PMI Alamo Chapter of San Antonio

Presenter: Aina Aliieva

Have you ever wondered why innovative organizational leaders and high-performing developers, product designers, UX specialists, etc. - who are otherwise excellent at what they do - are slow and hesitant to adopt Agile methodologies? Agile transformation is a hot topic right now, but many organizations rush the implementation process without pausing to assess and address foundational issues. The truth is, new hires or new Agile teams aren’t entirely convinced that Agile methodologies can support their expertise and simplify their day-to-day tasks. They perceive Agile transformation as “just another thing” their company is trying and are reluctant to commit. In this workshop, I’ll present a road map that will help agile practitioners and executives interested in agile transformation identify the root cause of resistance of new Agile teams and new hires. We’ll also look at the challenges Agile evangelists such as Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, and POs face in implementing these methodologies. The goal is to get all Agile stakeholders aligned with a company’s or a product’s vision and reframe how Agile is seen and used by everyone involved. After this interactive presentation, Agile specialists, executives, and product owners will know exactly how to facilitate Agile transformations with a culture-first approach, supported by coaching, mentorship, and the right kind of accountability (avoiding micromanagement). The result? Teams who truly believe in the potential of Agile methodologies and continue to incrementally incorporate them in their work without resistance, thus accelerating their learning curve.

Presenter: Bill Brantley

Citizen developers are employees with little or no IT skills who create online applications and mobile apps using approved point-and-click app builder tools. According to Gartner's (an IT consulting firm) research, by 2025, over 70% of organizations will use citizen-developed applications. According to Mendix's (another IT consulting firm) 2021 survey of 2,025 IT professionals in six countries, in organizations that use no-code/low-code platforms, 56% of employees use citizen-developed apps. Thirty-three percent of organizations surveyed use citizen-developed apps for mission-critical operations. In addition, No-code/low-code projects reduce software application costs by 53% while delivering the applications 56% faster than traditional software projects.| Many citizen developers are skilled in business analysis, marketing, or business strategy. They have excellent critical thinking skills and analytical skills. However, citizen developers can be more effective if they acquire design thinking, agile project management, and product development/management, collaboration, customer education, and stakeholder management skills. My presentation will describe how to build a capabilities academy focused on essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes to help citizen developers create and deliver valuable no-code/low-code digital applications.

Presenter: Raju Rao

It is over fifty years since we identified project management as a formal subject of study, considered as a practice and knowledge on the subject collated and codified. Since then, it has grown considerably, with many standards being developed, training & consulting organizations set up and information disseminated among many industries and domains. At the same time today, we see there is a prospect of potential changes everywhere. Change, because of the business & political conditions, technology and the environment. The recent pandemic has only exacerbated this. All these happenings are forcing organizations, governments and professional communities to re-evaluate our ways of working to meet the challenges now and in the future. This includes the project management community as well.

Presenter: Goutam Sengupta

Evolution of leadership styles is a continuous process. Leadership styles are influenced by market forces. Over the last few decades, the world has witnessed numerous leadership styles namely autocratic leadership, bureaucratic leadership, participative leadership, transformational leadership, to name a few. COVID-19 pandemic has posed a new challenge to the world where the employers as well as the employees were severely affected due to business uncertainty. This gave rise to emergence of a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world for which a new style of leadership was required to be evolved for growth and sustenance of businesses. We will discuss how different but successful leadership styles are evolving during the post pandemic era. My deliberations shall examine in particular the usefulness of some people management way of working prescribed in agile values, principles and methodologies.