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Projects, unlike operations, are unique undertakings that lead to unique outcomes. They face unique challenges that require an ecosystem where knowledge is easily acquired, produced, and integrated or shared. This way, unique challenges that are faced can be readily overcome through effective and timely knowledge transfer.
Project Managers need to proactively establish the formulation of such an ecosystem. The size and complexity of projects will determine how much effort and time is required to develop such an ecosystem that may be readily deployed to facilitate knowledge transfer in a project.
Knowledge is transferred primarily through codified documents such as records and files or through experience that is not codified. Codified knowledge is explicit knowledge which accounts for 5% of relevant knowledge required. Uncodified knowledge is tacit knowledge that accounts for 95% of knowledge needed to resolve unique challenges in projects. Hence the ecosystem developed should be one that facilitates experience sharing.
Several stages are involved in ensuring knowledge transfer occurs. They include clarifying project responsibilities as well as knowledge required to undertake these responsibilities. For example, an engineer may be required to design a shaft using Computer Aided Design. The knowledge required to do so has to be clarified. In the event this knowledge is not available, attempts should be made to locate the source of this knowledge so that it may be readily accessed.
For knowledge transfer to occur smoothly throughout all phases in a project, a suitable working environment to do so should be provided. Such a working environment should be identified in the planning stage of the project and provided to the team during project execution. The working environment should facilitate knowledge transfer techniques proposed such as work shadowing, networking, training that emerge at different phases of the project.
Apart from facilitating knowledge transfer, project managers should be mindful of the need to store and reuse knowledge that has been produced through knowledge sharing. This can be done through the development of project lessons learned for individual projects. These individual lessons learned may be collectively stored in knowledge repositories that help project teams seek out solutions to problems that were encountered in the past.
The need for fast and effective knowledge transfer is even more critical for projects undertaken using an adaptive approach. This is because to adapt quickly requires the ability to sense a change fast enough to be able to respond to that change in a timely manner.
For agile projects, knowledge transfer is facilitated when planning for sprints, reviewing deliverables as well as during retrospections that occur at the end of sprints. These events called sprint planning, sprint review and sprint retrospective respectively are mandatory events that must be done to facilitate knowledge sharing.
Bayangkan sekiranya anda mempunyai mesyuarat dalam talian yang berlarutan lebih dari satu jam dan tiada penghujungnya. Langkah terbaik adalah anda akan termenung sambil berangan – angan seperti menyusun atur perabot di rumah berbanding fokus terhadap situasi perbincangan. Kebanyakannya, mesyuarat dalam talian adalah seperti itu. Mesyuarat dalam talian yang dilanjutkan telah didokumentasikan dengan baik terutamanya sejak semua orang bekerja dari jarak jauh. Sebilangan pengurus lebih mempercayai bahawa tempoh mesyuarat yang panjang adalah lebih baik dan lebih produktif.
Walaubagaimanapun, tempoh mesyuarat yang panjang tidak bermakna lebih baik. Ia nampak seperti anda telah menyelesaikan banyak topik namun ia sebenarnya hanya mengulangi topik yang sama. Hal ini akan menyebabkan berlakunya mesyuarat kali kedua yang tidak dapat dielakkan, diikuti dengan mesyuarat yang seterusnya dan akhirnya, anda akan dapat menilai topik utama perbincangan tersebut. Pada masa kini, kita berada di kitaran mesyuarat tanpa henti. Hal ini terutamanya disebabkan oleh kekurangan tumpuan dan rasa tanggungjawab dalam kalangan semua ahli untuk membantu memudahkan objektif mesyuarat tersebut.
Bagi mengelakkan ianya daripada berlaku, terdapat langkah penyelesaian untuk masalah ini. Teknik ini sudah biasa digunakan di beberapa organisasi besar seperti Intel, Google dan Microsoft. Ianya dipanggil “Time-Boxing”.
“Time-Boxing” ialah prinsip Scrum yang menganggap masa sebagai kekangan sewaktu mengendalikan mesyuarat. Ini bermakna mesyuarat dan pecutan projek tidak boleh melebihi tempoh masa yang ditetapkan.
Sebagai contoh, “Daily Stand Up Meeting” ialah 15 minit atau kurang. Had masa ini akan memaksa orang untuk memberi tumpuan terhadap hasilnya. Gangguan dan perbincangan berlarutan yang tidak memberi hasil akan dihadkan, kerana masa dianggap sebagai sumber berharga yang tidak ternilai. Semua ahli pasukan perlu menumpukan kepada tugas atau aktiviti penting serta menghindari daripada melakukan tugasan yang tidak penting.
Kesimpulannya, “Time-Boxing” membantu mewujudkan persekitaran yang membolehkan ahli pasukan memberi tumpuan kepada projek. Sekiranya ahli pasukan memberi tumpuan, semua aktiviti seperti mesyuarat dan had waktu untuk sesuatu projek tidak akan berlanjutan selama-lamanya. Hal ini membolehkan ahli pasukan mempunyai lebih banyak masa untuk menghasilkan idea yang kreatif. Ia malah dapat mengurangkan situasi mengelamun ketika mesyuarat!
Untuk mengetahui lebih lanjut berkenaan “Time-Boxing” dan teknik “Agile Management” yang lain, sila tekan pautan ini.
Daripada,
Scrum Master and Scrum enthusiast since 2017
Scrum Core Roles
In a project, there are many roles that need to be played, such as a project manager, a team lead, project team members, project sponsors as well as the project steering committee. Traditionally, these roles are usually set based on technical expertise. For example, if a professional has some fundamental knowledge of how to manage project, he/she would be assigned to the project manager role.
This method of assigning roles based on technical expertise can be successful if we live in an environment that is constant. This past experience and technical expertise will be leveraged upon to manage a project based on best practices.
However, the business environment that we live in is extremely volatile. The volatility of ever changing government policies, regulations, technological advancements, product or service demand, media influence, and many more demand a new approach to the assigning of project management roles. Organizations have to shift their focus from the technical expertise of the employee to the end goal of the project.
The roles of organization that adopt the Scrum framework focuses on the end goal of the project. The Scrum framework calls for managing and organizing work based on what adds most value to your customer and your organization. These roles have direct influence on the realization of the value of the project. The Scrum core roles are accountable for the production of deliverables which meet the acceptance criteria in every sprint which in turn ensures success of the entire project.
The following are the three core roles in Scrum:-
- The Product Owner who adds value by focusing on delivery of partially incremental product/service
- The Development Team adds value by focusing on developing the partially incremental product/service
- The Scrum Master adds value by ensuring the process is followed thoroughly throughout the project
The Product Owner
The product owner is regarded to be the one who has far-sightedness of the project and is accountable for accumulating the requirements and needs to understand the value of the project. By doing this, the product owner usually plays the voice of the customer.
The product owner is also responsible for dealing and listing the product backlog. He/she is also involved in the planning of the release. An efficient product owner is expected to possess technical knowledge, domain expertise and should be easily accessible to the development team.
The Scrum Master
The Scrum Master has his/her focus on the progress of the process and also is known to guide the scrum team.
The Scrum Master is responsible for planning the sprints and prioritizing the sprint backlog. The Scrum Master also helps in identifying and eliminating the obstacles that is currently hindering the performance of the team. Furthermore, he/she is involved in managing development process.
The Scrum Master is responsible for preparing the burn down chart and helps in maintaining purity of communication among one and all in the project. The Scrum Master enables the group to follow the workflow and ensures that the tasks in the sprints are completed on time. A Scrum Master is ideally considered to have a good balance of skills such as technical expertise, team player and a problem solver.
The Scrum Team
A Scrum team does not mean the typical development team. A scrum team has its own special capabilities.
Stated below are few features of a Scrum team:-
- Cross-functional teams: The members in the team have different backgrounds and expertise. Example: Testers, developers, architects, analysts, programmers, system admins.
- Self-organizing teams: the teams is fully autonomous and makes project based decisions on their own, as they know what tasks can or cannot be done to achieve the goal.
- Backlog driven: work is done as per the backlog.
The responsibilities of the development team:-
- Achieve sprint goals
- To prepare self-made goals
- To organize their time
In order to visualize these distinct roles, let’s take the example of a restaurant. The waiter, who usually takes the order from the customer, plays the role of the Product Owner. The waiter then understands the customer’s requirements and will then communicate the same to the chef. The chef, who is the Development Team in this example, will cook the food according to the requirements. The restaurant manager, who ensures there is a smooth process between table to kitchen and removes and impediments his chef may have, plays the role of the Scrum Master.
In conclusion, assignment of project roles was traditionally based on technical expertise as there were minimal changes within projects. With the rapid changes of requirements, project roles have now evolved and are now assigned based on end result which helps add value to the customer as well as the organization.
To learn more about Scrum Core Roles, join our Scrum Master Certification session. Click on this link to find out more.
Udhay Sharma a/l Rumesh Kumar,
Scrum Certified Trainer, Scrum Master Certified,
Scrum Product Owner Certified, Scrum Developer Certified,
Scrum enthusiast since 2017
The underlying purpose of any project is to add value. Projects serve as vehicles that enable changes, which should bring upon benefits that exceed the cost of making these changes.
As long as this occurs, a project is deemed to have been effectively and efficiently undertaken. Project managers are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that both the performing organization, as well as to the clients they serve, benefit from projects undertaken.
Given the very large number of interrelated considerations as well as the highly volatile environments in which projects operate, the prospect of adding value becomes increasingly difficult. Uncertainties that affect projects abound. Costs of undertaking projects continue to rise. Requirements from stakeholders become increasingly ambiguous. These factors detract value instead of adding value.
As project managers, we have to overcome any potential threats that impede the realization of this value. This include the need to protect the “Agile Ozone Layer”. This Agile Ozone Layer is usually attacked from multiple angles, from rigid and bureaucratic organizational structures, command and control style leaderships, to a functional silo mentality and resistant vendors and customers.
To ride the wave of such impediments that surface, a heightened sense of opportunistic awareness based on careful examination of business value undertaken throughout the project is required. Business Value refers to the net quantified benefits derived from the business endeavour being undertaken by the company.
This requires developing a sense of urgency for intelligent collection and analysis of relevant data to make decisions that enable realization of business value to the project as well as ensuring that the momentum of continual improvement is maintained. Doing the above correctly occurs only when project managers select project management methodologies that commensurate with the business environment the projects are undertaken.
Developing and maintaining a sense of urgency
When projects are to be executed based on evolving requirements in a highly turbulent business environment, the agile project management approach is most applicable. Such an approach requires a sense of urgency to be ingrained within the project team.
Changes have to be embraced and adapted to through collaborative efforts with customers. Only by developing a sense of urgency will the cost associated with delays in adapting to changing requirements can be curtailed.
Firstly, we shall have to establish a Product Roadmap that provides an initial visual timeline based on the Project Vision. Then releases are planned using a Release Planning that defines when deliveries may be made based on frequency of delivery as well as extent of adaptation required. A more incremental model approach, where deliverables are made at regular intervals, speeds up the delivery of value to the client.
For situations where there is no need for deliveries to be made incrementally, but there is a very urgent need for the features to be aligned perfectly to the changing requirements of the client, an iterative model is adopted.
Realization of Business Value
To realize business value, a deep understanding of not only what the customer requires but also the value associated with those requirements has to be established.
The project team needs to ascertain the “why” behind the “what”. This is required for both the performing organization as well as for the client. The value or specific benefits the project delivers via the end deliverable needs to be understood and internalized.
This requires gradually uncovering all uncertainties within specific release cycles and working time blocks, that impede the ability of the project team to deliver the value that is expected. The ability to do so is enhanced when delivery is made incrementally based on priorities set by the client. This way, feedback from each incremental deliverable, as well as uncertainties uncovered, become valuable inputs for future deliveries. In this way the project “delivers value incrementally”, and in the process of doing so, enables realization of business value throughout the project life cycle.
Rapid Data collection and analysis
Successfully delivering value requires constant data collection and assessment of progress. It requires developing insights on what works and what does not. This is done not based on assumption, but on actual data.
To ascertain whether this is indeed the case, developers aim to produce what is called a Minimum Viable Product as a prototype. Such a product contains the smallest collection of features that enable customers to consider the product as being functional. This provides developers with an opportunity to test features and ascertain important improvement points quickly and effectively.
From the company’s perspective, this exercise also helps to establish what the smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business as well. Collecting data on minimal new value propositions and the corresponding positive business impact provides an impetus for the company to decide quickly and effectively on what value additions it should incorporate in order to maximize business growth prospect. This concept of Minimum Business Increment focusses on the realization of business value.
In summary, delivering value requires a combination of collaborative efforts of all stakeholders who are committed towards developing and preserving an Agile Ozone Layer that makes it conducive to undertake agile project management.
A sense of urgency to deliver value needs to permeate throughout the organization. This urgency extends to rapid data collection and analysis where Minimal Viable Product and Minimum Business Increment considerations are routine initiatives undertaken using a delivery model based on an incremental or iterative approach.
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