#AgileScrumGuide
‘Innovation Project Management’ (Second Edition) Features Content from Scott M. Graffius on Agile and Innovation
17 February 2023
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Content from Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) heads up the Agile Innovation section of the second edition of Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects by Harold Kerzner. A view is shown below.


About Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects by Harold Kerzner
The following information includes excerpts from the product description provided by the publisher.
The newly revised second edition of Innovation Project Management offers tools, processes, and metrics needed to successfully manage innovation projects, providing value-based innovation project management metrics as well as guidance for how to establish a metrics management program.
The highly qualified author analyzes innovation from all sides; through this approach, Innovation Project Management breaks down traditional project management methods and explains why and how innovation projects should be managed differently.
The second edition has exclusive insights from world-class organizations such as IBM, Hitachi, Repsol, Philips, Deloitte, IdeaScale, KAUST, and more. It includes six all new case studies, featuring a dive into brand management innovation from Lego.
Some of the ideas discussed in Innovation Project Management include:
To learn more, visit here.




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi award-winning author, and highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. Content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Select examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, U.S. Soccer Federation, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Warsaw University of Technology, and others. Graffius has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 82 conferences and other events across 24 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

#Agile #Agility #AgileCoach #AgileInnovation #AgileProjectManagement #AgileScrumGuide #Business #Change #Collaboration #CompetitiveAdvantage #ContinuousImprovement #Development #HaroldKerzner #Innovation #InnovationManagement
#InnovationProjectManagement #Kerzner #Leadership #NPD #OrganizationalDevelopment #ProductDevelopment #ProjectManagement #ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #Scrum #ScrumMaster #SDLC #Stakeholders #Tech #Technology
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/innov-23
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.


Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Content from Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) heads up the Agile Innovation section of the second edition of Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects by Harold Kerzner. A view is shown below.


About Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects by Harold Kerzner
The following information includes excerpts from the product description provided by the publisher.
The newly revised second edition of Innovation Project Management offers tools, processes, and metrics needed to successfully manage innovation projects, providing value-based innovation project management metrics as well as guidance for how to establish a metrics management program.
The highly qualified author analyzes innovation from all sides; through this approach, Innovation Project Management breaks down traditional project management methods and explains why and how innovation projects should be managed differently.
The second edition has exclusive insights from world-class organizations such as IBM, Hitachi, Repsol, Philips, Deloitte, IdeaScale, KAUST, and more. It includes six all new case studies, featuring a dive into brand management innovation from Lego.
Some of the ideas discussed in Innovation Project Management include:
- Continuous versus discontinuous innovation, incremental versus radical innovation, understanding innovation differences, and incremental innovation versus new product development.
- Identifying core competencies using strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis and nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements.
- Implications and issues for project managers and innovation personnel, active listening, pitching the innovation, and cognitive biases.
- Measuring intangible assets, customer/user/stakeholder impact on value metrics, customer value management programs, and the relationship between project management and value.
- With its highly detailed and comprehensive coverage of the field, and with case studies from leading companies to show how concepts are applied in real-world situations, Innovation Project Management is a must-have title for practicing project managers, as well as students in project management, innovation, and entrepreneurship programs.
To learn more, visit here.



About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi award-winning author, and highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. Content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Select examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, U.S. Soccer Federation, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Warsaw University of Technology, and others. Graffius has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 82 conferences and other events across 24 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

#Agile #Agility #AgileCoach #AgileInnovation #AgileProjectManagement #AgileScrumGuide #Business #Change #Collaboration #CompetitiveAdvantage #ContinuousImprovement #Development #HaroldKerzner #Innovation #InnovationManagement
#InnovationProjectManagement #Kerzner #Leadership #NPD #OrganizationalDevelopment #ProductDevelopment #ProjectManagement #ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #Scrum #ScrumMaster #SDLC #Stakeholders #Tech #Technology
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/innov-23
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

Scott M. Graffius Named in "Agile. Creativity. Innovation."
22 March 2023
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

The International Institute for Learning (IIL) — a professional training and coaching organization — named Scott M. Graffius in "Agile. Creativity. Innovation."
IIL's article by Luigi Morsa, Ph.D. references Graffius and his award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.

Excerpt 1 (of 3) is shown above.

Excerpt 2 (of 3) is shown above.

Excerpt 3 (of 3) is shown above.
Read the story on IIL’s website here: https://blog.iil.com/agile-creativity-innovation




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi award-winning author, and highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. Content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Select examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, U.S. Soccer Federation, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Warsaw University of Technology, and others. Graffius has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 82 conferences and other events across 24 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

About the International Institute for Learning
The International Institute for Learning (IIL) is a leader in the development and delivery of customized learning programs, online conferences, professional certification credit and preparation courses, and organizational learning solutions.
IIL has strategic partnerships with global professional certification organizations to help teams and professionals advance critical business and technical skills. Clients include global corporations, small and medium enterprises, public sector, nonprofits, and the general public.
Headquartered in New York City, IIL has teams located strategically around the world, a stellar roster of professional international trainers, and award-winning Media and Printing divisions providing end-to-end solutions.
Visit https://www.iil.com to learn more.

#Agile #AgileBook #AgileCoach #AgileProjectManagement #AgileProjectManager #AgileScrumGuide #AgileTradecraft #AgileTransformation #AgileTransformationBook #Agility #Creativity #CustomerNeeds #Engineering #ExceptionalAgility #IIL #Innovation #InnovationTradecraft #InternationalInstituteForLearning #IT #ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #Scrum #ScrumBook #ScrumMaster #ShiftingNeeds #Software #SoftwareDevelopment #Tech #Technology #Tradecraft
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/agil-innov
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.


The International Institute for Learning (IIL) — a professional training and coaching organization — named Scott M. Graffius in "Agile. Creativity. Innovation."
IIL's article by Luigi Morsa, Ph.D. references Graffius and his award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.

Excerpt 1 (of 3) is shown above.

Excerpt 2 (of 3) is shown above.

Excerpt 3 (of 3) is shown above.
Read the story on IIL’s website here: https://blog.iil.com/agile-creativity-innovation



About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi award-winning author, and highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. Content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Select examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, U.S. Soccer Federation, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Warsaw University of Technology, and others. Graffius has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology leadership at 82 conferences and other events across 24 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

About the International Institute for Learning
The International Institute for Learning (IIL) is a leader in the development and delivery of customized learning programs, online conferences, professional certification credit and preparation courses, and organizational learning solutions.
IIL has strategic partnerships with global professional certification organizations to help teams and professionals advance critical business and technical skills. Clients include global corporations, small and medium enterprises, public sector, nonprofits, and the general public.
Headquartered in New York City, IIL has teams located strategically around the world, a stellar roster of professional international trainers, and award-winning Media and Printing divisions providing end-to-end solutions.
Visit https://www.iil.com to learn more.

#Agile #AgileBook #AgileCoach #AgileProjectManagement #AgileProjectManager #AgileScrumGuide #AgileTradecraft #AgileTransformation #AgileTransformationBook #Agility #Creativity #CustomerNeeds #Engineering #ExceptionalAgility #IIL #Innovation #InnovationTradecraft #InternationalInstituteForLearning #IT #ProjectManagement #ProjectManager #Scrum #ScrumBook #ScrumMaster #ShiftingNeeds #Software #SoftwareDevelopment #Tech #Technology #Tradecraft
The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/agil-innov
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

Leverage the Power of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
15 May 2023
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

Select here to download this article as a PDF.
Minimum viable products (MVPs)—coined by Frank Robinson in 2001, and subsequently popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries—can be advantageous tools for the development of products and services. This article is informed by Graffius' first-hand experience with MVPs as well as research and coverage from the Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT Sloan Management Review, Product Development and Management Association, Product School, Project Management Institute, Scaled Agile, and others (all listed in the bibliography section of this article).

Introduction
Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) can be game changers. They can be used by businesses to validate ideas, reduce time to market, and minimize risks associated with building fully featured products from the outset. This article provides those involved or interested in Agile, Lean, Product Management, Product Development, Project Management, and entrepreneurship with information on the significance of MVPs and how to leverage them.

Defining MVPs
First, it's paramount to understand what constitutes an MVP and why it matters. A Minimum Viable Product is a version of a product (or service) that incorporates just the essential features to address core customer needs and validate the viability of the concept. By employing an MVP, companies can gather valuable user feedback early on, allowing them to iterate, refine, and pivot their offering—if needed—based on market demand. This process saves time and resources, and it advances the chances of building a successful and customer-centric offering.
Here's a succinct definition of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP):
"The MVP has just those features considered sufficient for it to be of value to customers and allow for it to be shipped or sold to early adopters. Customer feedback will inform future development of the product." — Scott M. Graffius, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Next, examples of seven successful MVPs—Zappos, Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Amazon, Dropbox, and Groupon—will illustrate the power of MVPs.
MVP Success Stories
Key Principles and Best Practices for MVPs
Building a successful MVP requires adhering to key principles and best practices. It involves thoughtfully determining the relatively few features and limited scope to address core customer needs. Collecting and analyzing user feedback plays a pivotal role in making informed decisions and prioritizing enhancements. By embracing an iterative mindset and focusing on the most valuable aspects of the product, businesses can create an MVP that resonates with their target audience.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Challenges with MVPs
While MVPs offer significant advantages, they are not without challenges. Over-engineering the product, prematurely scaling, and failing to validate crucial assumptions are common pitfalls that can hinder success. It’s vital to strike a balance between building a viable product and avoiding unnecessary complexity. By remaining adaptable and open to change, businesses can navigate these challenges and increase the chances of achieving their goals.
Validating and Iterating via Lean and Agile Approaches
The MVP is particularly well-suited for Lean and Agile approaches and environments. Lean principles emphasize continuous learning, eliminating waste, and rapid experimentation. Agile (such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe) involve iterative development, frequent feedback loops, and continuous improvement. Utilizing Lean/Agile can help maximize the value of MVPs and increase chances of success.
Beyond the MVP
Once an MVP proves its viability, the focus shifts to scaling and launching the product. This stage requires a broad and deep understanding of the target market, competition, and customer preferences. It involves adapting the product based on user feedback, exploring different marketing strategies, and leveraging data-driven insights. Staying agile, continuously learning, and adapting to market dynamics are crucial for sustained growth and long-term success.

Conclusion
MVPs are powerful tools for innovation and the successful development of products/services. The examples of Zappos, Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Amazon, Dropbox, and Groupon highlight the transformative impact of MVPs across diverse industries. By embracing the core principles, avoiding common pitfalls, and leveraging Lean and Agile approaches, businesses can unlock the full potential of their MVPs and pave the way for sustained growth, customer satisfaction, and market leadership with their offerings. Which makes MVPs game changers.

Bibliography

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 15). Leverage the Power of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/mvp2023.html. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.24064.20486. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.24064.20486.




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi-award-winning author, and international keynote speaker. He is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology (including AI) leadership at 86 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/mvp-7
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.


Select here to download this article as a PDF.
Minimum viable products (MVPs)—coined by Frank Robinson in 2001, and subsequently popularized by Steve Blank and Eric Ries—can be advantageous tools for the development of products and services. This article is informed by Graffius' first-hand experience with MVPs as well as research and coverage from the Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT Sloan Management Review, Product Development and Management Association, Product School, Project Management Institute, Scaled Agile, and others (all listed in the bibliography section of this article).

Introduction
Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) can be game changers. They can be used by businesses to validate ideas, reduce time to market, and minimize risks associated with building fully featured products from the outset. This article provides those involved or interested in Agile, Lean, Product Management, Product Development, Project Management, and entrepreneurship with information on the significance of MVPs and how to leverage them.

Defining MVPs
First, it's paramount to understand what constitutes an MVP and why it matters. A Minimum Viable Product is a version of a product (or service) that incorporates just the essential features to address core customer needs and validate the viability of the concept. By employing an MVP, companies can gather valuable user feedback early on, allowing them to iterate, refine, and pivot their offering—if needed—based on market demand. This process saves time and resources, and it advances the chances of building a successful and customer-centric offering.
Here's a succinct definition of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP):
"The MVP has just those features considered sufficient for it to be of value to customers and allow for it to be shipped or sold to early adopters. Customer feedback will inform future development of the product." — Scott M. Graffius, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
Next, examples of seven successful MVPs—Zappos, Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Amazon, Dropbox, and Groupon—will illustrate the power of MVPs.
MVP Success Stories
- Zappos: Zappos revolutionized the online shoe market by focusing on customer-centricity and rapid experimentation. Their MVP allowed them to validate their hypothesis, gather customer feedback, and iterate their offering to create a seamless and personalized shopping experience. Zappos is a prime example of the power of MVPs.
- Spotify: Global music streaming platform Spotify started as a simple streaming service MVP and they and continuously improved and expanded it based on customer feedback. By iterating their product, Spotify became a household name. Their MVP-driven approach ensured a product-market fit and helped them stay ahead in a competitive industry.
- Airbnb: Airbnb's success story speaks to the effectiveness of MVPs in validating an idea and subsequently scaling it to a global marketplace. Airbnb's founders started by testing their marketplace concept using an MVP strategy. By leveraging existing resources and validating demand through early adopters, they gained critical insights that shaped their platform's evolution. Today, Airbnb is a household name, offering unique accommodations worldwide.
- Facebook: Facebook's journey from a simple MVP to the world's largest social network demonstrates the power of incremental growth and user feedback. Mark Zuckerberg and fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes initially created a minimal profile-based social networking MVP (initially called "Thefacebook"), focusing on connecting people at Harvard. Through continuous iterations and the addition of features based on user needs and feedback, Facebook reshaped the social media landscape, connecting billions of people globally.
- Amazon: E-commerce giant Amazon is renowned for its relentless focus on customer experience. They started with an MVP approach, catering to customers' fundamental needs related to books, and subsequently expanded into new product categories incrementally. By prioritizing customer satisfaction, Amazon established itself as a trusted and innovative marketplace, continuously raising the bar for online shopping.
- Dropbox: Dropbox, a prominent player in the cloud storage market, kick-started its journey with a basic file-syncing MVP. By offering a simple yet essential solution to the problem of file synchronization across devices, Dropbox gained traction and valuable user insights. They leveraged this feedback to iterate and improve their product, eventually becoming a leader in the highly competitive cloud storage industry.
- Groupon: Popular online deals platform Groupon employed an MVP approach by testing deal offerings on a WordPress blog. That allowed them to validate market interest and adjust their strategy based on customer responses. By embracing the importance of market validation and adaptability, Groupon transformed into a global leader, providing users with discounted offers across various categories.
Key Principles and Best Practices for MVPs
Building a successful MVP requires adhering to key principles and best practices. It involves thoughtfully determining the relatively few features and limited scope to address core customer needs. Collecting and analyzing user feedback plays a pivotal role in making informed decisions and prioritizing enhancements. By embracing an iterative mindset and focusing on the most valuable aspects of the product, businesses can create an MVP that resonates with their target audience.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls and Challenges with MVPs
While MVPs offer significant advantages, they are not without challenges. Over-engineering the product, prematurely scaling, and failing to validate crucial assumptions are common pitfalls that can hinder success. It’s vital to strike a balance between building a viable product and avoiding unnecessary complexity. By remaining adaptable and open to change, businesses can navigate these challenges and increase the chances of achieving their goals.
Validating and Iterating via Lean and Agile Approaches
The MVP is particularly well-suited for Lean and Agile approaches and environments. Lean principles emphasize continuous learning, eliminating waste, and rapid experimentation. Agile (such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe) involve iterative development, frequent feedback loops, and continuous improvement. Utilizing Lean/Agile can help maximize the value of MVPs and increase chances of success.
Beyond the MVP
Once an MVP proves its viability, the focus shifts to scaling and launching the product. This stage requires a broad and deep understanding of the target market, competition, and customer preferences. It involves adapting the product based on user feedback, exploring different marketing strategies, and leveraging data-driven insights. Staying agile, continuously learning, and adapting to market dynamics are crucial for sustained growth and long-term success.

Conclusion
MVPs are powerful tools for innovation and the successful development of products/services. The examples of Zappos, Spotify, Airbnb, Facebook, Amazon, Dropbox, and Groupon highlight the transformative impact of MVPs across diverse industries. By embracing the core principles, avoiding common pitfalls, and leveraging Lean and Agile approaches, businesses can unlock the full potential of their MVPs and pave the way for sustained growth, customer satisfaction, and market leadership with their offerings. Which makes MVPs game changers.

Bibliography
- Airbnb (n.d.). About Airbnb. Available at: https://news.airbnb.com/about-us.
- Blank, Steve (2020). The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
- Cagan, Marty (2012, March 7). Viable Product vs. Minimal Product. Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG). Available at: https://www.svpg.com/viable-product-vs-minimal-product.
- CB Insights (2021, August 3). The Top 12 Reasons Startups Fail. CB Insights Research. Available at: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/report/startup-failure-reasons-top.
- Davenport, Thomas H., & Seseri, Rudina (2020, December 15). What is a Minimum Viable AI Product? MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/what-is-a-minimum-viable-ai-product.
- Dropbox (n.d.). About the Company. Available at: https://www.dropbox.com/about.
- Furr, Nathan, & Dyer, Jeff (2014). The Innovator's Method: Bringing the Lean Start-up into Your Organization. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2018, October 4). Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage [Presentation]. Talk delivered to an audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community at the Techstars Startup Week Conference at The Box Theater, Riverside, California, United States. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.25009.12647. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.25009.12647.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, February 27). Are You Realizing All the Benefits from Agile? [Presentation]. Talk delivered to an audience involved or interested in Technology at the Scottish Summit 2021 Technology Conference based from Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.17273.90728. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.17273.90728.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 1). Fueling the Development of Innovative and Life-Changing AI Solutions [Presentation]. Talk delivered to an audience of Technology professionals (including Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, Data Engineers, AI Researchers, Project Managers, Business Analysts, UX Designers, Software Developers, Cloud Architects, Data Privacy and Security Specialists, and others involved or interested in AI) at a private event in Mountain View, California, United States. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.27956.73601. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.27956.73601.
- Groupon (2013, July 30). The History of Groupon. Available at: https://www.groupon.com/merchant/working-with-groupon/groupon-news/the-history-of-groupon.
- Harvard Business School (2021). MVP Development. Available at: https://entrepreneurship.hbs.edu/Documents/Session%20Summary/HBSRockMVPDevelopment.pdf.
- Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari (2021, January 29). Why is Agile Product Development Process So Popular? Product Development & Management Association (PDMA). Available at: https://community.pdma.org/knowledgehub/bok/product-innovation-process/why-is-agile-product-development-process-so-popular.
- Lenarduzzi, Valentina, & Taibi, Davide (2016, August). MVP Explained: A Systematic Mapping Study on the Definitions of Minimal Viable Product. Proceedings from the 2016 42nd Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA): 112–119.
- Merryweather, Ellen (2023, January 9). Product-Led Growth Strategy for Product Managers. Product School. Available at: https://productschool.com/blog/product-strategy/product-led-growth-strategy.
- Meta (n.d.). About Meta. Available at: https://about.meta.com/company-info.
- Miski, A. (2014). Development of a Mobile Application Using the Lean Startup Methodology. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 5 (1): 1743-1748.
- Moogk, Dobrila R. (2012, March). Minimum Viable Product and the Importance of Experimentation in Technology Startups. Technology Innovation and Management Review. Available at: https://timreview.ca/article/535.
- Olsen, Dan (2015). The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
- Osterwalder, Alexander, & Pigneur, Yves (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
- Project Management Institute (n.d.). Minimum Business Increments (MBIs). Available at: https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/da-flex-toc/minimum-business-increments.
- Putten, Alexander B. van, & MacMillan, Ian (2004, December). Making Real Options Really Work. Harvard Business Review, 82 (12): 134-141, 150.
- Ries, Eric (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York, New York: Penguin Random House.
- Scaled Agile (n.d.). Applied Innovation Accounting in SAFe. Available at: https://scaledagileframework.com/guidance-applied-innovation-accounting-in-safe.
- Spotify (n.d.). About Spotify. Available at: https://newsroom.spotify.com/company-info.
- Templeton, Chuck (2014, December 9). 10 Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Learn. Fortune. Available at: https://fortune.com/2014/12/09/10-lessons-every-entrepreneur-should-learn.
- Thomsen, Dave (2013, December 20). Why Human-Centered Design Matters. Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/insights/2013/12/human-centered-design-matters.
- Umbreen, J., Mirza, Muhammad Z., Ahmad, Yasir, & Naseem, Afshan. (2022, December). Assessing the Role of Minimum Viable Products in Digital Startups. Proceedings of the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM): 1073-1077.
- Wikipedia (n.d.). History of Amazon. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Amazon.
- Zappos (n.d.). About Zappos. Available at: https://www.zappos.com/marty/c/about-zappos.

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 15). Leverage the Power of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/mvp2023.html. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.24064.20486. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.24064.20486.



About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi-award-winning author, and international keynote speaker. He is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He has delighted audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile, project management, and technology (including AI) leadership at 86 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow instructions, the multi award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book by Scott M. Graffius (Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors) helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

The short URL for this article is: https://bit.ly/mvp-7
© Copyright 2023 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

U.S. Department of Energy Quoted Scott M. Graffius
28 May 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


Including supporting information, this short article is organized into six sections:

United States Department of Energy Quoted Scott M. Graffius
A publication of the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) included an excerpt from Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book. The US DOE publication is:
Details including visuals and more follow.

The cover page of the respective US DOE publication is shown above. As noted, the document available to the public (shown) is marked with "DRAFT."

Page iii of the US DOE publication is above. It shows the quote from Scott M. Graffius' award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book. As noted, the US DOE document available to the public (shown) is marked with "DRAFT."
Read on for more on the US DOE publication, the US DOE, Scott M. Graffius, and Graffius' book.

About the US DOE Publication
The respective publication is:
As an overview, excerpts from the document follow.
"This document summarizes the accomplishments of a three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under its Grid Modernization Initiative, which is working across DOE to create the modern grid of the future. The project, titled 'Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) 1.1: Metrics Analysis' (hereafter GMLC Metrics project) was undertaken by the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) Metrics team (hereafter GMLC Metrics team), which consists of national laboratory sub-teams each dedicated to developing one of six volumes in the set of reference documents about new grid metrics."
"This first volume describes the importance of metrics for grid modernization and then introduces the six categories of metrics DOE has developed to guide the Grid Modernization Initiative—(1) reliability, (2) resilience, (3) flexibility, (4) sustainability, (5) affordability, and (6) security. It then describes the approach the Grid Metrics team took to working directly with industry stakeholders to develop new grid metrics and demonstrate their use. This report is accompanied by six separate reference documents that provide more detail about the work of the GMLC Metrics sub-teams on each of the six metrics categories and assess the current uses of metrics in these each of the categories to inform grid modernization."
The publication is available at: https://gmlc.doe.gov/sites/default/files/2021-08/GMLC1.1_Vol1_Executive_Summary_ackn_draft.pdf.

About the US DOE
The mission of the US DOE is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.
Visit https://www.energy.gov/ to learn more.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker. Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, he has generated over $1.9 billion for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Adobe, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, EU's European Commission, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Boston University, U.S. National Park Service, Bayer, Ford, London South Bank University, Warsaw University of Technology, U.S. Tennis Association, Hasso Plattner Institute, American Management Association, Virginia Tech, University of Galway Ireland, UC San Diego, Yale University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. His full bio is available here.



About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, May 28). U.S. Department of Energy Quoted Scott M. Graffius. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/usdoe-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30346.07364.

The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/us-doe
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



Including supporting information, this short article is organized into six sections:
- Main Section of Article: United States Department of Energy Quoted Scott M. Graffius
- About the US DOE Publication
- About the US DOE
- About Scott M. Graffius
- About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions
- How to Cite This Article

United States Department of Energy Quoted Scott M. Graffius
A publication of the U.S. Department of Energy (US DOE) included an excerpt from Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book. The US DOE publication is:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute, and the United States Department of Energy (2020). Grid Modernization: Metrics Analysis (GMLC1.1) – Executive Summary, Vol.1. Alexandria, VA: National Technical Information Service.
Details including visuals and more follow.

The cover page of the respective US DOE publication is shown above. As noted, the document available to the public (shown) is marked with "DRAFT."

Page iii of the US DOE publication is above. It shows the quote from Scott M. Graffius' award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions book. As noted, the US DOE document available to the public (shown) is marked with "DRAFT."
Read on for more on the US DOE publication, the US DOE, Scott M. Graffius, and Graffius' book.

About the US DOE Publication
The respective publication is:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute, and the United States Department of Energy (2020). Grid Modernization: Metrics Analysis (GMLC1.1) – Executive Summary, Vol.1. Alexandria, VA: National Technical Information Service.
As an overview, excerpts from the document follow.
"This document summarizes the accomplishments of a three-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under its Grid Modernization Initiative, which is working across DOE to create the modern grid of the future. The project, titled 'Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) 1.1: Metrics Analysis' (hereafter GMLC Metrics project) was undertaken by the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium (GMLC) Metrics team (hereafter GMLC Metrics team), which consists of national laboratory sub-teams each dedicated to developing one of six volumes in the set of reference documents about new grid metrics."
"This first volume describes the importance of metrics for grid modernization and then introduces the six categories of metrics DOE has developed to guide the Grid Modernization Initiative—(1) reliability, (2) resilience, (3) flexibility, (4) sustainability, (5) affordability, and (6) security. It then describes the approach the Grid Metrics team took to working directly with industry stakeholders to develop new grid metrics and demonstrate their use. This report is accompanied by six separate reference documents that provide more detail about the work of the GMLC Metrics sub-teams on each of the six metrics categories and assess the current uses of metrics in these each of the categories to inform grid modernization."
The publication is available at: https://gmlc.doe.gov/sites/default/files/2021-08/GMLC1.1_Vol1_Executive_Summary_ackn_draft.pdf.

About the US DOE
The mission of the US DOE is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.
- Energy: Catalyze the timely, material, and efficient transformation of the nation’s energy system and secure U.S. leadership in energy technologies.
- Science and Innovation: Maintain a vibrant U.S. effort in science and engineering as a cornerstone of our economic prosperity with clear leadership in strategic areas.
- Nuclear Safety and Security: Enhance nuclear security through defense, nonproliferation, and environmental efforts.
- Management and Operational Excellence: Establish an operational and adaptable framework that combines the best wisdom of all Department stakeholders to maximize mission success.
Visit https://www.energy.gov/ to learn more.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker. Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, he has generated over $1.9 billion for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he has served. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Adobe, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, Qantas, National Academy of Sciences, EU's European Commission, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Boston University, U.S. National Park Service, Bayer, Ford, London South Bank University, Warsaw University of Technology, U.S. Tennis Association, Hasso Plattner Institute, American Management Association, Virginia Tech, University of Galway Ireland, UC San Diego, Yale University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. His full bio is available here.



About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, May 28). U.S. Department of Energy Quoted Scott M. Graffius. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/usdoe-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30346.07364.

The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/us-doe
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

Harvard Medical School Talk Featured Insights by Scott M. Graffius
30 August 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


Harvard Medical School Talk Featured Insights on Metrics by Scott M. Graffius
“If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view” is from Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning 2016 book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
Dr. Scott Weiner, professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, included that excerpt on metrics from Graffius (uncredited) in his talk in a 10 January 2023 podcast.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. Harvard Medical School name and mark are the property of The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Content by Dr. Scott Weiner is his property.

About Dr. Scott Weiner
Scott Weiner, MD, MPH, FAAEM, FACEP, FASAM is the McGraw Distinguished Chair in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Weiner completed his residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and MPH degree at Harvard School of Public Health. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and addiction medicine. He is an active researcher, including working on multiple grant-funded projects that focus on safe opioid prescribing, as well as prevention and treatment of substance use disorder.

About Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS), established in 1782, stands as one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in the United States. Since its inception, HMS has been a beacon of innovation in medical education, research, and patient care, significantly influencing the landscape of healthcare worldwide.
HMS is committed to alleviating suffering and enhancing health globally through excellence in teaching, research, and service. This mission is carried out through its extensive network of 15 clinical affiliates and research institutes, including renowned names like Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. These partnerships not only provide a robust platform for clinical training but also serve as bases for over 10,000 physicians and scientists with faculty appointments at HMS.
Harvard Medical School's faculty has been pivotal in advancing medical knowledge. They have introduced groundbreaking educational models, developed new curricula to meet evolving healthcare demands, and produced leaders who shape science and medicine globally. Notably, HMS faculty have been at the forefront of medical breakthroughs, with 15 researchers sharing in nine Nobel Prizes for their work at the school, highlighting the institution's commitment to cutting-edge research.
The core of HMS's academic activities lies in its main quadrangle, where faculty members engage in teaching and research across basic and social science departments. Here, students in their first two years of medical school are immersed in an environment that encourages intellectual curiosity and rigorous academic pursuit.
Beyond its physical boundaries, HMS extends its influence through affiliations with leading hospitals and research entities like the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. These collaborations not only enhance the school's research capabilities but also ensure that its educational programs remain at the forefront of medical science.
Harvard Medical School's commitment to nurturing future leaders in medicine, combined with its vast network and relentless pursuit of knowledge, positions it as a pivotal institution in steering medical education and research towards solutions that benefit communities worldwide. This legacy of excellence, innovation, and service continues to define HMS as it looks towards the future of healthcare.
Visit https://hms.harvard.edu/ to learn more.





About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an Agile project management expert practitioner, consultant, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker.
He's generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he's served. Businesses and industries range from consumer products to advanced technology (including AI, R&D), e-commerce, music, streaming/OTT video, television, film, video games, financial services, government, and more.
Graffius and content from his books (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities around the world. Examples include Adobe, American Management Association, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Bayer, Boston University, Broadcom, Cisco, Deimos Aerospace, DevOps Institute, EU's European Commission, Ford Motor Company, Hasso Plattner Institute Germany, IEEE, Johns Hopkins University, London South Bank University, Microsoft, National Academy of Sciences, New Zealand Government, Oracle, Project Management Institute, Torrens University Australia, UC San Diego, TBS Switzerland, UK Sports Institute, University of Galway Ireland, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Tennis Association, Virginia Tech, Warsaw University of Technology, Yale University, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and many others.
He delights audiences around the world with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops. He's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. Visit here to learn more and here to ask Scott to speak at your event.



About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, August 30). Harvard Medical School Talk Featured Insights by Scott M. Graffius. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/hms.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11809.83042.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.

A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/h-m-s
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



Harvard Medical School Talk Featured Insights on Metrics by Scott M. Graffius
“If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view” is from Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning 2016 book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions.
Dr. Scott Weiner, professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, included that excerpt on metrics from Graffius (uncredited) in his talk in a 10 January 2023 podcast.

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. Harvard Medical School name and mark are the property of The President and Fellows of Harvard College. Content by Dr. Scott Weiner is his property.

About Dr. Scott Weiner
Scott Weiner, MD, MPH, FAAEM, FACEP, FASAM is the McGraw Distinguished Chair in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Weiner completed his residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and MPH degree at Harvard School of Public Health. He is board-certified in emergency medicine and addiction medicine. He is an active researcher, including working on multiple grant-funded projects that focus on safe opioid prescribing, as well as prevention and treatment of substance use disorder.

About Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (HMS), established in 1782, stands as one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in the United States. Since its inception, HMS has been a beacon of innovation in medical education, research, and patient care, significantly influencing the landscape of healthcare worldwide.
HMS is committed to alleviating suffering and enhancing health globally through excellence in teaching, research, and service. This mission is carried out through its extensive network of 15 clinical affiliates and research institutes, including renowned names like Massachusetts General Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women's Hospital. These partnerships not only provide a robust platform for clinical training but also serve as bases for over 10,000 physicians and scientists with faculty appointments at HMS.
Harvard Medical School's faculty has been pivotal in advancing medical knowledge. They have introduced groundbreaking educational models, developed new curricula to meet evolving healthcare demands, and produced leaders who shape science and medicine globally. Notably, HMS faculty have been at the forefront of medical breakthroughs, with 15 researchers sharing in nine Nobel Prizes for their work at the school, highlighting the institution's commitment to cutting-edge research.
The core of HMS's academic activities lies in its main quadrangle, where faculty members engage in teaching and research across basic and social science departments. Here, students in their first two years of medical school are immersed in an environment that encourages intellectual curiosity and rigorous academic pursuit.
Beyond its physical boundaries, HMS extends its influence through affiliations with leading hospitals and research entities like the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. These collaborations not only enhance the school's research capabilities but also ensure that its educational programs remain at the forefront of medical science.
Harvard Medical School's commitment to nurturing future leaders in medicine, combined with its vast network and relentless pursuit of knowledge, positions it as a pivotal institution in steering medical education and research towards solutions that benefit communities worldwide. This legacy of excellence, innovation, and service continues to define HMS as it looks towards the future of healthcare.
Visit https://hms.harvard.edu/ to learn more.





About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an Agile project management expert practitioner, consultant, creator, multi-award-winning author, and international public speaker.
He's generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he's served. Businesses and industries range from consumer products to advanced technology (including AI, R&D), e-commerce, music, streaming/OTT video, television, film, video games, financial services, government, and more.
Graffius and content from his books (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities around the world. Examples include Adobe, American Management Association, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Bayer, Boston University, Broadcom, Cisco, Deimos Aerospace, DevOps Institute, EU's European Commission, Ford Motor Company, Hasso Plattner Institute Germany, IEEE, Johns Hopkins University, London South Bank University, Microsoft, National Academy of Sciences, New Zealand Government, Oracle, Project Management Institute, Torrens University Australia, UC San Diego, TBS Switzerland, UK Sports Institute, University of Galway Ireland, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Tennis Association, Virginia Tech, Warsaw University of Technology, Yale University, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and many others.
He delights audiences around the world with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops. He's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. Visit here to learn more and here to ask Scott to speak at your event.



About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, August 30). Harvard Medical School Talk Featured Insights by Scott M. Graffius. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/hms.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11809.83042.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.

A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/h-m-s
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

Thinkers360 Named Scott M. Graffius a Top Thought Leader on Agile
20 September 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, consultant, creator, trainer, expert on teamwork tradecraft and temporal dynamics on social media platforms, award-winning author (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), and international public speaker.
Thinkers360 named Graffius a top thought leader on agile. As detailed at https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/badge/5899/3335, honors span one year. The badge was issued on 28 January 2024, and it is good through 28 January 2025. Visuals are up next.
Here's excerpt 1 of 3, a thumbnail view of Thinker360’s story at
https://www.thinkers360.com/top-50-global-thought-leaders-and-influencers-on-agile-2024/.

Excerpt 2 is next. It's a zoomed-in view of Thinker360’s story.

Here’s excerpt 3, another zoomed-in view of Thinker360’s story.

To learn more about Thinkers360 and Scott M. Graffius, read on.

About Thinkers360
Thinkers360 is the world’s first, largest, and premier open platform for thought leaders and influencers. It covers academics, advisors, analysts, authors, consultants, executives, speakers, and others. Thinkers360’s patent-pending approach to rating thought leaders and influencers factors each candidate’s diverse contributions and content such as articles, books, media coverage, podcasts, social media, speaking events, videos, and more. Thinkers360’s reach includes over 100M followers on social media combined.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
He's generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he's served. Businesses and industries range from consumer products to advanced technology (including AI, R&D), e-commerce, music, streaming/OTT video, television, film, video games, financial services, government, and more.
Graffius and content from his books (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities around the world. Examples include Adobe, American Management Association, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Bayer, Boston University, Broadcom, Cisco, Deimos Aerospace, DevOps Institute, EU's European Commission, Ford Motor Company, Hasso Plattner Institute Germany, IEEE, Johns Hopkins University, London South Bank University, Microsoft, National Academy of Sciences, New Zealand Government, Oracle, Project Management Institute, Torrens University Australia, UC San Diego, TBS Switzerland, UK Sports Institute, University of Galway Ireland, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Tennis Association, Virginia Tech, Warsaw University of Technology, Yale University, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and many others.
He delights audiences around the world with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops. He's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. Visit here to learn more and here to ask Scott to speak at your event.



About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, September 20). Thinkers360 Named Scott M. Graffius a Top Thought Leader on Agile. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/top-10-agile-thought-leader-for-2024-to-2025.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.10258.26561.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.

This article uses limited excerpts from Thinkers360, attributed to Thinkers360 and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Thinkers360 name, mark, and content are the property of Thinkers360.

A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/top-ten
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, consultant, creator, trainer, expert on teamwork tradecraft and temporal dynamics on social media platforms, award-winning author (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), and international public speaker.
Thinkers360 named Graffius a top thought leader on agile. As detailed at https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/badge/5899/3335, honors span one year. The badge was issued on 28 January 2024, and it is good through 28 January 2025. Visuals are up next.
Here's excerpt 1 of 3, a thumbnail view of Thinker360’s story at
https://www.thinkers360.com/top-50-global-thought-leaders-and-influencers-on-agile-2024/.

Excerpt 2 is next. It's a zoomed-in view of Thinker360’s story.

Here’s excerpt 3, another zoomed-in view of Thinker360’s story.

To learn more about Thinkers360 and Scott M. Graffius, read on.

About Thinkers360
Thinkers360 is the world’s first, largest, and premier open platform for thought leaders and influencers. It covers academics, advisors, analysts, authors, consultants, executives, speakers, and others. Thinkers360’s patent-pending approach to rating thought leaders and influencers factors each candidate’s diverse contributions and content such as articles, books, media coverage, podcasts, social media, speaking events, videos, and more. Thinkers360’s reach includes over 100M followers on social media combined.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
He's generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for Global Fortune 500 businesses and other organizations he's served. Businesses and industries range from consumer products to advanced technology (including AI, R&D), e-commerce, music, streaming/OTT video, television, film, video games, financial services, government, and more.
Graffius and content from his books (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), talks, workshops, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities around the world. Examples include Adobe, American Management Association, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Bayer, Boston University, Broadcom, Cisco, Deimos Aerospace, DevOps Institute, EU's European Commission, Ford Motor Company, Hasso Plattner Institute Germany, IEEE, Johns Hopkins University, London South Bank University, Microsoft, National Academy of Sciences, New Zealand Government, Oracle, Project Management Institute, Torrens University Australia, UC San Diego, TBS Switzerland, UK Sports Institute, University of Galway Ireland, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Tennis Association, Virginia Tech, Warsaw University of Technology, Yale University, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and many others.
He delights audiences around the world with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops. He's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries. Visit here to learn more and here to ask Scott to speak at your event.



About Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions

Shifting customer needs are common in today's marketplace. Businesses must be adaptive and responsive to change while delivering an exceptional customer experience to be competitive.
There are a variety of frameworks supporting the development of products and services, and most approaches fall into one of two broad categories: traditional or agile. Traditional practices such as waterfall engage sequential development, while agile involves iterative and incremental deliverables. Organizations are increasingly embracing agile to manage projects, and best meet their business needs of rapid response to change, fast delivery speed, and more.
With clear and easy to follow step-by-step instructions, Scott M. Graffius's award-winning Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions helps the reader:
- Implement and use the most popular agile framework―Scrum;
- Deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement; and
- Support innovation and drive competitive advantage.
Hailed by Literary Titan as “the book highlights the versatility of Scrum beautifully.”
Winner of 17 first place awards.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇳🇴 Norway
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 UAE
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States

About Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change

Thriving in today's marketplace frequently depends on making a transformation to become more agile. Those successful in the transition enjoy faster delivery speed and ROI, higher satisfaction, continuous improvement, and additional benefits.
Based on actual events, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change provides a quick (60-90 minute) read about a successful agile transformation at a multinational entertainment and media company, told from the author's perspective as an agile coach.
The award-winning book by Scott M. Graffius is available in paperback and ebook/Kindle in the United States and around the world. Some links by country follow.
- 🇦🇺 Australia
- 🇦🇹 Austria
- 🇧🇷 Brazil
- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
- 🇲🇽 Mexico
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand
- 🇪🇸 Spain
- 🇸🇪 Sweden
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland
- 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- 🇺🇸 United States


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, September 20). Thinkers360 Named Scott M. Graffius a Top Thought Leader on Agile. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/top-10-agile-thought-leader-for-2024-to-2025.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.10258.26561.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.

This article uses limited excerpts from Thinkers360, attributed to Thinkers360 and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Thinkers360 name, mark, and content are the property of Thinkers360.

A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/top-ten
© Copyright 2024 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

‘Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators’ Violates Scott M. Graffius’ Copyright
08 October 2024
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.

Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' Copyrighted Property
Informed by the research of Bruce W. Tuckman and Mary Ann C. Jensen, over 100 subsequent studies, and Scott M. Graffius' first-hand professional experience with, and analysis of, team leadership and performance, Graffius created his ‘Phases of Team Development’ as a unique perspective and visual conveying the five phases of team development — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — inclusive of a graph showing how performance varies by phase, as well as the characteristics and strategies for each phase.
Graffius' intellectual property (IP) is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
Graffius initially developed his ‘Phases of Team Development’ unique material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it.
For reference, the visual from the edition applicable to this case (4 January 2021 edition) is shown below [Exhibit 1] and is available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22040.42246. The integrated text applies.

As shown above, Graffius’ copyright ownership details are integrated into and appear on his copyrighted property. Specifically, it reads: “Copyright © 2008-2021 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. For permission requests, contact scott@scottgraffius.com.”
Organizations around the world engage Graffius to deliver compelling talks and workshops. To date, he's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries, including:

Graffius ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is central and key to many of those sessions. His rate card and a listing of his engagements are at https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Exceptional-PPM-and-PMO-Solutions-Rate-Card-for-2024-2025-v24071607.pdf and https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html, respectively.
With an authorization/license from Graffius, his ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is featured and used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Examples include:
Copyrights protect the intellectual property rights of creators, ensuring they receive recognition and compensation for their work, thus incentivizing creativity and innovation. Graffius is vigilant in upholding, protecting and enforcing his copyrights and other IP rights.

Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators Violates Scott M. Graffius’ Copyright
Here's information on the infringing publication:
Details, including indisputable proof of the violation, are reported next.
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
The authors (Maša Cek, Kety Zhvania-Tyson, Ema Žufić, Diana Maminaishvili, Sara Sušanj, and Tatia Gogishvili) of Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Nevertheless, the authors used Graffius’ 4 January 2021 copyrighted property in their publication.
Exhibit 2 is below. It shows thumbnail images of pages 1, 2, 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, and 89 from the infringing publication.

Comparing Graffius' copyrighted 4 January 2021 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property with Comparative Methodological Guidelines reveals that Comparative Methodological Guidelines violated Graffius' copyright. There are too many examples to list, but some follow.
The infringing publication used Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the phases of team development word-for-word. Here are some examples:
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Some resistance"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Some resistance"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Lack of participation"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Lack of participation"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Requesting & encouraging feedback"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Requesting and encouraging feedback"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Identifying issues & facilitating their resolution"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Identifying issues and facilitating their resolutions"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Building trust by honoring commitments"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Building trust by honouring commitments"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Sadness"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Sadness"
Additionally the infringing publication used Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the phases of team development with slight re-wording (which, in context, is still infringement). Here are some examples:
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "More confident"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Confidence is high"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Improved commitment"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "High commitment"
The indisputable proof shows that the infringing publication used Graffius' copyrighted property.
The authors used Graffius' material but did not attribute the material to him through citation in-line (in pages 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, and 89 of the infringing publication), or in the references and resources section (page 89 of the infringing publication) or otherwise. Through their actions or failure to act, the authors are wrongly leading others to falsely believe that they (or others) are the author and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Additionally, the authors made their violation of Graffius’ intellectual property even worse by marking page 2 of their infringing publication with the following (with hyperlink): "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)" — where the link is https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. At the preceding link, Creative Commons specifies that CC BY 4.0 means that: "You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially." Again, the authors do not have any rights to Graffius' intellectual property. By the marking the infringing document with "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)," the authors are falsely informing and instructing readers that anyone can freely copy and redistribute or adapt Graffius' copyrighted property in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. That's egregious, appalling, and destructive.
So long as the infringing publication exists in any language or form, it continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property.

Conclusion
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
Authors (Maša Cek, Kety Zhvania-Tyson, Ema Žufić, Diana Maminaishvili, Sara Sušanj, and Tatia Gogishvili) of Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Nevertheless, the authors used Graffius’ 4 January 2021 copyrighted property in their publication.
The authors used a material volume of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
The authors used Graffius' copyrighted property word-for-word and also with slight re-wording (which is still a violation).
The authors did not attribute their use of Graffius' copyrighted property to Graffius through citation or otherwise. Through their actions or failure to act, the authors are wrongly leading others to falsely believe that they (or others) are the author and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Could it possibly get worse? Unfortunately, yes. The authors marked page 2 of their infringing publication with the following (with hyperlink): "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)" — where the link is https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. At the preceding link, Creative Commons specifies that CC BY 4.0 means that: "You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially." Again, the authors do not have any rights to Graffius' intellectual property. By the marking the infringing document with "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)," the authors are falsely informing and instructing readers that anyone can freely copy and redistribute or adapt Graffius' copyrighted property in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. That's egregious, appalling, and destructive.
So long as the infringing publication exists in any language or form, it continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property.
The authors damaged the marketability and value of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
For the aforementioned reasons, the authors’ use of Graffius’ copyrighted property was not ‘fair use’ nor ‘fair dealing’ nor otherwise allowed.
The actions of the authors are a disgraceful breach of professional ethics, moral standards, and Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
The publisher must immediately implement the following three (3) actions:
Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights. He reserves his rights in this disturbing and consequential matter.
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.

About the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The Erasmus+ Programme, funded by the European Union, is a flagship initiative designed to enhance education, training, youth, and sports across Europe and beyond. Established as a successor to various EU programs, it aims to promote mobility, cooperation, and skills development among individuals and institutions. Erasmus+ supports a wide array of activities including student and staff exchanges, traineeships, and various collaborative projects. Since its inception, it has impacted millions of participants, contributing significantly to cultural exchange and lifelong learning across different sectors of society.
To learn more about the Erasmus+ Programme, visit its website.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.










Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 8). ‘Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators’ Violates Scott M. Graffius’ Copyright. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/cmg-eu-ec-publication-infringes-on-copyright-of-scott-m-graffius.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29872.78085.


Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators, attributed to Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Names, marks, and content are the property of their respective owners.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.

Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' Copyrighted Property
Informed by the research of Bruce W. Tuckman and Mary Ann C. Jensen, over 100 subsequent studies, and Scott M. Graffius' first-hand professional experience with, and analysis of, team leadership and performance, Graffius created his ‘Phases of Team Development’ as a unique perspective and visual conveying the five phases of team development — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — inclusive of a graph showing how performance varies by phase, as well as the characteristics and strategies for each phase.
Graffius' intellectual property (IP) is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
Graffius initially developed his ‘Phases of Team Development’ unique material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it.
For reference, the visual from the edition applicable to this case (4 January 2021 edition) is shown below [Exhibit 1] and is available at: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22040.42246. The integrated text applies.

As shown above, Graffius’ copyright ownership details are integrated into and appear on his copyrighted property. Specifically, it reads: “Copyright © 2008-2021 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. For permission requests, contact scott@scottgraffius.com.”
Organizations around the world engage Graffius to deliver compelling talks and workshops. To date, he's presented sessions at 91 conferences and other events across 25 countries, including:
- Armenia,
- Australia,
- Brazil,
- Canada,
- Czech Republic,
- Finland,
- France,
- Germany,
- Greece,
- Hong Kong,
- Hungary,
- India,
- Ireland,
- Lithuania,
- Luxembourg,
- Nepal,
- Netherlands,
- New Zealand,
- Norway,
- Romania,
- Sweden,
- Switzerland,
- United Arab Emirates,
- United Kingdom,
- and the United States.

Graffius ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is central and key to many of those sessions. His rate card and a listing of his engagements are at https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Exceptional-PPM-and-PMO-Solutions-Rate-Card-for-2024-2025-v24071607.pdf and https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html, respectively.
With an authorization/license from Graffius, his ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is featured and used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- Boston University,
- Broadcom,
- Cisco,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- Ford Motor Company,
- Hasso Plattner Institute,
- IEEE,
- Johns Hopkins University,
- LeadingEng,
- London South Bank University,
- Manufacturers Alliance,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Torrens University Australia,
- U.S. National Park Service,
- U.S. Tennis Association,
- UC San Diego,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- Virginia Tech,
- Warsaw University,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
Copyrights protect the intellectual property rights of creators, ensuring they receive recognition and compensation for their work, thus incentivizing creativity and innovation. Graffius is vigilant in upholding, protecting and enforcing his copyrights and other IP rights.

Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators Violates Scott M. Graffius’ Copyright
Here's information on the infringing publication:
- Title of infringing publication: Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators
- Authors of infringing publication: Maša Cek, Kety Zhvania-Tyson, Ema Žufić, Diana Maminaishvili, Sara Sušanj, and Tatia Gogishvili
- Infringing publication was created within the project: The Roadmap for Educators in Digital Soft Skills (TRENDSS)
- Infringing publication was co-funded by: Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
- Known location(s) of the infringing publication: https://trendss.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Comparative-Methodological-Guidelines-Handbook-for-Digital-Educators.pdf
Details, including indisputable proof of the violation, are reported next.
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
The authors (Maša Cek, Kety Zhvania-Tyson, Ema Žufić, Diana Maminaishvili, Sara Sušanj, and Tatia Gogishvili) of Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Nevertheless, the authors used Graffius’ 4 January 2021 copyrighted property in their publication.
Exhibit 2 is below. It shows thumbnail images of pages 1, 2, 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, and 89 from the infringing publication.

Comparing Graffius' copyrighted 4 January 2021 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property with Comparative Methodological Guidelines reveals that Comparative Methodological Guidelines violated Graffius' copyright. There are too many examples to list, but some follow.
The infringing publication used Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the phases of team development word-for-word. Here are some examples:
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Some resistance"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Some resistance"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Lack of participation"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Lack of participation"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Requesting & encouraging feedback"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Requesting and encouraging feedback"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Identifying issues & facilitating their resolution"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Identifying issues and facilitating their resolutions"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Building trust by honoring commitments"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Building trust by honouring commitments"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Sadness"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Sadness"
Additionally the infringing publication used Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the phases of team development with slight re-wording (which, in context, is still infringement). Here are some examples:
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "More confident"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "Confidence is high"
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted Phases of Team Development has this content: "Improved commitment"
🔴 Infringing Comparative Methodological Guidelines has this material: "High commitment"
The indisputable proof shows that the infringing publication used Graffius' copyrighted property.
The authors used Graffius' material but did not attribute the material to him through citation in-line (in pages 73, 75, 77, 78, 80, and 89 of the infringing publication), or in the references and resources section (page 89 of the infringing publication) or otherwise. Through their actions or failure to act, the authors are wrongly leading others to falsely believe that they (or others) are the author and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Additionally, the authors made their violation of Graffius’ intellectual property even worse by marking page 2 of their infringing publication with the following (with hyperlink): "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)" — where the link is https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. At the preceding link, Creative Commons specifies that CC BY 4.0 means that: "You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially." Again, the authors do not have any rights to Graffius' intellectual property. By the marking the infringing document with "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)," the authors are falsely informing and instructing readers that anyone can freely copy and redistribute or adapt Graffius' copyrighted property in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. That's egregious, appalling, and destructive.
So long as the infringing publication exists in any language or form, it continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property.

Conclusion
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
Authors (Maša Cek, Kety Zhvania-Tyson, Ema Žufić, Diana Maminaishvili, Sara Sušanj, and Tatia Gogishvili) of Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Nevertheless, the authors used Graffius’ 4 January 2021 copyrighted property in their publication.
The authors used a material volume of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
The authors used Graffius' copyrighted property word-for-word and also with slight re-wording (which is still a violation).
The authors did not attribute their use of Graffius' copyrighted property to Graffius through citation or otherwise. Through their actions or failure to act, the authors are wrongly leading others to falsely believe that they (or others) are the author and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Could it possibly get worse? Unfortunately, yes. The authors marked page 2 of their infringing publication with the following (with hyperlink): "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)" — where the link is https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. At the preceding link, Creative Commons specifies that CC BY 4.0 means that: "You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially." Again, the authors do not have any rights to Graffius' intellectual property. By the marking the infringing document with "Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)," the authors are falsely informing and instructing readers that anyone can freely copy and redistribute or adapt Graffius' copyrighted property in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially. That's egregious, appalling, and destructive.
So long as the infringing publication exists in any language or form, it continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property.
The authors damaged the marketability and value of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
For the aforementioned reasons, the authors’ use of Graffius’ copyrighted property was not ‘fair use’ nor ‘fair dealing’ nor otherwise allowed.
The actions of the authors are a disgraceful breach of professional ethics, moral standards, and Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
The publisher must immediately implement the following three (3) actions:
- Remove the Infringing Material. Electronic Versions: Immediately remove the infringing material from digital platforms where it is advertised, promoted, sold, or distributed; this includes removing or disabling any online access to it. Physical Copies: If physical copies of the material are in inventory or circulation, stop further distribution; recall any copies already distributed.
- Issue a Retraction. Publish a formal retraction notice acknowledging the infringement and the steps taken to rectify the situation. The notice will present the facts as they are—the notice will not "spin" or "downplay" the infringement. The notice is to be clearly visible and accessible.
- Notify Relevant Parties. Subscribers and Purchasers and other Recipients: Inform the respective subscribers, purchasers, or recipients of the material about the retraction, ensuring transparency about the issue; again, the notice will present the facts as they are—the notice will not "spin" or "downplay" the infringement. Indexes and Databases: Notify any databases or indexing services that list the material so they can update their records accordingly.
Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights. He reserves his rights in this disturbing and consequential matter.
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.

About the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The Erasmus+ Programme, funded by the European Union, is a flagship initiative designed to enhance education, training, youth, and sports across Europe and beyond. Established as a successor to various EU programs, it aims to promote mobility, cooperation, and skills development among individuals and institutions. Erasmus+ supports a wide array of activities including student and staff exchanges, traineeships, and various collaborative projects. Since its inception, it has impacted millions of participants, contributing significantly to cultural exchange and lifelong learning across different sectors of society.
To learn more about the Erasmus+ Programme, visit its website.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a global leader in agile project management, an expert on teamwork tradecraft, an authority on temporal dynamics on social media platforms, a creator, a consultant, a trainer, an award-winning author, and an international public speaker.
See his bio to learn more.










Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 8). ‘Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators’ Violates Scott M. Graffius’ Copyright. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/cmg-eu-ec-publication-infringes-on-copyright-of-scott-m-graffius.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29872.78085.


Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators, attributed to Comparative Methodological Guidelines: Handbook for Educators and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Names, marks, and content are the property of their respective owners.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

‘Innovation Showcase’ Speaker Quotes Scott M. Graffius
20 April 2019
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning 2016 book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, includes: "If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view."
In-House Recruitment (IHR) boasts: "Since 2009, IHR has empowered the UK’s in-house recruiters to be their very best. Open to all, our community exists to recognise, inspire, and educate."
On 7 February 2019, IHR hosted their In-House Recruitment Technology Conference at The Congress Centre London. Emma Güneş presented ‘Innovation Showcase – Landed’ at the event. She closed her talk with, "If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view." However, she did not attribute the material to Graffius. A recording is on YouTube here. Regardless of Emma’s intent, her action wrongly leads others to falsely believe that she is the creator and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights. Therefore, this communication is necessary to report the above issue and ensure proper attribution and respect for the author and owner of the content.

© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning 2016 book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, includes: "If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view."
In-House Recruitment (IHR) boasts: "Since 2009, IHR has empowered the UK’s in-house recruiters to be their very best. Open to all, our community exists to recognise, inspire, and educate."
On 7 February 2019, IHR hosted their In-House Recruitment Technology Conference at The Congress Centre London. Emma Güneş presented ‘Innovation Showcase – Landed’ at the event. She closed her talk with, "If you don’t collect any metrics, you’re flying blind. If you collect and focus on too many, they may be obstructing your field of view." However, she did not attribute the material to Graffius. A recording is on YouTube here. Regardless of Emma’s intent, her action wrongly leads others to falsely believe that she is the creator and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights. Therefore, this communication is necessary to report the above issue and ensure proper attribution and respect for the author and owner of the content.

© Copyright 2019 Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

RGPV University Adds Scott M. Graffius’ "Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" to Its Syllabus
31 March 2025
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com

Introduction
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), a leading state university in India, updated its curriculum. Recognized for its strong emphasis on technology and applied sciences, RGPV oversees over 400 colleges and institutes nationwide. As part of its commitment to equipping students with cutting-edge knowledge, the university has added Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, to its syllabus. A visual follows.

This inclusion underscores RGPV’s dedication to preparing students for the fast-paced world of software development and project management.
Advancing Agile Knowledge
Scott M. Graffius is a highly regarded Agile practitioner, researcher, thought leader, author, and speaker. His book Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions has become a go-to resource for beginners and seasoned professionals. With its practical, hands-on approach, the book breaks down Agile Scrum’s core principles and practices into an easy-to-follow format, ensuring readers can quickly grasp and apply the information.
By incorporating this book into its curriculum, RGPV aims to provide students with actionable insights and real-world skills that are highly sought after in today’s evolving technology landscape. Agile methodologies continue to gain traction globally, and this initiative positions RGPV students at the forefront of industry trends. The book’s inclusion reinforces the university’s reputation as an institution that prioritizes practical, career-ready education.
Why This Book Matters
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions has been widely praised by industry professionals and educators for its clarity and effectiveness in teaching Agile concepts. The book caters to a broad audience, including those new to Scrum, as well as experienced professionals such as Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Development Team members (business analysts, architects, designers, developers, testers, etc.). It also serves as a valuable reference for Agile coaches, executives, managers, customers, and other stakeholders.
For students pursuing careers in software development, project management, and related fields, this book offers a solid foundation in Agile Scrum—an approach that continues to shape how modern teams operate and innovate.
Conclusion
The addition of Graffius' award-winning book to RGPV’s syllabus marks a notable advancement in the university’s academic offerings. It reflects RGPV’s dedication to providing an education that aligns with industry demands, ensuring graduates are well-equipped for the challenges of today’s workforce. With access to this invaluable resource, students will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in Agile environments.
Credit to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors of the award-winning book.
Order your copy of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions today!
Read on for:

About Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) University
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), also known as Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, is a state university located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Established in 1998, RGPV serves as a multi-campus affiliating institution, offering a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs across disciplines such as engineering, technology, pharmacy, management, architecture, design, and applied sciences. The university is accredited with an 'A' grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Its expansive campus covers approximately 247 acres. RGPV affiliates numerous institutions, including 200 engineering colleges, 98 pharmacy colleges, 95 MCA colleges, and 4 architecture colleges. For more information, visit their website at: https://www.rgpv.ac.in.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius sparks breakthroughs in AI, agile, and project management/PMO leadership as a globally recognized practitioner, researcher, thought leader, award-winning author, and international public speaker.
Graffius has generated more than USD $1.9 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.
Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He is the author of two award-winning books.
Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.
Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:
He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.
Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email














How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2025, March 31). RGPV University Adds Scott M. Graffius’ "Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" to Its Syllabus. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/rgpv-adds-scott-m-graffius-agile-scrum-your-quick-start-guide-with-step-by-step-instructions-book-to-its-syllabus.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)


Content Acknowledgements
This article includes brief excerpts from RGPV, attributed and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) name and mark are the property of RGPV Bhopal.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.


Post-Publication Notes
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear here.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.


Introduction
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), a leading state university in India, updated its curriculum. Recognized for its strong emphasis on technology and applied sciences, RGPV oversees over 400 colleges and institutes nationwide. As part of its commitment to equipping students with cutting-edge knowledge, the university has added Scott M. Graffius’ award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, to its syllabus. A visual follows.

This inclusion underscores RGPV’s dedication to preparing students for the fast-paced world of software development and project management.
Advancing Agile Knowledge
Scott M. Graffius is a highly regarded Agile practitioner, researcher, thought leader, author, and speaker. His book Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions has become a go-to resource for beginners and seasoned professionals. With its practical, hands-on approach, the book breaks down Agile Scrum’s core principles and practices into an easy-to-follow format, ensuring readers can quickly grasp and apply the information.
By incorporating this book into its curriculum, RGPV aims to provide students with actionable insights and real-world skills that are highly sought after in today’s evolving technology landscape. Agile methodologies continue to gain traction globally, and this initiative positions RGPV students at the forefront of industry trends. The book’s inclusion reinforces the university’s reputation as an institution that prioritizes practical, career-ready education.
Why This Book Matters
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions has been widely praised by industry professionals and educators for its clarity and effectiveness in teaching Agile concepts. The book caters to a broad audience, including those new to Scrum, as well as experienced professionals such as Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and Development Team members (business analysts, architects, designers, developers, testers, etc.). It also serves as a valuable reference for Agile coaches, executives, managers, customers, and other stakeholders.
For students pursuing careers in software development, project management, and related fields, this book offers a solid foundation in Agile Scrum—an approach that continues to shape how modern teams operate and innovate.
Conclusion
The addition of Graffius' award-winning book to RGPV’s syllabus marks a notable advancement in the university’s academic offerings. It reflects RGPV’s dedication to providing an education that aligns with industry demands, ensuring graduates are well-equipped for the challenges of today’s workforce. With access to this invaluable resource, students will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in Agile environments.
Credit to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors of the award-winning book.
Order your copy of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions today!
Read on for:
- About Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) University,
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to Cite This Article,
- and more.

About Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) University
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV), also known as Rajiv Gandhi Technical University, is a state university located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. Established in 1998, RGPV serves as a multi-campus affiliating institution, offering a wide array of undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs across disciplines such as engineering, technology, pharmacy, management, architecture, design, and applied sciences. The university is accredited with an 'A' grade by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Its expansive campus covers approximately 247 acres. RGPV affiliates numerous institutions, including 200 engineering colleges, 98 pharmacy colleges, 95 MCA colleges, and 4 architecture colleges. For more information, visit their website at: https://www.rgpv.ac.in.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius sparks breakthroughs in AI, agile, and project management/PMO leadership as a globally recognized practitioner, researcher, thought leader, award-winning author, and international public speaker.
Graffius has generated more than USD $1.9 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.
Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He is the author of two award-winning books.
- His first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242), received 17 awards.
- His second book is Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (ISBN-13: 9781072447962). BookAuthority named it one of the best Scrum books of all time.
Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- BMC Software,
- Boston University,
- Broadcom,
- Cisco,
- Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts Germany,
- Computer Weekly,
- Constructor University Germany,
- Data Governance Success,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- EU's European Commission,
- Ford Motor Company,
- GoDaddy,
- Harvard Medical School,
- Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
- IEEE,
- Innovation Project Management,
- Johns Hopkins University,
- Journal of Neurosurgery,
- Lam Research (Semiconductors),
- Leadership Worthy,
- Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network,
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- NASSCOM,
- National Academy of Sciences,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle,
- Pinterest Inc.,
- Project Management Institute,
- SANS Institute,
- SBG Neumark Germany,
- Singapore Institute of Technology,
- Torrens University Australia,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Tufts University,
- UC San Diego,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- US Department of Energy,
- US National Park Service,
- US Tennis Association,
- Veleučilište u Rijeci Croatia,
- Verizon,
- Virginia Tech,
- Warsaw University of Technology,
- Wrike,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.
Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:
- Certified SAFe 6 Agilist (SA),
- Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM),
- Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO),
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO),
- Project Management Professional (PMP),
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and
- IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL).
He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.
Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email














How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2025, March 31). RGPV University Adds Scott M. Graffius’ "Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" to Its Syllabus. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/rgpv-adds-scott-m-graffius-agile-scrum-your-quick-start-guide-with-step-by-step-instructions-book-to-its-syllabus.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)


Content Acknowledgements
This article includes brief excerpts from RGPV, attributed and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya (RGPV) name and mark are the property of RGPV Bhopal.
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.


Post-Publication Notes
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear here.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

Scott M. Graffius Recognized as a Top Thought Leader in Digital Disruption by Thinkers360
16 April 2025
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


Scott M. Graffius has been named a Top Thought Leader in Digital Disruption by Thinkers360. This prestigious recognition highlights his ongoing, impactful contributions to the rapidly evolving landscape of digital transformation, innovation, and future-focused leadership.

Digital Disruption and Its Impact
Digital disruption continues to reshape industries, business models, and customer expectations at unprecedented speed. Powered by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain, this transformation presents extraordinary challenges—and even greater opportunities—for organizations worldwide.
In this dynamic environment, thought leaders like Graffius play a vital role in providing clarity, strategic direction, and actionable insights to help businesses and leaders successfully navigate the accelerating pace of change.
Graffius' Ongoing Contributions
Scott M. Graffius has long been at the forefront of helping organizations thrive amidst digital disruption. His thought leadership spans AI, Agile, Project Management/PMO, innovation, and team development leadership—equipping companies with the tools, frameworks, and mindset needed to adapt and excel.
His written work is a testament to his influence:
Early reviews of Agile Protocol include, "Can’t believe no one’s done a satirical take on Agile before now. Glad Scott called out the madness and made it hilarious" and "A sharp, funny satire that sneaks legit Agile lessons into the hilarious story." Agile Protocol is a satirical adventure that doubles as a covert guide to Agile. It’s packed with insightful commentary on the misapplication of Agile, overcomplicated bureaucracy, and corporate cosplay—all wrapped in a fast-paced narrative that’s both entertaining and educational. It blends hilarious corporate parody with actionable Agile insights. It's a must-read for anyone interested or involved in Agile.
Thinkers360 Recognition and Continuing Leadership in Digital Innovation
The Thinkers360 recognition underscores Graffius’ growing influence as a thought leader in digital disruption and innovation. Through his speaking engagements, research, and writing—including Agile Protocol—Graffius continues to guide leaders and teams on how to embrace change, lead through disruption, and thrive in the future of work.
As organizations race to adapt to new technologies, shifting markets, and evolving cultural expectations, Graffius’ insights, resources, and sharp wit remain invaluable. His ability to make complex topics like Agile, AI, and transformation accessible, actionable, and even entertaining are some of the things that set him apart.

Read on for:

About Thinkers360
Thinkers360 is the world’s first, largest, and premier open platform for thought leaders and influencers. It covers academics, advisors, analysts, authors, consultants, executives, speakers, and others. Thinkers360’s patent-pending approach to rating thought leaders and influencers factors each candidate’s diverse contributions and content such as articles, books, media coverage, podcasts, social media, speaking events, videos, and more. Thinkers360’s reach includes over 100 million followers on social media combined.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius sparks breakthroughs in AI, agile, and project management/PMO leadership as a globally recognized practitioner, researcher, thought leader, award-winning author, and international public speaker.
Graffius has generated more than USD $1.9 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.
Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He is the author of three books.
Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.
Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:
He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.
Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Protocol Book | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email
















How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2025, April 16). Scott M. Graffius Recognized as a Top Thought Leader in Digital Disruption by Thinkers360. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/scott-m-graffius-recognized-as-a-thought-leader-in-digital-disruption-by-thinkers360-in-2025.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)


Content Acknowledgements
This article includes a brief excerpt from Thinkers360, attributed to Thinkers360 and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Thinkers360 name and mark are the property of Thinkers360.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



Scott M. Graffius has been named a Top Thought Leader in Digital Disruption by Thinkers360. This prestigious recognition highlights his ongoing, impactful contributions to the rapidly evolving landscape of digital transformation, innovation, and future-focused leadership.

Digital Disruption and Its Impact
Digital disruption continues to reshape industries, business models, and customer expectations at unprecedented speed. Powered by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain, this transformation presents extraordinary challenges—and even greater opportunities—for organizations worldwide.
In this dynamic environment, thought leaders like Graffius play a vital role in providing clarity, strategic direction, and actionable insights to help businesses and leaders successfully navigate the accelerating pace of change.
Graffius' Ongoing Contributions
Scott M. Graffius has long been at the forefront of helping organizations thrive amidst digital disruption. His thought leadership spans AI, Agile, Project Management/PMO, innovation, and team development leadership—equipping companies with the tools, frameworks, and mindset needed to adapt and excel.
His written work is a testament to his influence:
- His first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, received 17 awards for its clear, practical, and highly useful approach to Agile/Scrum.
- His second book, Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change, was named by BookAuthority as one of the best Scrum books of all time.
- His newest release—and his first work of fiction—Agile Protocol: The Transformation Ultimatum was just released and is already creating buzz.
Early reviews of Agile Protocol include, "Can’t believe no one’s done a satirical take on Agile before now. Glad Scott called out the madness and made it hilarious" and "A sharp, funny satire that sneaks legit Agile lessons into the hilarious story." Agile Protocol is a satirical adventure that doubles as a covert guide to Agile. It’s packed with insightful commentary on the misapplication of Agile, overcomplicated bureaucracy, and corporate cosplay—all wrapped in a fast-paced narrative that’s both entertaining and educational. It blends hilarious corporate parody with actionable Agile insights. It's a must-read for anyone interested or involved in Agile.
Thinkers360 Recognition and Continuing Leadership in Digital Innovation
The Thinkers360 recognition underscores Graffius’ growing influence as a thought leader in digital disruption and innovation. Through his speaking engagements, research, and writing—including Agile Protocol—Graffius continues to guide leaders and teams on how to embrace change, lead through disruption, and thrive in the future of work.
As organizations race to adapt to new technologies, shifting markets, and evolving cultural expectations, Graffius’ insights, resources, and sharp wit remain invaluable. His ability to make complex topics like Agile, AI, and transformation accessible, actionable, and even entertaining are some of the things that set him apart.

Read on for:
- About Thinkers360,
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to Cite This Article,
- and more.

About Thinkers360
Thinkers360 is the world’s first, largest, and premier open platform for thought leaders and influencers. It covers academics, advisors, analysts, authors, consultants, executives, speakers, and others. Thinkers360’s patent-pending approach to rating thought leaders and influencers factors each candidate’s diverse contributions and content such as articles, books, media coverage, podcasts, social media, speaking events, videos, and more. Thinkers360’s reach includes over 100 million followers on social media combined.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius sparks breakthroughs in AI, agile, and project management/PMO leadership as a globally recognized practitioner, researcher, thought leader, award-winning author, and international public speaker.
Graffius has generated more than USD $1.9 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.
Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He is the author of three books.
- Graffius' first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (paperback ISBN-13: 9781533370242) (Kindle ebook ASIN: B01FZ0JIIY), received 17 awards.
- His second book is Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (paperback ISBN-13: 9781072447962) (Kindle ebook ASIN: B07R9LJLPJ). BookAuthority named it one of the best Scrum books of all time.
- His third book—his first work of fiction—is Agile Protocol: The Transformation Ultimatum (Kindle ebook ASIN: B0F2SJ83WT) (Audible audiobook ASIN: B0DJG163R5). This article shares the news of its release.
Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- BMC Software,
- Boston University,
- Broadcom,
- Cisco,
- Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts Germany,
- Computer Weekly,
- Constructor University Germany,
- Data Governance Success,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- EU's European Commission,
- Ford Motor Company,
- GoDaddy,
- Harvard Medical School,
- Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
- IEEE,
- Innovation Project Management,
- Johns Hopkins University,
- Journal of Neurosurgery,
- Lam Research (Semiconductors),
- Leadership Worthy,
- Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network,
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- NASSCOM,
- National Academy of Sciences,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle,
- Pinterest Inc.,
- Project Management Institute,
- SANS Institute,
- SBG Neumark Germany,
- Singapore Institute of Technology,
- Torrens University Australia,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Tufts University,
- UC San Diego,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- US Department of Energy,
- US National Park Service,
- US Tennis Association,
- Veleučilište u Rijeci Croatia,
- Verizon,
- Virginia Tech,
- Warsaw University of Technology,
- Wrike,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.
Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:
- Certified SAFe 6 Agilist (SA),
- Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM),
- Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO),
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO),
- Project Management Professional (PMP),
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and
- IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL).
He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.
Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Protocol Book | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email
















How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2025, April 16). Scott M. Graffius Recognized as a Top Thought Leader in Digital Disruption by Thinkers360. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/scott-m-graffius-recognized-as-a-thought-leader-in-digital-disruption-by-thinkers360-in-2025.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)


Content Acknowledgements
This article includes a brief excerpt from Thinkers360, attributed to Thinkers360 and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Thinkers360 name and mark are the property of Thinkers360.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.

The Problem with Heroes in Agile
09 May 2025
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com


Introduction
In many organizations, heroism is celebrated. The person who stays late to finish a critical feature or who seemingly saves the sprint or deployment is often praised as indispensable. In Agile environments, however, that kind of heroism is often a red flag.
Agile values sustainable pace, team collaboration, and continuous improvement—not last-minute rescues. When a team depends on heroics to meet its goals, it’s likely a sign that something in the system is broken. This article explores why "heroes" can be a problem in Agile and what should be valued instead.
🚩 Why "Heroics" Are a Problem in Agile
1. Systemic Failure Indicator
If someone needs to stay up late or pull off a last-minute save, it’s typically not a sign of excellence—it’s a symptom of upstream failure. Maybe the sprint was overloaded or the team didn’t get the support or clarity they needed. Whatever the cause, relying on heroics signals that planning, process, or collaboration broke down.
2. Violation of Sustainable Pace
One of the core principles of Agile is maintaining a sustainable pace. The Agile Manifesto emphasizes sustainable development. A process that routinely requires people to go above and beyond, especially through long hours or high stress, can’t last. Burnout isn’t a theoretical concern; it’s a predictable outcome of unmanaged expectations and unchecked hero culture.
3. Masking Deeper Issues
Heroics often act as a smokescreen for larger dysfunctions. When one person is always stepping in to save the day, the team may be avoiding necessary conversations about:
If the "hero" keeps solving the symptoms, the root causes often go unaddressed, and the cycle repeats.
4. Knowledge Silos
Heroes frequently emerge because they hold critical knowledge or capabilities that others don’t. This creates dependency and undermines the Agile principle of shared ownership. If success hinges on one person, the team becomes fragile. What happens if that individual takes a vacation? Or burns out? Or leaves? High-performing Agile teams are resilient, not reliant.
5. False Sense of Success
A sprint that "succeeds" because one person pulled an all-nighter isn’t a real success. It’s a short-term win at the cost of long-term stability. These situations can distort metrics, mask delivery risks, and foster a misguided sense of performance. From the outside, everything looks fine—but it’s a brittle system waiting to break.
✅ What to Promote Instead
If heroics are a symptom of dysfunction, what does a healthy Agile practice look like? It resembles this:
1. Good Planning and Refinement
Teams need an appropriately-refined backlog, clear priorities, and achievable sprint goals. When the work is well understood and scoped appropriately, surprises decrease, and heroics become unnecessary.
2. Team Collaboration and Swarming
Work shouldn’t fall on one person. Promote collaboration through techniques like pair programming or swarming on high-priority items. Shared ownership reduces bottlenecks and increases collective learning.
3. Working at a Sustainable Pace
A consistent, manageable velocity is better than boom-and-bust cycles of burnout. Encourage teams to commit to what they can realistically deliver and improve incrementally.
4. Continuous Improvement and Retrospectives
Use retrospectives to identify root causes of stress, blockers, or missed work. Then take real action. Continuous improvement isn’t about putting out fires—it’s about building fire-resistant systems.
5. Cross-Functional Skill-Building
Encourage knowledge sharing and skill development. When teams invest in cross-training and mentoring, they become more adaptable and less dependent on individual heroes.
🧭 Final Thought
Agile should not require routine heroics. It’s about teams delivering value together in a sustainable, adaptable, and resilient way. When heroics are needed, they should prompt a deep look at what made them necessary.
So the next time someone "saves the day," ask: What system failure required that save in the first place? Then fix that.

More
Read on for…

Bibliography
Based on Scott M. Graffius' experience—and inspired by insights from Jim Highsmith’s Agile Project Management and other resources listed in the bibliography—this article explores why real agility emerges from adaptive, resilient teams and systems—not individual saviors.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius sparks breakthroughs in AI, agile, and project management/PMO leadership as a globally recognized practitioner, researcher, thought leader, award-winning author, and international public speaker.
Graffius has generated more than USD $2.3 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.
Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He is the author of three books.
Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.
Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:
He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.
Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Protocol Book | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email
















How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2025, May 9). The Problem with Heroes in Agile. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/problem-with-heroes-in-agile-by-scott-m-graffius.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)


Content Acknowledgements
Names and marks are the property of their respective owners.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.



Introduction
In many organizations, heroism is celebrated. The person who stays late to finish a critical feature or who seemingly saves the sprint or deployment is often praised as indispensable. In Agile environments, however, that kind of heroism is often a red flag.
Agile values sustainable pace, team collaboration, and continuous improvement—not last-minute rescues. When a team depends on heroics to meet its goals, it’s likely a sign that something in the system is broken. This article explores why "heroes" can be a problem in Agile and what should be valued instead.
🚩 Why "Heroics" Are a Problem in Agile
1. Systemic Failure Indicator
If someone needs to stay up late or pull off a last-minute save, it’s typically not a sign of excellence—it’s a symptom of upstream failure. Maybe the sprint was overloaded or the team didn’t get the support or clarity they needed. Whatever the cause, relying on heroics signals that planning, process, or collaboration broke down.
2. Violation of Sustainable Pace
One of the core principles of Agile is maintaining a sustainable pace. The Agile Manifesto emphasizes sustainable development. A process that routinely requires people to go above and beyond, especially through long hours or high stress, can’t last. Burnout isn’t a theoretical concern; it’s a predictable outcome of unmanaged expectations and unchecked hero culture.
3. Masking Deeper Issues
Heroics often act as a smokescreen for larger dysfunctions. When one person is always stepping in to save the day, the team may be avoiding necessary conversations about:
- Inadequate collaboration;
- Lack of cross-functionality;
- Poor backlog refinement; or
- Weak technical practices.
If the "hero" keeps solving the symptoms, the root causes often go unaddressed, and the cycle repeats.
4. Knowledge Silos
Heroes frequently emerge because they hold critical knowledge or capabilities that others don’t. This creates dependency and undermines the Agile principle of shared ownership. If success hinges on one person, the team becomes fragile. What happens if that individual takes a vacation? Or burns out? Or leaves? High-performing Agile teams are resilient, not reliant.
5. False Sense of Success
A sprint that "succeeds" because one person pulled an all-nighter isn’t a real success. It’s a short-term win at the cost of long-term stability. These situations can distort metrics, mask delivery risks, and foster a misguided sense of performance. From the outside, everything looks fine—but it’s a brittle system waiting to break.
✅ What to Promote Instead
If heroics are a symptom of dysfunction, what does a healthy Agile practice look like? It resembles this:
1. Good Planning and Refinement
Teams need an appropriately-refined backlog, clear priorities, and achievable sprint goals. When the work is well understood and scoped appropriately, surprises decrease, and heroics become unnecessary.
2. Team Collaboration and Swarming
Work shouldn’t fall on one person. Promote collaboration through techniques like pair programming or swarming on high-priority items. Shared ownership reduces bottlenecks and increases collective learning.
3. Working at a Sustainable Pace
A consistent, manageable velocity is better than boom-and-bust cycles of burnout. Encourage teams to commit to what they can realistically deliver and improve incrementally.
4. Continuous Improvement and Retrospectives
Use retrospectives to identify root causes of stress, blockers, or missed work. Then take real action. Continuous improvement isn’t about putting out fires—it’s about building fire-resistant systems.
5. Cross-Functional Skill-Building
Encourage knowledge sharing and skill development. When teams invest in cross-training and mentoring, they become more adaptable and less dependent on individual heroes.
🧭 Final Thought
Agile should not require routine heroics. It’s about teams delivering value together in a sustainable, adaptable, and resilient way. When heroics are needed, they should prompt a deep look at what made them necessary.
So the next time someone "saves the day," ask: What system failure required that save in the first place? Then fix that.

More
Read on for…
- Bibliography
- About Scott M. Graffius
- How to Cite This Article
- And more

Bibliography
Based on Scott M. Graffius' experience—and inspired by insights from Jim Highsmith’s Agile Project Management and other resources listed in the bibliography—this article explores why real agility emerges from adaptive, resilient teams and systems—not individual saviors.
- ATACC Group (TAG) (2024). Experience Learning. Talk by emergency response physicians Dr. Mark Forrest and Dr. Halden Hutchinson-Bazely for TBS 24 Switzerland Conference. Available at: https://scanfoam.org/experience-learning-atacc/.
- CFO South Africa (2021, August 19). Webinar: Agile Leadership Unlocked [Video]. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJZiitw5tHo&t=359s.
- Farr, J. V., & Brazil, D. M. (2012, September 5). Leadership Skills Development for Engineers. In IEEE Engineering Management Review, 40 (3): 13-22.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2018, October 18). Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage [Presentation]. Talk delivered at Techstars Startup Week Conference. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25009.12647.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2019). Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change. Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, February 27). Are You Realizing All the Benefits from Agile? [Video]. Talk at the Scottish Summit Technology Conference. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVxtgLHqFMk.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, October 5). Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility for Happier and More Productive Teams [Presentation]. Talk delivered at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE Day 2021 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.20055.19365. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.20055.19365.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, September 10). Broadcom Features Scott M. Graffius' Intellectual Property. Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/broadcom.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2025, January 7). Scott M. Graffius’ Phases of Team Development: 2025 Update. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/phases-of-team-development-update-for-2025.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.33705.30564.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2025). Agile Protocol: The Transformation Ultimatum. Seattle, WA: Amazon Digital Services.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2018, April 29). The Importance of Managing Work in Progress (WIP). Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/Importance-of-Managing-Work-in-Progress-WIP-in-Scrum-Projects.html.
- Highsmith, Jim (2009). Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products—Second Edition. Addison-Wesley.
- Kerzner, Harold (2022). Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects—Second Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
- Morsa, Luigi (2022, July 7). Agile. Creativity. Innovation. Available at: https://blog.iil.com/agile-creativity-innovation/.
- Schleckser, Jim (2019, December 24). Why Heroic Efforts Are Damaging Your Company Growth. Inc. Available at: https://www.inc.com/jim-schleckser/why-heroic-efforts-are-damaging-your-company-growth.html.
- Somers, Meredith (2023, November 30). Our Top 5 'Working Definitions' of 2023. MIT Sloan School of Management. Available at: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/our-top-5-working-definitions-2023.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius sparks breakthroughs in AI, agile, and project management/PMO leadership as a globally recognized practitioner, researcher, thought leader, award-winning author, and international public speaker.
Graffius has generated more than USD $2.3 billion in business value for organizations served, including Fortune 500 companies. Businesses and industries range from technology (including R&D and AI) to entertainment, financial services, and healthcare, government, social media, and more.
Graffius leads the professional services firm Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, along with its subsidiary Exceptional Agility. These consultancies offer strategic and tactical advisory, training, embedded talent, and consulting services to public, private, and government sectors. They help organizations enhance their capabilities and results in agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership, supporting innovation and driving competitive advantage. The consultancies confidently back services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™. Graffius is a former vice president of project management with a publicly traded provider of diverse consumer products and services over the Internet. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private organizations with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology products and services, retail, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. He has experience with consumer, business, reseller, government, and international markets.
He is the author of three books.
- Graffius' first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (paperback ISBN-13: 9781533370242) (Kindle ebook ASIN: B01FZ0JIIY), received 17 awards.
- His second book is Agile Transformation: A Brief Story of How an Entertainment Company Developed New Capabilities and Unlocked Business Agility to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Change (paperback ISBN-13: 9781072447962) (Kindle ebook ASIN: B07R9LJLPJ). BookAuthority named it one of the best Scrum books of all time.
- His third book—his first work of fiction—is Agile Protocol: The Transformation Ultimatum (Kindle ebook ASIN: B0F2SJ83WT) (Audible audiobook ASIN: B0DJG163R5).
Prominent businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities have featured Graffius and his work including content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Select examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- BMC Software,
- Boston University,
- Broadcom,
- Cisco,
- Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts Germany,
- Computer Weekly,
- Constructor University Germany,
- Data Governance Success,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- EU's European Commission,
- Ford Motor Company,
- GoDaddy,
- Harvard Medical School,
- Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
- IEEE,
- Innovation Project Management,
- Johns Hopkins University,
- Journal of Neurosurgery,
- Lam Research (Semiconductors),
- Leadership Worthy,
- Life Sciences Trainers and Educators Network,
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- NASSCOM,
- National Academy of Sciences,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle,
- Pinterest Inc.,
- Project Management Institute,
- SANS Institute,
- SBG Neumark Germany,
- Singapore Institute of Technology,
- Torrens University Australia,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Tufts University,
- UC San Diego,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- US Department of Energy,
- US National Park Service,
- US Tennis Association,
- Veleučilište u Rijeci Croatia,
- Verizon,
- Virginia Tech,
- Warsaw University of Technology,
- Wrike,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
Graffius has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Graffius was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition, The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition, and The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI’s Congress. Beyond the PMI, Graffius also served as a member of the review team for two of the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gatherings.
Graffius has a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications:
- Certified SAFe 6 Agilist (SA),
- Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM),
- Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO),
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM),
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO),
- Project Management Professional (PMP),
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and
- IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL).
He is an active member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He divides his time between Los Angeles and Paris, France.
Thought Leader | Public Speaker | Agile Protocol Book | Agile Scrum Book | Agile Transformation Book | Blog | Photo | X | LinkedIn | Email
















How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2025, May 9). The Problem with Heroes in Agile. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/problem-with-heroes-in-agile-by-scott-m-graffius.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)


Content Acknowledgements
Names and marks are the property of their respective owners.


Copyright
Copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
Content on this site—including text, images, videos, and data—may not be used for training or input into any artificial intelligence, machine learning, or automatized learning systems, or published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius.
