Individuals and Interactions over Process and Tools is the first value of the Agile Manifesto. When the 17 agilists who signed the manifesto came together in 2001, the 4 core values surfaced as commonalities in their individual approaches to agile software development.
I promise they were not the only 17 PMs in the world to commonly value these things.
“Mitch is one of those people you turn to when you’ve got an initiative that’s outside the box, but yet which absolutely, positively needs to get done…” – 2010 – CEO
Ten years later, the same CEO said, “you’re not a traditional PM who builds massive project plans and such…”
If you’re leading an initiative that “absolutely, positively needs to get done,” by a specific date, talking to the CEO about the process is rarely productive or useful.
As many PMs and teams who have worked with me will attest, I build very detailed plans. I just don’t share those details with CEOs who might decide to micromanage commitments only the team should be signing up for.
To business leaders, your interactions should be focused on value. As a PM, you need to understand what that leader finds valuable and why so you can translate that to the team.
When you build a Gantt chart and/or WBS and/or backlog, details can be collapsed to focus your conversation. If you roll items up to Epics, Capabilities and Features, you’ve got the right level of detail for most CEOs.
The User Story details and timelines get filled in by the actual teams doing the work. That is the only way to be consistently successful.
Since getting certified to teach the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe® 5.0), several PMs who have worked for me reached out expressing their surprise that I’m teaching “process.”
To any of you who may have been confused by my contextual lack of interest in process conversations, I’d give you this advise:
The time to have a conversation about your PM process with a CEO or business owner is long before you have a fixed scope and timeline.
Agile teams are essential to business agility, but the values codified in the Agile Manifesto are not exclusive to Scrum, SAFe® or any specific PM framework or methodology.
If you are an enterprise leader or any leader in a Lean-Enterprise, and you want to learn more how to achieve business agility, I highly recommend getting your SAFe® Agilist certification by taking Leading SAFe®.