PMO Leadership
Scott M. Graffius Delivering a Talk at BSides Newcastle England 2021 InfoSec Conference
19 August 2021
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius will present “Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility for Happier and More Productive InfoSec Teams” to an audience of Technology Information Security professionals at the BSides Newcastle 2021 Conference. Scott will deliver his talk on Saturday, September 11th, from 4:00-5:10 p.m. British Time (8:00-9:10 a.m. Pacific Time).
Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.25 Professional Development Hour (PDHs). For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.25 Professional Development Units (PDUs), under the Leadership category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.25 Scrum Educational Units (SEUs), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.
Secure your tickets for the conference from Eventbrite.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. He has generated over one billion dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the founder, CEO, and principal consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, based in Los Angeles, California. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from his books (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Deloitte, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, Project Management Institute, the IEEE, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, Loughborough University London, and others. Graffius has spoken at 58 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. Thinkers360 named Graffius a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.
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 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.
About BSides Newcastle (BSides NCL)
Logo for BSides NCL Conference (Property of BSides NCL)
What’s “the weirdest InfoSec event out there?” According to the organizers of BSides NCL, it’s their conference. The inaugural session of the Technology Information Security (InfoSec) event was held in 2019 in a skate park in Newcastle, England. In 2020, the event was virtual. In 2021, the cyber security event will be hybrid—in-person and virtual—and run from Friday, September 10th through Saturday, September 11th. The in-person meetup will be conducted at The Catalyst and those attending virtually will participate via Gather.
To learn more about the conference, visit https://bsidesnewcastle.org and follow it on Twitter at @BSidesNCL.
Tickets are available at Eventbrite.
About The Catalyst Newcastle
The Catalyst Newcastle on June 1, 2020 (Photo by Sam Barnwell Photography; image used under license, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Catalyst is located in the centre of Newcastle, England. The home to the National Innovation Centre for Data, it brings together businesses, academia, technology, and science. The Catalyst encourages collaborative innovation and provides a supportive ecosystem for businesses to grow and develop new ideas, products, and services, alongside world-leading thinkers and creatives.
To learn more, visit https://www.thecatalystnewcastle.co.uk. Follow it on Twitter at @TheCatalystUK.
The short URL for this blog post is: https://bit.ly/ncl-blg
The short URL for a related LinkedIn post is: https://bit.ly/ncl-lin
© Copyright 2021 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 will present “Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility for Happier and More Productive InfoSec Teams” to an audience of Technology Information Security professionals at the BSides Newcastle 2021 Conference. Scott will deliver his talk on Saturday, September 11th, from 4:00-5:10 p.m. British Time (8:00-9:10 a.m. Pacific Time).
Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.25 Professional Development Hour (PDHs). For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.25 Professional Development Units (PDUs), under the Leadership category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.25 Scrum Educational Units (SEUs), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.
Secure your tickets for the conference from Eventbrite.
About Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, SFE, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. He has generated over one billion dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. Graffius is the founder, CEO, and principal consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, based in Los Angeles, California. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from his books (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Deloitte, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, Project Management Institute, the IEEE, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, Loughborough University London, and others. Graffius has spoken at 58 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States. Thinkers360 named Graffius a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.
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 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
About BSides Newcastle (BSides NCL)
Logo for BSides NCL Conference (Property of BSides NCL)
What’s “the weirdest InfoSec event out there?” According to the organizers of BSides NCL, it’s their conference. The inaugural session of the Technology Information Security (InfoSec) event was held in 2019 in a skate park in Newcastle, England. In 2020, the event was virtual. In 2021, the cyber security event will be hybrid—in-person and virtual—and run from Friday, September 10th through Saturday, September 11th. The in-person meetup will be conducted at The Catalyst and those attending virtually will participate via Gather.
To learn more about the conference, visit https://bsidesnewcastle.org and follow it on Twitter at @BSidesNCL.
Tickets are available at Eventbrite.
About The Catalyst Newcastle
The Catalyst Newcastle on June 1, 2020 (Photo by Sam Barnwell Photography; image used under license, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Catalyst is located in the centre of Newcastle, England. The home to the National Innovation Centre for Data, it brings together businesses, academia, technology, and science. The Catalyst encourages collaborative innovation and provides a supportive ecosystem for businesses to grow and develop new ideas, products, and services, alongside world-leading thinkers and creatives.
To learn more, visit https://www.thecatalystnewcastle.co.uk. Follow it on Twitter at @TheCatalystUK.
The short URL for this blog post is: https://bit.ly/ncl-blg
The short URL for a related LinkedIn post is: https://bit.ly/ncl-lin
© Copyright 2021 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 Art and Science of Aligning Initiatives with Strategic Objectives
04 April 2025
BY SCOTT M. GRAFFIUS | ScottGraffius.com
Introduction
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.
To date, he's delivered talks and workshops at 93 conferences and other events across 25 countries. This article explores the his talk, 'Score and Prioritize Proposed Initiatives Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment.'
Main Body
Abstract for Graffius' Talk
"57% more projects meet goals when they are aligned with strategic objectives" (from PMI). How does your organization assess proposals for new projects? Is there a well-defined scoring and prioritization process based on alignment with the business’ strategic objectives and other factors to quickly and easily identify the objective value of each proposal? If the answer is "no," this talk should prove to be valuable. If the answer is "yes," you’re still likely to find practical information and examples to adapt and adopt.
Key Learning Objectives for Graffius' Talk
This session helps participants develop and enhance the contributions they make by being able to:
Conclusion
Graffius' 'Score and Prioritize Proposed Initiatives Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment' session helps professionals make smarter decisions that drive real business impact. Whether one is refining their current approach or building one from scratch, the session offers practical insights that can be immediately applied.
Ask Scott to speak at your event. Just complete the speaker engagement request form or email him today!
Read on for:
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, April 4). The Art and Science of Aligning Initiatives with Strategic Objectives. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/scott-m-graffius-presents-the-art-and-science-of-aligning-initiatives-with-strategic-objectives.html.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)
Content Acknowledgements
Names, marks, and content are the property of their respective owners.
Graffius' 'Score and Prioritize Proposed Initiatives Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment' 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
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.
To date, he's delivered talks and workshops at 93 conferences and other events across 25 countries. This article explores the his talk, 'Score and Prioritize Proposed Initiatives Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment.'
Main Body
Abstract for Graffius' Talk
"57% more projects meet goals when they are aligned with strategic objectives" (from PMI). How does your organization assess proposals for new projects? Is there a well-defined scoring and prioritization process based on alignment with the business’ strategic objectives and other factors to quickly and easily identify the objective value of each proposal? If the answer is "no," this talk should prove to be valuable. If the answer is "yes," you’re still likely to find practical information and examples to adapt and adopt.
Key Learning Objectives for Graffius' Talk
This session helps participants develop and enhance the contributions they make by being able to:
- Understand the benefits of scoring and prioritizing project proposals based on strategic alignment and other factors.
- Identify selection and prioritization criteria appropriate for your unique organization, leveraging the flexible framework and some or all of the 10 factors.
- Put the practical, actionable information presented to use.
Conclusion
Graffius' 'Score and Prioritize Proposed Initiatives Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment' session helps professionals make smarter decisions that drive real business impact. Whether one is refining their current approach or building one from scratch, the session offers practical insights that can be immediately applied.
Ask Scott to speak at your event. Just complete the speaker engagement request form or email him today!
Read on for:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to Cite This Article,
- and more.
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, April 4). The Art and Science of Aligning Initiatives with Strategic Objectives. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/scott-m-graffius-presents-the-art-and-science-of-aligning-initiatives-with-strategic-objectives.html.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: (coming soon)
Content Acknowledgements
Names, marks, and content are the property of their respective owners.
Graffius' 'Score and Prioritize Proposed Initiatives Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment' 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.