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“Is it possible to learn how to be better at managing change in an agile world?” This was the question Melanie Franklin, renowned Agile & Change Management expert, transformed into an answer. In 2014 she published the book “Agile Change Management – a practical framework for successful change planning and implementation”. The book provides an approach for managing transformational change initiatives, using a lot of the ideas from the agile methodologies. This book has led to the creation of the Agile Change Agent qualification. Two years ago we had the opportunity to interview Melanie Franklin and today we are proud to announce the launch of the Agile Change Agent courses.  

Agile Change Agent: an agile approach to change

An Agile approach to change is about doing change in waves of change. According to Melanie Franklin, Agile Change Management is about accepting that in this world of very fast-moving change, it is not a good idea to try and plan every single change detail upfront. The Agile Change Agent course & certification provides the participant with guidelines for those that want to work in a change. The course provides insight into how to plan and manage all the activities that are needed to design, deliver and adopt change in an Agile way. The course answers the question: “What makes a change successful?” “What is it that we really need to know to make a change successful?” “How can we manage our changes in an agile world?” It is not about what you have to do but how you are supposed to do it, the techniques you can use.  

Are you an Agile Change Agent?

You are a change agent if you are responsible for the creation of new ways of working as a result of a project investment. Or if you are in a change management role, where you are identifying what needs to be done by those who are going to have to work differently. But you are also a change agent if you are impacted by the change in sales, marketing, HR, finance, or other departments. You have daily priorities, you use existing ways of working to satisfy current customer demand and get the job done, but you are also mobilizing your colleagues and yourself to participate in the changes your organization makes/decides. So you are acting as a change agent. Understanding activities for effective change management and including them in your Agile project plan increases the chances that the deliverables from your project will be adopted as new business as usual working practices. People may not be called Change Agents but the point is that on top of their daily job they have a role to help make change happen and ultimately integrate change into the current ways of working.  

Why the Agile Change Agent course could be relevant for you?

• Agile and change explained on a practical level
• The course contains many problem-solving techniques
• You can benefit from a practical kit of techniques, checklists, and tools so you can start managing your change projects using what you have learned from the moment you leave the course
• The course helps those who know about change understand Agile, and those who know about Agile learn about change
• You can get a qualification on your CV that proves you have skills in Agile and Change Management - hitting the two hottest topics in business today.

  Want to know more? Visit our page Agile Change Agent

Scrum is a popular Agile Framework that helps teams function efficiently. It does so through predefined roles that provide structure, while still allowing for flexibility. Scrum is a framework that helps put the team into place and helps deliver works effectively. Scrum provides a structure for meetings, responsibilities, and artifacts. The goal of the framework is to create a fundamental sense of structure underneath shifting skills and project needs. Scrum is pretty flexible and can be adapted to the situation of the company.  

The Scrum Team

The dedicated Scrum roles are enough to describe the minimum responsibilities of the Scrum team. The size of the team and the specific skills depend on the project and the project phase, it can change over time. The predefined Scrum roles are the following:

• the Scrum Product Owner,
• the Scrum Master,
• Scrum Developer(s),
• Stakeholders.

The Scrum roles complement one another. Success can only come from embracing all three roles and giving them the opportunity to work together closely. All roles are unique and success is reached if they work together in synergy with two-way respect.  

The Scrum Product Owner

The Scrum Product Owner is the professional responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Development Team or, in other words, for maximizing business value for the project. He or she is responsible for articulating customer requirements and ensuring the business justification throughout the project. We can say this role embodies the voice of the Customer. The Product Owner must always maintain a dual view, understanding and supporting the needs and interests of all stakeholders, while also understanding the needs and workings of the Scrum Team. The Scrum Product Owner is, among other things, responsible for:

• Managing the Scrum backlog,
• Managing Stakeholders,
• Managing releases.

In short, the Scrum Product Owner is the hub of business value.  

The Scrum Master

The Scrum Master is the professional who coaches the team towards the adoption of the Scrum Framework. The core responsibility of a Scrum Master is to lead the Scrum Team to the correct understanding and enactment of the Scrum theory, practices, and rules. He/she is the professional responsible for ensuring that the Agile philosophy is understood and enabled inside the whole organization (that is the reason why is preferable that the Scrum Master belongs to the organization instead of being freelance). The main responsibility of the Scrum Master is being a process facilitator for the Product Owner and for all the Scrum Team. The Scrum Master is, among other things, responsible for:

• Promoting values,
• Ensuring transparency,
• Enabling self-organization,
• Planning sprints.

In short, the Scrum Master is the protector of everything Scrum. Discover now our course →  ABC SCRUM Master Training  

The Scrum Developer

The Scrum Developer is the professional responsible for creating the project deliverables, together with the entire Development Team. The Development Team is made by professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable increment of “Done” product at the end of each Sprint. Each Scrum Developer is responsible for delivering a functional element (or chunk) of the product at the end of each sprint. The Scrum Developer is also responsible for:

• Delivering work,
• Estimating the user stories in the sprint backlog,
• Understanding the business requirements,
• Ensuring transparency,
• Being organized.

In short, the Scrum Developer team is the autonomous collective.  

Stakeholders

The Stakeholders are not a direct part of the Scrum team but influence highly the course of events. The stakeholder has to keep a healthy relationship with the Scrum Product Owner to share the details of the project. The Stakeholder provides regular input to the Product Owner and prioritizes work effectively with the Product Owner, to ensure the project development. The Stakeholder in a Scrum Project is responsible for:

• Regular input to queries of the Scrum Product Owner.
• Conveying his wishes and concerns with the Scrum Product Owner.
• Share all possible details with the Scrum Product Owner.

  Source: The Scrum Guide

In his previous interview (Using Best Practices in IT), Xavier Van Lindt explained how Best Practices prevent communication problems encountered by IT. In this second article, Xavier presents how Best Practices help to avoid IT security problems. Indeed, the second problem observed which joins the first point on the lack of communication is security. Security is the result of effective communication between business management and IT. IT security is only in alignment with the security needs mentioned by the business. Here too, the impact is spread over the 3 hierarchical levels of the company (strategic/tactical/operational). It is therefore governance that will make it possible to know what the needs and requirements of the businesses are with regard to security. Several Best Practices address the topic of IT security. In the ITIL 4 framework, security is studied in the strategic modules ITIL Direct Plan and Improve and ITIL Leader Digital & IT Strategy. In DevOps, there is a module dedicated to security, which is one of its fundamental principles, DevSecOps. Contrary to popular belief, IT security is not just a design concern. It is not enough to put passwords, firewalls, or ISPs. DevOps modules teach that security is present in everyday life when you are in the RUN (production). During a run, the overarching concept of safety is called observability. It is often forgotten that it is essential to observe everything that is happening in order not to miss anything in terms of safety. IT Security is not just about hacking, phishing, or spamming. IT Security is also about the availability of data, in addition to confidentiality and integrity. DevOps, through its SRE, Continuous Delivery, and DevSecOps modules, focuses on measuring everything that happens in production to be sure to guarantee availability.  

IT security incorporated in Best Practices

The master benchmark for security remains the ISO 27000 series. ITIL mentions security as a practice, but DevOps, in a very operational way, focuses on observability and culture. In DevOps Foundation and DevSecOps security is not just the role of the CISO but the concern of ALL members of the organiSation, which makes it a cultural phenomenon. Safety is not technical, it is above all cultural and comes from the profession. Everyone needs to be involved, which is well mentioned by DevOps. Thus, what we will expect from the CISO (Chief information security officer) is not simply to evoke security policies (as mentioned in the ITIL 4 training) but also an evangelization of the entire IT department. As well as of users and customers at the level of different security aspects (strategic or operational tactics). Safety is everywhere and concerns everyone. Since security is not just a matter of politics, mechanisms or systems must be designed, tested, and supervised in operation. In order to keep Safety in line, we must communicate! There are 5 universal concepts found in DevOps, ISO, and ITIL repositories, to protect the information the organization needs to run its business:

• Confidentiality: access to data limited to authorized persons
• Integrity: accuracy throughout the system
• Availability: data available when, where, and for whom.
• Authentication: ensure the identity of the requester
• Non-repudiation: being able to prove the action carried out.

However, the DevSecOps framework broadens the topic, makes security a cultural aspect in addition to being technological, and places a huge focus on observability. Knowing everything that goes on in day-to-day production is an integral part of safety. Unfortunately, even though almost all companies have observability tools, there is not always someone in front of the screens to see what is going on. Or you do not really get to see what you should see, so the issue returns. ITIL calls this practice “event management”; DevOps, “observability” but above all DevOps focuses on the criticality of security and event management. For a professional who would like to run security, I recommend ISO 27000 training and for the professional who wants to understand the security issue as a whole, I recommend DevSecOps training instead.  

Xavier van Lindt

Xavier is Senior Consultant and accredited trainer ITIL 4 Foundation & Intermediate, ITIL v3 Foundation, Practitioner & Intermediate, ITIL MALC, ITIL Expert, DevOps Foundation, ISO20000 Foundation, Lean IT Foundation, Lean, Kaizen, Scrum Master, DevOps Leader, DevOps SRE, DevOps continuous delivery, Integrated Service Management (ISM).

Hospitals are going through a period of change and reform, facing the challenging task of delivering transformation while protecting quality, the effective use of resources, and continuing productivity. This change is unrelated to the current situation regarding Covid-19. The hospital sector shared its need for a framework to manage and control the delivery of change across the portfolio, program, and project management. The aim is to build its capabilities to manage the implementation of transformation objectives both effectively and efficiently.  

Why Is Project Management Important in Healthcare?

A number of statistics show the enormous size of the healthcare industry and its impact on the overall Swiss economy. (Figures provided by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/health.html) These statistics underscore how much work is required in healthcare project management to continuously improve operations in such a large industry. Healthcare costs in Switzerland amount to 11.7% of GDP, making it the second-highest in Europe. In the 2018 Euro Health Consumer Index survey, Switzerland was ranked first and described as having an excellent healthcare system. For this reason, healthcare project management has become even more important in recent years. This is largely due to safety concerns: an ineffectively managed healthcare project can lead to patient health problems.  

Challenges Of Healthcare Project Management

Project management in healthcare is distinct because it takes complexity and risk to a whole new level. Here are some of the primary reasons it’s different than other industries:

1. Funding and Optimization
2. Quality and Efficiency
3. High Discipline Diversity
4. Lack of Skilled Resources
5. Deficient Change Methodology

1. Funding and Optimization

Project management aligns money with activity. It ensures you have the funding for your efforts at various stages of a project. To derive the greatest benefit from the available finance the project must be optimized, which means allocating exactly the right amount of space towards, operating theatres, diagnostic suites, public areas, and other facilities to design the most cost-efficient arrangement.

2. Quality and Efficiency

The cost-reducing force of managed care has galvanized numerous mergers and acquisitions in the hospital and medical group sectors in an attempt to gain economies of scale and offer a more economically attractive service. There are harsher and more serious ramifications if projects go over budget or off schedule because patients’ well-being may be at stake. Any mistake or lack of process can have a detrimental effect on patients. Quality control is a major part of project management: in healthcare, all opportunities should be considered for efficiency from the project’s inception. This includes ensuring that the architectural and engineering designs are aligned to the budgetary and functional goals of the project. The increased demand for healthcare combined with rising costs has put more pressure on the industry to deliver economical, high-quality services. Trying to find the balance between efficiency and quality places even more importance on the need for better project management.

3. High Discipline Diversity

High-technology care is provided by very specialized health care professionals. Teams of multiple disciplines, especially if they have not worked together before, are likely to lack a common language. People from the same discipline share a common meaning for the words they use and understand each other. But, when a number of disciplines are involved—surgery, physical therapy, social work, nursing—people may use the same words and incorrectly assume they mean the same to everyone around the table. In communication terms, what occurs is the erroneous translation: a person from one discipline encodes a meaning for a term but someone from a different discipline decodes a different meaning. As a result, the message is not understood. This is particularly difficult to address in the health care team because of the apparent simplicity of the terminology. Perhaps the safest assumption the project leader can make at the start of the effort is that people from different disciplines do not understand each other and that giving and receiving feedback is crucial. Asking apparently obvious questions can be very useful until a common language is achieved within the team. The project manager must ensure that team members overcome their functional unfamiliarity and have to confront the skepticism and suspicion between functions before the team can work effectively.

4. Lack of Skilled Resources

As health care’s landscape changes, so do the type of resources required on successful projects. The current trend of adopting the Project Management Office (PMO) framework does not always equate to the ability to successfully lead multi-organization projects, work side by side with clinicians to change care delivery, or assess the impact of a significant regulation. A project team without the necessary skills and experiences, including health care industry expertise, will ultimately fail. → Read more about the setup of a PMO in the hospital sector in this interview.

5. Deficient Change Methodology

The pressure to change rapidly is especially palpable in health care, as organizations that historically ‘grew into’ change now must employ change methodology to be successful. Often, projects do not include a workstream dedicated to preparing the organization for significant change. Change communication is particularly challenging due to the political dichotomy between physicians and administration. The result is a lack of understanding, acceptance, and ultimately adoption of the change, leading to failed project outcomes. A range of other issues is affecting the evolving industry — issues for which project management is increasingly vital. These issues include the following:

• Decreasing payments from government health programs and private insurance companies have compelled healthcare organizations to find ways to save money.
• New and complicated systems for electronic health records on patients need continual monitoring and improvement.
• New technologies also need tracking and improvement.
• New regulations continue to emerge.
• There is greater scrutiny from outside groups, including the government, health insurance companies, and patients.

 

Benefits of Healthcare Project Management

Strong project management helps improve healthcare and the healthcare industry in a number of ways. Project management can do the following:

Ensure

• that the technical composition of the project team is based on the project objective. If the objective is to reduce costs, ensure that all members are knowledgeable about cost measurement and accounting.
• that team members are at a high enough level in their respective organizations that recommendations have a high probability of being implemented.
• that the politics of integration are not underestimated. Only when team members appreciate that all stand or fall together can the actual project work begin.
• that team members genuinely relate to each other as peers. Hierarchy must not interfere with the peer relationships of the team. The person(s) who directs the team in solving a particular problem should be that member with the relevant knowledge and experience, rather than the person at the top of the implicit hierarchy.

Improve

• the quality of care by improving processes used to provide that care.
• communication among healthcare staff caring for patients.
• organizational planning.
• budgeting, as strong project management directly aligns resources with important work.
• processes that are established to decrease the risk of lawsuits — in large part because improved processes increase the quality of care.
• relations with stakeholders, including insurance providers, government agencies, patients, and others.
• staff productivity.
• the mitigation of the risk and prevent legal issues from arising.

PMI’s PMP certification underwent a major change in 2021. Unlike in previous years, the Exam Content Outline (ECO) balances the certification content between the traditional method of project management and the management of ongoing projects in Agile or Hybrid mode. In fact, currently, half of the 180 PMP exam questions are about Agility. Among the new concepts introduced in the official training material of PMI, we can highlight the Product Minimum Viable (Minimum Viable Product – MVP) and the Minimum Business Increment (MBI). These concepts are widely used and come from the field of ‘Lean Startup’. Within the new PMP training, they are included in the context of Agile methods.  

Origin and definition of the MVP 

MVP stands for Minimal Viable Product. Frank Robinson introduced the concept of MVP in 2001 and sees it as the result of the process of parallel product and customer development. Robinson has found that the team spends a lot of time adding features that do not add value, which creates additional risk. The solution is therefore to find the right size of the product for the company and for the customer. This should be enough to drive customer adoption and customer satisfaction. In 2011, the term was repeated by Eric Ries in his Best-Seller “The Lean Startup” which presents his experiences in the creation of startups. He defines MVP as a new version of the product that allows the team to gather as much knowledge as possible about customer needs and validate them by testing hypotheses. The goal is to minimize the effort and time in product development. Eric Ries cites Dropbox as an example that used this concept and created a 3-minute video to explain how the product works. In a single day, the signatures of the people involved went from 5,000 to 75,000 without having the product. MVP also allows for rapid feedback from clients on their interests and preferences without engaging in a cumbersome and haphazard development process that may ultimately be out of line with their expectations.  

MVP in project management

A 2013 Standish Group study on IT development projects shows that only 20% of features are frequently used by customers and 50% of features are used very little. For the remaining 30% of the features, they are sometimes used and do not really help improve customer perception. The results are consistent with the Pareto principle which is based on the following law: 80% of the effects are the product of 20% of the causes. Thus, the adaptation of this rule shows that 20% of the functionalities achieve 80% of customer satisfaction. It should also be remembered that the first principle underlying the Agile Manifesto is to satisfy the customer by quickly and regularly delivering high added value features. The above results clearly show the importance of MVP in product design and development based on the concept of “minimal” and “viability”. PMI also finds that creating an MVP inspires the team to achieve the goal of the project. When the results are too abstract or too far apart, teams can become discouraged or overwhelmed. Minimally viable products create short-term urgency and a sense of accomplishment. All of these are valuable for the client, but also for the project team. The idea of ​​an iterative process is to create a version of a raw product and at the same time seek customer feedback. Thus, desired changes and design issues are identified at the right time. Each cycle is an opportunity to improve the product in an iterative and/or incremental way. We can thus understand why this concept is taken up a few decades later, in the management of projects in Agile mode which is based on the prioritization and organization of the functionalities in Backlog and on the segmentation of the product in iterations that deliver the functionalities with strong added value first.  

Characteristics of an MVP

1. Adequate value perceived by the customer:

The MVP must create sufficient value among customers that encourages them to use it.

2. Assurance on future profits

The MVP must also retain the first customers giving assurance and visibility on the development of the expected benefits.

3. Continuous improvement

The MVP is an iterative process that is part of a continuous improvement process in the sense that we have access to customer feedback which can be integrated over time into the future development of the product.  

Successful MVP examples 

1. Zappos

Zappos launched in 1999, the success story of Lean Startup. Its founder had the idea of ​​selling shoes on the internet. The idea did not seem very promising in the sense that the shoes should be tried on before they are purchased. Through a basic site, it showed pictures of shoes from nearby stores. With each order placed, he bought the shoes, repackaged them, shipped them, and provided after-sales service himself. Following the increase in sales, he was able to convince investors to finance his startup, which was subsequently bought out for $ 1 billion by Amazon.

2. Uber

At the time of its creation, Uber combined drivers available to carry passengers with people wishing to travel. As it developed, the company added other features to meet other customer requirements.

3. Airbnb

For Airbnb, two young designers knew that an important convention was being organized in San Francisco and that the rooms would not be available. They then rented the rooms in their apartment with basic services (Air bed and breakfast) hence the name of the company. This is how they invented a new concept of the rental by eliminating intermediation.

4. Amazon

Amazon started out exclusively by selling books online through a simple web page before diversifying its offering to its customers. Its concrete examples show the importance of MVP in the incremental creation of value and in the control of the risk of non-compliance until the delivery of the final product.  

Prioritization techniques

One of the fundamental characteristics of agile approaches is the maintenance of a product backlog that reflects the list of desired capabilities, written in the form of user stories. This list is prioritized by presenting the elements with the highest commercial value first. Among the prioritization techniques mentioned in the context of PMP certification, we can mention:

• MoSCoW method: classify the functionalities in the categories Must Have (vital), Should Have (essential), Could Have (Comfort), and Won’t Have (Later). This method identifies an MVP.
• Kano method: identification of the really essential capacities from a classification of the functionalities or capacities in the categories Basic, Performance, or attractive.
• Pairwise comparison: consists of comparing each pair of user stories to determine the priority US.
• 100 points method: each stakeholder distributes a total of 100 points over the different user stories, which allows them to be prioritized.

 

The Minimum Business Value Increment (MBI) 

Some projects improve or revise products that are already in service. As such, an MVP is not necessary to assess interest. Using the concept of minimum business value increment (MBI) is more viable. MBI is the smallest amount (increment) of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business.

• Minimum: the smallest amount of value that can be achieved. Focusing on a minimum accelerates the realization of value and facilitates the management of work (time, cost …).
• Business: deliver value from a business perspective, aimed at customers and aligned with the business strategy of the company.
• Increment: the realization is done in an incremental way to validate the achievements and avoid waste and the risk of non-conformity of the final product or service.

The MBI provides a common guideline and direction within all of the company’s teams. Definition, implementation, and commissioning work are focused on delivering a high added value increment. It thus makes it possible to sequence the list of jobs based on the realization of value as the basic criterion. The use of an MVP is therefore justified in the case of the discovery of certain elements of value and in a context of innovation (new customers, new products, and concepts). Whereas the MBI is used in the case where the customers or the product already exist and one wishes to improve the existing offer.  

Haykel Kchaou

Haykel is an accredited PMP, PMI-PBA, PRINCE2 trainer with over 15 years of field experience and PMI Authorized Instructor.

Jeff has over 25 years of experience in project and program management. He has carried out end-to-end IT projects in multicultural environments. As Programme Manager and PMO, Jeff organized the P3O installations at NEC Computers and Fortis Bank. He managed the program offices of the largest transformation programs of NEC Computers and BNP Investment Partners. He is a multilingual trainer for AgilePM, PRINCE2, MSP, P3O, and MoP, able to provide courses in both English and French.  

What is your current function? What are you working on at present?

These are changing times. Last year, I did a lot of bespoke Project Management training for a major international client of QRP. And last year, I was also an author! I used the lockdown to finish a book that I had been working on for 10 years. This year, I am marketing my book. I am also delivering various QRP courses.  

How did you build a career in Project Management?

I started off in the UK as a programmer and business analyst. When I moved to France, I became an IT project manager. The projects got bigger and bigger – I ran two big projects in Argentina and the USA. And I innovated: in the mid-’90s, I introduced Agile techniques into a global project. The next career move was to become program manager of the worldwide Y2K initiative for NEC Computers. Then I moved sideways. After Y2K, I set up an IT PMO for NEC Computers and I was program office manager (PMO) for two major business transformation programs.  

What is the biggest problem or challenge today in Project Management that you have found in your career?

The biggest challenge is to get an entire team of project managers to use a common project management method. There is a huge payback if everyone uses the same method. But it is hard to do – the method has to be simple but effective, and there has to be strong engagement.  

What advice would you give to the PPM community?

Whatever your role in PPM, build a real Community of Practice to share and develop your good practices. That means practices that really work in your organization. Proven solutions, not textbook solutions.  

Could you tell us about your book “Lean3 Project Management”?

When I was working at NEC Computers, a senior manager introduced Lean Manufacturing into the company. It was sensational: a huge, positive change. Ever since then, I have been trying to work out how to transfer the best of Lean Manufacturing into Project Management. Many concepts will not translate – the factory is based on repetitive processes whereas each project is a one-off. So I was panning for gold. It was hard to find, but, yes, there were nuggets waiting to be found… I started writing a book ten years ago, and the answers came slowly, year by year. By 2019 I had a working draft – and some clients who were thinking along the same lines as me, to test out ideas. In 2020, during the Covid lockdown, I had time to bring everything together, and publish the book. I am really pleased with the final book. The subtitle of the book is “Lean Project Management for repeated project success”. My vision is the Project Factory, where project management is industrialized and success is repeatable. My book is the starting point for that vision.  

A final word?

I started working with QRP International in 2006, when it was a 3-man start-up. Today, 15 years later, QRP has grown considerably. I am still a QRP trainer. Over the 15 years, I have given a huge range of training courses in 13 countries and have worked with some really great clients. It has been a truly interesting journey.  

Jeff Ball

Jeff has over 25 years of experience in project and program management. He has carried out end-to-end IT projects in multicultural environments. As Programme Manager and PMO, Jeff organized the P3O installations at NEC Computers and Fortis Bank; He managed the program offices of the largest transformation programs of NEC Computers and BNP Investment Partners. He is a multilingual trainer for AgilePM, PRINCE2, MSP, P3O, and MoP, able to provide courses in both English and French.