Manage on Alberto Domínguez

The Digital Nomad: The End of an Era

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is a harsh critique of the digital nomad model, and of what will be the collapse of the 100%-remote-work-from-anywhere model. This scenario is easy to see coming, and anyone with doubts should read this article — and, of course, comment and debate it.

I’ve written a bit about remote work, the benefits of going into the office, earning in dollars as a contractor for a company abroad, and other articles I’d invite you to read if you want a broader picture of my perspective on this (some of these are only available in Spanish for now).

The Importance of Working Agreements in Agility

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The basic building block in the agile world — including organizations themselves — is the team. For Scrum, for example, the Scrum Team is the fundamental unit , and for the Scaled Agile Framework, it’s the Agile Teams . But what does it take to build a solid agile team? Without a doubt, the first step is establishing solid working agreements.

What Are Working Agreements?

At its core, a working agreement is a list of rules or qualities defined collaboratively and participatively among all the members of an agile team. This list can include, among other things, activities, values, or even rules that guide or shape the behavior of every single member of an agile team.

How to Win the IT Talent War

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The word war isn’t inspiring or interesting. But I couldn’t find another word that so faithfully and simply captures what happens every single day inside organizations. There’s an open war to find and retain IT talent. IT talent — information and communications technology talent — is today an extremely valuable and critical asset for nearly every organization in the world. Even more so for organizations whose operations depend entirely, or largely, on IT.

What Is Kanban and How Does It Relate to Agility?

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

If you talk about agility with anyone, or even just use an “agile” work management tool, you’ll keep running into the term Kanban. Kanban is a method that was born under a work and manufacturing process management model called the Toyota Production System (TPS) .

What Is the Toyota Production System?

TPS is a production system based on the philosophy of achieving the complete elimination of all waste in pursuit of the most efficient methods. Toyota’s vehicle production system is sometimes called the “just-in-time” (JIT) production system, and it’s become very well known and studied worldwide.

A Guide to the Good Scrum Master

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

With the rise of agility and the cultural transformation organizations go through in their agile evolution, the Scrum Master role has taken center stage. This short article aims to give you a sense of what it means to be a good Scrum Master, and what path you can follow to strengthen your skills.

What Is Scrum?

I’m not going to spend much time answering this question. If you want to be a good Scrum Master, the first thing you need to know is what Scrum is and why it matters . That said, the short answer is that Scrum is a framework that promotes collaborative work. Scrum is geared toward small teams of people, and it promotes delivering value and solutions to challenges creatively and continuously.

WBS vs. Backlog

Tue, 10 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Some of the most popular questions in the project world - and, of course, in the process of agile evolution - reveal a kind of rivalry between the WBS and the Backlog. While that fight is a bit silly, in my humble opinion, here are some of the questions I’m going to answer below:

Is it better to build a WBS or a Backlog?
Why don’t agile projects - run with Scrum or XP - have a WBS?
How can I plan a project if there’s no scope defined in a WBS?

Here I’ll answer all of these questions - and a few more - to help you understand the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and the Backlog .

Hyperagility

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What does hyperagility mean? While it isn’t a new term, here I’ll walk you through the details of this concept and what it means for organizations that want to achieve a complete cultural evolution.

Hyperagility: Another Buzzword?

Agility has been around for at least 20 years now. And I have to admit that, while a lot gets written about it, not much has actually evolved over time. We can describe agility, simply, as “reconnecting” with simple values like:

Product Owner or Scrum Master

Wed, 26 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It’s common to run into people certified as both Scrum Master and Product Owner. Confusing as it might be to me, it’s not unusual to talk - in person or on social media - with people who, for whatever reason, got certified in both. Does it even make sense to try to specialize in both roles? This article lays out arguments to help you understand the difference between the roles, and how you can support your own growth as a Product Owner or Scrum Master.

How Agile Are We? A Model for Assessing Team Maturity

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

When you work on adopting and embracing an agile mindset, part of the work you do with organizations and teams around the world includes assessing their level of “maturity.” Starting a conversation and analysis of a team’s or organization’s current state is no easy task. That’s why assessment tools exist, to help determine how agile your team really is.

But more than diagnosing against a predefined, narrow recipe, what draws me to this kind of assessment tool - and the reason I created TEMPO - is the structure it offers for starting the conversation. To me, diagnostic tools are a starting point for deeper reflection, and it’s the coach’s or consultant’s responsibility to always keep an open mind beyond that starting point.

The First Five Steps of a Successful Project

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Starting a project always comes with its challenges, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a hugely complex task. Whether you’re an expert with plenty of experience running projects or a total newcomer to the profession, it’s possible to lay out a small, basic sequence of steps for building a project. And I’ll tell you now: how you start your projects is fundamental to increasing your chances of success.

Retrospective, or Sprint Retrospective

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The word retrospective comes from the Latin “retrospicere,” meaning “to look back.” In film, television, and literature, there’s a technique called a “flashback scene” — or analepsis — that connects different moments in time to develop a character or a context more deeply.

In that sense, the practice of the retrospective meeting makes a lot more sense to me, and it rises above the basic feeling of “we should improve.” An agile team is like an individual who builds a personality and a character. And the retrospective aims to develop exactly that character.

What Is DevOps?

Tue, 16 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

You’ve probably already heard the term DevOps. But what is DevOps, really? What does it mean for work teams, and in what contexts can it be applied? Here’s the rundown.

That said, DevOps doesn’t just affect IT teams within organizations. Implementing DevOps in an organization deeply transforms how other areas interact with IT.

DevOps is also an enabler of organizational agility — I’ll explain what that means shortly. Big companies, and new players who want to stay relevant and competitive, need to understand, master, and make the most of DevOps.

What Is Scrum, and Why Should Your Team Evaluate It?

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Scrum is trendy, and there’s no denying the influence it has on every management model and every model of teamwork out there. This “model” is the protagonist of a global-scale transformation. If the pandemic accelerated organizational transformation, then Scrum is the fuel powering hundreds of thousands of remote and virtual teams worldwide.

But what is Scrum, and why is it so famous?

In a management context, Scrum was created in the early ’90s. Even so, it took almost two decades before the first version of the Official Guide was published — what we geeks would call today’s canonical model.

Agile Metrics for Teams and Projects

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I was on a video call with someone about managing large-scale, multidisciplinary, distributed teams. A few years back I coined the term “agility for adults” as the title for a talk. That term captures the fact that, beyond managing small teams and models for motivating and inspiring people, working at scale also requires more advanced models of agile metrics.

Beyond the little sticky notes (known by the popular 3M brand name post-it) and the aspirational phrases that sound nice for motivating teams, the real challenge of agility, when it’s aimed at achieving things at scale, lies in mobilizing a much larger organizational structure.

What Is a Backlog, and How Is It Used in Projects and Product Development?

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s not beat around the bush — what is a backlog? It’s a tool for managing requirements on a product, service, or project. Paraphrasing the Scrum Guide , which was updated in November 2020, it’s an open, ordered list of requests aimed at improving or completing the value of something — whether that’s a product, a service, or a project.

The backlog, a prioritized list of requirements for a product or service, is an ideal breakdown mechanism for managing requirements when they’re variable and highly dynamic. Unlike other breakdown mechanisms, like the project’s Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), it has several particularities we’ll get into below, and they’re key to its success in managing adaptive projects and developing products and services.

Which Is Better: Agile, Predictive, or Hybrid?

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

This question comes up so often it feels like it’s pulled from a standard list of audience questions. It shows up in every course, webinar, workshop, and conference I take part in. There’s always this evident need to figure out whether being agile, predictive, or hybrid is the solution to every management challenge.

Behind the question lies a legitimate concern every director shares. How should I manage my team, project, or organization? Is agility the future, coming to replace the traditional management model? Is agility the only valid management model in our time? Here I lay out, in detail, the different management paradigms, where they come from, and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

The Role of the PMO in an Agile World

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

What’s the role of a Project Management Office (PMO) within the context of an agile organization? In this article I take a deep look at the future of the PMO in a world that’s growing more uncertain, changeable, and dynamic by the day.

What Does a Project Management Office Actually Do?

The PMO is an organizational structure. That said, there can be a single one, fully centralized, or there can be several within the same organization, spread across different areas. For better or worse, PMOs have a specific domain over projects - and some of them look a bit further, toward strategy, through conceptual instruments called programs or portfolios.

Epics, User Stories, and Requirements

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s take this piece by piece: being agile changes little to nothing about the need to document requirements. It doesn’t matter what name or structure we use. We call them epics, user stories, or requirements. We use them within the context of operations, projects, or innovation. Documenting these structures — our needs, or how we plan to seize the opportunities we’ve identified — is fundamental to any initiative. And I don’t just mean this in the sense of communicating what we’re thinking to others; I also mean the process of documenting for the future. Documenting is a process that involves writing, and in doing so, often without meaning to, we end up structuring our own thinking better.

What's the Relationship Between Agility and Projects?

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Is agility really an exclusive concept of software development projects? Is there any relationship between agility and projects? What makes an agile organization so different from a traditional one? This short article aims to clear up some conceptual doubts about what “being agile” means, and how it differs from “doing Scrum” or “implementing SAFe, LeSS, or Nexus.”

Agility is more a synonym for efficiency and effectiveness than for speed and quickness. Many companies don’t understand the difference. Instead, they believe the goal is to do more in less time with the same people. What other option do we have but to do everything faster? Are we all wrong? It’s always easier, catchier, and simpler to argue that agility means doing more, faster, and cheaper.

Agile Transformation: Pilot or Big Bang?

Tue, 05 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Every leader in charge of a transformation process runs into this question. Even those who’ve already started one keep asking themselves whether they made the right call on the scale of the effort needed to guarantee the greatest positive impact.

In this article, I lay out what I see as the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches, along with the challenges a successful agile evolution involves.

Agile Pilot

The word pilot carries a particular connotation of “experimentation.” The truth is, every company that decides to run a “pilot” has a low risk profile.

If You're Agile, You Don't Need Project Managers

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

If the title of this article caught your attention, you know what I’m talking about. With the outsized rise of “agility,” it’s easy to find every kind of implementation showing a total lack of understanding of organizational dynamics. It’s not for nothing that someone once said 80% of implementations of one of the most popular agile methods (Scrum) were garbage. Still, the fact that these kinds of aberrations happen forces us to think critically and ask ourselves: what could actually be going on here?

Projects: The Glutton Syndrome

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Let me say it without beating around the bush: the academic world of project management has a mistake baked into it - a serious, painful mistake: assuming every project should be executed as long as it’s strategic and the money is there. What a colossal mistake!

To make my point, let me use one of the examples I like to use in my classes. Suppose you’re someone with a big appetite, who enjoys good food and is, frankly, a glutton. One day, with a wallet full of money, you visit your favorite restaurant and realize you can’t decide between your five (5) favorite dishes. At that moment you think: “I have the money, and this is what I want. I’m going to buy them all and eat them all.”

PMO: Evolve or Die

Fri, 23 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Many Project Management Offices (PMOs) urgently need a process of evolution that lets them prove their value to the business in an increasingly competitive and dynamic context. Building a work and management environment under an agile mindset, and adopting new practices at both the team and strategic levels, is imperative.

Purpose

PMOs are organizational structures that, whether centralized or not, contribute to delivering benefits (business value) through projects. Beyond good practices and “due process,” these structures need to work at strengthening strategy realization — a fancy way of saying that the things we dream up for our organizations actually happen. At the same time, PMOs need to enable early, timely, and constant validation of those benefits through risk management and by verifying assumptions and other contextual factors. Something like moving from talk to action, and validating results early.

Culture and Transformation: When Managing Isn't Enough Anymore

Sun, 18 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s be clear from the start: if an organization wants to get the most out of the much-hyped idea of organizational agility, to promote an agile mindset even beyond its teams, in complex and adaptive environments, it needs to consider change management as an integral part of the agile transformation process from day one. And here’s the point that interests me most: managing that transformation — processes, roles, structure — is necessary, but it’s not enough. At some point, culture will demand that you stop just managing and start leading.

Agility Will Fail!

Tue, 13 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Let’s get straight to the point: most agile transformations are shallow, marketing-driven, and designed to attract young talent with the illusion of a dream workplace.

The reality is different: traditional companies, with obsolete management schemes dressed up in pretty offices, with lighting and tables that look more like a trendy local coffee shop than a traditional workspace. But people are still stuck in daily stress, delivery pressure, the urgency that comes from poor organization, and, of course, high turnover.

How Agile, Really? Five Key Elements

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a lot of talk about agility, agility at scale, and DevOps. We’re in a new era — the era of the hippie agilist. No different from what happens in modern global politics, where selling hate is easier and more effective than doing things right. To some of these new hippies, any amount of order and governance seems to be evil. Some false prophets even associate the word “project” with the devil, or “the wicked one.” Every kind of fanaticism runs short on knowledge and experience — radical words only ever demonstrate fear and ignorance.