Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

Scott M. Graffius Speaking on Team Leadership at Luxembourg Chapter of Project Management Institute

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Agile project management leader and influencer Scott M. Graffius will present a talk on team development and leadership, "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility," at a virtual event of the Luxembourg Chapter of the Project Management Institute on April 29, 2021, from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Luxembourg Time. This event is free. Register at
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/navigate-the-phases-of-team-development-with-speed-and-agility-tickets-145329738159.

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About "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility"


Perhaps you’re heard about the phases of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. But are you aware of the unique behaviors specific to each phase? What exactly should you do during each phase to help the team (agile or otherwise) tackle challenges, make progress, and become successful? If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party!

The presentation draws on Scott’s first-hand, real-world experience, with his guidance supported by additional research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, IEEE, MIT, Harvard Business Review, and others.

This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:

  • Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
  • Learn the characteristics of each phase.
  • Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by the team. By doing so, they’ll advance the team’s success.

Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.00 hour. For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.00 professional development unit (PDU), under the Leadership category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.00 Scrum educational unit (SEU), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB has generated hundreds of millions of dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. He is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from Scott's books (Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions and Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Penn State, Virginia Tech, University of Waterloo, Loughborough University London, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a global top thought leader and influencer in three domains: Agile, Digital Transformation, and GovTech. His full-length bio is available at here.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.

With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions,
Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle worldwide. Some links by country follow.


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About
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.

Based on actual events,
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.

The award-winning book by
Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle worldwide. Some links by country follow.


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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions helps client organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The firm provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides a Delighted Client Guarantee™. For details, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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About the Luxembourg Chapter of the Project Management Institute

The Luxembourg Chapter of the Project Management Institute is a non-profit corporation chartered by the Project Management Institute, and is dedicated to advancing the practice, science, and profession of project management in a conscious and proactive manner. Its proposes include the following:

  • To foster professionalism in the management of projects.
  • To contribute to the quality and scope of project management.
  • To stimulate appropriate global application of project management for the benefit of the general public.
  • To provide a recognized forum for the free exchange of ideas, applications, and solutions to project management issues among its members, and other interested and involved in project management.
  • To identify and promote the fundamentals of project management and advance the body of knowledge for managing projects successfully.
  • To identify the specifics of the regional context and promote the specific learning opportunities arising from this context for project managers.

To learn more about the Chapter, visit its website at
https://pmi.lu.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2021 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Project Management Isn't Magic

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"Project management isn’t magic. But high-caliber project management professionals can apply the tradecraft to organizations’ strategic initiatives and consistently complete them on-scope, on-budget, on-time, and on-satisfaction. Which is sort of magical."

— Scott M. Graffius, CEO, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ is a professional services firm. We partner with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. We provide project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches to development and delivery. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage.

For more information, you can
review what we do, see who we are, visit our newsroom, read additional stories from our blog, and check out our diverse infographics (each brief article includes a link to a downloadable infographic):


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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Scott M. Graffius to Speak at Los Angeles Chapter of Project Management Institute

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An updated version of the story is available here.

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions and author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, will present "Getting (More) Benefits from Agile" at the Los Angeles chapter of the Project Management Institute. He will deliver practical information including top factors from successful Scrum implementations—based on his first-hand experience and 116 sources—which attendees can leverage to gain (more) benefits from agile. This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter. The session will be held in Santa Clarita, California on June 2, 2020.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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About the Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI-LA)

The Los Angeles chapter (PMI-LA) was chartered by the Project Management Institute in 1974. The chapter's vision is "PMI-LA will be recognized as a premier PMI chapter for the advancement of project management and a benchmark for other PMI chapters." Its mission is “To provide opportunities for individual growth in project management and increase corporate awareness of the project management profession.” For more on the PMI-LA, visit
https://pmi-la.org. The chapter's hashtag is #PMILA.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Scott M. Graffius to Deliver Talk at California Inland Empire Chapter of Project Management Institute

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions and author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, will present "How to Deliver Your Projects with Faster ROI, Competitive Advantage, and Additional Benefits Using Agile Scrum" at the California Inland Empire chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session will provide attendees with a vibrant and highly visual presentation of Scrum, the most popular agile development and delivery framework for products and services. Scott will cover the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to Scrum—spanning from vision through release—based on best practices and top factors from successful implementations. Attendees will be presented with practical information they can use. This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter. The session will be held in Murrieta, California on Saturday, February 16, 2019. For more information, visit here.

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About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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About the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter

The PMICIE—chartered by the Project Management Institute in 2002—is based in Rancho
Cucamonga, California. The chapter is committed to the advancement of the project management profession. It provides its members with networking, training, and professional development opportunities. The website for the chapter is https://pmicie.org.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Talk at Project Management Institute California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter on August 14, 2018

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This is an update from
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.

I had the pleasure of speaking on agile project management at a public event of the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14th. My talk was titled "Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company." It covered Scrum — including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework — with a focus on best practices and top factors in typical successful implementations.

Thank you to William Parris, PMICIE President, and Stacey Wong, PMICIE Vice President of Programs, for the invitation and thank you to everyone who attended the session. I enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” Talk at PMICIE Chapter

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ will deliver a talk—“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company”—at a public meeting of the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter on August 14, 2018. For more information, and to register for the event, visit here.

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ Presents Thought Leadership; Listed at SpeakerHub

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This is an update from
Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ on speaking engagements.

I'm pleased to present thought leadership on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management related topics of timely importance. I've delivered talks at private and public events in the United States and internationally. Examples of upcoming and past events follow.

  • Scheduled to present “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a public event of the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14, 2018.
  • Delivered a talk—“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company”—at a public event of the Project Management Institute California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018.
  • Spoke on agile project management at a public event of the Project Management Institute Los Angeles Chapter (PMI-LA) on July 25, 2017.
  • Delivered a talk on innovation and project management at a private event in London, England on February 9, 2017.

For information on availability, fees, pro bono work, and more, visit SpeakerHub.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" Bonus Material Updated on 5 July 2018

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Online bonus material—containing an ever-growing list of supplemental content that comes free with the purchase of Agile Scrum—was updated today. Contents include satisfaction survey examples, quizzes, tools, select resources, and more. Instructions on how to access the online bonus material are provided inside the publication (both the ebook and the paperback format of the book).

For more information on
Agile Scrum and to connect on social:

- Digital press kit
https://AgileScrumGuide.com
- Trailer
http://bit.ly/ASG-TRAILER
- Video channel
https://bit.ly/ASG-CHANNEL
- Amazon
https://amzn.to/2fVA3lW
- Twitter
http://bit.ly/ASG-TWITTER
- Facebook
https://bit.ly/ASG-ON-FB
- Instagram
https://bit.ly/ASG-INSTA
- Pinterest
http://bit.ly/ASG-PIN
- Blog
https://bit.ly/AGILE-BLOG


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Talk on Agile Scrum by Scott M. Graffius at PMI-4C Event on June 28, 2018

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This is an update from Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.

Thank you, Project Management Institute California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C), for inviting me to speak at your June 28 meeting on “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company.” The turnout was fantastic, and it was a pleasure and honor to speak with such an engaging audience.

Special thanks to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen — the technical editors on the award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions — for their involvement and participation.

Thanks to PMI-4C's Michael Peter and Robert Tucker for organizing and managing the event.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Scott M. Graffius to Present “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at PMI-CCVC Event

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will present “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a public meeting of the Project Management Institute California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) on September 13, 2018. His talk provides a vibrant and highly visual overview of Scrum, the most popular agile framework for the development and delivery of products and services. For more information and to register for the event, visit here.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Agile Project Management Expert Scott M. Graffius to Speak at Techstars Startup Week

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Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will be speaking at Techstars Startup Week. He will be presenting "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage." The talk will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 4, 2018, at The Box Riverside (also known as The Box Theater) in Riverside, CA. For more information and to register for the event, please visit https://ie.startupweek.co.

Techstars Startup Week provides presentations, workshops, events, and mentoring sessions designed to inspire, educate, and advance startups and others in the local entrepreneurial community.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional/waterfall, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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“Agile Scrum" Business and Tech Guide Recognized by Shelf Unbound Magazine

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for his book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Today,
Shelf Unbound named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions a Top 100 Indie Book. A press release from Scott M. Graffius is located here. Additionally, the text from the release is provided below.

Los Angeles, CA — Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) was named one of the Notable 100 independently published books. The awards program is sponsored by Shelf Unbound, an international review magazine which connects readers with the best books from independent publishers. The contest was open to English-language works in digital and print formats from small press, academic press, and self-published authors. Editors of Shelf Unbound judged the entries, and the top hundred books are included in the Notable 100. The news is featured on page 90 of the April/May issue of Shelf Unbound magazine.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices engage sequential development, while agile models involve iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to best meet their business needs—and successfully manage projects, innovate, and prosper at astounding speed.

Scott released
Agile Scrum to provide those interested or involved in innovation, product development, project management, software development or technology management with a roadmap to implement Scrum, the most popular agile framework. It helps teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage.

Reactions to
Agile Scrum have been incredibly positive. Earlier honors include 16 first place wins from national and international competitions: the 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards (for Business-General, and also for Technology), 2016 London Book Festival (for Business), Fall 2016 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards (for Business), 2017 Feathered Quill Book Awards (for Informational), 2016 New Apple Book Awards (for Technology), 2017 Independent Press Award (for Technology), 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards (for Technology), 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival (for Business), 2017 Bookvana Awards (for Green/Conscious Business), 2017 Book Excellence Awards (for Technology), 2017 Best Book Awards (for Business Reference), 2017 New York City Big Book Awards (for Technology), 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards (for Science & Technology), 2017 Human Relations Indie Book Awards (for Workplace), and the 2018 Florida Book Festival (for Business).

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About the Author

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and author. He founded and is CEO of
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, an Inc. Verified Business, which helps organizations better solve their problems and capitalize on opportunities via world-class project management related services. Results include more consistent realization of business outcomes, faster delivery speed, improved on-budget performance, higher satisfaction, and more. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum. He is a former vice president of a provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet including social networking and internet access. Before that, Scott worked in organizations with businesses ranging from advanced technology products and services to business services, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, and entertainment. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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At the End of a Sprint on a Scrum Project: Two Scenarios

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Take a look at the results at the end of a sprint on a Scrum project. There are two scenarios. Both have the same user stories with the same story points for each:

  • User story 1: 13 story points
  • User story 2: 8 story points
  • User story 3: 3 story points
  • User story 4: 5 story points
  • User story 5: 1 story point
  • User story 6: 3 story points
  • User story 7: 1 story point

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Scenario A


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Here are some details on A:

  • User story 1: 70 hours of work performed, 5 hours of work remaining
  • User story 2: 51 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the Definition of Done [DoD])
  • User story 3: 45 hours of work performed, 13 hours of work remaining
  • User story 4: 29 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 5: 3 hours of work performed, 2 hours of work remaining
  • User story 6: 30 hours of work performed, 17 hours of work remaining
  • User story 7: 4 hours of work performed, 1 hour of work remaining

A is summarized as:

  • 232 hours of work was performed, and 38 hours of work remains
  • 2 user stories were done, and 5 user stories were not completed

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Scenario B

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Here are some details on B:

  • User story 1: 75 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 2: 51 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 3: 58 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 4: 29 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 5: 5 hours of work performed, no work remaining (and it meets the DoD)
  • User story 6: 14 hours of work performed, 33 hours of work remaining
  • User story 5: no work performed, and five hours of work remaining

B is summarized as:

  • 232 hours of work was performed, and 38 hours of work remains
  • 5 user stories were done, and 2 user stories were not completed

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What Counts

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Scrum requires teams to build an increment of functionality during every sprint. Only work meeting the Definition of Done (DoD) is counted as complete, demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and is potentially shippable.

There were two scenarios. Both had the same user stories with the same story points for each, and the same amount of work hours performed. Yet the outcomes were dramatically different. In A, 2 user stories were done--and are to be demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and are potentially shippable. In B, 5 user stories were done--and are to be demonstrated at the sprint review meeting, and are potentially shippable. B is the better scenario.

A possible explanation for the differences between the two situations is that the Scrum team in B may have done a better job of limiting Work in Progress.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Are Agile and Scrum Limited to Technology Projects or Technology Industries?

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Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum's built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage.

Agile and Scrum were once the sole domain of software development. However, the benefits and results have not gone unnoticed by others. Practices are being adopted by additional departments and industries. Examples follow.

  • The State of Scrum Report(1) revealed that 21% of Scrum projects are run by departments outside of Technology such as Marketing, Finance, and Sales.
  • An article published in The New York Times(2) noted agile's use in diverse industries—with examples ranging from a museum in Sydney, Australia, to an automobile dealership in Maine.
  • A business brief(3) illustrated how varied businesses—including John Deere, NPR, and Mission Bell Winery—employed agile.

In summary, agile and Scrum are used broadly. For more information on agile/Scrum, pick up a copy of the award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. For more information on the publication, and to connect:


References:

(1) Scrum Alliance (2017). The State of Scrum Report. Westminster, CO: Scrum Alliance, Inc.
(2) Hardy, Q. (2016, November 25). "The New Workplace is Agile, and Nonstop. Can You Keep Up?" The New York Times, page B1.
(3) Rigby, D. K., Berez, S., Caimi, G., and Noble, A. (2016).
Bain Brief: Agile Innovation. Boston, MA: Bain & Company.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" Author Interview of Scott M. Graffius for Literary Titan

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for his book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

On March 16, Literary Titan published their review of Agile Scrum—“The book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully”—and they gave it five stars. On April 6, the program honored Agile Scrum with their Gold Award.

Today, Literary Titan published an
interview I did for them. It's titled "That Fantastic Agile Transformation Experience: Scott M. Graffius Author Interview," and you're invited to check it out.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Receives Gold Award from Literary Titan

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for his book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

On March 16, Literary Titan published their review of Agile Scrum—“The book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully”—and they gave it five stars.

Literary Titan periodically provides additional recognition for select works. Today, the program honored
Agile Scrum with their Gold Award. Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Thank you to Literary Titan for the award.

A press release from Scott M. Graffius, the author of the book, is located
here.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Press Release from New Apple: Technology Guide "Agile Scrum" Wins Top Honors

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum took first place in the Technology category of the New Apple Awards last year. I'm grateful for the honor, and I'm thrilled that the program continues to feature the book. Today, New Apple published a new press release about the book—"Technology Guide 'Agile Scrum' Wins Medalist Honors in New Apple Independent Book Awards." You can see the story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/749081

Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen—the technical editors—for helping to make the book more clear, consistent, and valuable.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.














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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, Receives Certified Scrum Professional (CSP) Designation

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an
Inc. Verified Business, received the Certified Scrum Professional® (CSP®) advanced designation from the Scrum Alliance®. It's based on having fulfilled 70 or more hours of approved education/training, already holding recognized Scrum credential(s) (CSM® and CSPO® in his case), and documented successful professional experience with agile/Scrum in the last five years (consulting engagements with a fantastic client in the entertainment business—the inspiration for his book—contributed towards it).

For more information on Scott, visit
scottgraffius.com.

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, Served as a Judge in the TAA's 2018 Textbook Excellence Awards

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an
Inc. Verified Business, served as a judge (business/technical fields) in the Textbook & Academic Authors Association's 2018 Textbook Excellence Awards.

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) provides professional development resources and events for textbook authors and authors of scholarly journal articles and books. Established in 1987, TAA is the only national, nonprofit membership association dedicated solely to assisting textbook and academic authors. TAA's name was changed from "Text and Academic Authors Association" to "Textbook & Academic Authors Association" in 2016 to offer a clearer identity for TAA in light of the new meaning of "texting" on smart devices today.

TAA created the Textbook Excellence Award—also known as the Texty—in 1992 to recognize current textbooks and learning materials. Nominated works must carry a copyright date for the previous or current year, and entries can include learning materials in all mediums. Textbooks in their first editions with publication dates in the previous or current year may compete for a Most Promising New Textbook Award. In 1993, TAA initiated the William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Award, to recognize textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time. Nominated works must have been in print 15 years and are still being sold. All works are ranked on certain criteria: interesting and informative, well organized and well prepared, up to date and appealing, and teachability.

TAA's annual conference will be held on June 15-16 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Awards will be presented at a ceremony during the meeting.

For more information on Scott, visit
scottgraffius.com. For more information on the TAA including their awards program, visit taaonline.net.

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Scott M. Graffius to Deliver Talk “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at PMI-4C Chapter Meeting

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ will deliver a talk—“Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company”—at a public meeting of the Project Management Institute California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018. For more information, and to register for the event, visit here.

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“Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” Wins First Place in Business at Pacific Book Awards

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Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum won first place in the Business category at the 2018 International Pacific Book Awards. A press release from Scott M. Graffius, the author of the book, is located here. Additionally, the text from the release is presented below.

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Los Angeles, CA — Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) won first place in the Business category of the 2018 International Pacific Book Awards. The annual program is sponsored by Pacific Book Review—a literary review outlet, and a member of the National Book Critics Circle and the National Education Association. The competition was open to English-language books in print, e-book, and audiobook formats worldwide. The judging panel included professionals with expertise in the categories over which they presided, as well as experts from the fields of editing, reviewing, and publishing. Books were evaluated on innovation, originality, and readability. Results will be announced to booksellers, publishers, public and academic librarians, wholesalers, distributors, and agents through the sponsor's site, Publishers Weekly, and additional outlets.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices engage sequential development, while agile models involve iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to best meet their business needs—and successfully manage projects, innovate, and prosper at astounding speed.

Scott released
Agile Scrum to provide those interested or involved in innovation, product development, project management, software development or technology management with a roadmap to implement Scrum, the most popular agile framework. It helps technical and non-technical teams deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage.

Reactions to
Agile Scrum have been incredibly positive. Earlier honors include 16 first place wins from national and international competitions: the 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards (for Business-General, and also for Technology), 2016 London Book Festival (for Business), Fall 2016 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards (for Business), 2017 Feathered Quill Book Awards (for Informational), 2016 New Apple Book Awards (for Technology), 2017 Independent Press Award (for Technology), 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards (for Technology), 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival (for Business), 2017 Bookvana Awards (for Green/Conscious Business), 2017 Book Excellence Awards (for Technology), 2017 Best Book Awards (for Business Reference), 2017 New York City Big Book Awards (for Technology), 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards (for Science & Technology), 2017 Human Relations Indie Book Awards (for Workplace), and the 2018 Florida Book Festival (for Business).

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About the Author


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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and author. He founded and is CEO of
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, an Inc. Verified Business, which helps organizations better solve their problems and capitalize on opportunities via world-class project management related services. Results include more consistent realization of business outcomes, faster delivery speed, improved on-budget performance, higher satisfaction, and more. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum. He is a former vice president of a provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet including social networking and internet access. Before that, Scott worked in organizations with businesses ranging from advanced technology products and services to business services, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, and entertainment. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

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About the Book

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Agile Scrum is offered in paperback and ebook formats at Amazon. The paperback is available in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The ebook is for sale in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Specs are detailed at AgileScrumGuide.com.

Review copies of
Agile Scrum are available to members of broadcast, print or online media. Visit bit.ly/REVIEW-COPY.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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“Agile Scrum" Guide Nabs Silver Medal from Readers' Favorite

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum won the silver medal in the Business/Finance category at the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards. A press release from Scott is located here and the news is presented below as well.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
by Scott M. Graffius helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products at astounding speed with rapid adaptation to change and continuous improvement which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. The latest accolade comes from the 2018 Readers' Favorite International Book Awards (https://readersfavorite.com/2018-award-contest-winners.htm), which awarded Agile Scrum with the silver medal in the Business/Finance category. With thousands of entries ranging from New York Times bestsellers to works from first-time self-published authors, the program is one of the largest book competitions. Graffius will be presented with the silver medal on stage at a gala in Miami, Florida on Saturday, November 17, 2018.

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About the Author

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, author, and international speaker. He is the Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
, a management consulting firm. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. For more information on Scott, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
(http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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Talk at Project Management Institute California Central Valley Chapter Dinner Meeting on September 13, 2018

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This is an update from
Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.

I had the honor of speaking on agile project management at a dinner meeting of the Project Management Institute - California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) in Bakersfield last night. The presentation provided a highly visual overview of Scrum — including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework — with a focus on best practices and top factors typical in successful implementations.

Thank you to Fred Valenzano for the invitation and thank you to all of the PMI-CCVC members who attended the session. I enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.

The feedback was fantastic. For those not at the event: an example of a sticky note used to collect comments at the end of the meeting is shown (the example is a blank one — not filled out — for privacy). It's excellent to know "What Went Well?" Potential improvements, however, typically come from the other question: "What Would You Change?" (Additionally, attendees can provide feedback via an online survey.) All of the feedback is important, appreciated, and valued.

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Yahoo Finance: Scott M. Graffius to Speak on Agile Scrum at Techstars Startup Week

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Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will be speaking at Techstars Startup Week. A press release, distributed today, was carried by Yahoo Finance and other media outlets. You can read it on Yahoo Finance here.

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Scott M. Graffius to Serve as Subject Matter Expert Reviewer of Content for PMI EMEA Congress 2019

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This story contains excerpts from a press release located here.

Scott M. Graffius of
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ will serve as a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the Project Management Institute EMEA Congress 2019. The conference will be held from May 13-15 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. For more information and to register for the event, visit https://www.pmi.org/emea-congress.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and author.

He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions
, a management consulting firm with expertise in project management. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a global, publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Graffius
book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation while driving competitive advantage. The book, which was published in 2016, has since garnered 17 first place awards. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at: https://agilescrumguide.com.

Graffius holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, the IEEE Internet of Things Community, and the IEEE Consultants Network.

He has also been actively involved in the development of professional global standards. Graffius was a member of Project Management Institute (PMI) standards team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, a contributor and reviewer of The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI Global Congress 2016, and a judge for the PMI 2015 Professional Education Provider of the Year Award. He is currently engaged as a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019.

Graffius presents thought leadership on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management related topics of timely importance. He regularly speaks at private and public events in the United States and internationally.

Additional information is available at:
http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About the Project Management Institute

The Project Management Institute (https://www.pmi.org) is the world's leading association for those who consider project, program or portfolio management their profession. Founded in 1969, PMI delivers value for more than three million professionals working in nearly every country in the world through global advocacy, collaboration, education and research. The PMI advances careers, improves organizational success and further matures the project management profession through globally-recognized standards, certifications, communities, resources, tools, academic research, publications, professional development courses and networking opportunities.

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About the PMI EMEA Congress 2019

The PMI is passionate about helping its members to bring about positive change. PMI EMEA Congress 2019 (
https://www.pmi.org/emea-congress) will give attendees the concepts, skills and behaviours needed to make a difference. Over three days, attendees will hear innovative keynotes and cutting-edge global perspectives on fast-moving project management profession. Attendees will leave with skills they can apply straightaway to solve your challenges and develop their careers. The conference will be held from May 13-15 at the Convention Centre Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ (
http://exceptional-pmo.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The professional services firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional/waterfall, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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Scott M. Graffius to Speak at Project World Business Analyst World Toronto

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions and author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, will be speaking at Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019. He will be presenting best practices on project management, including tools and techniques which attendees will be able to immediately apply at work. Scott's session will be held on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/AGILE-1.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For i
nfographics and additional resources, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. Scott and his book have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Additional information is available at
http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019

The conference—which appears stylized as ProjectWorld*BusinessAnalystWorld—is an educational and training event for project management and business analysis professionals. Thought leaders will arm attendees with new skills, tools, and techniques that can be immediately applied in the workplace. Over 30 expert speakers will present more than 40 interactive sessions, workshops, and keynotes. All sessions are Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) accredited. Offering professional development units (PDUs) and continuing development units (CDUs) for each hour of learning, attendees can earn up to 26 credits over the four-day period. It will be held on May 27-30, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. The official hashtag is #PWBAWTOR19. The website for the conference is here:
https://www.pmbaconferences.com/toronto.

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Public Speaking Engagements for CEO Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. This article provides an overview of his
prior speaking engagements.

(For a list of both prior and upcoming speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.)

The most recent event is shown first.


techstars

Scott spoke at Techstars Startup Week, where he presented "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage" to an audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community on October 4, 2018.

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centralvalley

Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) on September 13, 2018.

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vegas

Scott facilitated an interactive workshop, “Retrospectives and Continuous Improvement in the Agile Scrum Framework,” at a private event in Las Vegas, Nevada on August 25, 2018.

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inland

Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) on August 14, 2018.

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coast

Scott presented “Agile Scrum: An Overview (Originally) for The Board of Directors of an Entertainment Company” at a meeting of the PMI California Central Coast Chapter (PMI-4C) on June 28, 2018.

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LA

He was a guest speaker on agile project management at an event of the Project Management Institute Los Angeles Chapter (PMI-LA) on July 25, 2017.

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london

Scott gave an interactive talk on innovation and project management at a private meeting in London, England on February 9, 2017.

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For more information on Scott’s speaking engagements including a list of prior and upcoming engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets. Additional information is available at:
http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Graffius's book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement -- which supports innovation while driving competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at: https://AgileScrumGuide.com.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_We_Provide_Client_Organizations_-_-v220205-MtnTopSuccess-EXC-EA-LR-SQ

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (
http://Exceptional-PMO.com) helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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"Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" by Scott M. Graffius Quoted by Informa Middle East

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, had consulting engagements with a division of a global entertainment business. A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with that client was the inspiration for Scott's book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is an update related to the book.

Content from
Agile Scrum (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) is quoted in a piece by Informa Middle East. Informa is a leading Dubai-based company offering business intelligence, academic publishing, and services in event management.

A red arrow in the accompanying image (a higher resolution version is available
here) points out the quote. You can read the Informa article by Anishka Abraham—which includes what to do and avoid with metrics—here: https://www.informa-mea.com/blog/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.

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About Scott M. Graffius


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Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets. Additional information is available at: http://Exceptional-PMO.com/who_we_are/bio.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Scott M. Graffius to Judge 2019 Textbook Excellence Awards

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will serve as a judge in business/technical fields in the Textbook & Academic Authors Association's 2019 Textbook Excellence Awards. This will be Graffius' second year as a judge for the program.

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About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_We_Provide_Client_Organizations_-_-v220205-MtnTopSuccess-EXC-EA-LR-SQ

Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_Pro_Bono_-_v-22012707-LR-SQ

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About the Textbook & Academic Authors Association

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) (
https://www.taaonline.net) provides professional development resources and events for textbook authors and authors of scholarly journal articles and books. Established in 1987, TAA is the only national, nonprofit membership association dedicated solely to assisting textbook and academic authors. TAA's name was changed from "Text and Academic Authors Association" to "Textbook & Academic Authors Association" in 2016 to offer a clearer identity for TAA in light of the new meaning of "texting" on smart devices today.

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About the Textbook Excellence Award

TAA created the Textbook Excellence Award—also known as the Texty—in 1992 to recognize current textbooks and learning materials. Nominated works must carry a copyright date for the previous or current year, and entries can include learning materials in all mediums. Textbooks in their first editions with publication dates in the previous or current year may compete for a Most Promising New Textbook Award. In 1993, TAA initiated the William Holmes McGuffey Longevity Award, to recognize textbooks and learning materials whose excellence has been demonstrated over time. Nominated works must have been in print 15 years and are still being sold. All works are ranked on certain criteria: interesting and informative, well organized and well prepared, up to date and appealing, and teachability.
TAA's annual conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA, on June 14-15, 2019. Awards will be presented at a ceremony during the meeting.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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Talk by Scott M. Graffius of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions at PMICIE on February 16, 2019

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, spoke at an event of the California Inland Empire Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMICIE) on February 16, 2019. He presented "How to Deliver Your Projects with Faster ROI, Competitive Advantage, and Additional Benefits Using Agile Scrum" to a highly-engaged audience of project management professionals. This was Graffius' second talk at the chapter.



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About Scott M. Graffius


ScottGraffius-181024_1000x1000_152KB-lowres-sq

Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_We_Provide_Client_Organizations_-_-v220205-MtnTopSuccess-EXC-EA-LR-SQ

Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_Pro_Bono_-_v-22012707-LR-SQ

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About the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter

The PMICIE—chartered by the Project Management Institute in 2002—is based in Rancho
Cucamonga, California. The chapter is committed to the advancement of the project management profession. It provides its members with networking, training, and professional development opportunities. The website for the chapter is https://pmicie.org.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 1

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the first installment of the eight-part story.

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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 1: The Call

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The assistant to the executive vice president (EVP) of technology for a division of a global entertainment company contacted me by phone. I was told that I was referred by someone who knew me and thought I would be a good fit for contract work. A one-hour consultation with the EVP was scheduled for the next day. I then received an email with several attachments including a non-disclosure agreement which needed to be executed and brought to the meeting.

I brought the documents to the session. The EVP explained that his division of the company was experiencing an alarming trend of problems with project management. He reported that deliverables were not meeting expectations, there was a marked decline in satisfaction, and
this was characterized as "the straw that broke the camel's back"a highly skilled and very well-respected team member quit, citing the problems as her reason for departure.

After an hour with the EVP, we agreed to extend the meeting (initially, my complimentary consult) an additional hour (billable time). I learned that this division of the company previously used a traditional plan-driven/waterfall approach for development and delivery. The EVP explained that things worked reasonably well then and that they were "close enough" to being on-scope, on-budget, and on-time that team members and stakeholders were satisfied.

The EVP explained, however, that he wanted to adopt a model (Scrum) employed by some of the other divisions of the company. The EVP said that he conducted a search for a value-added reseller (VAR) to help his group move to agile. A VAR-partner of a popular software solution was selected, and the VAR transitioned the group to Scrum. Reportedly, very few problems surfaced during the VAR's contractual engagement, which ended two weeks into the first sprint (then, the duration for sprints was four weeks). Many problems surfaced subsequently, however. The VAR had been gone for two months at the time of my meeting with the EVP.

The EVP asked me to make things right. I explained that change depends on many people and multiple factors and that a specific end result could not be guaranteed. I suggested, however, that I'd be honored to work with his group in the first step
an assessmentwhich would help inform the subsequent work of foundational planning. The objectives of the assessment include working closely with the EVP, the Scrum Team and stakeholders to understand their goals—and the environment, roles and practices. He asked me when I could start. I asked him when he needed me, and he replied "immediately." I agreed to start the next day.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 2: The Goals.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 2

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the second installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the first post, you can find it here:
Part 1: The Call.

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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 2: The Goals

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Highlights related to the goals follow.

The executive vice president (EVP) identified his top three desired outcomes:

  1. Accelerate the development and delivery of products and services—to be faster than the earlier baseline of 6-12 months,
  2. Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team—to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
  3. Improve the satisfaction of stakeholders—to also to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.

I individually met with and carefully listened to each member of the Scrum Team. There were recurring themes. We then met as a group and I asked them to identify their top two or three goals. They discussed the matter, voted, and decided on these:

  1. Meet or exceed the expectations of management, and
  2. Deliver valuable products.

I individually met with executives from different departments (the stakeholders). In every case, they related that things were OK with the earlier traditional/waterfall approach, but that things were worse now. The stakeholders indicated that, with the earlier approach, someone on the project team worked with their group to gather requirements, and around 6-12 months later the results were deployed. However, it was reported that with the then-current approach, the projects' purpose and requirements were not understood, and that what was produced was unusable. The goals of the stakeholders were:

  1. For them or their representatives to be as—or more—involved as earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
  2. Get a usable product as often as—or more frequently than—earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.

Here's a recap of everyone's goals. The EVP wants the development and delivery of products and services to be faster than 6-12 months, improved satisfaction of the Scrum Team, and improved satisfaction of stakeholders. The Scrum Team wants to meet or exceed expectations of management, and deliver valuable products. The stakeholders want (themselves or via their representatives) to be more involved in requirements/user stories and get useable project-delivered products more frequently than every 6-12 months.

Everyone permitted their goals to be shared with others. After discussing the subject with the EVP, I wrote the goals on oversize paper and posted it in a common area proximate to the Scrum Team and accessible to the stakeholders.

Highlights on the environment, roles, and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 3: The Environment.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

exc-li-badge-19093011-lr-squashed

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 3

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the third installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 3: The Environment

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Highlights on the environment including roles and practices
primarily focused on the Scrum Teamfollow.

I learned that the Scrum Team was composed of 16 people: one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and 14 Development Team members. Both the Scrum Master and the Product Owner explained that they were familiar with agile, but that they had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the value-added reseller (VAR). The Development Team consisted of 14 people: a technical architect, a UI designer, a business analyst, seven developers, three testers, and a technical writer. Eleven of the 14 members of the Development Team had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the VAR. Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, 15 were local (at an office in the greater Los Angeles area), and one
the Product Ownerwas based out of her office in Paris, France.

Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, two
the Scrum Master and the Product Ownerwere full time on the project. All of the others were allocated about 50% on the project.

I was given a copy of the training binder left by the VAR. I was told that the contents—about 500 pages—reflected the totality of the training and reference material. The training session, led by the VAR, was attended by the Scrum Master and the all of the Development Team members. The executive vice president (EVP) attended portions. The Product Owner attended portions, listening by phone. The first page in the binder covered the Agile Manifesto, the second page was a two-column table which compared and contrasted waterfall and Scrum (e.g., waterfall freezes scope, Scrum freezes schedule), and the third page showed success rates of waterfall vs. Scrum (e.g., 29% of waterfall projects fail vs. 9% of agile projects). The remaining pages provided information about the VAR company and detailed instructions on how to use their software product. That constituted the training.

The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team reported that they followed the training and instructions provided by the VAR. I won't delineate the then-current roles further or describe all of the events and artifacts. However, some examples follow.

The Product Owner created a product vision statement and stored it in the software, but nobody else remembered seeing it.

The Product Owner created a product backlog in the software, but nobody else claimed to have seen it.

The Scrum Master facilitated a Sprint Planning event where the Development Team estimated work in terms of complexity, and the results were recorded in the software tool. It was reported that
due to the time differencethe Product Owner did not attend Sprint Planning meetings.

It was communicated that during Sprint execution, the Scrum Master would ask the Development Team if they had any notable progress; and only if the answer was yes, there was a Daily Scrum. As a result, the Daily Scrum event occurred around once or twice a week. When the meeting took place, the Scrum Master did a quick interview with each member of the Development Team and noted the results in the software tool.

I was told that the team followed the recommendation of the VAR for the sprint duration of four weeks.

The Sprint Reviews were attended by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner (remotely), all of the Development Team members, and the EVP. However, the other stakeholders did not attend the events. On average, about half of the work planned and committed to the sprint was "done." Both "done" and not-"done" items were demonstrated at the Sprint Review.

The Scrum Master reported that the team did conduct a Retrospective event at the end of each sprint and that the results were saved in the software tool. When I reviewed the information, I saw comments such as "we worked very hard" under the what went well category. Everything under the "what didn't go so well/opportunities for improvements" category were ideas for enhancement requests for the software tool. I was informed that the VAR instructed staff to convert everything that didn't go well into a suggestion for a future general release of the software or a request for a custom enhancement of the software.

None of the work from any of the sprints was released.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 4: The Options.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 4

story-behind-the-book---exc---c4-lowerres-squashed

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the fourth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 4: The Options

exc p4 c4 lowerres

After gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the organization including their Scrum implementation, I met with the executive vice president (EVP) and we discussed next steps. I presented three options:

  • No change,
  • Revert to the earlier waterfall-only model, or
  • "We can try different things" (aligned with the value of openness) with the objective of improving their agile implementation and achieving their goals.

I said, "we can try different things" because while I believed that changes would likely result in improvements, success could not be guaranteed. I also said, "we can try different things" because any meaningful change would require the cooperation and collaboration of many people. The EVP decided on the third option: trying different things.

The doing of "different things" started with training. I first met with the EVP. I then met with the Scrum Master in several one-on-one meetings. And since he was committed to education and improvement, he later on completed the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) training and certification. The Product Owner was unable to attend the office in person for one-on-one training, but we communicated by phone and Skype. The EVP soon decided that the Product Owner needed to be co-located with the Scrum Team. He found a new Product Owner within the organization. I met with the new Product Owner in multiple one-on-one sessions. And—similar to what occurred with the Scrum Master—since the new Product Owner was committed to education and improvement, he subsequently completed the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training and certification. I delivered training to the Development Team as a group. It included an overview and more in-depth coverage of certain topics such as pair programming and technical debt. Later on, some Development Team members completed the Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training and certification. Stakeholder training follows next.

I delivered a one-hour overview of Scrum to the executive stakeholders in a group session. The attendees asked questions and made comments throughout the meeting. One stakeholder suggested that we do what the American Management Association says is best for Scrum. Then other attendees mentioned additional potential sources for information on agile. I explained that different organizations may have their own perspective on what works well for agile/Scrum, and that one way to go (I mentioned this in part to continue their engagement, involvement, and buy-in) is to look to the Scrum Alliance, a leading authority on the subject, but also see if others have ideas that are aligned with the authority and also fit the desired future state of the organization. I committed to doing the research and the stakeholders thanked me in advance.

I already had a library of 76 items on agile/Scrum—consisting of material from the Scrum Alliance, Project Management Institute, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Gartner, KPMG, Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT, Forbes, and many others. I expanded it to include sources mentioned by stakeholders during the training session and I diligently reviewed all of the content. The diverse sources identified several values and practices as being central in successful Scrum implementations, and such factors were typically consistent with guidelines from the Scrum Alliance. I then met with each of the stakeholders individually and presented them with a summary of information from the Scrum Alliance and others.

I facilitated a follow-up group meeting with the executive stakeholders. Information from the one-hour training and the diverse sources was summarized. The stakeholders concluded that the central problem with the then-current implementation was that people were not following good practices. They then discussed, voted, and identified what they viewed as the high-level top 10 success factors for a Scrum implementation at the organization based on the previously presented information. In no particular order, the top 10 items were:

  • Support from management;
  • Each member of the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) is 100% allocated to the project;
  • There is an agile coach, agile Project Management Office or agile Center of Excellence;
  • Satisfaction is a crucial metric;
  • The Scrum Team has no more than 11 people;
  • The Scrum Team is co-located;
  • There are consistent practices and processes;
  • There is a digital wallboard or other information radiator;
  • There are frequent and high-quality interactions; and
  • There is continuous improvement/inspect and adapt.

Some of the items overlap/are not mutually exclusive, and the items are not exhaustive. I thanked the executive stakeholders for their support, and I told them that the 10 factors are built into the go-forward plan. The stakeholders expressed their appreciation.

The EVP and I conducted a mini-retrospective on the training sessions. The EVP was enthusiastic about what we've done so far, and he said that morale had improved. He authorized company-paid CSM, CSPO, and CSD trainings and certifications for staff (mentioned earlier). The EVP said we could advance to the next stage: piloting changes. I asked if he was open to terminating the use of the software tool introduced by the value-added reseller (VAR). He initially said that so much time and money had been invested in it that it would be hard to justify doing so. I said it differently: "We can try different things" could mean putting the software tool
on vacation for a period. He agreed. We moved to the pilot—which involved doing many things differently. Examples follow.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 5: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 5

story-behind-the-book---exc---c5-lowerres-squashed

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the fifth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 5: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog


exc c5 supplemental image lowerres

We advanced to the pilot—which included doing many things differently. Examples follow.

The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing a product vision statement. He opted to use the template attributed to Geoffrey Moore. The Product Owner created a draft of the vision and sent it with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and finalized the product vision. He wrote the statement on oversize paper and posted it in a prominent location where the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) and stakeholders could easily see it.

The Product Owner and I then discussed techniques on creating and maintaining a product roadmap/release plan. He opted for a simple table with four rows and four columns. The rows included:

  • Name (the title of the product or major release),
  • Goal (the reason for creating it),
  • Features (a high-level list of features), and
  • Estimated number of sprints.

For the columns, there was one for each quarter of the year. Similar to what was done with the product vision, the Product Owner sent the plan with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and the plan, wrote it on oversize paper, and posted it next to the product vision statement.

Aspects of team formation were covered already. The new Scrum team totaled 11 people. All were co-located and 100% allocated to the project.

The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing and maintaining the product backlog. He opted to employ a simple table format with six columns:

  • ID#,
  • User story/description,
  • Category (he decided on four types: feature, bug, technical debt, and other),
  • Story point estimate for complexity,
  • Priority based on business value, and
  • Status.

To help with user stories, the Product Owner often referenced the INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable) model developed by Bill Wake. For priority, the Product Owner initially used the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have). Later, the Product Owner found the business value/risk method (where each item is rated as high or low in two dimensions—business value and risk, ...) to be the most beneficial, and the Product Owner continues to use that approach today. In a session facilitated by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner presented the user stories to the Development Team, and participants provided story points (using physical cards for the exercise) for estimates of complexity of each item. Later, the team tried t-shirt sizing (S, M, L, and XL designations) for estimates of complexity, but they decided to return to story points.

Previously, sprints were four weeks in length. Now the team was using the shorter duration of two weeks. A key benefit was that the Scrum value of focus was improved.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 6: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.



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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.












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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 6

story-behind-the-book---exc---c6-lowerres-squashed

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the sixth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 6: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution

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The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint planning techniques. The Scrum Master decided that the meeting event would be handled via two separate sessions—part 1 (what will be committed to for the upcoming sprint) and part 2 (how to accomplish the work identified in part 1).

For sprint planning part 1, the timebox (not to exceed duration) for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 2
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 4 hours for the event.

The Scrum Master made the following information visible during the event: start and end dates for the sprint, (after a sprint was completed) the results of the last sprint review event, and (after a sprint was completed) the results from the last sprint retrospective event. The Product Owner reminded the Development Team about the product vision statement, and the Product Owner shared the sprint goal (such as "implement shopping cart functionality ..."). The Development Team determined their capacity in work hours for the upcoming sprint. It was calculated as:

  • the number of people in the Development Team
  • multiplied by the number of project productive hours (which excluded time outside the sprint such as company meetings, trainings, vacation time, etc.) per workday
  • multiplied by number of workdays in the sprint.

(Estimation via story points, and prioritization by the Product Owner were already taken care of.)

For each item in the product backlog, participants discussed the user stories/requirements including acceptance criteria, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and anything else requiring a conversation to get a good understanding of the item. The Development Team then committed to the entries which they thought could be completed in the upcoming sprint. The technique they employed involved asking "Can we do this first item in the product backlog?" If the answer was yes, they selected it and proceeded to the next item and continued until the team believed that no more work could be done in the sprint. After the Development Team had worked together and had data on actual velocity (the number of story points completed in a sprint), they also considered that historical metric—comparing it with story points for items in the sprint. The Product Owner updated the product backlog, identifying the items committed by the Development Team to be done for the upcoming sprint.

For sprint planning part 2, the timebox for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 2
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 4 hours for the event.

The Scrum team created the sprint backlog. It had the following columns:

  • ID#,
  • Description,
  • Story points,
  • Task information (meetings, designs, coding, code review, testing, etc.),
  • Estimation in hours (they adopted the practice that if effort is greater than eight hours, split the task into smaller ones),
  • Owner (where members of the Development Team self-assign tasks),
  • Status, and
  • Hours of work remaining.

During the meeting, the Scrum team compared the total estimated work hours for the sprint with the Development Team’s capacity (mentioned under the part 1 meeting) for the sprint. If the Development Team believed that the sprint backlog contained too much work to be done during the sprint, they collaborated with the Product Owner to remove one or more items. If the Development Team believed they could handle more work during the sprint, they worked with the Product Owner to move one or more of the high priority items from the product backlog to the sprint backlog.

The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint execution. Select examples of what was decided and done are highlighted next.

The Development Team set up a task board (also known as a Scrum board) to reflect the work in the current iteration. They went with a simple format. The board depicted work in rows and columns where rows included work items, and columns reflected status (To Do, Doing, and Done). Work was addressed from top (highest priority) to bottom, and work migrated from left to right on the task board as it progressed. The task board is also covered in the daily Scrum meeting.

The Scrum Master decided to use a sprint burndown chart to track and communicate progress during the sprint. He set it up and updated it each workday, usually immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.

The Scrum Master created an impediment backlog to capture things preventing the team from progressing or improving. This backlog was updated daily, typically immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.

At the daily Scrum meeting event, the Development Team shared status, plans, and any impediments. Before this pilot with changes, the team was not conducting the daily Scrum (or updating the task board, burndown chart, and impediments backlog) consistently. Under the pilot (and subsequently), the Development Team met for up to 15 minutes (timebox) each workday, and it was conducted at the same time (10:00 a.m.) each day. At this daily stand-up session, the Development Team and the Scrum Master met where the task board, sprint burndown chart, and impediment backlog were posted. Each Development Team member described what he/she worked on since the last Scrum meeting, and he/she updated the task board. Next, the same Development Team member explained what he/she would work on that day, and he/she updated the task board. Lastly, the same Development Team member reported any impediments. (The Scrum Master recorded any issues in the impediments backlog. If a discussion was required, it took place immediately after the daily Scrum. The Scrum Master helped resolve impediments.) The steps were repeated for other members of the Development Team.

The Scrum Team built an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment was potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide for it to be implemented at the end of the sprint. Said differently, potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness, and shipping is a business decision. Commencing with the pilot, the organization started releasing products as often as every sprint (two weeks).

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions continues with Part 7: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott_M_Graffius_-_Agile_Scrum_-_If_Youre_Interested_or_Involved_-_v22020507-EXC-BLG-LR-SQ

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

exc-li-badge-19093011-lr-squashed

Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 7

story behind the book - exc - c7 lowerres

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the seventh installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 7: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective

c7 exc  lowerres

The Scrum team—Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team—and I discussed techniques for the sprint review. The event is sometimes referred to as the sprint demo. The timebox (not to exceed duration) in hours for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 1
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 2 hours for the event.

Participants included the Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team, and stakeholders. All of the stakeholders (the executives mentioned in earlier parts of the story) were invited to and attended the sprint review. At the session, the Product Owner welcomed attendees and communicated the agenda. He pointed out the sprint goal, which was displayed on the wall in the meeting room. Next, the Development Team listed the work that was committed to the sprint. They then listed the work that was completed and the work that was not completed. For each completed story/feature, the Development Team demonstrated the "done" working functionality and answered questions. Stakeholders were invited to interact with the "done" working functionality and they did so. Then the entire group reviewed the product backlog and collaborated on what to do next. The Product Owner incorporated feedback into the Product Backlog. It involved adding new items to the backlog and/or re-prioritizing existing items. After the sprint review, the Scrum Master incorporated any feedback related to problems into the impediments backlog.

The Scrum Master and I discussed techniques for the sprint retrospective event. The timebox in hours for the meeting was calculated as:

  • 0.75
  • multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
  • which equaled 1.50 hours for the event.

At the sprint retrospective, the Development Team identified what went well, what didn't go well, and improvements to be implemented in the upcoming sprint—an example of inspection and adaptation. For improvements to be implemented, each member of the Development Team wrote their top one, two or three suggestions on sticky notes. Each idea got its own sticky note. Then the Development Team grouped the sticky notes into categories/themes, and they discussed the items and voted to determine the top one (initially limited to one, later it was raised to two) for adaptation and improvement. The Development Team committed to the change and the Scrum Master recorded the information.

The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions concludes with Part 8: The Success.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, “Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions” | Part 8

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The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.

This article is the final installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:


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Agile Transformation at an Entertainment Company | Part 8: The Success

By adopting an agile mindset and providing improved engagement, collaboration, transparency, and adaptability via Scrum's values, roles, events, and artifacts, the results were excellent. After one sprint, satisfaction ratings for the Development Team and stakeholders were higher than the target. After three sprints, the output of the Scrum Team became consistent and predictable, satisfaction increased even further, and all of the
seven goals mentioned earlier were achieved. Here's an overview:

🎯 Goal 1
  • Source: This goal was identified by the EVP (executive vice president)
  • Desired outcome: Develop and deliver products and services faster than 6-12 months
  • Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)

🎯 Goal 2
  • Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
  • Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 3
  • Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
  • Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the stakeholders
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 4
  • Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team)
  • Desired outcome: Meet or exceed the expectations of management
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 5
  • Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team
  • Desired outcome: Deliver valuable products/services
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 6
  • Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
  • Desired outcome: For stakeholders or their representatives to be more involved in requirements
  • Result: The goal was achieved

🎯 Goal 7
  • Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
  • Desired outcome: Get useable products delivered more frequently than 6-12 months
  • Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)

The EVP, Scrum Team, and stakeholders declared the pilot a success and they made this implementation of Scrum the preferred approach for the development and delivery of products and services going forward.

In addition to achieving the goals summarized above, the agile transformation also supported the organization's efforts to innovate and drive their competitive advantage. It became more successful. As the business grew, so has the number of Scrum teams. Originally numbering one, the division presently has six Scrum teams.

This concludes
The Inspiration for the Book on Agile Project Management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.


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About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

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A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’s multi award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242).

Here's an excerpt from the book: "Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive. Traditional development and delivery frameworks such as waterfall are often ineffective. In contrast, Scrum is a value-driven agile approach which incorporates adjustments based on regular and repeated customer and stakeholder feedback. And Scrum’s built-in rapid response to change leads to substantial benefits such as fast time-to-market, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage."

With clear and easy to follow instructions, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps you:

  • Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
  • Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
  • Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.

Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”

Winner of 17 first place awards.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow. Get your copy today!


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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Scott M. Graffius Delights Audiences with Talks on Agile, Traditional, and Hybrid Project, Program, Portfolio, and PMO Management

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Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with talks on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management.

He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.

Attendees have said “Scott is an amazing speaker,” “fantastic presentation,” and “highly recommended!” For details on his past and upcoming speaking engagements, visit
http://bit.ly/speakerone.

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About Scott M. Graffius

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Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.

Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them s
trengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are in the digital media kit at https://AgileScrumGuide.com. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, and other retailers, distributors, and partners.

Scott is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.

Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.

He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.

Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For additional information on Scott's speaking engagements, visit
http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

Scott resides in Los Angeles, California.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

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Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a
Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

For more information, visit https://www.Exceptional-PMO.com.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Scott M. Graffius, Principal Consultant and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, provides a revealing first-hand account of an organization's agile journey in his new book, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change. This is Graffius' second book.

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About the Author

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Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Graffius' first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, garnered 17 first place awards. Graffius and Agile Scrum have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. He regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world. Additional information is available at https://www.exceptional-pmo.com/who_we_are/bio.

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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 978-1072447962) provides a revealing behind-the-scenes story about an actual successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company.

The award-winning book — a quick (60-90 minute) read — is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the
United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.



It's on Amazon's "Hot New Releases" list as shown in the screen shot.

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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions


Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_We_Provide_Client_Organizations_-_-v220205-MtnTopSuccess-EXC-EA-LR-SQ

Our mission is to help organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. Our expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches.

While every engagement is unique, business outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, better management of risks, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, more consistent realization of business results, and greater competitive advantage.

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has a
Delighted Client Guarantee™. Our proven approach organizes projects into manageable deliverables with success criteria. When our clients are delighted with the results, we get paid.

Exceptional_PPM_and_PMO_Solutions_-_Pro_Bono_-_v-22012707-LR-SQ

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™.













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Trailer for "Agile Transformation" (TRT: 30 Seconds)



Based on a true story,
Agile Transformation by Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ Principal Consultant and CEO Scott M. Graffius provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. You're invited to watch the trailer for the book. The total run time is 30 seconds.

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About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

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Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 978-1072447962) provides a revealing behind-the-scenes story about an actual successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company.

The award-winning book — a quick (60-90 minute) read — is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle formats in the
United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.



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About Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions