Scrum in Schools, Lyssa Adkins, Agile Boston

Lyssa Adkins is certified as a Scrum Trainer and is an Agile Coach. She came to Agile as a project leader with over 15 years’ project management success. Even with all that experience, nothing prepared her for the power and simplicity of Agile done well. Lyssa’s Agile experience, along with her professional coaching and training abilities, gives her the perspective needed to guide teams and Agile leaders to harness Agile as the competitive advantage weapon it was meant to be. She knows the transformation path is rocky. As a large-scale program manager and director of Project Management Offices turned Agile Coach and Trainer, she has lived it herself. This makes her uniquely able to help others change their existing world to the Agile world. Lyssa holds triple certifications: Certified Scrum Trainer (CST), Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt (SSGB). She is also a professional co-active coach. She is the author of the forthcoming book from Addison-Wesley’s Mike Cohn Signature Series, Coaching Agile Teams.Learn more about Lyssa Adkins here.

Presentation: ESSENTIAL DEPROGRAMMING FOR TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGERS

So many things that contributed to my success as a project manager are exactly the same things that spell doom for an agile team. I didn't know that when I got assigned to my first agile team, but I learned it through the school of hard-knocks. Come learn what I learned over five years of recovery and, then, growth into the exciting new role of agile coach.

I plan to reveal and discuss the essential mindset shifts a project manager must undertake to become an effective agile coach. We will talk about how that leads to changes in actions and changes in conversations and decision-making — both within teams and with the external world. We will look at what it means to be an agile coach so that you get the full flavor of this valuable role. You’ll walk away from this session with specific things you can use as well as deep thoughts to chew on.

Why is this important?

If we take the skills of a successful plan-driven project manager and plop them into the context of an agile team, the project manager will unwittingly cripple the team’s self-organization – unless she has some help. This session contrasts the belief system of a plan-driven project manager with that of an agile coach and illuminates the way ahead. And then, launches the attendees into the world of agile coaching – what it is, why it’s important, why it’s a wonderful role to fill.

Objectives

Project managers in transition get a sense of the work ahead as they move toward being an agile coach. The question, “What is an agile coach?” is answered clearly in this session. The role of agile coaching is seen for the full beauty and usefulness it offers agile teams. Attendees walk away with a few simple and powerful coaching techniques they can use right away.

DAN MEZICK SAYS:

Completing the transition from traditional plan-driven, predictive thinking to "agile thinking" is a high-effort, non-trivial task.

At the root of the problem is a set of limiting beliefs about planning, prediction and control. Even Lyssa herself describes a 5-year journey from plan-driven project manager to agile coach. This is an enormous journey and it certainly does not happen overnight.

Come to this session to learn about: how to get started, learn what the common pitfalls are, and learn how to mature over time into an active enabler of self-governed agile teams.

005-26-2010 MEETING AGENDA:

6:30 PM: DAN MEZICK on "SCRUM EXPLAINED"

7:00 PM: Food & socializing & networking time

7:25 PM: LYSSA ADKINS on: ESSENTIAL DEPROGRAMMING FOR TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGERS

8:25 PM: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION OF MEETING

REGISTER:

MEETING VENUE: MICROSOFT offices in WALTHAM. REGISTER NOW for this meeting

DIRECTIONS TO MICROSOFT WALTHAM.

NOTE: Please don't register casually for this meeting, as you do us a big disservice to us by distorting the actual count for the seating and food. Registration is an explicit commitment to attend.

DIRECTIONS TO MICROSOFT WALTHAM.