Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions

5 Fases del Desarrollo del Equipo: #Formación, #Turbulencia, #Normalización, #Desempeño, y #Disolución

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For permission requests and high resolution images, see below.

🔥 If you're looking for the English version of the Phases of Team Development, it's here.

Phases of Team Development

Teams go through phases of development, and Dr. Bruce Tuckman established a popular and durable framework on the subject. According to Dr. Tuckman, all phases—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning—are necessary for teams to grow, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work, and deliver results.

Agile project management thought leader, influencer, and author Scott M. Graffius developed a related custom illustration, Phases of Team Development. It highlights the performance level, characteristics, and proven strategies for each of the phases. Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, DevOps Leads, and other professionals can apply the information to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' happiness and productivity, as well as the teams' (and their own) success. Graffius updates the content periodically.

He released a new version of the visual on January 4, 2021. A related article covers the update, bibliography, permission requests, and high-resolution downloadable files of the English version of the visual.

The Spanish version is covered next.

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Permission Requests and Downloadable High-Resolution Files of 'Phases of Team Development' Illustration in Spanish

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For permission requests, contact the email address noted in the image above.

High resolution images of the Fases del Desarrollo del Equipo (Formación, Turbulencia, Normalización, Desempeño, y Disolución) are available at the following links: here for the JPG file and here for the PNG file.

Citation for Spanish version: Graffius, Scott M. (2021). Fases del Desarrollo del Equipo. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.28150.93765. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.28150.93765.

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Note: Some Spanish-language publications use different words for some of the phases. For example, 'Storming' is translated as 'Turbulencia' — but 'Conflicto' or other alternatives are occasionally used instead.* This article and the related Fases del Desarrollo del Equipo illustration incorporate the selections for phases referenced in the Spanish version of the Project Management Institute's A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The five phases in Spanish are: Formación, Turbulencia, Normalización, Desempeño, y Disolución.

Scott M Graffius - Phases of Team Development - in Spanish - on Monitor - Exceptional - LR-SQ

For information on the English version of the Phases of Team Development, visit here.

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About Scott M. Graffius



Scott M. Graffius is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. He has generated over one billion dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the founder, CEO, and principal consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, based in Los Angeles, California. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from his 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, Deloitte, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, Project Management Institute, the IEEE, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, Loughborough University London, and others. Graffius has spoken at 55 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. Thinkers360 named Graffius a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.

His full bio is available at
https://exceptional-pmo.com.

Connect with Scott on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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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 provides client organizations with advisory, training, speaking, embedded talent, and facilitative consulting services to help them advance their agile project, program, portfolio, and PMO management capabilities to best realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives, making them more competitive and valuable. Our seven core values are integrity, objectivity, collaboration, persistence, innovation, continuous learning and improvement, and exceptional results. We confidently provide a Delighted Client Guarantee™. For details, 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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* As covered above, the five phases in Spanish are: Formación, Turbulencia, Normalización, Desempeño, y Disolución. Alternatives occasionally used by others follow—in italics:

  • Formación (some alternatives used by others include: Constitución, Formando, and Estableciendo)
  • Turbulencia (some alternatives used by others include: Conflicto, Confrontación, Enfrentamiento, Asalt, and Asalto)
  • Normalización (some alternatives used by others include: Normativa, Normativo, Normación, Normas, and Normar)
  • Desempeño (some alternatives used by others include: Ejecución, Rendimiento, Actuación, and Actuar)
  • Disolución (some alternatives used by others include: Clausura, Aplazamiento, Finalización, Terminación, and Suspender)

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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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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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MERCH: Produce Planning Cards™ for Agile Teams

Planning cards help agile teams estimate work. Products for sale typically involve cards with numbers (exempli gratia, 0 … 34) or sometimes alternatives such as t-shirt sizes (exempli gratia, XS … XL).

Custom agile planning cards, Produce Planning Cards™, were created by Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. They feature a unique combination of both number values and images of fruit. For example, the 1 card has the number 1 and a picture of a blueberry, while the 34 card has the number 34 and a picture of a pineapple. With these cards, estimators can reference the numbers, the different size fruit, or both. "Produce" in the name of the cards has a double meaning: It relates to both the
noun produce (specifically fruit) and the verb produce (as in to create). This is explained below.

The Produce Planning Cards™ were originally developed as a promotional item, distributed to clients of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. Reactions were incredibly positive, and several people subsequently asked how they could get their own set. Based on demand, Produce Planning Cards™ are now available for purchase while supplies last. This brief article provides an overview and update on the product.

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Video: Produce Planning Cards™ Help Agile Teams Estimate Work




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Product Specs



  • Type of cards: Poker sized
  • Number of cards per deck: 54
  • Dimensions in inches: 2.48 x 3.46
  • Dimensions in mm: 63 x 88
  • Printing: Full color print
  • Material stock: 330 GSM professional weight stock
  • Material finish: Finest quality, superior smooth finish
  • Material sourcing: Printer sources materials from well-managed forests, and it supports green practices
  • Printer: Printer is a prominent manufacturer in the gaming industry

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Additional Information Including Suggested Usage



The Development Team—which may be comprised of business analysts, coders, testers, etc.—collaboratively estimates each item in the product backlog in story points. Story points are a relative measure of complexity.

Participants

  • Product Owner
  • Development Team
  • Scrum Master (facilitator/observer)

Frequency

  • Once or twice per sprint

Time-box (not to exceed duration)

  • One hour for each week of the sprint
  • It’s a common practice to limit each meeting to one hour and have multiple meetings as appropriate

Prerequisites/Inputs

  • Product backlog containing user stories, bugs, and other requirements
  • One set of planning cards for each member of the Development Team

Suggested Steps

  • 1. If each member of the Development Team does not already have their own set of planning cards, the Scrum Master provides materials as needed
  • 2. The Product Owner describes an item (a user story, bug, or other requirement) from the product backlog and mentions its intent and business value
  • 3. Each member of the Development Team silently picks a card best representing their assessment of the complexity of the work and places the card face-down
  • 4. After all of the Development Team members have made their selections, the cards are turned face-up, and the values are read aloud
  • 5. If all of the selections have the same value, the Product Owner records it as the estimate, and that completes the exercise for the item; otherwise, proceed to the next step
  • 6. Team member(s) who gave an outlier value —such as someone who gave a high value and/or someone who gave a low value—explain their reasoning
  • 7. After a brief discussion, the team may take the most common value (the mode average) as the estimate or they may play another round of this planning game (steps 3-7)
  • 8. Steps 2-7 are repeated until each item in the product backlog has been estimated
  • 9. The Product Owner updates the product backlog with the estimate values

Options

Some organizations use a subset of the cards and slice product backlog items when the estimate is "too large." Here's an example:

  • Development Team uses cards with the following values: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21
  • Predetermined that 21 is "too large"
  • If a product backlog item is estimated at 21, it is sliced into two or more parts in collaboration with the Product Owner, and the resulting smaller items are estimated by the Development Team

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What's Included



  • Each deck of Produce Planning Cards™ contains four sets of cards—enough for four estimators
  • Each of the four sets has a unique color on the front side of cards—it’s in either blue, green, orange, or yellow
  • Cards are based on the Fibonacci sequence, where every number after two is the sum of the two preceding numbers
  • Each set includes cards with the following values and images:

— 0 (No picture)
— 1 (Blueberry)
— 2 (Cherry)
— 3 (Strawberry)
— 5 (Plum)
— 8 (Apple)
— 13 (Orange)
— 21 (Coconut)
— 34 (Pineapple)
— "?” (No picture)

  • Each deck includes instructions
  • Each deck comes in a storage case

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Produce Planning Cards™ are Available for a Limited Time


While supplies last, Produce Planning Cards™ are $9.95 per set plus sales tax and shipping. For additional information and to place an order, visit our
MERCH page.


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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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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

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.

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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

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.

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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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“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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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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© 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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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ at CES 2017

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This was the 50th anniversary of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and it was a blast! Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ was represented by Scott M. Graffius at CES. Here are a few highlights.

It was a sort of a car show within a tech show. For example, there was Faraday Future’s FF91 — a 1,050 horsepower electric prototype with plenty of smart features. It is reported to go from 0 to 60 MPH in 2.39 seconds. Production is set to start in 2018.

Connected cars were a big trend. And the companies working behind the scenes — on features such as autonomous driving and voice-assist — shared the focus. Nvidia is working on technology that would enable cars to read your lips. Mobileye's cameras help cars get a sense of what is happening all around them.

Beyond cars, the Internet of Things (IoT) was present with connected products such as washing machines, coffee makers, and more. And there was coverage on wearables and VR.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 Scott M. Graffius, Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.













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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

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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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"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

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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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© 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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© 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

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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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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ Introduces Produce Planning Cards™ to Help Agile Teams Estimate Work

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an Inc. Verified Business, introduces Produce Planning Cards™ to help agile teams estimate work. A video provides an overview of the tool and the technique. It's available at https://vimeo.com/261680776, and it can be played below.

Produce Planning Cards™ Help Agile Teams Estimate Work from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.


For more information on the Produce Planning Cards™, visit
http://exceptional-pmo.com/Produce-Planning-Cards.


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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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New Video: Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage

Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an Inc. Verified Business, is the author of the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. A video minisode—related to Agile/Scrum—was published today. This is an update on the video.

A new 1-minute video, Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage, was just published. It is live at https://vimeo.com/259429846 (and it can be played below).


Agile Scrum Guide | Minisode | Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



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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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Infographics: A Recap

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions has published several infographics on project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid frameworks. This article provides a brief recap of the list, to date. In alphabetical order:

  • Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage
  • How to Achieve Higher Project Management Performance
  • How to Create Highly Effective Visual Project Roadmaps for Executives and Other Stakeholders
  • How to Effectively Communicate Project Status Visually via Dashboards
  • How to Prioritize and Align Projects to Best Achieve the Organization's Strategic Objectives
  • Selecting the Right Project Management Solution (SaaS and On-Premises Models) for Your Business
  • Troubled Projects? Causes, Early Warning Signs and How to Recover
  • Using Diverse Metrics for the Effective Management of Projects from Start to Successful Finish

More infographics coming soon.

The infographics are available 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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Video: Product Increment and a Mininimum Viable Product Approach

Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, an Inc. Verified Business, is the author of the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. A video minisode—containing excerpts from Agile Scrum—was published today. This is an update on the video.

A new one-minute video, Product Increment and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach, is live at https://vimeo.com/258176585 (and it can be played below).


Agile Scrum Guide | Minisode | Product Increment and a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



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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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Infographic from Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™: Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage

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🔥 Content including an infographic on agile's history were updated. The new (2023) version is here.

There's a widely-held view that agile development is new. But agile was used decades before it became well-known. For example, software was developed in half-day iterations in 1958 for Project Mercury, the United States' first human spaceflight program. And Harlan Mills of IBM promoted in 1968 that "software development should be done incrementally, in stages with continuous user participation and replanning." While agile is not new, many innovators and visionaries have advanced agile over time.
Agile Has a Long and Colorful Heritage: A Timeline Infographic from Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ illustrates via specific examples how agile has progressively evolved since (at least) 1957. The infographic in low resolution format is shown below.

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A higher resolution version is available here.

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This short link for this article is
https://bit.ly/ag-history.

© 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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© 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™, 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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© 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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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ is an Inc. Verified Business

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™
is proud to be an Inc. Verified Business. The link to the profile on Inc. is https://www.inc.com/profile/exceptional-solutions.

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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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Potentially Shippable Product Increment (PI) and Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Approach

Potentially Shippable Product Increment

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Scrum requires teams to build an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment must be potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide to release it at the end of the sprint.

  • The product increment is the sum of all backlog items completed during the current sprint
  • Potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness
  • Shipping is a business decision: shipping may or may not occur at the end of the sprint (new functionality may be accumulated via multiple sprints before being shipped)

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Minimum Viable Product Approach

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The product increment may or may not be marketable. However, a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach is sometimes used to help test marketable ideas. MVP is a product release strategy which can be used in Scrum (or another framework). The term was created by Frank Robinson, and popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries.

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Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (http://bit.ly/scrumone) says:

"The MVP has just those features considered sufficient for it to be of value to customers, and allow for it to be shipped or sold to early adopters. Customer feedback will inform future development of the product."

Here are a few examples of then-startups use of an MVP:

  • Facebook: The first product (originally called Thefacebook) tested traction of students connecting with their college/class and posting messages. Other features—built on the initial success—came later.
  • Groupon: It launched with a WordPress site and PDFs emailed to early subscribers. The test proved successful, and the company subsequently built its voucher system and backend.
  • Spotify: The initial product was simple desktop app, tested in a closed beta. The MVP proved to be of interest to consumers, and more features followed.


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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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"Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius Wins First Place in Business at Florida Book Festival

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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. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum by technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker and author Scott M. Graffius won first place in Business at the 2018 Florida Book Festival. This is the sixteenth first place award for the book.

The competition was open to works from small, medium, large (including the Big Five), and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Judging was conducted by a panel of industry professionals, and placements were determined based on overall excellence. Winners will be honored at a gala on Saturday, February 24 in Orlando, Florida. Graffius is scheduled to attend and speak at the ceremony.


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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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© 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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Technique for Ordering the Product Backlog: Factoring Business Value and Risk

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Scrum is the most popular agile project development and delivery framework. In Scrum, the product release backlog (sometimes referred to as the product backlog) is a list of features, user stories, bugs to be fixed, and/or other requirements. The Product Owner is the ultimate holder of the backlog. The Product Owner prioritizes items, and different methods can be employed to help accomplish that work. This brief article focuses on the technique of factoring business value and risk.

Each item in the product release backlog would be rated as either high or low in two dimensions: business value and risk. It is suggested that high business value, high-risk items are worked on first. While that may seem counterintuitive, the earlier this work is done, the sooner the team will move to mitigate the issues and unknowns—leading to a higher quality product. If there's a failure, it will occur early and relatively inexpensively.

An ordering of priorities is illustrated above, and it follows:

1. High business value, high risk.
2. High business value, low risk.
3. Low business value, low risk.
4. Low business value, high risk.

Alternatively, other prioritization methods—such as the MoSCoW ranking model— may be used. MoSCoW will be highlighted in a subsequent article.

This content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book,
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

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 — Update on 12 January 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 with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

This is an overview and quick update on
Agile Scrum.

There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most methodologies fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to best meet their business needs and effectively manage projects.

With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions,
Agile Scrum 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
• Support innovation and drive competitive advantage

This guide is for those interested or involved in innovation, project management, product development, software development or technology management.

• It's for those who have not yet used Scrum
• It's also for people already using Scrum, in roles such as Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Development Team members (business analysts, solution and system architects, designers, developers, testers, etc.), customers, end users, agile coaches, executives, managers, and other stakeholders

For those already using Scrum, the book can serve as a reference on practices for consideration and potential adaptation.

Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. Honors to date include 15 first place awards in national and international competitions.

  • First Place Winner, Business-General Category, 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 5th Annual Beverly Hills International Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Business Category, 2016 London Book Festival
  • First Place Winner, Business Category, Fall 2016 Pinnacle Book Achievement Awards
  • First Place Winner, Informational (Business) Category, 2017 Feathered Quill Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2016 New Apple Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2017 Independent Press Award
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 11th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards
  • First Place Winner, Business Category, 2017 Pacific Rim Book Festival
  • First Place Winner, Green/Conscious Business Category, 2017 Bookvana Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2017 Book Excellence Awards
  • First Place Winner, Business Reference Category, 14th Annual Best Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Technology Category, 2017 New York City Big Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Science & Technology Category, 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards
  • First Place Winner, Workplace Category, 2017 Human Relations Indie Book Awards

Additional awards—along with reviews and more—are located in the digital media kit at
AgileScrumGuide.com.


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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 Estimation Technique: Planning Cards

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🔥 Update: The product sold out!

Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ has Planning Cards as a tool to help agile teams estimate work. Excerpts of the information and instructions—which are included with each deck of the cards—follow. This article is for those interested in getting an overview.

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About These Planning Cards

  • These cards are used to help estimate work
  • Each deck contains four sets of cards—enough for four estimators
  • Each of the four sets has a unique color on the front side of cards—it’s in either blue, green, orange, or yellow
  • Cards are based on the Fibonacci sequence, where every number after the first two is the sum of the two preceding numbers
  • Each set includes cards with the following values: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, and "?"
  • Each deck comes in a storage case

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Purpose

These cards and instructions support the most popular approach to estimating work in Scrum projects—estimating the complexity of work via story points.

The Development Team—which may be comprised of business analysts, coders, testers, etc.—collaboratively estimates each item in the product backlog in story points. Story points are a relative measure of complexity.

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Participants

  • Product Owner
  • Development Team
  • Scrum Master (facilitator/observer)

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Frequency

  • Once or twice per sprint

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Time-box

  • One hour for each week of the sprint
  • It’s a common practice to limit each meeting to one hour and have multiple meetings as appropriate

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Prerequisites/Inputs

  • Product backlog containing user stories, bugs, and other requirements
  • One set of planning cards for each member of the Development Team

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Suggested Steps

1. If each member of the Development Team does not already have their own set of planning cards, the Scrum Master provides materials as needed

2. The Product Owner describes an item (a user story, bug, or other requirement) from the product backlog and mentions its intent and business value

3. Each member of the Development Team silently picks a card best representing their assessment of the complexity of the work and places the card face-down

4. After all of the Development Team members have made their selections, the cards are turned face-up, and the values are read aloud

5. If all of the selections have the same value, the Product Owner records it as the estimate, and that completes the exercise for the item; otherwise, proceed to the next step

6. Team member(s) who gave an outlier value —such as someone who gave a high value and/or someone who gave a low value—explain their reasoning

7. After a brief discussion, the team may take the most common value (the mode average) as the estimate or they may play another round of this planning game (steps 3-7)

8. Steps 2-7 are repeated until each item in the product backlog has been estimated

9. The Product Owner updates the product backlog with the estimate values

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Options

Some organizations use a subset of the cards and slice product backlog items when the estimate is "too large." Here's an example:

  • Development Team uses cards with the following values: 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and 21
  • Predetermined that 21 is "too large"
  • If a product backlog item is estimated at 21, it is sliced into two or more parts in collaboration with the Product Owner, and the resulting smaller items are estimated by the Development Team

This article provided a quick overview of an aspect of estimation in agile projects. Further details—including more information on the Fibonacci sequence, and additional options—are provided in the book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. Agile Scrum is available in paperback and ebook formats at Amazon. For additional information, visit AgileScrumGuide.com.


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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 Listed on 22 Best Scrum Books of All Time

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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. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum
made the list, "22 Best Scrum Books of All Time." Thank you, Roy Povarchik and Book Authority!



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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 — Online Bonus Content Updated 30 December 2017

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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. 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: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions—was updated today. Information on Agile/Scrum related blogs and podcasts were added to Select Resources. Instructions on how to access the online bonus material are provided inside both the ebook and the paperback book.


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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 2017 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 Wins Gold at Human Relations Indie Book Awards

vGGG9B HR lowerres

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. This is an update on the book.

The
Human Relations Indie Book Awards announced the results of its 2017 competition today, and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions won the gold (first place) in the Workplace category.

The contest was open to English-language books in print from small, academic, and independent presses as well as self-published authors. Entries were assessed on presentation, organization, and content—including the human relations message conveyed. Publications judged as outstanding are credited with awards.

Including this new honor,
Agile Scrum has received 15 first place awards from national and international competitions. Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book.


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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 2017 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 — Online Bonus Content Updated 28 November 2017

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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. This is an update related to the book.

Online bonus material—containing an ever-growing list of supplemental content that comes free with the purchase of
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions—was updated today. A new quiz was added to the list. Instructions on how to access the bonus material are provided inside the ebook and inside the paperback book.


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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 2017 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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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 26 November 2017

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. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



The trailer for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was updated. Content in the Seen In and Honors sections were refreshed. The video is tight—the total run time remains 30 seconds. The video is above and at https://vimeo.com/178858753.

Agile Scrum 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.

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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.

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© Copyright 2017 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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Top 5 Project Management and Planning Apps for iOS

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There are many outstanding project management and planning tools. The ability of access, contribute to, and manage data while away from the desk is important. This article focuses on related products for iOS—iPhone and iPad.

The selection criteria started with associated solutions available on Apple's App Store (over 100 items). The group was then filtered for those—as of the time of this report—with 20 or more reviews and also an average rating of 4 or better out of 5 stars. That resulted in the top five tools. In alphabetical order, they are: Caato Time Tracker+, Things 3, Todoist, Trello, and Wunderlist: To-Do List and Tasks.

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Each solution is highlighted next.

Caato Time Tracker+
• Price: $0 (offers in-app purchases)
• Number of reviews: 30
• Average rating (out of a maximum of 5 stars): 4.2
• Short description: Powerful features include folders, notes, search, Excel export and more. Yet, it's extremely simple to use.

Things 3
• Price: $49.99
• Number of reviews: 84
• Average rating (out of a maximum of 5 stars): 4.6
• Short description: Things is the award-winning personal task manager that helps you achieve your goals.

Todoist
• Price: $0 (offers in-app purchases)
• Number of reviews: 34
• Average rating (out of a maximum of 5 stars): 4.0
• Short description: With Todoist you’ll enjoy one-click access to everything on your to do list–today, tomorrow, and as far into the future as you need.

Trello
• Price: $0 (for a basic account)
• Number of reviews: 193
• Average rating (out of a maximum of 5 stars): 4.2
• Short description: Trello’s boards, lists, and cards enable you to organize and prioritize your projects in a fun, flexible and rewarding way.

Wunderlist: To-Do List and Tasks
• Price: $0 (offers in-app purchases)
• Number of reviews: 1,245
• Average rating (out of a maximum of 5 stars): 4.9
• Short description: Wunderlist is the easiest way to get stuff done. Whether you’re planning a holiday, sharing a shopping list with a partner or managing multiple work projects, Wunderlist is here to help you tick off all your personal and professional to-dos.

This has been a quick review of tools for iOS. A future article will cover products for other platforms.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 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 Takes First Place in Science & Technology at Royal Dragonfly Book Awards

vGGG9B Royal Dragonfly lowerres

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. This is an update on the book.

November 16 was an especially fortunate day for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. As noted in an earlier post, it won first place in the Technology category at the 2017 New York City Big Book Awards. The same day, the book took first place in Science & Technology at the 2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards. The contest was open to English-language books in print from around the world from all presses including self-published authors. Books were rated on content, readability, and innovation by judges with expertise in the categories over which they presided. Exceptional books are honored with awards.

Including this new honor, the publication has received 14 first place awards from national and international competitions.
Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book.

A press release on the book—distributed on November 15 (the day before this win)—is located at Yahoo Finance at
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-204000210.html.




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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 2017 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 Wins First Place in Technology at New York City Big 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 with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
by Scott M. Graffius won first place in the Technology category at the 2017 New York City Big Book Awards. The competition was open to books in print and audiobooks from all authors and presses. Contestants ranged from independent authors to works from publishing giants. Entries were rated on presentation, editorial quality, and audience appeal. Works judged as best of the best are honored with awards.

Including this honor, the publication has received 13 first place awards from national and international competitions.
Thank you to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book.

A press release on the book—distributed on November 15 (the day before this win)—is located at Yahoo Finance at
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-204000210.html.

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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 2017 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: "Scott M. Graffius's Award-Winning Book on Agile Scrum Helps Organizations Drive Competitive Advantage"

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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. This is an update on the book.

There's a press release for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, and distribution started earlier today. You're invited to take a look—here’s the source: http://www.ireachcontent.com/news-releases/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-book-on-agile-scrum-helps-organizations-drive-competitive-advantage-657789663.html.

As of the time of this post, the press release been picked up by Yahoo Finance (
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scott-m-graffiuss-award-winning-204000210.html) and 117 additional sites. Distribution continues.


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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 2017 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 was a Contributor and Reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)—Sixth Edition

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Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions's Scott M. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of the Project Management Institute's flagship standard,
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)—Sixth Edition. It includes new content for project delivery professionals working in the entire spectrum of approaches—from traditional (waterfall) to agile methodologies.

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Let's Connect

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Connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

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© Copyright 2017 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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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 10 November 2017

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. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.


The updated 30-second trailer for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is live at https://vimeo.com/178858753 (and can be played above). Changes to the trailer include the addition of a new award—first place in the Business Reference category at the 14th Annual Best Book Awards—and revised formatting.

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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 2017 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 Took First Place in Business at Best 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 with that client was the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum. This is an update on the book.

The
14th Annual Best Book Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by project management expert, consultant and author Scott M. Graffius as the first place winner in the Business Reference category. The annual competition is open to English-language books from all authors and publishers. Over 2,000 contestants ranged from first-time, self-published authors to bestselling works from publishing giants including Wiley, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, St. Martin's Press, Penguin Random House, and Hachette Book Group. A panel of publishing industry experts judged entries, and outstanding books are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.

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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 2017 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 Featured in BEA Author Showcase

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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. This is an update related to the book.

I'm thrilled to be included in the BEA Author Showcase. The feature (here) relates the inspiration for the book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, and suggestions for aspiring authors.


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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 2017 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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Techniques for Gathering User Stories

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In Scrum, user stories act as requirements. Each story represents a portion of business value that a team can deliver in an iteration. A common format is: “As a (role), I want (goal) so that I can (reason).” Here's an example: “As a customer, I want shopping cart functionality so that I can buy items online.” User stories are captured in the product release backlog. This short article focuses on techniques for gathering user stories.

The following methods can help the Product Owner gather material for user stories:

Interviews: Ask a diverse group of users—or anticipated users if the product/service does not yet exist—open-ended questions containing "how" or "why." For example: "How would you pair this device with your iPhone?”

Observation: Watch people using the product/service.

Prototyping: Use tools such as sticky notes, PowerPoint, and wireframes to illustrate ideas, show preliminary versions of the product, and facilitate discussions.

Surveys: Employ surveys where the Product Owner verbally asks respondents pre-determined questions, or questionnaires where items are presented via forms (online or in hard copy format).

Workshops: This is a type of brainstorming where the group identifies as many user story ideas as possible. To support getting a high quantity of ideas, it is suggested that participants should not agree/disagree with or assess items during the workshop.

The above content includes excerpts from the book,
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

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 2017 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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Video: "Agile Scrum" by Scott M. Graffius — Book Trailer Updated on 20 October 2017

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. This is an update on the book.

Agile Scrum Guide | Official Book Trailer from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



The 30-second book trailer for
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (https://vimeo.com/178858753) was updated. The “Featured In” portion incorporates mentions of award placement news on sites of ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates. For example, ABC 7 (WZVN TV) lists the results of the 2017 Book Excellence Awards—where Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions took first place in Technology—on their site.

Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. Honors include 11 first place wins in national and international competitions. It’s
available in paperback and ebook formats at Amazon.


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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 2017 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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Video: Technical Debt — Including Top 7 Causes, and How to Avoid It


Agile Scrum Guide | Minisode | Technical Debt from Scott Graffius on Vimeo.



This (
https://vimeo.com/238528947) is a “minisode” on technical debt. It’s a 60-second video version of an article on the same topic published earlier in this blog.

The content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book, 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

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 2017 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 — Review and Examination Copy Programs Updated on 10 October 2017

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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. This is an update on the book.

The review and examination copy programs were updated. It's now easier and quicker than ever for members of the media and instructors to request a complimentary paperback copy of
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.

For members of the media:
bit.ly/2gbU2uY.
For instructors:
bit.ly/2gcKYG4.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions provides those interested or involved in innovation, project management, product development, software development or technology management with an authoritative roadmap to easily and quickly implement Scrum, the most popular agile project management and delivery framework. It helps technology and business teams deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which drives competitive advantage.

Reactions to the book have been incredibly positive. The Midwest Book Review wrote, “
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is an all-inclusive instruction guide that is impressively 'user-friendly' in tone, content, clarity, organization, and presentation.” To date, honors include 11 first place awards in national and international competitions.

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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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© Copyright 2017 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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Seven Business Benefits of Digital Transformation and How Agile Can Help Deliver Results Quickly

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This is a brief overview of digital transformation—including key steps, business benefits, and how agile can help deliver results quickly.

Digital transformation is about leveraging data and connectivity to change the way the business competes and adds value. Leaders who don’t seize this opportunity will see their organization's business value erode.

Digital transformation involves three key steps:
1. Convert data to insight. Collect, analyze and make sense of historical and real-time data.
2. Impart insight to action. Leverage the insight as an action within a business process or other application.
3. Convert action to outcome. Invent new or reinvent existing business processes or models, creating a stronger value proposition.

Digital transformation may yield one or more of the following benefits for businesses:
1. Reach ROI sooner
2. Better products/services
3. Faster time-to-market
4. Less waste
5. More profit
6. Protect/secure market share
7. Improved competitive advantage

Digital transformation is about revolutionizing the way business is done, and an agile approach can help teams adapt and deliver value quickly. That supports innovation and succeeding in a rapidly evolving world.

For those interested in agile,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions provides an authoritative roadmap to easily and quickly implement Scrum, the most popular agile project management and delivery framework. It helps teams deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement―which drives competitive advantage.


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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 2017 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 is First Place Winner in 2017 Book Excellence Awards ― Technology Category

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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. This is an update on the book.

The
2017 Book Excellence Awards named Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius as the first place winner in the Technology category. Sponsored by Literary Excellence Incorporated and based in Canada, the competition is open to English-language books in print, e-books and audio books from all publishers including self-published authors. The international program judged entries on overall quality and appeal to the target audience, and outstanding works are honored with awards.

Thank you to the technical editors on the book, Chris Hare and Colin Giffen.


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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.

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© Copyright 2017 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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Seven Causes of Technical Debt and How to Avoid It

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This is a brief introduction to technical debt—including top causes and how to avoid problems.

Technical debt (also known as code debt and design debt) is a term used to describe the eventual consequences of a technical design or development choice made for a short-term benefit but with subsequent consequences. An example is writing suboptimal code to meet a deadline, knowing that the code will have to be rewritten later to make the software maintainable.

Technical debt may have one or more causes, such as:
1. Time pressures
2. Overly complex technical design
3. Poor alignment to standards
4. Lack of skill
5. Suboptimal code
6. Delayed refactoring
7. Insufficient testing

Over time, those factors result in the accumulation of technical inefficiencies that need to be serviced in the future. Unchecked technical debt may make the software more expensive to change than to re-implement.

Technical debt can be avoided or minimized by not taking shortcuts, using simple designs, and refactoring continuously. When there’s technical debt, the team should make the items visible by registering entries in the product release backlog, where the matters will be evaluated and prioritized for resolution.

This content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.



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