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Agile Program Management, Enterprise Agile Planning, Lean Portfolio Management

Here’s Your Agile Track Recap from Accelerate

Get the scoop on our featured sessions, and see the whole amazing lineup!

Published By Brook Appelbaum

In case you missed it, Planview’s premier customer conference was bigger and better than ever this year! 

The virtual event attracted almost 2,800 registrants from more than 45 countries on Sept. 21-22.  

On the jam-packed agenda were several presentations, customer stories, and roundtable discussions aimed at supporting Agile leaders at all levels of the organization. 

If you didn’t get to attend these engaging sessions, read on to get the scoop! 

Becoming Agile and Beyond 

The Agile track “Becoming Agile and Beyond” was focused on two main themes: Agile Program Management and Agile Transformation.  

The reason we featured these two themes is because our customers have seen tremendous growth in these areas. So many organizations are trying to figure out how to build strong, cross-functional Agile teams so they can scale beyond pockets of Agile.  

And still other organizations are already scaling Agile and in the middle of their own full-blown transformations. 

How to Build High-Performing Agile Teams 

For Agile leaders that were seeking to understand more about their path to Agile at scale, many started with the session, “How to Build High-Performing Agile Teams.” 

Agile typically starts in pockets, with teams organizing around key initiatives or projects that the organization needs to deliver more rapidly. Often, these pockets of teams show their ability to deliver value quickly and iteratively, utilizing feedback loops to continuously improve and build better products. So what makes these high-performing teams so successful? 

LeanKit Product Manager Jon High and Director of Solution Architecture Ronnie Pinkerton shared their key criteria for building exceptional Agile teams. 

Listen to the session 

Agile Program Management: Making Work Connected & Visible 

Going beyond the Agile team dynamic, other Agile leaders found it beneficial to dive deeper into what comes next for high-performing Agile teams.  

When organizations need to coordinate their pockets of Agile teams using different tools and systems – that is, beyond “doing Agile” and starting to care about “becoming Agile” — they seek to build an Agile Program Management foundation.  

In the “Agile Program Management: Making Work Connected & Visible” session, Sr. Solutions Architect Norman Garrett and Sr. Product Manager Alex Glabman shared how to use LeanKit and Agile Integrations to visualize all the Agile teams’ work, identify work roadblocks, map dependencies between teams, and ensure that Agile teams are connected to a common goal. 

Listen to the session  

Why Agile Transformations Fail 

While most of the world’s largest companies are attempting a Lean-Agile transformation in one way or another, not all of them are succeeding.  

Many organizations struggle with transformations, and in some cases, an enterprise may start a transformation, not see results, and deem it a “failure,” shifting back to the way things were. What’s missing from “failing” implementations of Lean and Agile is the understanding that seeing radically different outcomes means creating a radically different culture.  

An organization that has done this extremely well is NatWest.  

Head of Change CoE (Center of Excellence) Steve Marjot, accompanied by Operations Manager Katrina Warren, drew from their years of Agile experience to create the stellar presentation “Why Agile Transformations Fail.”  

They shared insightful tips on how to be “smart, simple and safe” when transforming an organization. From internal best practices to education for different organizational roles, they candidly discussed what not to do if you want to see transformation success.  

Listen to the session 

Coaching Through an Agile Transformation 

If you’re new to Planview, you might not be aware of Planview’s own transformational journey. Just like many of our customers, we started with pockets of Agile teams before scaling across departments and adopting Agile Program Management, Quarterly Planning, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and more.  

Planview’s own Enterprise Agile Transformation Coach Steve Wolfe delivered an excellent session on “Coaching Through an Agile Transformation,” where he shared a few lessons learned from Planview’s Agile journey so far. He walked through how we went from “zero to hero” inside of Planview and now fully use Planview LeanKit across all aspects of our business to drive strategy and outcomes.  

Listen to the session 

Don’t Miss These Sessions and More 

So there you have it — just a few of the exciting sessions from the “Becoming Agile and Beyond” track! There’s much more to experience online and on-demand with the full lineup below. 

  • Tasktop – Project to Product: Driving Business Agility with Flow Metrics 
  • Meet the Experts Roundtable – Connected Kanban and the SAFe® Framework 
  • Meet the Experts Roundtable – Agile Planning and Roadmapping 
  • Agile Program Management & Visual Portfolio Planning Roadmap 
  • Lean Coffee with the Planview Product Team 
  • Nationwide Building Society – Enabling Customer Value Through Lean Portfolio Management 
  • Verisk – Four Focus Areas of an Agile Journey 
  • Meet the Experts Roundtable – A Deep Dive into Agile Integrations 
  • Meet the Experts Roundtable – Taking the First Step with an Agile Team 
  • OK-R You Ready for a Goal-Setting Framework? 
  • Meet the Experts Roundtable – Objective and Key Results (OKRs) with Tasktop 
  • Meet the Experts Roundtable – LeanKit Reporting (Power BI, OData) 
  • Caffeinate your collaboration with Instant Coffee! 

Remember, you can watch all of the sessions here. We hope you enjoyed this quick run through Planview Accelerate 2021. See you next year! 

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Written by Brook Appelbaum Director, Product Marketing

Brook Appelbaum is the Director of Product Marketing for Planview’s Lean and Agile Delivery Solution. With nearly 20 years of marketing experience, Brook has led many different product and digital marketing teams. However, her favorite leadership role is that of a Product Owner. As part of an Agile marketing team inside Planview, Brook drives the campaign and product marketing strategy for the Lean and Agile Delivery Solution. And she thinks LeanKit is the coolest.