Some elect to do complete switchovers to new systems, but such "big bang" implementations may result in more challenges than taking a more measured and incremental approach.
This webinar from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) covers topics to consider in executing large-scale modernization efforts. It includes: know where you want to be, know where you are, know what you need, know how to move forward, and iteratively move forward. The total run time for the video is one hour.
Since 1984, the SEI has been helping government and industry organizations to acquire, develop, operate, and sustain software systems that are innovative, affordable, enduring, and trustworthy. It serves the United States as a Federally Funded Research and Development Center and is based at Carnegie Mellon University, a global research university rated among the best for its programs in computer science and engineering.
© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Top 3 TED Talks for Project Managers
01 September 2017
Here are three must-watch TED talks for those involved or interested in project management:
On creating harmony -
TED Talk by Itay Talgum
"Lead Like the Great Conductors"
On reducing complexities -
TED Talk by Yves Morieux
"As Work Gets More Complex, Six Rules to Simplify"
On sustaining a healthy team -
TED Talk by Dan Pink
"The Puzzle of Motivation"
If you enjoyed these talks, you’ll find 2,500+ more at TED.
© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
10 Key Changes to Government Project Management from the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA)
17 September 2017
If you are involved or interested in government project or program management activities, here's an overview of the Program Management Improvement Accountability Act (PMIAA) which was passed into law by the US Federal Government in 2016. There are 10 key points.
This law established requirements for the Office of Management and Budget to:
1. Adopt and oversee implementation of government-wide standards, policies, and guidelines for project and program management;
2. Chair the Program Management Policy Council;
3. Establish standards and policies for executive agencies consistent with widely accepted standards for project and program management planning and delivery;
4. Engage with the private sector to identify best practices in project and program management that would improve federal project and program management;
5. Conduct portfolio reviews to address programs identified as high risk;
6. Conduct portfolio reviews of agency programs at least annually to assess the quality and effectiveness of program management; and
7. Establish a five-year strategic plan for project and program management.
The law specifies that the Office of Personnel Management must issue regulations that:
8. Identify key skills and competencies needed for an agency program and project manager;
9. Establish a new job series or update and improve an existing job series for program and project management; and
10. Establish a new career path for program and project managers.
Additionally, within three years of enactment, the General Accounting Office must issue a report examining the effectiveness of the following on improving federal project and program management: the standards, policies, and guidelines for project and program management; the strategic plan; Program Management Improvement Officers; and the Program Management Policy Council.
© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
List of 13 Most Valuable IT Credentials Include Three Related to Project Management
15 September 2017
In IT, there's no substitute for experience. However, certifications remain a valuable tool for advancing one's career. CIO.com reports that 13 IT certifications emerged as the most valuable, and three of them are related to project management. Here's the list:
1. Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)
2. Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE)
3. Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD)
4. Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
5. Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
6. Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)
7. Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT)
8. Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE): Cloud Platform and Infrastructure sub-category
9. VCP6 – DCV
10. AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
11. Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
12. Project Management Professional (PMP)
13. Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
If you're interested in learning about the project management related certifications (CAPM, PMP and CSM), links follow. For information on the CAPM and PMP, visit the Project Management Institute. For information on the CSM, visit the Scrum Alliance.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
This article by Scott M. Graffius on the most valuable IT certifications was published in 2019. Graffius periodically refreshes his work. The most current (2024) edition of his report is here.
© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
How to Prioritize and Align Projects to Best Achieve the Organization’s Strategic Objectives — in an Infographic from Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™
07 October 2016
For maximum favorable impact, projects should be aligned with the organization's strategic objectives. Said differently, the right projects need to be worked on. Our partners at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provide a free downloadable infographic which covers the leading ways to score, select, and prioritize projects. Visit Exceptional-PMO.com.
© Copyright 2016 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
“Agile Scrum" Guide Nabs Silver Medal from Readers' Favorite International Book Awards
31 August 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.
Agile Scrum won the silver medal in the Business/Finance category at the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards. A press release from Scott is located here and the news is presented below as well.
★★★★★
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products at astounding speed with rapid adaptation to change and continuous improvement which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. The latest accolade comes from the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards (https://readersfavorite.com/2018-award-contest-winners.htm), which awarded Agile Scrum with the silver medal in the Business/Finance category. With thousands of entries ranging from New York Times bestsellers to works from first-time self-published authors, the program is one of the largest book competitions. Graffius will be presented with the silver medal on stage at a gala in Miami, Florida on Saturday, November 17, 2018.
About the Author
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, author, and international speaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a management consulting firm. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ (http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.
Agile Scrum won the silver medal in the Business/Finance category at the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards. A press release from Scott is located here and the news is presented below as well.
★★★★★
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products at astounding speed with rapid adaptation to change and continuous improvement which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. The latest accolade comes from the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards (https://readersfavorite.com/2018-award-contest-winners.htm), which awarded Agile Scrum with the silver medal in the Business/Finance category. With thousands of entries ranging from New York Times bestsellers to works from first-time self-published authors, the program is one of the largest book competitions. Graffius will be presented with the silver medal on stage at a gala in Miami, Florida on Saturday, November 17, 2018.
About the Author
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, author, and international speaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a management consulting firm. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ (http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Talk at Techstars Startup Week in the Inland Empire on October 4, 2018
08 October 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
I had the pleasure of speaking to a highly-engaged audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community at the Techstars Startup Week in the Inland Empire on Thursday, October 4th. My talk was on agile project management. It covered Scrum—including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework—with a focus on best practices and top factors in typical successful implementations. Benefits such as rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement were incorporated in the talk as well.
Thank you to everyone who attended the event. Special thanks to Steve Massa and all of the conference organizers, Michael Ring for managing the control booth/ops in the theater, and Lara Phillips for the excellent photographs of the event.
Here's the link to the home page for the Techstars Startup Week conference: https://ie.startupweek.co.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
I had the pleasure of speaking to a highly-engaged audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community at the Techstars Startup Week in the Inland Empire on Thursday, October 4th. My talk was on agile project management. It covered Scrum—including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework—with a focus on best practices and top factors in typical successful implementations. Benefits such as rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement were incorporated in the talk as well.
Thank you to everyone who attended the event. Special thanks to Steve Massa and all of the conference organizers, Michael Ring for managing the control booth/ops in the theater, and Lara Phillips for the excellent photographs of the event.
Here's the link to the home page for the Techstars Startup Week conference: https://ie.startupweek.co.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Talk by Scott M. Graffius at PMI California Central Valley Chapter Dinner Meeting on September 13, 2018
14 September 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
I had the honor of speaking on agile project management at a dinner meeting of the Project Management Institute - California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) in Bakersfield last night. The presentation provided a highly visual overview of Scrum — including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework — with a focus on best practices and top factors typical in successful implementations.
Thank you to Fred Valenzano for the invitation and thank you to all of the PMI-CCVC members who attended the session. I enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.
The feedback was fantastic. For those not at the event: an example of a sticky note used to collect comments at the end of the meeting is shown (the example is a blank one — not filled out — for privacy). It's excellent to know "What Went Well?" Potential improvements, however, typically come from the other question: "What Would You Change?" (Additionally, attendees can provide feedback via an online survey.) All of the feedback is important, appreciated, and valued.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
I had the honor of speaking on agile project management at a dinner meeting of the Project Management Institute - California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) in Bakersfield last night. The presentation provided a highly visual overview of Scrum — including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework — with a focus on best practices and top factors typical in successful implementations.
Thank you to Fred Valenzano for the invitation and thank you to all of the PMI-CCVC members who attended the session. I enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.
The feedback was fantastic. For those not at the event: an example of a sticky note used to collect comments at the end of the meeting is shown (the example is a blank one — not filled out — for privacy). It's excellent to know "What Went Well?" Potential improvements, however, typically come from the other question: "What Would You Change?" (Additionally, attendees can provide feedback via an online survey.) All of the feedback is important, appreciated, and valued.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius Featured in Success Story by BEA
10 October 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
The Book Excellence Awards features Scott M. Graffius, author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, in a story. The article highlights factors contributing to the book's success — including credit to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. You can check out the story at https://www.bookexcellenceawards.com/scott-graffius-success-story.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
The Book Excellence Awards features Scott M. Graffius, author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, in a story. The article highlights factors contributing to the book's success — including credit to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. You can check out the story at https://www.bookexcellenceawards.com/scott-graffius-success-story.
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius to Speak at Project World Business Analyst World
20 November 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions and author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, will be speaking at Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019. He will be presenting best practices on agile project management, including tools and techniques which attendees will be able to immediately apply at work. His talk will be held on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/AGILE-1.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For additional information including infographics and more, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, the IEEE Internet of Things Community, and the IEEE Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019
The conference—which appears stylized as ProjectWorld*BusinessAnalystWorld—is an educational and training event for project management and business analysis professionals. Thought leaders will arm attendees with new skills, tools, and techniques that can be immediately applied in the workplace. Over 30 expert speakers will present more than 40 interactive sessions, workshops, and keynotes. All sessions are Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) accredited. Offering professional development units (PDUs) and continuing development units (CDUs) for each hour of learning, attendees can earn up to 26 credits over the four-day period. It will be held on May 27-30, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. The official hashtag is #PWBAWTOR19. The website for the conference is here: https://www.pmbaconferences.com/toronto.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions and author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, will be speaking at Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019. He will be presenting best practices on agile project management, including tools and techniques which attendees will be able to immediately apply at work. His talk will be held on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/AGILE-1.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For additional information including infographics and more, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, the IEEE Internet of Things Community, and the IEEE Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019
The conference—which appears stylized as ProjectWorld*BusinessAnalystWorld—is an educational and training event for project management and business analysis professionals. Thought leaders will arm attendees with new skills, tools, and techniques that can be immediately applied in the workplace. Over 30 expert speakers will present more than 40 interactive sessions, workshops, and keynotes. All sessions are Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) accredited. Offering professional development units (PDUs) and continuing development units (CDUs) for each hour of learning, attendees can earn up to 26 credits over the four-day period. It will be held on May 27-30, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. The official hashtag is #PWBAWTOR19. The website for the conference is here: https://www.pmbaconferences.com/toronto.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Public Speaking Engagements for Scott M. Graffius
08 November 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius presents thought leadership on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management related topics of timely importance. He regularly speaks at private and public events in the United States and internationally. This article provides an overview of his prior speaking engagements.
(For a list of both prior and upcoming speaking engagements, visit http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.)
The most recent event is shown first.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott spoke at Techstars Startup Week, where he presented "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage" to an audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community on October 4, 2018.
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Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) on September 13, 2018.
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Scott facilitated an interactive workshop, “Retrospectives and Continuous Improvement in the Agile Scrum Framework,” at a private event in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 25, 2018.
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Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
He was a guest speaker on agile project management at an event of the Project Management Institute Los Angeles Chapter (PMI-LA) on July 25, 2017.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott gave an interactive talk on innovation and project management at a private meeting in London, England on February 9, 2017.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
For more information on Scott’s speaking engagements including a list of prior and upcoming engagements, visit http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius presents thought leadership on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management related topics of timely importance. He regularly speaks at private and public events in the United States and internationally. This article provides an overview of his prior speaking engagements.
(For a list of both prior and upcoming speaking engagements, visit http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.)
The most recent event is shown first.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott spoke at Techstars Startup Week, where he presented "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage" to an audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community on October 4, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) on September 13, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott facilitated an interactive workshop, “Retrospectives and Continuous Improvement in the Agile Scrum Framework,” at a private event in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 25, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
He was a guest speaker on agile project management at an event of the Project Management Institute Los Angeles Chapter (PMI-LA) on July 25, 2017.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
Scott gave an interactive talk on innovation and project management at a private meeting in London, England on February 9, 2017.
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎
For more information on Scott’s speaking engagements including a list of prior and upcoming engagements, visit http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius Served as Contributor and Reviewer of PMI's The Practice Standard for Project Estimating - Second Edition
04 September 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius served as a contributor and reviewer of the Project Management Institute's The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. It covers both plan-driven (traditional/waterfall) and change-driven adaptive (agile) life cycles.
About The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition
Here’s the description from the PMI:
“Project estimating plays a vital role in project management. Typically completed in the initial planning stages, accurate project estimation can be a difficult task. Organizations and project managers should use these initial estimates to baseline the project schedule and cost, then refine these estimates as the project develops. Accurate estimation and refinement of the estimates leads to better and earlier decision making, thus maximizing value.
Developed within the framework of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition and other PMI standards, The Practice Standard for Project Estimating – Second Edition focuses on providing models for the project management profession in both plan-driven and change-driven adaptive (agile) life cycles. This practice standard describes the aspects of project estimating that are recognized as good practice on most projects most of the time and that are widely recognized and consistently applied.”
The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition is scheduled to be released in December 2019.
About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession.
The PMI serves more than 2.9 million professionals including over 500,000 members in 208 countries and territories around the world.
Its services include the development of standards, research, education, publication, networking-opportunities in local chapters, hosting conferences and training seminars, and providing accreditation in project management.
For additional information, visit the PMI's website.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, NHD Podcast, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. The trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit.
His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 9781072447962), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. The trailer, a list of awards, and more are presented at the book’s website.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds seven professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Scott is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things (IoT) Community, and the Consultants Network.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition (scheduled to be published in December 2019). He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019, and he is a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the globe where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. Attendees have said “Scott is an amazing speaker,” “fantastic presentation,” and “highly recommended!” Appearances are listed at the public speaker section of his website.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius served as a contributor and reviewer of the Project Management Institute's The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. It covers both plan-driven (traditional/waterfall) and change-driven adaptive (agile) life cycles.
About The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition
Here’s the description from the PMI:
“Project estimating plays a vital role in project management. Typically completed in the initial planning stages, accurate project estimation can be a difficult task. Organizations and project managers should use these initial estimates to baseline the project schedule and cost, then refine these estimates as the project develops. Accurate estimation and refinement of the estimates leads to better and earlier decision making, thus maximizing value.
Developed within the framework of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) – Sixth Edition and other PMI standards, The Practice Standard for Project Estimating – Second Edition focuses on providing models for the project management profession in both plan-driven and change-driven adaptive (agile) life cycles. This practice standard describes the aspects of project estimating that are recognized as good practice on most projects most of the time and that are widely recognized and consistently applied.”
The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition is scheduled to be released in December 2019.
About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession.
The PMI serves more than 2.9 million professionals including over 500,000 members in 208 countries and territories around the world.
Its services include the development of standards, research, education, publication, networking-opportunities in local chapters, hosting conferences and training seminars, and providing accreditation in project management.
For additional information, visit the PMI's website.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, NHD Podcast, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. The trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit.
His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 9781072447962), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. The trailer, a list of awards, and more are presented at the book’s website.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds seven professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Scott is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things (IoT) Community, and the Consultants Network.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition (scheduled to be published in December 2019). He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019, and he is a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the globe where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. Attendees have said “Scott is an amazing speaker,” “fantastic presentation,” and “highly recommended!” Appearances are listed at the public speaker section of his website.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
"Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" Quoted in Innovation Management
23 November 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) was quoted by Julia Myllylä in her article which appears in Innovation Management. This Swedish-based publication has the mission to provide relevant, inspiring and actionable knowledge to businesses and individuals looking to increase their innovation capabilities.
The quote from Agile Scrum—“If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view.”—is located at point 5 of the article. It was published on November 20, 2018, and you can read it here: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2018/11/20/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) was quoted by Julia Myllylä in her article which appears in Innovation Management. This Swedish-based publication has the mission to provide relevant, inspiring and actionable knowledge to businesses and individuals looking to increase their innovation capabilities.
The quote from Agile Scrum—“If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view.”—is located at point 5 of the article. It was published on November 20, 2018, and you can read it here: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2018/11/20/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
"Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" Quoted by Informa Middle East
14 December 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Content from Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) is quoted in a piece by Informa Middle East. Informa is a leading Dubai-based company offering business intelligence, academic publishing, and services in event management.
A red arrow in the accompanying image (a higher resolution version is available here) points out the quote. You can read the Informa article by Anishka Abraham—which includes what to do and avoid with metrics—here: https://www.informa-mea.com/blog/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Content from Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) is quoted in a piece by Informa Middle East. Informa is a leading Dubai-based company offering business intelligence, academic publishing, and services in event management.
A red arrow in the accompanying image (a higher resolution version is available here) points out the quote. You can read the Informa article by Anishka Abraham—which includes what to do and avoid with metrics—here: https://www.informa-mea.com/blog/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Impact Mapping Strategic Planning Technique
27 December 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Impact mapping—introduced by Gojko Adzic—is a collaborative and visual strategic planning technique for business. This article provides a concise overview of the process, and it includes real-world examples. Four major steps follow. For simplicity, most examples are listed in the singular (such as one goal). However, multiples (such as several goals) may be used.
Step 1: Answer “Why?”
First the goal is established. The focus should be on important strategic objectives—which may include increasing revenue, decreasing costs, product development, or other categories. To ensure a clear shared understanding, it is suggested that the goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This example is not SMART: “Increase revenue.” But this version is SMART: “Increase revenue by 10% over the next 30 days.”
Step 2: Answer “Who?”
Next, the people who can help (or be a hinderance) in achieving the goal are identified. Such people may be referred to as actors or personas. Actors are someone or something that “acts” on or with the system—such as a customer. Personas are fictitious characters that represent user types—such as Developer Dave. It is suggested that the people are as specific as possible. For the goal of “Increase revenue by 10% over the next 30 days,” examples of Who include (a) Existing Customer and (b) Prospective Customer.
Step 3: Answer “How?”
In this step, the impacts that need to be had on the actors/personas—for them to help achieve the goal (or minimize/avoid them being a hinderance)—are identified. Continuing on the example from steps 1-2, an impact for the Existing Customer is to (a) refer more friends and (b) have a larger order dollar value.
Step 4: Answer “What?”
The deliverable which is hoped to create the impact on the actors/personas to achieve the goal is identified in this step. Said differently, What is the deliverable related to the How in the prior step. Continuing on the example from steps 1-3, deliverables for Refer More Friends include (a) discount code and (b) referral bounty.
Recap and Putting the Results to Use
The impact map is a visual artifact, developed collaboratively while answering the four questions: “Why (Goal)?,” “Who (Actor/Persona)?,” “How (Impact)?,” and “What (Deliverable)?” The exercise may reveal considerable items for consideration. Everything does not need to be implemented, however. It is suggested that the entries are prioritized (such as determining the shortest path) and that the most important work is done.
The illustration above incorporates some of the examples from this article. As shown, the shortest path involves providing a discount code related to existing customers referring more friends. In this case, that’s the work that should be done (at least done first).
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Impact mapping—introduced by Gojko Adzic—is a collaborative and visual strategic planning technique for business. This article provides a concise overview of the process, and it includes real-world examples. Four major steps follow. For simplicity, most examples are listed in the singular (such as one goal). However, multiples (such as several goals) may be used.
Step 1: Answer “Why?”
First the goal is established. The focus should be on important strategic objectives—which may include increasing revenue, decreasing costs, product development, or other categories. To ensure a clear shared understanding, it is suggested that the goal is SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This example is not SMART: “Increase revenue.” But this version is SMART: “Increase revenue by 10% over the next 30 days.”
Step 2: Answer “Who?”
Next, the people who can help (or be a hinderance) in achieving the goal are identified. Such people may be referred to as actors or personas. Actors are someone or something that “acts” on or with the system—such as a customer. Personas are fictitious characters that represent user types—such as Developer Dave. It is suggested that the people are as specific as possible. For the goal of “Increase revenue by 10% over the next 30 days,” examples of Who include (a) Existing Customer and (b) Prospective Customer.
Step 3: Answer “How?”
In this step, the impacts that need to be had on the actors/personas—for them to help achieve the goal (or minimize/avoid them being a hinderance)—are identified. Continuing on the example from steps 1-2, an impact for the Existing Customer is to (a) refer more friends and (b) have a larger order dollar value.
Step 4: Answer “What?”
The deliverable which is hoped to create the impact on the actors/personas to achieve the goal is identified in this step. Said differently, What is the deliverable related to the How in the prior step. Continuing on the example from steps 1-3, deliverables for Refer More Friends include (a) discount code and (b) referral bounty.
Recap and Putting the Results to Use
The impact map is a visual artifact, developed collaboratively while answering the four questions: “Why (Goal)?,” “Who (Actor/Persona)?,” “How (Impact)?,” and “What (Deliverable)?” The exercise may reveal considerable items for consideration. Everything does not need to be implemented, however. It is suggested that the entries are prioritized (such as determining the shortest path) and that the most important work is done.
The illustration above incorporates some of the examples from this article. As shown, the shortest path involves providing a discount code related to existing customers referring more friends. In this case, that’s the work that should be done (at least done first).
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Thinking Strategically and Acting Tactically
31 December 2018
Follow @scottgraffius
Project management traditionally focuses on tactical work such as the detailed planning and execution of tasks. Strategic work deals with the business reasons for doing projects. Tactical and strategic concerns are often compartmentalized and handled separately.
However, project management professionals are increasingly addressing a combination of both. They're thinking strategically while concurrently executing projects tactically, and that approach helps facilitate short- and long-term success.
Our partners at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions have a downloadable infographic which covers the topic of thinking strategically and acting tactically for project management success. A link to the file will be provided in a subsequent update to this post.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Project management traditionally focuses on tactical work such as the detailed planning and execution of tasks. Strategic work deals with the business reasons for doing projects. Tactical and strategic concerns are often compartmentalized and handled separately.
However, project management professionals are increasingly addressing a combination of both. They're thinking strategically while concurrently executing projects tactically, and that approach helps facilitate short- and long-term success.
Our partners at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions have a downloadable infographic which covers the topic of thinking strategically and acting tactically for project management success. A link to the file will be provided in a subsequent update to this post.
© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
"Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" Featured in Presentation at DX Summit
15 February 2019
I’m pleased to have had content from Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (bit.ly/scrumone) featured by Eeshita Grover, Senior Manager at Cisco, in her presentation at DX Summit. The conference serves customer experience and digital marketing leaders tackling voice of the customer, machine learning and AI, big data and analytics, optimization, and digital experience challenges.
Eeshita Grover’s talk was on November 14, 2018 and her presentation (https://www.slideshare.net/DXSummit/building-a-uex-strategy-for-inproduct-selfhelp-eeshita-grover) included 14 slides. Slide 13 featured content from the book:
“If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view.”
— Scott M. Graffius, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Content from "Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" Featured in Article from Learning Solutions
24 February 2019
Content from Scott M. Graffius' Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions appeared in Three Reasons That eLearning Fails—and How to Fix Them, published in Learning Solutions. Here's an excerpt from the article by Dan Belhassen:
"Process improvement experts from Peter Drucker ("What's measured improves") to Scott M. Graffius ("If you don't collect any metrics, you're flying blind") agree that measuring key metrics, and focusing on improving them, is critical to actually achieving desired results."
The article is available online here: https://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/3-reasons-that-elearning-fails-and-how-to-fix-them/.
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part One
08 March 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the first installment of the eight-part story.
Part One: The Call
The assistant to the executive vice president (EVP) of technology for a division of a global entertainment company contacted me by phone. I was told that I was referred by someone who knew me and thought I would be a good fit for contract work. A one-hour consultation with the EVP was scheduled for the next day. I then received an email with several attachments including a non-disclosure agreement which needed to be executed and brought to the meeting.
I brought the documents to the session. The EVP explained that his division of the company was experiencing an alarming trend of problems with project management. He reported that deliverables were not meeting expectations, there was a marked decline in satisfaction, and—this was characterized as "the straw that broke the camel's back"—a highly skilled and very well-respected team member quit, citing the problems as her reason for departure.
After an hour with the EVP, we agreed to extend the meeting (initially, my complimentary consult) an additional hour (billable time). I learned that this division of the company previously used a traditional plan-driven/waterfall approach for development and delivery. The EVP explained that things worked reasonably well then and that they were "close enough" to being on-scope, on-budget, and on-time that team members and stakeholders were satisfied.
The EVP explained, however, that he wanted to adopt a model (Scrum) employed by some of the other divisions of the company. The EVP said that he conducted a search for a value-added reseller (VAR) to help his group move to agile. A VAR-partner of a popular software solution was selected, and the VAR transitioned the group to Scrum. Reportedly, very few problems surfaced during the VAR's contractual engagement, which ended two weeks into the first sprint (then, the duration for sprints was four weeks). Many problems surfaced subsequently, however. The VAR had been gone for two months at the time of my meeting with the EVP.
The EVP asked me to make things right. I explained that change depends on many people and multiple factors and that a specific end result could not be guaranteed. I suggested, however, that I'd be honored to work with his group in the first step—an assessment—which would help inform the subsequent work of foundational planning. The objectives of the assessment include working closely with the EVP, the Scrum Team and stakeholders to understand their goals—and the environment, roles and practices. He asked me when I could start. I asked him when he needed me, and he replied "immediately." I agreed to start the next day.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Two: The Goals.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the first installment of the eight-part story.
Part One: The Call
The assistant to the executive vice president (EVP) of technology for a division of a global entertainment company contacted me by phone. I was told that I was referred by someone who knew me and thought I would be a good fit for contract work. A one-hour consultation with the EVP was scheduled for the next day. I then received an email with several attachments including a non-disclosure agreement which needed to be executed and brought to the meeting.
I brought the documents to the session. The EVP explained that his division of the company was experiencing an alarming trend of problems with project management. He reported that deliverables were not meeting expectations, there was a marked decline in satisfaction, and—this was characterized as "the straw that broke the camel's back"—a highly skilled and very well-respected team member quit, citing the problems as her reason for departure.
After an hour with the EVP, we agreed to extend the meeting (initially, my complimentary consult) an additional hour (billable time). I learned that this division of the company previously used a traditional plan-driven/waterfall approach for development and delivery. The EVP explained that things worked reasonably well then and that they were "close enough" to being on-scope, on-budget, and on-time that team members and stakeholders were satisfied.
The EVP explained, however, that he wanted to adopt a model (Scrum) employed by some of the other divisions of the company. The EVP said that he conducted a search for a value-added reseller (VAR) to help his group move to agile. A VAR-partner of a popular software solution was selected, and the VAR transitioned the group to Scrum. Reportedly, very few problems surfaced during the VAR's contractual engagement, which ended two weeks into the first sprint (then, the duration for sprints was four weeks). Many problems surfaced subsequently, however. The VAR had been gone for two months at the time of my meeting with the EVP.
The EVP asked me to make things right. I explained that change depends on many people and multiple factors and that a specific end result could not be guaranteed. I suggested, however, that I'd be honored to work with his group in the first step—an assessment—which would help inform the subsequent work of foundational planning. The objectives of the assessment include working closely with the EVP, the Scrum Team and stakeholders to understand their goals—and the environment, roles and practices. He asked me when I could start. I asked him when he needed me, and he replied "immediately." I agreed to start the next day.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Two: The Goals.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius to Speak at Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute
21 March 2019
An updated version of this story appears here.
Scott M. Graffius will present "Getting (More) Benefits from Agile" at the Los Angeles chapter of the Project Management Institute. He will deliver practical information including top factors from successful Scrum implementations—based on his first-hand experience and 116 sources—which attendees can leverage to gain (more) benefits from agile. This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter. The session will be held in Santa Clarita, California on June 2, 2020. In early 2020, additional information including the time and venue for the talk will be shown at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For infographics and additional resources, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About the Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI-LA)
The Los Angeles chapter (PMI-LA) was chartered by the Project Management Institute in 1974. The chapter's vision is "PMI-LA will be recognized as a premier PMI chapter for the advancement of project management and a benchmark for other PMI chapters." Its mission is “To provide opportunities for individual growth in project management and increase corporate awareness of the project management profession.” For more on the PMI-LA, visit https://pmi-la.org. The chapter's hashtag is #PMILA.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Two
13 March 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the second installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the first post, you can find it here: Part One: The Call.
Part Two: The Goals
Highlights related to the goals follow.
The executive vice president (EVP) identified his top three desired outcomes:
I individually met with and carefully listened to each member of the Scrum Team. There were recurring themes. We then met as a group and I asked them to identify their top two or three goals. They discussed the matter, voted, and decided on these:
I individually met with executives from different departments (the stakeholders). In every case, they related that things were OK with the earlier traditional/waterfall approach, but that things were worse now. The stakeholders indicated that, with the earlier approach, someone on the project team worked with their group to gather requirements, and around 6-12 months later the results were deployed. However, it was reported that with the then-current approach, the projects' purpose and requirements were not understood, and that what was produced was unusable. The goals of the stakeholders were:
Here's a recap of everyone's goals. The EVP wants the development and delivery of products and services to be faster than 6-12 months, improved satisfaction of the Scrum Team, and improved satisfaction of stakeholders. The Scrum Team wants to meet or exceed expectations of management, and deliver valuable products. The stakeholders want (themselves or via their representatives) to be more involved in requirements/user stories and get useable project-delivered products more frequently than every 6-12 months.
Everyone permitted their goals to be shared with others. After discussing the subject with the EVP, I wrote the goals on oversize paper and posted it in a common area proximate to the Scrum Team and accessible to the stakeholders.
Highlights on the environment, roles, and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Three: The Environment.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the second installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the first post, you can find it here: Part One: The Call.
Part Two: The Goals
Highlights related to the goals follow.
The executive vice president (EVP) identified his top three desired outcomes:
- Accelerate the development and delivery of products and services—to be faster than the earlier baseline of 6-12 months,
- Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team—to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
- Improve the satisfaction of stakeholders—to also to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.
I individually met with and carefully listened to each member of the Scrum Team. There were recurring themes. We then met as a group and I asked them to identify their top two or three goals. They discussed the matter, voted, and decided on these:
- Meet or exceed the expectations of management, and
- Deliver valuable products.
I individually met with executives from different departments (the stakeholders). In every case, they related that things were OK with the earlier traditional/waterfall approach, but that things were worse now. The stakeholders indicated that, with the earlier approach, someone on the project team worked with their group to gather requirements, and around 6-12 months later the results were deployed. However, it was reported that with the then-current approach, the projects' purpose and requirements were not understood, and that what was produced was unusable. The goals of the stakeholders were:
- For them or their representatives to be as—or more—involved as earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
- Get a usable product as often as—or more frequently than—earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.
Here's a recap of everyone's goals. The EVP wants the development and delivery of products and services to be faster than 6-12 months, improved satisfaction of the Scrum Team, and improved satisfaction of stakeholders. The Scrum Team wants to meet or exceed expectations of management, and deliver valuable products. The stakeholders want (themselves or via their representatives) to be more involved in requirements/user stories and get useable project-delivered products more frequently than every 6-12 months.
Everyone permitted their goals to be shared with others. After discussing the subject with the EVP, I wrote the goals on oversize paper and posted it in a common area proximate to the Scrum Team and accessible to the stakeholders.
Highlights on the environment, roles, and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Three: The Environment.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Three
19 March 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the third installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Three: The Environment
Highlights on the environment including roles and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.
I learned that the Scrum Team was composed of 16 people: one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and 14 Development Team members. Both the Scrum Master and the Product Owner explained that they were familiar with agile, but that they had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the value-added reseller (VAR). The Development Team consisted of 14 people: a technical architect, a UI designer, a business analyst, seven developers, three testers, and a technical writer. Eleven of the 14 members of the Development Team had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the VAR. Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, 15 were local (at an office in the greater Los Angeles area), and one—the Product Owner—was based out of her office in Paris, France.
Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, two—the Scrum Master and the Product Owner—were full time on the project. All of the others were allocated about 50% on the project.
I was given a copy of the training binder left by the VAR. I was told that the contents—about 500 pages—reflected the totality of the training and reference material. The training session, led by the VAR, was attended by the Scrum Master and the all of the Development Team members. The executive vice president (EVP) attended portions. The Product Owner attended portions, listening by phone. The first page in the binder covered the Agile Manifesto, the second page was a two-column table which compared and contrasted waterfall and Scrum (e.g., waterfall freezes scope, Scrum freezes schedule), and the third page showed success rates of waterfall vs. Scrum (e.g., 29% of waterfall projects fail vs. 9% of agile projects). The remaining pages provided information about the VAR company and detailed instructions on how to use their software product. That constituted the training.
The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team reported that they followed the training and instructions provided by the VAR. I won't delineate the then-current roles further or describe all of the events and artifacts. However, some examples follow.
The Product Owner created a product vision statement and stored it in the software, but nobody else remembered seeing it.
The Product Owner created a product backlog in the software, but nobody else claimed to have seen it.
The Scrum Master facilitated a Sprint Planning event where the Development Team estimated work in terms of complexity, and the results were recorded in the software tool. It was reported that—due to the time difference—the Product Owner did not attend Sprint Planning meetings.
It was communicated that during Sprint execution, the Scrum Master would ask the Development Team if they had any notable progress; and only if the answer was yes, there was a Daily Scrum. As a result, the Daily Scrum event occurred around once or twice a week. When the meeting took place, the Scrum Master did a quick interview with each member of the Development Team and noted the results in the software tool.
I was told that the team followed the recommendation of the VAR for the sprint duration of four weeks.
The Sprint Reviews were attended by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner (remotely), all of the Development Team members, and the EVP. However, the other stakeholders did not attend the events. On average, about half of the work planned and committed to the sprint was "done." Both "done" and not-"done" items were demonstrated at the Sprint Review.
The Scrum Master reported that the team did conduct a Retrospective event at the end of each sprint and that the results were saved in the software tool. When I reviewed the information, I saw comments such as "we worked very hard" under the what went well category. Everything under the "what didn't go so well/opportunities for improvements" category were ideas for enhancement requests for the software tool. I was informed that the VAR instructed staff to convert everything that didn't go well into a suggestion for a future general release of the software or a request for a custom enhancement of the software.
None of the work from any of the sprints was released.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Four: The Options.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the third installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Three: The Environment
Highlights on the environment including roles and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.
I learned that the Scrum Team was composed of 16 people: one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and 14 Development Team members. Both the Scrum Master and the Product Owner explained that they were familiar with agile, but that they had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the value-added reseller (VAR). The Development Team consisted of 14 people: a technical architect, a UI designer, a business analyst, seven developers, three testers, and a technical writer. Eleven of the 14 members of the Development Team had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the VAR. Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, 15 were local (at an office in the greater Los Angeles area), and one—the Product Owner—was based out of her office in Paris, France.
Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, two—the Scrum Master and the Product Owner—were full time on the project. All of the others were allocated about 50% on the project.
I was given a copy of the training binder left by the VAR. I was told that the contents—about 500 pages—reflected the totality of the training and reference material. The training session, led by the VAR, was attended by the Scrum Master and the all of the Development Team members. The executive vice president (EVP) attended portions. The Product Owner attended portions, listening by phone. The first page in the binder covered the Agile Manifesto, the second page was a two-column table which compared and contrasted waterfall and Scrum (e.g., waterfall freezes scope, Scrum freezes schedule), and the third page showed success rates of waterfall vs. Scrum (e.g., 29% of waterfall projects fail vs. 9% of agile projects). The remaining pages provided information about the VAR company and detailed instructions on how to use their software product. That constituted the training.
The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team reported that they followed the training and instructions provided by the VAR. I won't delineate the then-current roles further or describe all of the events and artifacts. However, some examples follow.
The Product Owner created a product vision statement and stored it in the software, but nobody else remembered seeing it.
The Product Owner created a product backlog in the software, but nobody else claimed to have seen it.
The Scrum Master facilitated a Sprint Planning event where the Development Team estimated work in terms of complexity, and the results were recorded in the software tool. It was reported that—due to the time difference—the Product Owner did not attend Sprint Planning meetings.
It was communicated that during Sprint execution, the Scrum Master would ask the Development Team if they had any notable progress; and only if the answer was yes, there was a Daily Scrum. As a result, the Daily Scrum event occurred around once or twice a week. When the meeting took place, the Scrum Master did a quick interview with each member of the Development Team and noted the results in the software tool.
I was told that the team followed the recommendation of the VAR for the sprint duration of four weeks.
The Sprint Reviews were attended by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner (remotely), all of the Development Team members, and the EVP. However, the other stakeholders did not attend the events. On average, about half of the work planned and committed to the sprint was "done." Both "done" and not-"done" items were demonstrated at the Sprint Review.
The Scrum Master reported that the team did conduct a Retrospective event at the end of each sprint and that the results were saved in the software tool. When I reviewed the information, I saw comments such as "we worked very hard" under the what went well category. Everything under the "what didn't go so well/opportunities for improvements" category were ideas for enhancement requests for the software tool. I was informed that the VAR instructed staff to convert everything that didn't go well into a suggestion for a future general release of the software or a request for a custom enhancement of the software.
None of the work from any of the sprints was released.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Four: The Options.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Four
26 March 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the fourth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Four: The Options
After gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the organization including their Scrum implementation, I met with the executive vice president (EVP) and we discussed next steps. I presented three options:
I said, "we can try different things" because while I believed that changes would likely result in improvements, success could not be guaranteed. I also said, "we can try different things" because any meaningful change would require the cooperation and collaboration of many people. The EVP decided on the third option: trying different things.
The doing of "different things" started with training. I first met with the EVP. I then met with the Scrum Master in several one-on-one meetings. And since he was committed to education and improvement, he later on completed the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) training and certification. The Product Owner was unable to attend the office in person for one-on-one training, but we communicated by phone and Skype. The EVP soon decided that the Product Owner needed to be co-located with the Scrum Team. He found a new Product Owner within the organization. I met with the new Product Owner in multiple one-on-one sessions. And—similar to what occurred with the Scrum Master—since the new Product Owner was committed to education and improvement, he subsequently completed the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training and certification. I delivered training to the Development Team as a group. It included an overview and more in-depth coverage of certain topics such as pair programming and technical debt. Later on, some Development Team members completed the Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training and certification. Stakeholder training follows next.
I delivered a one-hour overview of Scrum to the executive stakeholders in a group session. The attendees asked questions and made comments throughout the meeting. One stakeholder suggested that we do what the American Management Association says is best for Scrum. Then other attendees mentioned additional potential sources for information on agile. I explained that different organizations may have their own perspective on what works well for agile/Scrum, and that one way to go (I mentioned this in part to continue their engagement, involvement, and buy-in) is to look to the Scrum Alliance, a leading authority on the subject, but also see if others have ideas that are aligned with the authority and also fit the desired future state of the organization. I committed to doing the research and the stakeholders thanked me in advance.
I already had a library of 76 items on agile/Scrum—consisting of material from the Scrum Alliance, Project Management Institute, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Gartner, KPMG, Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT, Forbes, and many others. I expanded it to include sources mentioned by stakeholders during the training session and I diligently reviewed all of the content. The diverse sources identified several values and practices as being central in successful Scrum implementations, and such factors were typically consistent with guidelines from the Scrum Alliance. I then met with each of the stakeholders individually and presented them with a summary of information from the Scrum Alliance and others.
I facilitated a follow-up group meeting with the executive stakeholders. Information from the one-hour training and the diverse sources was summarized. The stakeholders concluded that the central problem with the then-current implementation was that people were not following good practices. They then discussed, voted, and identified what they viewed as the high-level top 10 success factors for a Scrum implementation at the organization based on the previously presented information. In no particular order, the top 10 items were:
Some of the items overlap/are not mutually exclusive, and the items are not exhaustive. I thanked the executive stakeholders for their support, and I told them that the 10 factors are built into the go-forward plan. The stakeholders expressed their appreciation.
The EVP and I conducted a mini-retrospective on the training sessions. The EVP was enthusiastic about what we've done so far, and he said that morale had improved. He authorized company-paid CSM, CSPO, and CSD trainings and certifications for staff (mentioned earlier). The EVP said we could advance to the next stage: piloting changes. I asked if he was open to terminating the use of the software tool introduced by the value-added reseller (VAR). He initially said that so much time and money had been invested in it that it would be hard to justify doing so. I said it differently: "We can try different things" could mean putting the software tool on vacation for a period. He agreed. We moved to the pilot—which involved doing many things differently. Examples follow.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Five: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the fourth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Four: The Options
After gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the organization including their Scrum implementation, I met with the executive vice president (EVP) and we discussed next steps. I presented three options:
- No change,
- Revert to the earlier waterfall-only model, or
- "We can try different things" (aligned with the value of openness) with the objective of improving their agile implementation and achieving their goals.
I said, "we can try different things" because while I believed that changes would likely result in improvements, success could not be guaranteed. I also said, "we can try different things" because any meaningful change would require the cooperation and collaboration of many people. The EVP decided on the third option: trying different things.
The doing of "different things" started with training. I first met with the EVP. I then met with the Scrum Master in several one-on-one meetings. And since he was committed to education and improvement, he later on completed the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) training and certification. The Product Owner was unable to attend the office in person for one-on-one training, but we communicated by phone and Skype. The EVP soon decided that the Product Owner needed to be co-located with the Scrum Team. He found a new Product Owner within the organization. I met with the new Product Owner in multiple one-on-one sessions. And—similar to what occurred with the Scrum Master—since the new Product Owner was committed to education and improvement, he subsequently completed the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training and certification. I delivered training to the Development Team as a group. It included an overview and more in-depth coverage of certain topics such as pair programming and technical debt. Later on, some Development Team members completed the Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training and certification. Stakeholder training follows next.
I delivered a one-hour overview of Scrum to the executive stakeholders in a group session. The attendees asked questions and made comments throughout the meeting. One stakeholder suggested that we do what the American Management Association says is best for Scrum. Then other attendees mentioned additional potential sources for information on agile. I explained that different organizations may have their own perspective on what works well for agile/Scrum, and that one way to go (I mentioned this in part to continue their engagement, involvement, and buy-in) is to look to the Scrum Alliance, a leading authority on the subject, but also see if others have ideas that are aligned with the authority and also fit the desired future state of the organization. I committed to doing the research and the stakeholders thanked me in advance.
I already had a library of 76 items on agile/Scrum—consisting of material from the Scrum Alliance, Project Management Institute, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Gartner, KPMG, Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT, Forbes, and many others. I expanded it to include sources mentioned by stakeholders during the training session and I diligently reviewed all of the content. The diverse sources identified several values and practices as being central in successful Scrum implementations, and such factors were typically consistent with guidelines from the Scrum Alliance. I then met with each of the stakeholders individually and presented them with a summary of information from the Scrum Alliance and others.
I facilitated a follow-up group meeting with the executive stakeholders. Information from the one-hour training and the diverse sources was summarized. The stakeholders concluded that the central problem with the then-current implementation was that people were not following good practices. They then discussed, voted, and identified what they viewed as the high-level top 10 success factors for a Scrum implementation at the organization based on the previously presented information. In no particular order, the top 10 items were:
- Support from management;
- Each member of the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) is 100% allocated to the project;
- There is an agile coach, agile Project Management Office or agile Center of Excellence;
- Satisfaction is a crucial metric;
- The Scrum Team has no more than 11 people;
- The Scrum Team is co-located;
- There are consistent practices and processes;
- There is a digital wallboard or other information radiator;
- There are frequent and high-quality interactions; and
- There is continuous improvement/inspect and adapt.
Some of the items overlap/are not mutually exclusive, and the items are not exhaustive. I thanked the executive stakeholders for their support, and I told them that the 10 factors are built into the go-forward plan. The stakeholders expressed their appreciation.
The EVP and I conducted a mini-retrospective on the training sessions. The EVP was enthusiastic about what we've done so far, and he said that morale had improved. He authorized company-paid CSM, CSPO, and CSD trainings and certifications for staff (mentioned earlier). The EVP said we could advance to the next stage: piloting changes. I asked if he was open to terminating the use of the software tool introduced by the value-added reseller (VAR). He initially said that so much time and money had been invested in it that it would be hard to justify doing so. I said it differently: "We can try different things" could mean putting the software tool on vacation for a period. He agreed. We moved to the pilot—which involved doing many things differently. Examples follow.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Five: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Five
31 March 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the fifth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog
We advanced to the pilot—which included doing many things differently. Examples follow.
The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing a product vision statement. He opted to use the template attributed to Geoffrey Moore. The Product Owner created a draft of the vision and sent it with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and finalized the product vision. He wrote the statement on oversize paper and posted it in a prominent location where the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) and stakeholders could easily see it.
The Product Owner and I then discussed techniques on creating and maintaining a product roadmap/release plan. He opted for a simple table with four rows and four columns. The rows included:
For the columns, there was one for each quarter of the year. Similar to what was done with the product vision, the Product Owner sent the plan with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and the plan, wrote it on oversize paper, and posted it next to the product vision statement.
Aspects of team formation were covered already. The new Scrum team totaled 11 people. All were co-located and 100% allocated to the project.
The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing and maintaining the product backlog. He opted to employ a simple table format with six columns:
To help with user stories, the Product Owner often referenced the INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable) model developed by Bill Wake. For priority, the Product Owner initially used the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have). Later, the Product Owner found the business value/risk method (where each item is rated as high or low in two dimensions—business value and risk, ...) to be the most beneficial, and the Product Owner continues to use that approach today. In a session facilitated by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner presented the user stories to the Development Team, and participants provided story points (using physical cards for the exercise) for estimates of complexity of each item. Later, the team tried t-shirt sizing—S, M, L, and XL designations—for estimates of complexity, but they decided to return to story points.
Previously, sprints were four weeks in length. Now the team was using the shorter duration of two weeks. A key benefit was that the Scrum value of focus was improved.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Six: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the fifth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog
We advanced to the pilot—which included doing many things differently. Examples follow.
The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing a product vision statement. He opted to use the template attributed to Geoffrey Moore. The Product Owner created a draft of the vision and sent it with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and finalized the product vision. He wrote the statement on oversize paper and posted it in a prominent location where the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) and stakeholders could easily see it.
The Product Owner and I then discussed techniques on creating and maintaining a product roadmap/release plan. He opted for a simple table with four rows and four columns. The rows included:
- Name (the title of the product or major release),
- Goal (the reason for creating it),
- Features (a high-level list of features), and
- Estimated number of sprints.
For the columns, there was one for each quarter of the year. Similar to what was done with the product vision, the Product Owner sent the plan with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and the plan, wrote it on oversize paper, and posted it next to the product vision statement.
Aspects of team formation were covered already. The new Scrum team totaled 11 people. All were co-located and 100% allocated to the project.
The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing and maintaining the product backlog. He opted to employ a simple table format with six columns:
- ID#,
- User story/description,
- Category (he decided on four types: feature, bug, technical debt, and other),
- Story point estimate for complexity,
- Priority based on business value, and
- Status.
To help with user stories, the Product Owner often referenced the INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable) model developed by Bill Wake. For priority, the Product Owner initially used the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have). Later, the Product Owner found the business value/risk method (where each item is rated as high or low in two dimensions—business value and risk, ...) to be the most beneficial, and the Product Owner continues to use that approach today. In a session facilitated by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner presented the user stories to the Development Team, and participants provided story points (using physical cards for the exercise) for estimates of complexity of each item. Later, the team tried t-shirt sizing—S, M, L, and XL designations—for estimates of complexity, but they decided to return to story points.
Previously, sprints were four weeks in length. Now the team was using the shorter duration of two weeks. A key benefit was that the Scrum value of focus was improved.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Six: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Six
04 April 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the sixth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution
The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint planning techniques. The Scrum Master decided that the meeting event would be handled via two separate sessions—part 1 (what will be committed to for the upcoming sprint) and part 2 (how to accomplish the work identified in part 1).
For sprint planning part 1, the timebox (not to exceed duration) for the meeting was calculated as:
The Scrum Master made the following information visible during the event: start and end dates for the sprint, (after a sprint was completed) the results of the last sprint review event, and (after a sprint was completed) the results from the last sprint retrospective event. The Product Owner reminded the Development Team about the product vision statement, and the Product Owner shared the sprint goal (such as "implement shopping cart functionality ..."). The Development Team determined their capacity in work hours for the upcoming sprint. It was calculated as:
(Estimation via story points, and prioritization by the Product Owner were already taken care of.)
For each item in the product backlog, participants discussed the user stories/requirements including acceptance criteria, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and anything else requiring a conversation to get a good understanding of the item. The Development Team then committed to the entries which they thought could be completed in the upcoming sprint. The technique they employed involved asking "Can we do this first item in the product backlog?" If the answer was yes, they selected it and proceeded to the next item and continued until the team believed that no more work could be done in the sprint. After the Development Team had worked together and had data on actual velocity (the number of story points completed in a sprint), they also considered that historical metric—comparing it with story points for items in the sprint. The Product Owner updated the product backlog, identifying the items committed by the Development Team to be done for the upcoming sprint.
For sprint planning part 2, the timebox for the meeting was calculated as:
The Scrum team created the sprint backlog. It had the following columns:
During the meeting, the Scrum team compared the total estimated work hours for the sprint with the Development Team’s capacity (mentioned under the part 1 meeting) for the sprint. If the Development Team believed that the sprint backlog contained too much work to be done during the sprint, they collaborated with the Product Owner to remove one or more items. If the Development Team believed they could handle more work during the sprint, they worked with the Product Owner to move one or more of the high priority items from the product backlog to the sprint backlog.
The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint execution. Select examples of what was decided and done are highlighted next.
The Development Team set up a task board (also known as a Scrum board) to reflect the work in the current iteration. They went with a simple format. The board depicted work in rows and columns where rows included work items, and columns reflected status (To Do, Doing, and Done). Work was addressed from top (highest priority) to bottom, and work migrated from left to right on the task board as it progressed. The task board is also covered in the daily Scrum meeting.
The Scrum Master decided to use a sprint burndown chart to track and communicate progress during the sprint. He set it up and updated it each workday, usually immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.
The Scrum Master created an impediment backlog to capture things preventing the team from progressing or improving. This backlog was updated daily, typically immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.
At the daily Scrum meeting event, the Development Team shared status, plans, and any impediments. Before this pilot with changes, the team was not conducting the daily Scrum (or updating the task board, burndown chart, and impediments backlog) consistently. Under the pilot (and subsequently), the Development Team met for up to 15 minutes (timebox) each workday, and it was conducted at the same time (10:00 a.m.) each day. At this daily stand-up session, the Development Team and the Scrum Master met where the task board, sprint burndown chart, and impediment backlog were posted. Each Development Team member described what he/she worked on since the last Scrum meeting, and he/she updated the task board. Next, the same Development Team member explained what he/she would work on that day, and he/she updated the task board. Lastly, the same Development Team member reported any impediments. (The Scrum Master recorded any issues in the impediments backlog. If a discussion was required, it took place immediately after the daily Scrum. The Scrum Master helped resolve impediments.) The steps were repeated for other members of the Development Team.
The Scrum Team built an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment was potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide for it to be implemented at the end of the sprint. Said differently, potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness, and shipping is a business decision. Commencing with the pilot, the organization started releasing products as often as every sprint (two weeks).
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Seven: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the sixth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part One: The Call;
- Part Two: The Goals;
- Part Three: The Environment;
- Part Four: The Options; and
- Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.
Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution
The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint planning techniques. The Scrum Master decided that the meeting event would be handled via two separate sessions—part 1 (what will be committed to for the upcoming sprint) and part 2 (how to accomplish the work identified in part 1).
For sprint planning part 1, the timebox (not to exceed duration) for the meeting was calculated as:
- 2
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 4 hours for the event.
The Scrum Master made the following information visible during the event: start and end dates for the sprint, (after a sprint was completed) the results of the last sprint review event, and (after a sprint was completed) the results from the last sprint retrospective event. The Product Owner reminded the Development Team about the product vision statement, and the Product Owner shared the sprint goal (such as "implement shopping cart functionality ..."). The Development Team determined their capacity in work hours for the upcoming sprint. It was calculated as:
- the number of people in the Development Team
- multiplied by the number of project productive hours (which excluded time outside the sprint such as company meetings, trainings, vacation time, etc.) per workday
- multiplied by number of workdays in the sprint.
(Estimation via story points, and prioritization by the Product Owner were already taken care of.)
For each item in the product backlog, participants discussed the user stories/requirements including acceptance criteria, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and anything else requiring a conversation to get a good understanding of the item. The Development Team then committed to the entries which they thought could be completed in the upcoming sprint. The technique they employed involved asking "Can we do this first item in the product backlog?" If the answer was yes, they selected it and proceeded to the next item and continued until the team believed that no more work could be done in the sprint. After the Development Team had worked together and had data on actual velocity (the number of story points completed in a sprint), they also considered that historical metric—comparing it with story points for items in the sprint. The Product Owner updated the product backlog, identifying the items committed by the Development Team to be done for the upcoming sprint.
For sprint planning part 2, the timebox for the meeting was calculated as:
- 2
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 4 hours for the event.
The Scrum team created the sprint backlog. It had the following columns:
- ID#,
- Description,
- Story points,
- Task information (meetings, designs, coding, code review, testing, etc.),
- Estimation in hours (they adopted the practice that if effort is greater than eight hours, split the task into smaller ones),
- Owner (where members of the Development Team self-assign tasks),
- Status, and
- Hours of work remaining.
During the meeting, the Scrum team compared the total estimated work hours for the sprint with the Development Team’s capacity (mentioned under the part 1 meeting) for the sprint. If the Development Team believed that the sprint backlog contained too much work to be done during the sprint, they collaborated with the Product Owner to remove one or more items. If the Development Team believed they could handle more work during the sprint, they worked with the Product Owner to move one or more of the high priority items from the product backlog to the sprint backlog.
The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint execution. Select examples of what was decided and done are highlighted next.
The Development Team set up a task board (also known as a Scrum board) to reflect the work in the current iteration. They went with a simple format. The board depicted work in rows and columns where rows included work items, and columns reflected status (To Do, Doing, and Done). Work was addressed from top (highest priority) to bottom, and work migrated from left to right on the task board as it progressed. The task board is also covered in the daily Scrum meeting.
The Scrum Master decided to use a sprint burndown chart to track and communicate progress during the sprint. He set it up and updated it each workday, usually immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.
The Scrum Master created an impediment backlog to capture things preventing the team from progressing or improving. This backlog was updated daily, typically immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.
At the daily Scrum meeting event, the Development Team shared status, plans, and any impediments. Before this pilot with changes, the team was not conducting the daily Scrum (or updating the task board, burndown chart, and impediments backlog) consistently. Under the pilot (and subsequently), the Development Team met for up to 15 minutes (timebox) each workday, and it was conducted at the same time (10:00 a.m.) each day. At this daily stand-up session, the Development Team and the Scrum Master met where the task board, sprint burndown chart, and impediment backlog were posted. Each Development Team member described what he/she worked on since the last Scrum meeting, and he/she updated the task board. Next, the same Development Team member explained what he/she would work on that day, and he/she updated the task board. Lastly, the same Development Team member reported any impediments. (The Scrum Master recorded any issues in the impediments backlog. If a discussion was required, it took place immediately after the daily Scrum. The Scrum Master helped resolve impediments.) The steps were repeated for other members of the Development Team.
The Scrum Team built an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment was potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide for it to be implemented at the end of the sprint. Said differently, potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness, and shipping is a business decision. Commencing with the pilot, the organization started releasing products as often as every sprint (two weeks).
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Seven: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Seven
09 April 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the seventh installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Seven: The Pilot – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective
The Scrum team—Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team—and I discussed techniques for the sprint review. The event is sometimes referred to as the sprint demo. The timebox (not to exceed duration) in hours for the meeting was calculated as:
Participants included the Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team, and stakeholders. All of the stakeholders (the executives mentioned in earlier parts of the story) were invited to and attended the sprint review. At the session, the Product Owner welcomed attendees and communicated the agenda. He pointed out the sprint goal, which was displayed on the wall in the meeting room. Next, the Development Team listed the work that was committed to the sprint. They then listed the work that was completed and the work that was not completed. For each completed story/feature, the Development Team demonstrated the "done" working functionality and answered questions. Stakeholders were invited to interact with the "done" working functionality and they did so. Then the entire group reviewed the product backlog and collaborated on what to do next. The Product Owner incorporated feedback into the Product Backlog. It involved adding new items to the backlog and/or re-prioritizing existing items. After the sprint review, the Scrum Master incorporated any feedback related to problems into the impediments backlog.
The Scrum Master and I discussed techniques for the sprint retrospective event. The timebox in hours for the meeting was calculated as:
At the sprint retrospective, the Development Team identified what went well, what didn't go well, and improvements to be implemented in the upcoming sprint—an example of inspection and adaptation. For improvements to be implemented, each member of the Development Team wrote their top one, two or three suggestions on sticky notes. Each idea got its own sticky note. Then the Development Team grouped the sticky notes into categories/themes, and they discussed the items and voted to determine the top one (initially limited to one, later it was raised to two) for adaptation and improvement. The Development Team committed to the change and the Scrum Master recorded the information.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story concludes with Part Eight: The Success.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the seventh installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part One: The Call;
- Part Two: The Goals;
- Part Three: The Environment;
- Part Four: The Options;
- Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog; and
- Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.
Part Seven: The Pilot – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective
The Scrum team—Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team—and I discussed techniques for the sprint review. The event is sometimes referred to as the sprint demo. The timebox (not to exceed duration) in hours for the meeting was calculated as:
- 1
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 2 hours for the event.
Participants included the Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team, and stakeholders. All of the stakeholders (the executives mentioned in earlier parts of the story) were invited to and attended the sprint review. At the session, the Product Owner welcomed attendees and communicated the agenda. He pointed out the sprint goal, which was displayed on the wall in the meeting room. Next, the Development Team listed the work that was committed to the sprint. They then listed the work that was completed and the work that was not completed. For each completed story/feature, the Development Team demonstrated the "done" working functionality and answered questions. Stakeholders were invited to interact with the "done" working functionality and they did so. Then the entire group reviewed the product backlog and collaborated on what to do next. The Product Owner incorporated feedback into the Product Backlog. It involved adding new items to the backlog and/or re-prioritizing existing items. After the sprint review, the Scrum Master incorporated any feedback related to problems into the impediments backlog.
The Scrum Master and I discussed techniques for the sprint retrospective event. The timebox in hours for the meeting was calculated as:
- 0.75
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 1.50 hours for the event.
At the sprint retrospective, the Development Team identified what went well, what didn't go well, and improvements to be implemented in the upcoming sprint—an example of inspection and adaptation. For improvements to be implemented, each member of the Development Team wrote their top one, two or three suggestions on sticky notes. Each idea got its own sticky note. Then the Development Team grouped the sticky notes into categories/themes, and they discussed the items and voted to determine the top one (initially limited to one, later it was raised to two) for adaptation and improvement. The Development Team committed to the change and the Scrum Master recorded the information.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story concludes with Part Eight: The Success.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Eight
15 April 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the final installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Eight: The Success
By adopting an agile mindset and providing improved engagement, collaboration, transparency, and adaptability via Scrum's values, roles, events, and artifacts, the results were excellent. After one sprint, satisfaction ratings for the Development Team and stakeholders were higher than the target. After three sprints, the output of the Scrum Team became consistent and predictable, satisfaction increased even further, and all of the seven goals mentioned earlier were achieved. Here's an overview:
🎯 Goal 1
🎯 Goal 2
🎯 Goal 3
🎯 Goal 4
🎯 Goal 5
🎯 Goal 6
🎯 Goal 7
The EVP, Scrum Team, and stakeholders declared the pilot a success and they made this implementation of Scrum the preferred approach for the development and delivery of products and services going forward.
In addition to achieving the goals summarized above, the agile transformation also supported the organization's efforts to innovate and drive their competitive advantage. It became more successful. As the business grew, so has the number of Scrum teams. Originally numbering one, the division presently has six Scrum teams.
This concludes Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story. The agile transformation experience was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, continuous improvement, and more. The book has garnered 17 first place awards and credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, and a detailed list of awards are in the digital media kit. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, Hudson Booksellers, Savoy Bookshop & Café, Compass Books at SFO/Books Inc., Books & Books - Miami, University Press Books - Berkeley, and other retailers, distributors, and partners in the United States and around the world.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the final installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part One: The Call;
- Part Two: The Goals;
- Part Three: The Environment;
- Part Four: The Options;
- Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog;
- Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution; and
- Part Seven: The Pilot – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
Part Eight: The Success
By adopting an agile mindset and providing improved engagement, collaboration, transparency, and adaptability via Scrum's values, roles, events, and artifacts, the results were excellent. After one sprint, satisfaction ratings for the Development Team and stakeholders were higher than the target. After three sprints, the output of the Scrum Team became consistent and predictable, satisfaction increased even further, and all of the seven goals mentioned earlier were achieved. Here's an overview:
🎯 Goal 1
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP (executive vice president)
- Desired outcome: Develop and deliver products and services faster than 6-12 months
- Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)
🎯 Goal 2
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
- Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 3
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
- Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the stakeholders
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 4
- Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team)
- Desired outcome: Meet or exceed the expectations of management
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 5
- Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team
- Desired outcome: Deliver valuable products/services
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 6
- Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
- Desired outcome: For stakeholders or their representatives to be more involved in requirements
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 7
- Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
- Desired outcome: Get useable products delivered more frequently than 6-12 months
- Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)
The EVP, Scrum Team, and stakeholders declared the pilot a success and they made this implementation of Scrum the preferred approach for the development and delivery of products and services going forward.
In addition to achieving the goals summarized above, the agile transformation also supported the organization's efforts to innovate and drive their competitive advantage. It became more successful. As the business grew, so has the number of Scrum teams. Originally numbering one, the division presently has six Scrum teams.
This concludes Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story. The agile transformation experience was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, continuous improvement, and more. The book has garnered 17 first place awards and credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, and a detailed list of awards are in the digital media kit. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, Hudson Booksellers, Savoy Bookshop & Café, Compass Books at SFO/Books Inc., Books & Books - Miami, University Press Books - Berkeley, and other retailers, distributors, and partners in the United States and around the world.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
11 Most Valuable IT Certifications
19 April 2019
In Technology, there's no substitute for experience. However, certifications remain a valuable tool for advancing one's career. Employers want candidates with up-to-date knowledge and skills, and certifications demonstrate a person’s mastery of the respective subject. Eleven certifications emerged as the most valuable in Technology and two of them are related to project management. [1] [2]
These are the most highly valued technology certifications today:
1. Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect
3. Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
4. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
5. Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
6. Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
7. CompTIA A+
8. Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
9. ITIL
10. Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure
11. Project Management Professional (PMP)
If you're interested in learning about the project management related certifications, visit the Scrum Alliance for the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and the Project Management Institute for the Project Management Professional (PMP).
Many employers prefer to hire certified professionals, especially those who also have college degrees and successful work experience to accompany them. Those who invest in professional credentials typically enjoy larger salaries among other benefits.
Sources:
[1] Robert Half. “Which IT Certifications are Most Valuable?” The Robert Half Blog. October 4, 2018, https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/which-it-certifications-are-most-valuable.
[2] Robert Half Technology (2018). Technology Salary Guide 2019. Menlo Park, CA: Robert Half International, Inc.
Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
This article by Scott M. Graffius on the most valuable IT certifications was published in 2019. Graffius periodically refreshes his work. The most current (2024) edition of his report is here.
A version of this article also appears at Exceptional-PMO.com and AgileScrumGuide.com. Both of those sites and ScottGraffius.com are owned by Scott M. Graffius.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
New Book: "Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change"
26 April 2019
Agile Transformation was previously available in 34 countries. This article was updated on May 22, 2020 to reflect the expanded distribution. It's now available in 46 countries.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
The book appeared on Amazon's "Hot New Releases" list as shown in the following screen shot.
You’re invited to watch the trailer, visit the website, read the blog, and connect on social. Like Agile Transformation on Facebook, and follow Agile Transformation on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
About the Author
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott and his award-winning book on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, was published in April 2019. Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Content from Scott M. Graffius Featured in Story Published by Computer Weekly
30 April 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
I'm honored to be quoted in a piece by Tech journalist Adrian Bridgwater, published by Computer Weekly. Here's an excerpt from the story:
“As the Agile author Scott M. Graffius put it: ‘If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view.’”
I share the credit with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The quote is from the book. For additional information on Agile Scrum, please see the digital media kit.
You can read the story (Bridgwater, Adrian. “Plandek Co-CEO: 5 Areas for Agile Team Self-Improvement.” ComputerWeekly.com, April 30, 2019) here: https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/CW-Developer-Network/Plandek-co-CEO-5-areas-for-Agile-team-self-improvement
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
I'm honored to be quoted in a piece by Tech journalist Adrian Bridgwater, published by Computer Weekly. Here's an excerpt from the story:
“As the Agile author Scott M. Graffius put it: ‘If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view.’”
I share the credit with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The quote is from the book. For additional information on Agile Scrum, please see the digital media kit.
You can read the story (Bridgwater, Adrian. “Plandek Co-CEO: 5 Areas for Agile Team Self-Improvement.” ComputerWeekly.com, April 30, 2019) here: https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/CW-Developer-Network/Plandek-co-CEO-5-areas-for-Agile-team-self-improvement
About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Scott M. Graffius Named Author of the Week by AUTHORSWEEK for "Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change"
08 May 2019
AUTHORSWEEK named Scott M. Graffius as Author of the Week for his new title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change. This is Scott's second book.
About the Author
Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott's first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, garnered 17 first place awards. Scott and Agile Scrum have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. He regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About AUTHORSWEEK
AUTHORSWEEK provides a weekly round-up of the latest book releases and author platform programs. For additional information, visit their website at AUTHORSWEEK.COM.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Trailer for "Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change"
12 May 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Based on a true story, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change by Scott M. Graffius provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. You're invited to watch the trailer for the book. It runs 30 seconds.
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
Based on a true story, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change by Scott M. Graffius provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. You're invited to watch the trailer for the book. It runs 30 seconds.
About the Author
Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott's first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242), garnered 17 first place awards. Scott and Agile Scrum have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Computer Weekly, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. He regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
BookAuthority Names "Agile Transformation" One of the Best New Scrum Ebooks
10 June 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
BookAuthority named Scott M. Graffius' second book, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, as one of the best new ebooks on Scrum!
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit. His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, was published in April 2019.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Scott is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the globe where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.
FHis full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.org.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
BookAuthority named Scott M. Graffius' second book, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, as one of the best new ebooks on Scrum!
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit. His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, was published in April 2019.
Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Scott is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the globe where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.
FHis full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.org.
© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
BookAuthority Names "Agile Transformation" One of the Best Scrum Ebooks of All Time
05 July 2019
Follow @scottgraffius
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change was initially offered only in ebook format. Soon after it was released, BookAuthority named Agile Transformation as one of the best *new* ebooks on Scrum! BookAuthority gave it an additional award. It's now on the list of the best Scrum ebooks of *all time.* Details on the award are available here. Thank you BookAuthority!
For those who prefer the visual and tactile experience of physical books, a paperback version of Agile Transformation was added and is also available.
Grab a copy of Agile Transformation in ebook or paperback -
● In the United States: bit.ly/at-us
● Outside the United States: bit.ly/intl-links
#Agile #AgileProjectManagement #AgileTransformation #AgileTransformationBook #AgileCoach #Author #Book #Business #Change #ChangeManagement #Entertainment #IT #ITManagement #InformationTechnology #Innovation #Leadership #Management #PMO #Product #ProjectManagement #ProjectMgmt #Scrum #Success #Tech #Technology #Transformation
About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott and his award-winning book on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, was published in April 2019. BookAuthority named it one of the best new books on Scrum. Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change was initially offered only in ebook format. Soon after it was released, BookAuthority named Agile Transformation as one of the best *new* ebooks on Scrum! BookAuthority gave it an additional award. It's now on the list of the best Scrum ebooks of *all time.* Details on the award are available here. Thank you BookAuthority!
For those who prefer the visual and tactile experience of physical books, a paperback version of Agile Transformation was added and is also available.
Grab a copy of Agile Transformation in ebook or paperback -
● In the United States: bit.ly/at-us
● Outside the United States: bit.ly/intl-links
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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change
Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States
About Author Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott and his award-winning book on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. His second title, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, was published in April 2019. BookAuthority named it one of the best new books on Scrum. Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:
About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from