Episode 156 – Agile Beyond IT

How is Agile relevant beyond IT? Alan Zucker explains how agile roots are in the Lean manufacturing movement as he shares about the application of agile practices for non-technology projects. He talks about agile as a mindset, the Gemba Walk, House of Lean, transparency in teams, value stream mapping, and much more. Recently Alan launched a new Velociteach InSite course: Agile Beyond IT, a hands-on application of agile practices for non-technology challenges.



Table of Contents



01:59 … Agile Beyond IT03:09 … Blurring the Lines between Traditional and Agile06:04 … Fusion Cooking and Project Management07:21 … Agile as a Mindset not a Methodology10:19 … Self-Organizing and Self-Managing11:32 … Empowering Team Members12:36 … Iterative and Incremental15:12 … Iterative and Incremental in Non-IT Projects15:21 … The House of Lean17:43 … Transparency in Healthy Teams19:22 … The Gemba Walk22:53 … Agile Manifesto beyond IT24:59 … 12 Agile Principles beyond IT27:41 … Dignity28:49 … Value Stream Mapping in Non-IT31:39 … Advice for New Leaders32:57 … Get in Touch with Alan34:19 … Closing



ALAN ZUCKER: Another is trusting the wisdom of the team, recognizing that you don’t need to come up with all the answers, or potentially even any of the answers; that your strength lies in bringing out the experience and knowledge of everybody else on the team.



WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This.  My name is Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates.  This is the podcast about project management.  We are excited to bring our guest to you today.  This is actually someone we’ve had before.



BILL YATES:  Yes.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Alan Zucker is joining us.  He’s a certified project management professional.  He’s an Agile Foundation certificate holder, a Scrum Master, a Scaled Agilist, as well as a keynote speaker.



BILL YATES:  We have a course that we are launching.  This one is called “Agile Beyond IT.”  It’s a part of our self-paced training in InSite.  Alan created the “Fundamentals of Agile” course for us, and the feedback was always positive, and sometimes he’d get the comment, “I don’t work in technology, so how does this apply to me?”  Well, that’s something that he’s dealt with a lot in some of the consulting and other training that he’s done for organizations.



For several years Alan’s helped clients use agile principles and practices in diverse non-technology fields, everything from construction to not-for-profits.  These experiences are the basis for this class.  And he pulls some of the concepts from the agile principles and says, “Okay, here’s the principle.  How can we apply this beyond IT?”  Very practical, great advice.



Alan has got multiple agile certifications from PMI, the Scrum Alliance, Disciplined Agile, and Scaled Agile.  He’s created courses for us.  He instructs for us.  He is in the classroom.  In fact, as we wrap up this session today, he’s going to begin a four-day PMP prep class for us.  And we’re delighted to have him with us.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Hi, Alan.  Welcome to Manage This once again.  Thank you for joining us.



ALAN ZUCKER:  Hi.  It’s great to see you guys again.



Agile Beyond IT



WENDY GROUNDS:  Now, we’ve just mentioned that you have completed a course for us, “Agile Beyond IT.”  And we’re very excited to publish this one.  It’s an excellent course.  Could you give us a little bit of a background for this and why you picked that name for the course?



ALAN ZUCKER:  Sure.  So a few years ago I created a “Fundamentals of Agile” course for Velociteach.  And it’s been very popular.  But as we were looking at some of the comments that people left, people were saying, “Well, this was a really great course, but it was all about technology, and I’m in a non-technology area.  How can I use agile?”  So we had some conversations, and we put together a course for people that aren’t in technology. 



And it just so happened that around the same time I was thinking,