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PROJECT MANAGERS BECAME HIGHLY EFFECTIVE LEAN AGILE PROJECT LEADERS
PROJECT IN THE SPOTLIGHT MAKING THE SWITCH HOW TWO HIGH PERFORMING PROJECT MANAGERS MADE THE SUCCESSFUL SWITCH TO BECOME HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AGILE PROJECT LEADERS
Galit Guershon and Tim Bates have had successful project management careers building innovative technical solutions across a range of industries and for many Telstra customers. Courtesy of Telstra’s transformation towards agile-at-scale, both have made the shift towards new roles and become very successful lean agile delivery leaders. In this article, we sit down with both Galit and Tim to understand this shift, their experiences, lessons for others and a chance to debunk some myths about the differences between traditional and agile project management.
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE AND CAN YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO?
Galit: I am an Agile Technical Delivery Manager.
Tim: Yes, same as Galit. We are a flexible resource; we deliver any project challenge. We empower teams to get work done, deliver value for customers and coach teams to adopt new ways of working. We work between technologists who work within their domains and the business who wants outcomes delivered. Sort of like building a bridge between the old and new worlds.
WHAT WAS YOUR PREVIOUS ROLE?
Galit: Previously I was a Senior Project Manager.
Tim: I was actually an external consultant engaged as a senior Project Manager. I was then offered a full-time role here.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR PRIOR AND NEW ROLE?
Galit: The biggest differences have been changing how people perceive delivering under new ways of working. For example, having to apply new routines, adapting to tasks that used to be shared across multiple people into one role, like doing project financials. I certainly spend more time now focused on delivery and less on documentation. There are less hygiene tasks, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing.
Tim Bates
Tim: Yes, I agree. Agile is very disciplined when it is working properly, so hygiene should be in place. For me the big difference has been a shift to more transparency and decentralised decision making away from a single project leader. We have gone from ‘command-and-control’ to ‘servant-leadership’. But good leaders operated like this anyway and good teams did these regularly to drive outcomes. The difference is that it is good to see this embedded into formal ways of working practices.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE IN THIS CHANGE?
Tim: It has been quite a positive experience. I have been trying to do this stuff anyway and pushing of it for a few years. I have been lucky to have worked with good people who have the right mindset and pick up these concepts quickly. It’s just a shame we haven’t hit critical mass yet so that everyone is working this way.
Galit: I like that we want to simplify tools and delivery methods, but we are still being asked for project forecasts at a detailed level over long time frames and we still produce too many status reports. These are difficult to do at a detailed level under agile. There are traditional impediments that get in the way of stopping to deliver at speed. For example, Telstra has a strict operational readiness process and it is there for a reason. This process is difficult to speed up, but it can be broken down into smaller parts. We just need more time to get this done.
DID YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS ABOUT THE CHANGE? IF SO, WHAT WERE THEY?
Tim: I was concerned to hear we were going straight to scale on this change. I was concerned we would end up with a half-baked solution. It’s great to see that the executives and the teams have stuck with it. I would hate to see us roll back to the old ways of traditional, largesequential, siloed delivery.
Galit: When we were initially briefed, it felt rushed to me. We heard about how these new Product Owner and Scrum Master roles would drive delivery and so would not need a Project Manager. We now see that Project Managers can operate in these roles and still drive initiatives to keep work under control.
Galit Guershon and Tim Bates are two successful project managers building innovative technical solutions across a range of industries and for Telstra customers. (Source: Telstra)
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OTHERS WHO ARE FACING THIS KIND OF DISRUPTION IN THEIR WORKPLACE?
Tim: It’s all about the team who are on the ground. You need to flip the traditional organisational triangle; you need to put the team at the top.
Galit: Yes I agree, but you also need to work more with your stakeholders too. You must agree on a mechanism on how to remove blockers and bring your stakeholders on board quickly to move these blockers.
Tim: This change is scary to people. Many are facing a lot of uncertainty. As leaders, we must create psychological safety for people to build up trust and to feel safe to work in the new model.
Tim Bates
ANY REGRETS OR, ANYTHING YOU MISS FROM THE PREVIOUS WAY OF WORKING?
Galit: We used to have a kick-off forum that brought together all the architects and constructor groups to give initiative visibility and so that they could determine if they were impacted by a new project. The agile-at-scale approach puts that in the hands of the Product Owner to go to the company marketplace and pitch for the resource they need. I don’t think it works as well.
Tim: I missed the perceived certainty that a signed off business case used to give me. I felt safe with an approved business case and plan. I know that the solution often changed afterwards, but that didn’t matter.
Galit Guershon
ARE THERE ANY MYTHS YOU WOULD DEBUNK THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE YOU HAVE HAD SO FAR IN THE NEW WAY OF WORKING?
Tim: This isn’t a new way of working. Projects have always embraced these agile practices; they were just called different things. After all, they are just good practice. Agile means no discipline. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is plenty of planning, it is just broken up into smaller tasks as you go along. If anything, it requires more discipline to have all the right of people turning up to attend all planning events.
Galit: Agile is just a technology thing – It is not. It may have started in IT, but having business adapt to changes is just as important.
Tim: Agile is faster and cheaper – It is not. If you know exactly what you want to do, it might be faster and cheaper, but with the uncertainty we work in, it will always take longer because you are constantly changing and re-assessing the priorities. Galit: Probably not a myth but learning agile ways of working just adds more tools to your toolkit. It has made what we do better valued and appreciated by management. It gives us more ways to work with stakeholders and to be more effective at delivering their outcomes. It’s not about throwing old tools out.
