Description

Teams frequently encounter impediments that slow their progress. Some of these impediments are caused by the structures, policies, politics, and culture of the greater organization. What’s a project manager or scrum master to do when facing one of these organizational impediments?

In this session you will meet teams from some dysfunctional organizations and analyze the problems they are facing. As part of a team, you’ll practice diagnosing the problems and formulating intervention plans. Chris Sims will guide your journey, providing feedback and support the whole way.

Event Agenda 

Workshop Outline

Introduction

The facilitator provides a description of organizational impediments.

An organizational impediment likely has one or more of the following attributes:

• It impacts more than one team

• People from different parts of the organization will have to work together to solve the problem

• People are incentivized to do the ‘wrong’ thing

• Long term problem caused by local optimizations

• Powerful vested interests in the status quo

Small Group Exercise

Each group is given an Organizational Impediment Worksheet, with a scenario. The group uses the Organizational Impediment Worksheet to guide their diagnosis of the situation as well as capture their plan for addressing the situation.

Presentations

Each group presents their diagnosis and solution to the class. The facilitator guides the class in providing feedback, with the following prompts:

• What might they have missed in their diagnosis?

• What other solutions might be possible?

• What did this team do well in their diagnosis?

• What did this team do well in their solution?

Final Debrief and Summary

The facilitator guides the group in identifying common patterns in organizational impediments, as well as common approaches for addressing them.

Name of Speaker:

Chris Sims

Speaker Bio:

Chris Sims is a certified scrum trainer, agile coach, and recovering C++ developer who helps organizations improve their productivity and happiness. Chris is the founder and product owner of Agile Learning Labs and the co-author of two best-selling scrum books: The Elements of Scrum and Scrum: a Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction. More of their writing can be found on the Agile Learning Labs blog. Before starting Agile Learning Labs in 2007, Chris made a living in roles such as: scrum master, product owner, engineering manager, project manager, software engineer, musician, and auto mechanic.

Refund/Cancelation Policy:

All cancellations are subject to a minimum $10 fee if done during the early bird period. Cancellations after the early bird or event starts are subject to full charge to ensure the Chapter does not incur excessive expenses. All refunds will be issued after two credit card-billing cycles. If you have any questions regarding the event, please send inquiries to profdev@pmisfbac.org.