How to know if Agile is right fit for project or not?

One of the common question I am asked is, How do I know if agile is right fit for my project or not?

While there could be multiple factors influencing this decision, here I am reviewing the top 6 points that shall help you make a decision -

1. Team's location - well, while many would debate on this, but it is not that easy to run agile projects if team is spread across multiple locations/sites and in some cases floors. If you are considering "scrum of scrums" scenario, you may have those scrum teams across multiple locations/sites but 'one scrum team" should ideally be co-located.
2. How urgent the changes are - If changes are urgent, frequent, only model that could save you is "agile", so don't look further,, go for it. It is in the core of agile to be able to support business agility.
3. How clear the requirements are - Sort of connects back to the point #2, if the requirements are not clear upfront (well low level), so this would mean that frequent changes, so agile is the model to go for. 
4. Can it be sliced into smaller usable chunks? - Agile demands the work to be broken down into smaller chunks, and each of that chunk should be "usable" some way. If that's not viable, agile might not really fit as you would end up with large chunks of work that would take several days to finish, making it difficult to adapt to frequent changes if need be, and further taking longer to demo or time to release to end user.
5. Access to PO/users - Agile needs access to Product Owner or user quite regularly (actually PO), and if no one person can take charge of it, agile just won't work. You need someone who can write requirement statements (aka user stories), help groom the stories that development team can understand and implement.
6. Process v/s project - repetitive or new endevour? - Of course, go back to the definition of project - is it really a project or a process, if later, head elsewhere, it is not a candidate for agile.

List doesn't end here, but hope this helps get broad idea to start with. Happy to hear your views.

DevOps Basics - Communication & Ownership

I saw this pic on a slide in an online tutorials about DevOps, and it immediately caught my attention, hey! I recognize this!

How common is it to throw the stuff over the wall....but wait! we do take ownership of the 'stuff with us', but probably when done with 'our part', we tend to pass it over without too much of deliberation, or concern, or knowledge about it thereafter.

(image courtesy udacity.com)

...and what if the end user (customer) throws is back too!?...remember when that happened to you last time?...to me that happened just last week.

If I go back few years, I have had stuff thrown over to me and having no clue what to do with it, and how to deal with the situation, task or whatever, and I recall having done this myself (hey unintentional! OK :P), and stuff happens, and the question is - can it be avoided....Yes!, of course.

Communication is the key! To some it comes with ease, while for few others it is just ain't easy. Just like everything else, it takes practice, more practice and little courage and I heard beer works great too :D !

Ownership and a bit of attitude to pick up and fix the stuff! Some of us might think that "ownership" means more actions on oneself, but in my opinion ownership gives you more choices to act, and better control over any situation.

...and Break the silos!...is it same as communication?...well I think it is more about those 'virtual' walls we usually have created, than 'communication;...what say? Silos could exist between two people sitting next to each other, who talk so often. It is like being a bird in 'cage without walls'. Sorry I just over-complicated the definition of silos :P

We all love to get the things done, no one wants to be on team that has customer throwing stuff back at them, is n't it?, but working in silos is just so convenient at times, people just find it easy to 'throw over the wall'.

Enough, I am done! Going back to my next slide...

Scrum Master - Part Time or Full Time? - Answered!

According to my friend Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, Scrum Master is a full time role and here is what he stated in his Scrum Handbook - 

Since Scrum makes visible many impediments and threats to the team’s and Product Owner’s effectiveness, it is important to have an engaged ScrumMaster working energetically to help resolve those issues... Scrum teams should have a dedicated full-time ScrumMaster, although a smaller team might have a team member play this role. 

Did you get his point? Read this again and focus on the highlighted text above. 

It is a full time role and job both, probably easy to digest for large teams but most would disagree that this is a full time role for an average size scrum team. Going by Jeff's statement above - in a smaller team (6-8 members) a team member may be playing the role of scrum master. Mind it, even in this case, it is a full time role as this member might be involved in coding-testing activities but he would still be spending good time doing servant leader activities as well - like removing impediments, continuous improvement, ensuring scrum is followed, and so on. In a larger team this role gets to spend more time doing all of that and lot more. 

In my experience I have seen a good mix of the following -

- scrum masters supporting more than one scrum teams - team or project compromised? Most likely yes!

- scrum masters involved in tasks not related to scrum or scrum team - compromised? Yes

So think again if you or any of your teams practice part-time scrum master role. 

What is the best way to resolve conflicts in Agile Scrum teams?

Before we discover the best way to conflict resolution - try to answer these questions -

1. If a team member or some of the team members observe that a particular member is not performing as he/she should who should they talk to about this first? - Product Owner, Scrum Master, Manager or that member?
2. Who should resolve conflicts in scrum teams? - Scrum Master, Product Owner, Manager, or the team?

Answers to the above questions are 1) member, 2) the team. Did you get you questions right? If not, here is explanation -

There is no role called Manager in scrum, so it has to be one of other three parties - since Scrum teams are self-organizing teams so as first step they are expected to talk to the member they have problem with to resolve any possible issues, conflicts. Important part is 'first step' - if this doesn't work, they may take Scrum Master's help and/or may follow organization escalation process.

So the best way to resolve scrum team conflicts is that team shall discuss about issues within themselves and try to resolve it that way.

CSM v/s PSM v/s ACP - explained! - updated on 23rd June 2015

Let's understand few of the leading Agile certifications - CSM (Certified Scrum Master), PSM (Professional Scrum Master), ACP (Agile Ceritified Professional), ICP-APM (ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Project Management) - in three easy steps -

1) CSM is from www.scrumalliance.org, PSM from www.scrum.org, and ACP is from www.PMI.org (yes, same organization that offers popular PMP certification), ICP is from another independent organization ICAgile (https://icagile.com)

2) CSM can be equated with PSM (Level1) but none of these two can be equated with ACP - first two are Agile Scrum specific certifications, where as ACP and ICP are more extensive and focus on Agile as whole.

3) CSM - get mandatory training (paid) from www.scrumalliance.org and take exam (free) on their website and you are done (I don't know anyone who has ever failed this exam - so kool!), PSM is slightly difficult, no mandatory trainings - pay exam fee online at www.scrum.org and take exam. As you would know from my earlier point, ACP is the most difficult one to earn. You can learn more about ACP at www.pmi.org, to earn ICP you need to attend a mandatory two day training, no exams though, certification is at discretion of trainer (anyone ever denied a certification thus far?).

Final verdict - as an expert myself, i suggest to go for PMI ACP if you really want a certification that industry cares about. A certification doesn't guarantee you a job or any other award, but it surely is a distinction that stands you apart in this crowded professional world. Good luck!