“The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they’re organized for.”
-Laura Ingalls Wilder

Nearly every large organization does it.  Just when we think we’ve learned…made an impact…demonstrated that success is possible on large projects in massive organizations riddled with problems…the need to control takes over, and lessons are lost.  Outdated management theory that has stifled innovation in our businesses for decades is reapplied.

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There are so many well-thought out software development (SD) methods. They are laid out beautifully on paper- diagrams of traceability of activities and artifacts to take ideas from users’ minds all the way through product implementation and operation. Together with some templates, guidance, tools, training, and packaged together in a professional way, a software development method is born. more »

Getting away from the need to internalize project decisions and problems, and instead being the conduit of such things (the “passive conduit”) from the team to the right people can be an effective practice, but on most projects, the responsibility doesn’t stop until action is taken on all of these things. The Agile PM - especially in organizations where Agile is new - often also fills the role of ‘obstacle remover’ and ‘change agent’ and should do whatever will help the group understand how they can operate differently to succeed. more »

“It is only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything” - Tyler Durden

This statement (from a popular movie, Fight Club, of all places) has been incredibly valuable in my transition to (and growth as) an Agile project manager, scrum master, and coach over the years.

Successfully moving to Agile is very much about abandoning rules and practices that were made to deal with limitations of the past. In the past, as a project manager on traditional projects, in addition to “management” activities, I had to make decisions- sometimes about technology, or product, or schedule, or other. The burden placed on project managers in many large organizations is tremendous. Ironic that the project manager is often the person in the worst position to make these decisions - usually without reporting authority of her/his teams, without the most domain expertise (when compared to business sponsors, for example) or technical expertise, etc. more »