Hello, I’m Veronica
The sky is not completely dark at night. Were the sky absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky.
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Do You Need BPM?
Business Process Management (BPM) application suites push the power of design, execution and improvement of processes toward business users. You’ve invested a bunch of time, energy and money on your enterprise sys
tems over the years. As soon as those implementations were complete, perhaps even before, something changed in your business. Immediately, the systems you put in place were obsolete leading to the creation of inefficient workarounds, renegade applications or manual processes. BPM allows you to improve how you execute current processes, insures that your enterprise systems continue to deliver the value promised and protects future technology investments. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, you may benefit from the power of BPM:- Are there examples where customer expectations are consistently not fully met?
- Are routine transactions handled well, but any exceptions cause excessive effort and delay?
- Are there established best practices that are not being followed by all staff members?
- Do regulatory requirements or service levels dictate that specific procedures and timeframes are met or penalties are incurred?
- Do teams need to work collaboratively, coordinate activities, or gain expertise quickly and only have email to assist?
- Do individuals have to use multiple software applications to complete their step in a process?
- Do business rules change frequently due to promotions, and other changing business needs?
- Are there areas where work spans multiple organizations?
- Is it difficult for managers to get real-time reports on key process metrics like average transaction processing time or to find specific bottlenecks?
- Have manual workarounds been implemented to compensate for inadequate systems?
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Project Manager to Scrum Master
Many organizations looking to Agile methodologies to gain better results more quickly at lower costs are taking on the question of what is the role of a Project Manger (PM) on Agile Projects. It is common for a traditional PM to take scrum master training and then assume that role for agile development. But, how similar are these two roles? Let’s begin with definitions:
- Project Manager: responsible for project success through planning and coordinating; staffing; assigning and tracking tasks; managing scope, issues and risks; tracking schedule and budget; ensuring quality, etc…
- Scrum Master: specialized in ensuring scrum principles are implemented as intended by facilitating agile practices on the team and protecting team members from impediments and distractions.
Agile teams assign themselves tasks and report their own status. In addition, agile projects are confined by time and scope with requirements adjusting to deliver the highest value based on input from the Product Owner. This means traditional PM methods don’t fit. It is important for all to understand the transition is not as easy as adding a few new tools to the PMs kit. The shift in a PMs role from director to one who serves and supports a team requires at once a fundamental shift in philosophy and development of significantly different new skills.
PMs who successfully transition to agile must make a mind shift from focusing on technical activities like planning, executing and controlling to becoming adept at a more creative process of speculating, exploring and adapting. They will find themselves learning how to guide their team in responding to change rather than managing to a plan. They will build softer skills in facilitation, collaboration and communication to get results in a new environment where the team makes decisions instead of being told what to do. Rather than accepting responsibility themselves, they will help team members take more individual responsibility and better understand the business and its users. Most team members may be uncomfortable with their new roles at first, so the PM will need to build understanding while fostering team cohesion and good communication.
Clearly, the new agile role is different from the traditional one. The shift is not easy, but PMs dedicated to results and willing to make the change will learn to apply new principles and skills that are rewarding and worth the effort.
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Hello world!
This blog will share mostly professional thoughts and learning, but occasionally, I will throw in some personal insights and ideas just to keep things lively. Topics will incldue: Applying Agile, Leadership, Business and Technology Strategy, Process Optimization and others that come to mind. Thanks for tuning in.
About Me
The sky is not completely dark at night. Were the sky absolutely dark, one would not be able to see the silhouette of an object against the sky.
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