by Pawel Brodzinski on September 1, 2010
The other day I was asked to discuss how we can improve the way one of our software development teams works. Well, actually it was rather something like “Pawel, help us to implement Kanban” but, as it soon appeared, it wasn’t that simple.
A typical discussion about implementing Kanban
Me: So where do we start?
Colleague: Um, I’m not really sure if Kanban is really for us. Convince me.
Me: I don’t want to. If something doesn’t suit your team I’ll be the last person to convince you to implement it.
Colleague: So where do we start?
Me: Maybe with problems you and the team have. I guess there are some otherwise we wouldn’t be talking now.
It isn’t about applying recipes
The discussion changed its course. We immediately switched from discussing Kanban to talking about issues and looking for a solution which would be suitable in each and every individual case. If one of problems is people don’t want to have yet another place to do task management, and they can’t abandon either of current systems, introducing Kanban board may not be as great idea as it initially appears.
If you start discussion with the conclusion already fixed in your head you will not only miss opportunities to improve but you also risk applying the wrong cure and making the situation worse.
It is OK if you just don’t know
A couple of times through the discussion I came up to the point where I had no idea what the right solution might be. And this is perfectly OK. It’s not about playing knowledgeable person. It’s about giving the good advice or not giving any advice at all.
What more, admitting that you don’t know the answer is just a starting point for digging deeper. Each of these moments triggered some changes in our analysis. If we can’t go further here, maybe we should try there. Let’s stop talking about techniques which may or may not work and make a fast-paced Q&A session about potential issues the team may face. Or maybe let’s do mental walkthrough of processes the team covers.
As it appeared each time we admitted that we don’t know helped us with coming up with a reasonable conclusions at the very end.
Adjust tools for people, not the other way around
When you know some method or approach and it works fine for you, you are always tempted to apply it in other environments too. The problem is other environment means other people. As a result your approach may not be so great anymore.
But who said you can’t change the approach? Are methods we use some kind of dogma? Actually choosing a subset of techniques or practices from any given methodology is usually better than not using them at all. And if you choose wisely even a couple of small changes may yield significant improvements. So yes, do adjust methods before applying them.
That doesn’t mean people shouldn’t change ever. Of course they should. But motivation to change should be intrinsic and not enforced from outside, i.e. because manager told so.
A funny thing is that with this approach you can end with similar conclusion to the one you started with. The difference is now you are more likely to succeed as, even though you aim at the same target, you will choose different way to get there.
And in case you were curious, yes, we eventually came back to Kanban.
by Pawel Brodzinski on August 30, 2010
A subject of learning project management returns here periodically. When discussing this kind of issues I tend to share some raw ideas everyone has to adjust to their specific situation before applying. But today I have a complete recipe for those struggling with gathering first experience in project management.
Of course a starting point here will be Scott Berkun’s: go run a project. And I do have a great idea for a project…
For those of you who are aware what TED and TEDx are please skip next two paragraphs. For the rest of you, read on.
TED is a conference which gathers top-notch leaders and speakers from wide variety of disciplines to deliver short (not longer than 18-minute long) presentations which have one common point: they are all about ideas worth spreading. Average TED speech can be pretty much about anything but it definitely is remarkable. Among TED speakers you can find Bill Gates, Bono, Bill Clinton and others whose names start on a letter B. Um… actually they do have speakers with names starting on other letters too.
TEDx events are local conferences, made on TED license and following the same principles. All over the world groups of people, who are independent of TED, organize TED-like events to enable spreading ideas. As TEDx events are non-profit none of these people is getting paid, even though organizing a conference isn’t that easy after all. Especially when you aim at quality of even like original TED.
And that’s where we come back to the story about learning project management. Organizing a conference is quite a project. Actually I joined organizers of TEDxKrakow so I can assure you it is a project and a pretty difficult one.
For none of us it is a daily job so we spend a lot of our free time trying to put thing together. Since we also happen to have jobs which pay the rent there are a lot external difficulties making it harder to fulfill promises we make in front of the team. We are spread all over the city, all over the world actually, so we face communication issues. There are all sorts of people so misunderstandings are something to be expected. And you know what? We could still use every reliable pair of helping hands we could get. Sounds pretty much like a definition of a typical project if you ask me.
So if you still think about learning project management, forget all those certificates and find local TEDx (or similar) event. I promise organizers would greet you warmly and if you prove you can be counted on, you’ll be considered as very valuable team member. Did I mention specific skills you need to have? No, because there are none.
Now, you won’t learn about Gantt charts, project plans or budgeting. What you’d learn instead is how really projects look like. It will be much more valuable experience.
I hope I convinced you, but before you go to look for your local TEDx event, help us with the one I used as example – TEDxKrakow. Share the news about possibly the best conference in Krakow this year. We already have a diplomat, researcher, educator, entrepreneurs, organic food exponent and a couple of performers in our lineup but that’s definitely not all. TEDx conferences are nothing like single-industry events but that’s actually the best part of TEDx.
And if you are able to join us in Krakow on Oct 15, the registration is open. We want to have great audience so we need you.
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