A Certification/Training Company Stole Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property and Used It Word-For-Word: This Scandal is a Big "Dumpster Fire"


Including supporting information, this article is organized into nine sections:
- Introduction
- Overview of Graffius' Copyrighted 'Phases of Team Development' Property
- CertiProf Violated of Graffius' Intellectual Property Rights — CertiProf Infringed on Graffius' Copyright
- Conclusion
- About Scott M. Graffius
- About Copyright and Other IP Rights
- References/Sources
- Attributions and Other Notes
- How to Cite This Article


Introduction

It's important to be optimistic and focus on a bright future. However, we must also take a stand against those who commit evil acts, such as the violation of intellectual property rights. Copyright infringement, in particular, is a deplorable act of intellectual theft that displays a blatant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a shameful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice. Those who engage in copyright infringement should be identified and held accountable for their actions. Taking a stand against those who commit evil acts helps ensure that justice is served and that others are protected from harm.
IP rights are so important that IP theft is a federal crime.
Scott M. Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyrights and other IP rights. When others infringe on Graffius’ IP rights, situations generally fall into one of two categories:
- IP owner Graffius notifies the offending party of their infringement and the required remediation, and the matter is resolved; or
- IP owner Graffius notifies the offending party of their infringement and the required remediation, and the offending party’s action or inaction necessitates that qualified attorney and/or a U.S. agency is engaged, and the matter is resolved.
Most situations fall under category 1. However, some offending parties seem determined to make an already bad situation worst; they fall under category 2.
This article covers the news that certification/training company CertiProf violated Scott M. Graffius’ intellectual property rights by misusing his ‘Phases of Team Development’ copyrighted 2018 property.
- CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP.
- CertiProf used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP word-for-word.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP commercially — in its certification/training program, for its own financial benefit.
- CertiProf did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius, thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP.
For those reasons, CertiProf violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use’ — not even close!
Copyright infringement is a deplorable act of intellectual theft, displaying a flagrant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a disgraceful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice.
Ensuring the integrity of intellectual property is paramount. Graffius is resolute in protecting and enforcing his copyrights and other IP rights.
This article presents facts — including visuals and additional evidence — and a critical analysis of this serious category 2 situation. It also covers the serious, multiple cases against CertiProf.


Overview of Graffius' Copyrighted 'Phases of Team Development' Property
Informed by the research of Bruce W. Tuckman, Ph.D. 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.’ It’s a unique perspective on the five phases of team development — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — and it’s inclusive of the characteristics/features/traits and strategies (based on data, and crafted in ‘plain English’ for optimal clarity and utility) for each phase.
The body of Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ article has text in typical — not bullet point — format. That content (typical format text from Graffius’ copyrighted article) was infringed upon by CertiProf.
(For reference only, Graffius’ same article includes a visual which incorporates a graph showing how performance varies by phase, as well as the characteristics/features/traits and strategies for each phase. The visual has text in bullet-point format. Again, the body of the article has text in typical — not bullet point — format; that typical format text was infringed upon by CertiProf.)
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
He initially developed his material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. An authorized respective example of his IP (2018 version) is here: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/Using-Bruce-Tuckmans-Phases-of-Team-Development.html and other locations. It is shown below as well.
The relevant (2018) version of Graffius’ copyrighted ‘Phases of Team Development’ is at the preceding link. He promoted his 2018 work via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/scottgraffius_team-teamdevelopment-teamdynamics-activity-6567890493282361345-vrWP/ and other social media platforms.
(For reference only, the most current [2024] edition of Graffius' ‘Phases of Team Development’ is here: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/teams-2024.html.)
Here’s a macro/wide view of Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development.'

Here’s a zoomed-in view of Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development,' showing the relevant text.

Here’s a zoomed-in view of Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development,' showing his copyright statement.

As shown above, Graffius' copyright ownership details are clearly noted. Specifically: “© Copyright 2018 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.”

Conference organizers, businesses, professional organizations, government agencies, and universities 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. His ‘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-2023-2024-v23110907.pdf and https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html, respectively.
With an authorization/license from Graffius, many organizations have featured and used his ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP. Select examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- Boston University,
- Cisco,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- Ford Motor Company,
- GitHub,
- Hasso Plattner Institute Germany,
- IEEE,
- Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network (LTEN),
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Torrens University Australia,
- UC San Diego,
- TBS Switzerland,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- University of Waterloo Canada,
- U.S. Army,
- U.S. National Park Service,
- U.S. Tennis Association,
- Verizon,
- Virginia Tech,
- Yale University,
- and many others.


CertiProf Violated Graffius' Intellectual Property Rights — CertiProf Infringed on Graffius' Copyright
CertiProf’s website at https://certiprof.com/pages/about-us asserts that: “Through deep partnerships and a steadfast dedication to listening to our community, CertiProf has been enhancing professional lives since 2015.” And CertiProf reports at https://certiprof.com/ that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.
CertiProf shows at https://certiprof.com/blogs/news/certiprof-launches-agile-leader-certification-to-help-develop-agile-leadership-skills that “CertiProf launches Agile Leader certification to help develop agile leadership skills” on May 22, 2023. CertiProf indicates at https://certiprof.com/collections/agile/products/agile-leader-professional-certification-alpc that the Agile Leader training/certification product costs $150.00 and that it includes “Student Material in PDF Format.”
CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP. Nevertheless, CertiProf included Graffius' 2018 IP in its 2023 respective student material for Agile Leader. And CertiProf used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP. And CertiProf used Graffius’ IP word-for-word. And CertiProf used Graffius’ IP commercially — in its certification/training program, for its own financial benefit. And CertiProf did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius, thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP. For those reasons, CertiProf violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use.’
Evidence is archived and shown below. (Also see the 'Attributions and Other Notes' section. It's located towards the end of the article.)
For reference, here’s the cover image to CertiProf’s infringing 2023 publication.

Here’s page 63 of CertiProf’s infringing 2023 publication.

Here’s a zoomed-in view of page 63 of CertiProf’s infringing 2023 publication.

Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Forming, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Forming.

Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Storming, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Storming.

Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Norming, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Norming.

Here’s a view showing Graffius’ 2018 copyrighted content on Performing, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Performing.

Here’s a view showing Graffius’ copyrighted 2018 content on Adjourning, and CertiProf’s 2023 infringement of Graffius’ copyrighted content on Adjourning.

CertiProf’s infringement of Graffius' copyright is also delineated next.
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the characteristics of Forming:
“Characteristics of Forming include questioning, socializing, displaying eagerness, focusing on group identity and purpose, and sticking to safe topics.”
🔴 This is an example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the characteristics of Forming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Characteristics of Forming include questioning, socializing, displaying eagerness, focusing on group identity and purpose, and sticking to safe topics.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on strategies for Forming:
“Strategies for this phase include taking the 'lead,' providing clear expectations and consistent instructions, and quick response times.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on strategies for Forming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this phase include taking the 'lead,' providing clear expectations and consistent instructions, and quick response times.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the traits of Storming:
“Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the traits of Storming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Traits of Storming include resistance, lack of participation, conflict, competition, high emotions, and moving towards group norms.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Storming:
“Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies of Storming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this stage include normalizing matters and encouraging leadership.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the features of Norming:
“Features of Norming include reconciliation, relief, lowered anxiety, members are engaged and supportive, and developing cohesion.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the features of Norming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Features of Norming include reconciliation, relief, lowered anxiety, members are engaged and supportive, and developing cohesion.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Norming:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and group efforts, providing learning opportunities and feedback, and monitoring the 'energy' of the group.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies for Norming in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing individual and group efforts, providing learning opportunities and feedback, and monitoring the 'energy' of the group.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s my content on the characteristics of Performing: content on the characteristics of Performing:
“Characteristics of Performing include demonstrations of interdependence, healthy system, ability to effectively produce as a team, and balance of task and process orientation.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the characteristics of Performing in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Characteristics of Performing include demonstrations of interdependence, healthy system, ability to effectively produce as a team, and balance of task and process orientation.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Performing:
“Strategies for this stage include celebrating, 'guide from the side' (minimal intervention), encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving, and providing opportunities to share learning across teams.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies for Performing in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this stage include celebrating, 'guide from the side' (minimal intervention), encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving, and providing opportunities to share learning across teams.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the traits of Adjourning:
“Traits of Adjourning include a shift to process orientation, sadness, and recognition of team and individual efforts.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the traits of Adjourning in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Traits of Adjourning include a shift to process orientation, sadness, and recognition of team and individual efforts.”
🟢 From Graffius' copyrighted 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP, here’s his content on the strategies for Adjourning:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations, and providing an opportunity for acknowledgments.”
🔴 This is another example of CertiProf violating the copyright of Graffius' 2018 'Phases of Team Development' IP. CertiProf has the following infringing content on the strategies for Adjourning in their 2023 Agile Leader publication:
“Strategies for this phase include recognizing change, providing an opportunity for summative team evaluations, and providing an opportunity for acknowledgments.”
The conclusion is next.



Conclusion
Certification/training company CertiProf violated Scott M. Graffius’ intellectual property rights by misusing his ‘Phases of Team Development’ copyrighted property.
- CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP.
- CertiProf used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP word-for-word.
- CertiProf used Graffius’ IP commercially — in its certification/training program, for its own financial benefit.
- CertiProf did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius, thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP.
For the above reasons, CertiProf violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use.’
Copyright infringement is a deplorable act of intellectual theft, displaying a flagrant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a disgraceful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice.
CertiProf's outrageous infringement has damaged the marketability and value of Graffius' ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP.
Ensuring the integrity of intellectual property is paramount. Graffius is resolute in protecting and enforcing my copyrights and other IP rights.
Graffius will seek, and obtain, the maximum penalties allowed by law. It will include special remedies against CertiProf for “willful infringement.”
Additionally, the U.S. Copyright Office informs that: "In cases of willful infringement for profit, the U.S. Attorney may initiate a criminal investigation."
Furthermore, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) recently received details on this case. The IPR Center combats copyright infringement and other intellectual property theft and related crimes through coordinated efforts with domestic and international partners. It operates under the auspices of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
These are serious federal cases against CertiProf, involving significant financial and other consequences.

CertiProf might find themselves wishing they had a certification in avoiding legal entanglements.

To learn more, check out the following additional sections to this article:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- About Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Rights,
- References/Sources,
- Attributions and Other Notes, and
- How to Cite This Article.

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, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Park Service, U.S. Tennis Association, 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 Copyright and Other Intellectual Property Rights
For copyright/IP infringement cases, it is recommended that you consult a qualified attorney.
Infringement of copyright and other intellectual property (IP) rights is a deplorable act of intellectual theft, displaying a flagrant disregard for professionalism, morality, ethics, and the law. It undermines the hard work and innovation of others and is a disgraceful, unprofessional, dishonest, immoral, unethical, and illegal practice. IP rights are so important that IP theft is a federal crime.
To learn about copyrights, visit the United States Copyright Office’s website at https://www.copyright.gov.
The Reporting Intellectual Property Crime: A Guide for Victims of Copyright Infringement, Trademark Counterfeiting, and Trade Secret Theft publication by the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice is a good resource.
The Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Center coordinates the U.S. government’s response to intellectual property crimes. Visit their website at https://www.iprcenter.gov to learn more.
See References/Sources — the next section of this article — for additional information.


References/Sources
Select bibliography:
- Agile Alliance (n.d.). Agile Alliance. Available at: https://www.agilealliance.org. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI) (n.d.). American National Standards Institute. Available at: https://www.ansi.org. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- Bartlett, Tom (2021, August 12). The Vaccine Scientist Spreading Vaccine Misinformation. The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/08/robert-malone-vaccine-inventor-vaccine-skeptic/619734/.
- Blaskovic, Andrew K.; Rusk, John-David; Parker, Victor C.; and Payne, Bryson R. (2022). Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Theft: An Analysis of Modern Digital Forensics. In book: Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2022, Volume 2. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-18458-1_36.
- CertiProf (n.d.). CertiProf. Available at: https://certiprof.com.
- Credly by Pearson (n.d.). Credly by Pearson. Available at: https://info.credly.com. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- Dolgin, Elie (2021, September 14). The Tangled History of mRNA Vaccines. Nature. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w.
- Dyer, Jeff; Furr, Nathan; Lefrandt, Chris; and Howell, Taeya (2023, January 17). Innovation Depends on Intellectual Honesty. MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/why-innovation-depends-on-intellectual-honesty/.
- Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions (n.d.). Rate Card for 2023-2024. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Exceptional-PPM-and-PMO-Solutions-Rate-Card-for-2023-2024-v23110907.pdf.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, January 4). Phases of Team Development (Update for 2021). DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22040.42246.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, January 4). Using Bruce Tuckman's Phases of Team Development to Help Your Team Grow and Advance: 2021 Update. Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/team-21.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (n.d.). Intellectual Property (IP). Available at: https://www.scottgraffius.com/intellectual-property.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (n.d.). Public Speaker. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
- Hartline, Devlin (2016, September 26). Criminal Copyright Infringement is Crime of "Moral Turpitude." George Mason University Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy. Available at: https://cip2.gmu.edu/2016/09/26/criminal-copyright-infringement-is-crime-of-moral-turpitude/.
- Huppert, Elizabeth; and Levine, Emma (2023, August 31). The Rise of Dishonest Leaders: Causes and Solutions. Academy of Management Perspectives, 37 (3). DOI: 10.5465/amp.2021.0063.
- IT Certification Council (ITCC) (n.d.). IT Certification Council. Available at: https://itcertcouncil.org. [Note: CertiProf reports that it has “Strategic Alliances” with four organizations: IT Certification Council (ITCC), Agile Alliance, American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and Credly by Pearson.]
- Kenton, Will (2022, August 23). What Is a Whistleblower? Protections, Law, Importance, and Example. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/whistleblower.asp.
- McGregor, Jena. (2017, May 15). More CEOs are Getting Forced Out for Ethical Violations. Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2017/05/15/more-ceos-are-getting-forced-out-for-ethics-violations/.
- National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) (n.d.). About the Center. Available at: https://www.iprcenter.gov/about.
- Popomaronis, Tom (2020, August 20). These 11 Famously Disgraced CEOs Have Entered the Reputation Hall of Shame. Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/these-11-famously-disgraced-ceos-have-entered-the/354739.
- Rivera, Kristin; and Karlsson, Per-Ola (2017, June 6). CEOs Are Getting Fired for Ethical Lapses More Than They Used To. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2017/06/ceos-are-getting-fired-for-ethical-lapses-more-than-they-used-to.
- Smith, Isaac H.; Kouchaki, Maryam; and Wareham, Justin (2021, April 14). The Price Leaders Pay for Cutting Ethical Corners. MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-price-leaders-pay-for-cutting-ethical-corners/.
- Steffen, Thomas (2019, May 24). For CEOs, Integrity Is the Best Policy. Yale School of Management. Available at: https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/for-ceos-integrity-is-the-best-policy.
- Sterne, Robert; and Chaplick, Trevor (2005, February). Why Directors Must Take Responsibility for Intellectual Property. Intellectual Asset Management Magazine. Available at: https://www.wsgr.com/PDFSearch/IP_RESPONSIBILTY.pdf.
- Stim, Richard (2024). Patent, Copyright & Trademark: An Intellectual Property Desk Reference (18th Edition). Berkeley, California: Nolo.
- Stubben, Stephen; and Welch Kyle (2018, November 14). Whistleblowers Keep Companies Healthy. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2018/11/research-whistleblowers-are-a-sign-of-healthy-companies.
- Thomson Reuters (2022, December 16). Copyright Litigation 101. Available at: https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/copyright-litigation-101/.
- United States Copyright Office (USCO) (n.d.). Can I Use Someone Else's Work? Can Someone Else Use Mine? (Excerpt: "In cases of willful infringement for profit, the U.S. Attorney may initiate a criminal investigation.") Available at: https://copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html.
- United States Copyright Office (USCO) (n.d.). Welcome to the U.S. Copyright Office. Available at: https://www.copyright.gov.
- United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (n.d.). Intellectual Property Theft and Commercial Fraud. Available at: https://www.dhs.gov/hsi/investigate/intellectual-property-and-commercial-fraud.
- United States Department of Homeland Security (US DHS) (n.d.). Intellectual Property Rights. Available at: https://www.dhs.gov/intellectual-property-rights.
- United States Department of Justice (DOJ) (2006, September). Prosecuting Intellectual Property Crimes (Third Edition). Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice. Available at: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-J31-PURL-gpo24938/pdf/GOVPUB-J31-PURL-gpo24938.pdf.
- United States Department of Justice (DOJ) (n.d.). Reporting Intellectual Property Crime: A Guide for Victims of Copyright Infringement, Trademark Counterfeiting, and Trade Secret Theft (Third Edition). Available at: https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-ccips/file/891011/dl.
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Attributions and Other Notes
Certification/training company CertiProf violated Scott M. Graffius’ intellectual property (IP) rights by misusing his ‘Phases of Team Development’ copyrighted 2018 property. CertiProf did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ IP, it used effectively all of Graffius’ respective IP, it used Graffius’ IP word-for-word, it used Graffius’ IP commercially (in its certification/training program, for its financial benefit), and it did not quote or attribute the work to Graffius (thereby falsely leading readers to believe that it was the author and owner of Graffius’ IP). For those reasons, CertiProf clearly violated Graffius’ IP rights. Specifically, CertiProf infringed on Graffius’ copyright; CertiProf’s use was not ‘fair use.’
In accordance with the fair use doctrine, thumbnails of two (out of 89) pages from CertiProf’s 2023 Agile Leader Professional Certification (ALPC) document are used with attribution for purposes of news reporting and critical analysis. Those highly limited excerpts are of the cover page and page 63 (on page 63, CertiProf illegally includes Graffius’ 2018 copyrighted property). Those excerpts provide crucial insight into CertiProf’s violation of Graffius’ IP, allowing readers to better understand the context and implications of the copyright infringement. This approach enhances transparency and facilitates informed public discourse.
CertiProf name, marks, and content — except for what they stole from others — are the property of CertiProf LLC.
Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, June 25). A Certification/Training Company Stole Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property and Used It Word-For-Word: This Scandal is a Big "Dumpster Fire." Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/dumpster-fire.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20473.89445.




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

The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/evil-cp
© 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 Named a Top Thought Leader and Influencer in Four Domains: Agile, Digital Transformation, Change Management, and GovTech

Content from Scott M. Graffius's award-winning books on agile project management, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Loughborough University London, and others.
Thinkers360 previously named Scott a global thought leader and influencer in three domains: Agile, Digital Transformation, and GovTech. Today, Thinkers360 added Scott to another list—the one on Change Management thought leaders and influencers. Announcements are here, here, and here.

Thinkers360 is the world’s first open platform for thought leaders and influencers. Their 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.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius has generated hundreds of millions of dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. He is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from Scott's books, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway), Loughborough University London, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps client organizations strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to governance and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. His second title, 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), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. Scott and his works have been featured by media outlets and publications including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, the Boston Herald, MobileAppDaily, NBC WRAL, Thinkers360, Informa (UAE), the Dallas Business Journal, Innovation Management (Sweden), the PM World Journal, ip-label (United Kingdom), BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, NASSCOM (India), Software Quality Management, Nimble Ways (Morocco), The Hiring Analytics Playbook, ALLAGIS (Guatemala), Business Application Monitoring, Human-Station (France), Learning Solutions, The Marketing Factory (Netherlands), Innovation Ecosystem Metrics, DZone, Savills (India), BRP Creative (Australia), People Performance (Singapore), Innovation Project Management by Dr. Harold Kerzner, TopDevs (Canada), Shelf Unbound, Epicos (Greece), Luxembourg Trade and Invest (Luxembourg), Better Humans, Serendipity (Netherlands), NHD Podcast, and others.
Scott 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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Scrum Foundations Educator (SFE), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
He 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. Scott 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 EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott delivers dynamic and engaging talks at in-person and online events around the world. His speaking engagements include in-person and online conferences and other events in Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the United States. Scott delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For details, visit the public speaker section of his website.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


© 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.

"Agile Scrum" Made List of Best Scrum Books of All Time

Scott M. Graffius' Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions was named one of the Best Scrum Books of All Time by BookAuthority. A screen shot is available.

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 Author Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit.
Scott 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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
He has been actively involved with the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the development of professional global standards. He was a member of the team which produced the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Congress 2019.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and custom vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. Scott spoke at Techstars Startup Week and at events in London and Las Vegas. He also delivered talks at the Los Angeles chapter of the PMI, the California Central Coast chapter of the PMI, the California Inland Empire chapter of the PMI (two events), and the California Central Valley chapter of the PMI. Attendees have said “Scott is an amazing speaker,” “fantastic presentation,” and “highly recommended!” A list of his past and upcoming appearances (including the Project World conference in Canada, and more) is available here.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.com.

© 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 to Speak at California Inland Empire Chapter of Project Management Institute

Scott M. Graffius will present "How to Deliver Your Projects with Faster ROI, Competitive Advantage, and Additional Benefits Using Agile Scrum" at the California Inland Empire chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session will provide attendees with a vibrant and highly visual presentation of Scrum, the most popular agile development and delivery framework for products and services. Scott will cover the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to Scrum—spanning from vision through release—based on best practices and top factors from successful implementations. Attendees will be presented with practical information they can use. This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter. The session will be held in Murrieta, California on Saturday, February 16, 2019. For more information and to register for the event, visit here.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For infographics and additional resources, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott 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 holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, the IEEE Internet of Things Community, and the IEEE Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
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 the Project Management Institute California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter
The PMICIE—chartered by the Project Management Institute in 2002—is based in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The chapter is committed to the advancement of the project management profession. It provides its members with networking, training, and professional development opportunities. The website for the chapter is https://pmicie.org.

© 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 to Speak on Agile Scrum at Techstars Startup Week - Inland Empire

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will be speaking at Techstars Startup Week. He will be presenting "Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage." The talk will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 4, 2018 at The Box Riverside (also known as The Box Theater) in Riverside, CA. For more information and to register for the event, please visit https://ie.startupweek.co.
Techstars Startup Week provides presentations, workshops, events, and mentoring sessions designed to inspire, educate, and advance startups and others in the local entrepreneurial community.
Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives via world-class project management. The firm provides expert advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management in agile, traditional/waterfall, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks.

© Copyright 2018 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.

Talk at Techstars Startup Week in the Inland Empire on October 4, 2018

I had the pleasure of speaking to a highly-engaged audience of startups and others in the entrepreneurial community at the Techstars Startup Week in the Inland Empire on Thursday, October 4th. My talk was on agile project management. It covered Scrum—including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework—with a focus on best practices and top factors in typical successful implementations. Benefits such as rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement were incorporated in the talk as well.
Thank you to everyone who attended the event. Special thanks to Steve Massa and all of the conference organizers, Michael Ring for managing the control booth/ops in the theater, and Lara Phillips for the excellent photographs of the event.
Here's the link to the home page for the Techstars Startup Week conference: https://ie.startupweek.co.

© Copyright 2018 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.

Yahoo Finance: Scott M. Graffius to Speak on Agile Scrum at Techstars Startup Week

Scott M. Graffius, Founder and CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, will be speaking at Techstars Startup Week. A press release, distributed today, was carried by Yahoo Finance and other media outlets. You can read it on Yahoo Finance here.

© Copyright 2018 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.

Talk by Scott M. Graffius at PMI California Central Valley Chapter Dinner Meeting on September 13, 2018

I had the honor of speaking on agile project management at a dinner meeting of the Project Management Institute - California Central Valley Chapter (PMI-CCVC) in Bakersfield last night. The presentation provided a highly visual overview of Scrum — including the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to the framework — with a focus on best practices and top factors typical in successful implementations.
Thank you to Fred Valenzano for the invitation and thank you to all of the PMI-CCVC members who attended the session. I enjoyed meeting and talking with everyone.
The feedback was fantastic. For those not at the event: an example of a sticky note used to collect comments at the end of the meeting is shown (the example is a blank one — not filled out — for privacy). It's excellent to know "What Went Well?" Potential improvements, however, typically come from the other question: "What Would You Change?" (Additionally, attendees can provide feedback via an online survey.) All of the feedback is important, appreciated, and valued.

© Copyright 2018 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 Featured in Success Story by BEA

The Book Excellence Awards features Scott M. Graffius, author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, in a story. The article highlights factors contributing to the book's success — including credit to Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. You can check out the story at https://www.bookexcellenceawards.com/scott-graffius-success-story.
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

© Copyright 2018 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 to Speak at Project World Business Analyst World

Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions and author of Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, will be speaking at Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019. He will be presenting best practices on agile project management, including tools and techniques which attendees will be able to immediately apply at work. His talk will be held on Tuesday, May 28, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. You can read more about it here: http://bit.ly/AGILE-1.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For additional information including infographics and more, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott 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 holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the IEEE Computer Society, the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society, the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society, the IEEE Internet of Things Community, and the IEEE Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About Project World * Business Analyst World Toronto 2019
The conference—which appears stylized as ProjectWorld*BusinessAnalystWorld—is an educational and training event for project management and business analysis professionals. Thought leaders will arm attendees with new skills, tools, and techniques that can be immediately applied in the workplace. Over 30 expert speakers will present more than 40 interactive sessions, workshops, and keynotes. All sessions are Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) accredited. Offering professional development units (PDUs) and continuing development units (CDUs) for each hour of learning, attendees can earn up to 26 credits over the four-day period. It will be held on May 27-30, 2019 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. The official hashtag is #PWBAWTOR19. The website for the conference is here: https://www.pmbaconferences.com/toronto.
© Copyright 2018 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.

"Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" Quoted in Innovation Management

Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) was quoted by Julia Myllylä in her article which appears in Innovation Management. This Swedish-based publication has the mission to provide relevant, inspiring and actionable knowledge to businesses and individuals looking to increase their innovation capabilities.

The quote from Agile Scrum—“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 located at point 5 of the article. It was published on November 20, 2018, and you can read it here: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2018/11/20/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott 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.
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

© Copyright 2018 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.

"Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions" Quoted by Informa Middle East

Content from Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (Scott M. Graffius, author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, technical editors) is quoted in a piece by Informa Middle East. Informa is a leading Dubai-based company offering business intelligence, academic publishing, and services in event management.
A red arrow in the accompanying image (a higher resolution version is available here) points out the quote. You can read the Informa article by Anishka Abraham—which includes what to do and avoid with metrics—here: https://www.informa-mea.com/blog/7-mistakes-to-avoid-when-measuring-innovation/.


About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author. He is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include upgraded responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, improved on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. Scott 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.
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

© Copyright 2018 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part One

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the first installment of the eight-part story.
Part One: The Call

The assistant to the executive vice president (EVP) of technology for a division of a global entertainment company contacted me by phone. I was told that I was referred by someone who knew me and thought I would be a good fit for contract work. A one-hour consultation with the EVP was scheduled for the next day. I then received an email with several attachments including a non-disclosure agreement which needed to be executed and brought to the meeting.
I brought the documents to the session. The EVP explained that his division of the company was experiencing an alarming trend of problems with project management. He reported that deliverables were not meeting expectations, there was a marked decline in satisfaction, and—this was characterized as "the straw that broke the camel's back"—a highly skilled and very well-respected team member quit, citing the problems as her reason for departure.
After an hour with the EVP, we agreed to extend the meeting (initially, my complimentary consult) an additional hour (billable time). I learned that this division of the company previously used a traditional plan-driven/waterfall approach for development and delivery. The EVP explained that things worked reasonably well then and that they were "close enough" to being on-scope, on-budget, and on-time that team members and stakeholders were satisfied.
The EVP explained, however, that he wanted to adopt a model (Scrum) employed by some of the other divisions of the company. The EVP said that he conducted a search for a value-added reseller (VAR) to help his group move to agile. A VAR-partner of a popular software solution was selected, and the VAR transitioned the group to Scrum. Reportedly, very few problems surfaced during the VAR's contractual engagement, which ended two weeks into the first sprint (then, the duration for sprints was four weeks). Many problems surfaced subsequently, however. The VAR had been gone for two months at the time of my meeting with the EVP.
The EVP asked me to make things right. I explained that change depends on many people and multiple factors and that a specific end result could not be guaranteed. I suggested, however, that I'd be honored to work with his group in the first step—an assessment—which would help inform the subsequent work of foundational planning. The objectives of the assessment include working closely with the EVP, the Scrum Team and stakeholders to understand their goals—and the environment, roles and practices. He asked me when I could start. I asked him when he needed me, and he replied "immediately." I agreed to start the next day.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Two: The Goals.

© 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 to Speak at Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute

An updated version of this story appears here.
Scott M. Graffius will present "Getting (More) Benefits from Agile" at the Los Angeles chapter of the Project Management Institute. He will deliver practical information including top factors from successful Scrum implementations—based on his first-hand experience and 116 sources—which attendees can leverage to gain (more) benefits from agile. This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter. The session will be held in Santa Clarita, California on June 2, 2020. In early 2020, additional information including the time and venue for the talk will be shown at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. The consultancy provides project, program, portfolio, and PMO management services inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid development and delivery frameworks. Business results include improved responsiveness to business needs, faster delivery and time-to-market, upgraded on-budget performance, higher customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and greater competitive advantage. For infographics and additional resources, visit http://Exceptional-PMO.com.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication has garnered 17 first place awards. The credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the book. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Dallas Business Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Innovation Management, and additional media outlets. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards and more are available at https://AgileScrumGuide.com.
Scott 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 holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Graffius is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events in the United States and internationally where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates and includes professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His upcoming and past appearances are listed at http://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html.
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 the Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI-LA)
The Los Angeles chapter (PMI-LA) was chartered by the Project Management Institute in 1974. The chapter's vision is "PMI-LA will be recognized as a premier PMI chapter for the advancement of project management and a benchmark for other PMI chapters." Its mission is “To provide opportunities for individual growth in project management and increase corporate awareness of the project management profession.” For more on the PMI-LA, visit https://pmi-la.org. The chapter's hashtag is #PMILA.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Two

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the second installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the first post, you can find it here: Part One: The Call.
Part Two: The Goals

Highlights related to the goals follow.
The executive vice president (EVP) identified his top three desired outcomes:
- Accelerate the development and delivery of products and services—to be faster than the earlier baseline of 6-12 months,
- Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team—to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
- Improve the satisfaction of stakeholders—to also to be the same or better than it was earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.
I individually met with and carefully listened to each member of the Scrum Team. There were recurring themes. We then met as a group and I asked them to identify their top two or three goals. They discussed the matter, voted, and decided on these:
- Meet or exceed the expectations of management, and
- Deliver valuable products.
I individually met with executives from different departments (the stakeholders). In every case, they related that things were OK with the earlier traditional/waterfall approach, but that things were worse now. The stakeholders indicated that, with the earlier approach, someone on the project team worked with their group to gather requirements, and around 6-12 months later the results were deployed. However, it was reported that with the then-current approach, the projects' purpose and requirements were not understood, and that what was produced was unusable. The goals of the stakeholders were:
- For them or their representatives to be as—or more—involved as earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach, and
- Get a usable product as often as—or more frequently than—earlier with the traditional/waterfall approach.
Here's a recap of everyone's goals. The EVP wants the development and delivery of products and services to be faster than 6-12 months, improved satisfaction of the Scrum Team, and improved satisfaction of stakeholders. The Scrum Team wants to meet or exceed expectations of management, and deliver valuable products. The stakeholders want (themselves or via their representatives) to be more involved in requirements/user stories and get useable project-delivered products more frequently than every 6-12 months.
Everyone permitted their goals to be shared with others. After discussing the subject with the EVP, I wrote the goals on oversize paper and posted it in a common area proximate to the Scrum Team and accessible to the stakeholders.
Highlights on the environment, roles, and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Three: The Environment.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Three

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the third installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Three: The Environment

Highlights on the environment including roles and practices—primarily focused on the Scrum Team—follow.
I learned that the Scrum Team was composed of 16 people: one Scrum Master, one Product Owner, and 14 Development Team members. Both the Scrum Master and the Product Owner explained that they were familiar with agile, but that they had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the value-added reseller (VAR). The Development Team consisted of 14 people: a technical architect, a UI designer, a business analyst, seven developers, three testers, and a technical writer. Eleven of the 14 members of the Development Team had no prior work experience with agile/Scrum and no related training—except for what was provided by the VAR. Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, 15 were local (at an office in the greater Los Angeles area), and one—the Product Owner—was based out of her office in Paris, France.
Of the 16 people on the Scrum Team, two—the Scrum Master and the Product Owner—were full time on the project. All of the others were allocated about 50% on the project.
I was given a copy of the training binder left by the VAR. I was told that the contents—about 500 pages—reflected the totality of the training and reference material. The training session, led by the VAR, was attended by the Scrum Master and the all of the Development Team members. The executive vice president (EVP) attended portions. The Product Owner attended portions, listening by phone. The first page in the binder covered the Agile Manifesto, the second page was a two-column table which compared and contrasted waterfall and Scrum (e.g., waterfall freezes scope, Scrum freezes schedule), and the third page showed success rates of waterfall vs. Scrum (e.g., 29% of waterfall projects fail vs. 9% of agile projects). The remaining pages provided information about the VAR company and detailed instructions on how to use their software product. That constituted the training.
The Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team reported that they followed the training and instructions provided by the VAR. I won't delineate the then-current roles further or describe all of the events and artifacts. However, some examples follow.
The Product Owner created a product vision statement and stored it in the software, but nobody else remembered seeing it.
The Product Owner created a product backlog in the software, but nobody else claimed to have seen it.
The Scrum Master facilitated a Sprint Planning event where the Development Team estimated work in terms of complexity, and the results were recorded in the software tool. It was reported that—due to the time difference—the Product Owner did not attend Sprint Planning meetings.
It was communicated that during Sprint execution, the Scrum Master would ask the Development Team if they had any notable progress; and only if the answer was yes, there was a Daily Scrum. As a result, the Daily Scrum event occurred around once or twice a week. When the meeting took place, the Scrum Master did a quick interview with each member of the Development Team and noted the results in the software tool.
I was told that the team followed the recommendation of the VAR for the sprint duration of four weeks.
The Sprint Reviews were attended by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner (remotely), all of the Development Team members, and the EVP. However, the other stakeholders did not attend the events. On average, about half of the work planned and committed to the sprint was "done." Both "done" and not-"done" items were demonstrated at the Sprint Review.
The Scrum Master reported that the team did conduct a Retrospective event at the end of each sprint and that the results were saved in the software tool. When I reviewed the information, I saw comments such as "we worked very hard" under the what went well category. Everything under the "what didn't go so well/opportunities for improvements" category were ideas for enhancement requests for the software tool. I was informed that the VAR instructed staff to convert everything that didn't go well into a suggestion for a future general release of the software or a request for a custom enhancement of the software.
None of the work from any of the sprints was released.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Four: The Options.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Four

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the fourth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Four: The Options

After gaining a broader and deeper understanding of the organization including their Scrum implementation, I met with the executive vice president (EVP) and we discussed next steps. I presented three options:
- No change,
- Revert to the earlier waterfall-only model, or
- "We can try different things" (aligned with the value of openness) with the objective of improving their agile implementation and achieving their goals.
I said, "we can try different things" because while I believed that changes would likely result in improvements, success could not be guaranteed. I also said, "we can try different things" because any meaningful change would require the cooperation and collaboration of many people. The EVP decided on the third option: trying different things.
The doing of "different things" started with training. I first met with the EVP. I then met with the Scrum Master in several one-on-one meetings. And since he was committed to education and improvement, he later on completed the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) training and certification. The Product Owner was unable to attend the office in person for one-on-one training, but we communicated by phone and Skype. The EVP soon decided that the Product Owner needed to be co-located with the Scrum Team. He found a new Product Owner within the organization. I met with the new Product Owner in multiple one-on-one sessions. And—similar to what occurred with the Scrum Master—since the new Product Owner was committed to education and improvement, he subsequently completed the Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) training and certification. I delivered training to the Development Team as a group. It included an overview and more in-depth coverage of certain topics such as pair programming and technical debt. Later on, some Development Team members completed the Certified Scrum Developer (CSD) training and certification. Stakeholder training follows next.
I delivered a one-hour overview of Scrum to the executive stakeholders in a group session. The attendees asked questions and made comments throughout the meeting. One stakeholder suggested that we do what the American Management Association says is best for Scrum. Then other attendees mentioned additional potential sources for information on agile. I explained that different organizations may have their own perspective on what works well for agile/Scrum, and that one way to go (I mentioned this in part to continue their engagement, involvement, and buy-in) is to look to the Scrum Alliance, a leading authority on the subject, but also see if others have ideas that are aligned with the authority and also fit the desired future state of the organization. I committed to doing the research and the stakeholders thanked me in advance.
I already had a library of 76 items on agile/Scrum—consisting of material from the Scrum Alliance, Project Management Institute, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Gartner, KPMG, Harvard Business Review, IEEE, MIT, Forbes, and many others. I expanded it to include sources mentioned by stakeholders during the training session and I diligently reviewed all of the content. The diverse sources identified several values and practices as being central in successful Scrum implementations, and such factors were typically consistent with guidelines from the Scrum Alliance. I then met with each of the stakeholders individually and presented them with a summary of information from the Scrum Alliance and others.
I facilitated a follow-up group meeting with the executive stakeholders. Information from the one-hour training and the diverse sources was summarized. The stakeholders concluded that the central problem with the then-current implementation was that people were not following good practices. They then discussed, voted, and identified what they viewed as the high-level top 10 success factors for a Scrum implementation at the organization based on the previously presented information. In no particular order, the top 10 items were:
- Support from management;
- Each member of the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) is 100% allocated to the project;
- There is an agile coach, agile Project Management Office or agile Center of Excellence;
- Satisfaction is a crucial metric;
- The Scrum Team has no more than 11 people;
- The Scrum Team is co-located;
- There are consistent practices and processes;
- There is a digital wallboard or other information radiator;
- There are frequent and high-quality interactions; and
- There is continuous improvement/inspect and adapt.
Some of the items overlap/are not mutually exclusive, and the items are not exhaustive. I thanked the executive stakeholders for their support, and I told them that the 10 factors are built into the go-forward plan. The stakeholders expressed their appreciation.
The EVP and I conducted a mini-retrospective on the training sessions. The EVP was enthusiastic about what we've done so far, and he said that morale had improved. He authorized company-paid CSM, CSPO, and CSD trainings and certifications for staff (mentioned earlier). The EVP said we could advance to the next stage: piloting changes. I asked if he was open to terminating the use of the software tool introduced by the value-added reseller (VAR). He initially said that so much time and money had been invested in it that it would be hard to justify doing so. I said it differently: "We can try different things" could mean putting the software tool on vacation for a period. He agreed. We moved to the pilot—which involved doing many things differently. Examples follow.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Five: The Pilot — Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Five

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the fifth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog

We advanced to the pilot—which included doing many things differently. Examples follow.
The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing a product vision statement. He opted to use the template attributed to Geoffrey Moore. The Product Owner created a draft of the vision and sent it with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and finalized the product vision. He wrote the statement on oversize paper and posted it in a prominent location where the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Development Team) and stakeholders could easily see it.
The Product Owner and I then discussed techniques on creating and maintaining a product roadmap/release plan. He opted for a simple table with four rows and four columns. The rows included:
- Name (the title of the product or major release),
- Goal (the reason for creating it),
- Features (a high-level list of features), and
- Estimated number of sprints.
For the columns, there was one for each quarter of the year. Similar to what was done with the product vision, the Product Owner sent the plan with a request for feedback to the stakeholders. After receiving feedback, the Product Owner revised and the plan, wrote it on oversize paper, and posted it next to the product vision statement.
Aspects of team formation were covered already. The new Scrum team totaled 11 people. All were co-located and 100% allocated to the project.
The Product Owner and I discussed techniques on developing and maintaining the product backlog. He opted to employ a simple table format with six columns:
- ID#,
- User story/description,
- Category (he decided on four types: feature, bug, technical debt, and other),
- Story point estimate for complexity,
- Priority based on business value, and
- Status.
To help with user stories, the Product Owner often referenced the INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable) model developed by Bill Wake. For priority, the Product Owner initially used the MoSCoW method (Must have, Should have, Could have, or Won't have). Later, the Product Owner found the business value/risk method (where each item is rated as high or low in two dimensions—business value and risk, ...) to be the most beneficial, and the Product Owner continues to use that approach today. In a session facilitated by the Scrum Master, the Product Owner presented the user stories to the Development Team, and participants provided story points (using physical cards for the exercise) for estimates of complexity of each item. Later, the team tried t-shirt sizing—S, M, L, and XL designations—for estimates of complexity, but they decided to return to story points.
Previously, sprints were four weeks in length. Now the team was using the shorter duration of two weeks. A key benefit was that the Scrum value of focus was improved.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Six: The Pilot — Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Six

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the sixth installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part One: The Call;
- Part Two: The Goals;
- Part Three: The Environment;
- Part Four: The Options; and
- Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog.
Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution

The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint planning techniques. The Scrum Master decided that the meeting event would be handled via two separate sessions—part 1 (what will be committed to for the upcoming sprint) and part 2 (how to accomplish the work identified in part 1).
For sprint planning part 1, the timebox (not to exceed duration) for the meeting was calculated as:
- 2
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 4 hours for the event.
The Scrum Master made the following information visible during the event: start and end dates for the sprint, (after a sprint was completed) the results of the last sprint review event, and (after a sprint was completed) the results from the last sprint retrospective event. The Product Owner reminded the Development Team about the product vision statement, and the Product Owner shared the sprint goal (such as "implement shopping cart functionality ..."). The Development Team determined their capacity in work hours for the upcoming sprint. It was calculated as:
- the number of people in the Development Team
- multiplied by the number of project productive hours (which excluded time outside the sprint such as company meetings, trainings, vacation time, etc.) per workday
- multiplied by number of workdays in the sprint.
(Estimation via story points, and prioritization by the Product Owner were already taken care of.)
For each item in the product backlog, participants discussed the user stories/requirements including acceptance criteria, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and anything else requiring a conversation to get a good understanding of the item. The Development Team then committed to the entries which they thought could be completed in the upcoming sprint. The technique they employed involved asking "Can we do this first item in the product backlog?" If the answer was yes, they selected it and proceeded to the next item and continued until the team believed that no more work could be done in the sprint. After the Development Team had worked together and had data on actual velocity (the number of story points completed in a sprint), they also considered that historical metric—comparing it with story points for items in the sprint. The Product Owner updated the product backlog, identifying the items committed by the Development Team to be done for the upcoming sprint.
For sprint planning part 2, the timebox for the meeting was calculated as:
- 2
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 4 hours for the event.
The Scrum team created the sprint backlog. It had the following columns:
- ID#,
- Description,
- Story points,
- Task information (meetings, designs, coding, code review, testing, etc.),
- Estimation in hours (they adopted the practice that if effort is greater than eight hours, split the task into smaller ones),
- Owner (where members of the Development Team self-assign tasks),
- Status, and
- Hours of work remaining.
During the meeting, the Scrum team compared the total estimated work hours for the sprint with the Development Team’s capacity (mentioned under the part 1 meeting) for the sprint. If the Development Team believed that the sprint backlog contained too much work to be done during the sprint, they collaborated with the Product Owner to remove one or more items. If the Development Team believed they could handle more work during the sprint, they worked with the Product Owner to move one or more of the high priority items from the product backlog to the sprint backlog.
The Product Owner, Scrum Master and I discussed sprint execution. Select examples of what was decided and done are highlighted next.
The Development Team set up a task board (also known as a Scrum board) to reflect the work in the current iteration. They went with a simple format. The board depicted work in rows and columns where rows included work items, and columns reflected status (To Do, Doing, and Done). Work was addressed from top (highest priority) to bottom, and work migrated from left to right on the task board as it progressed. The task board is also covered in the daily Scrum meeting.
The Scrum Master decided to use a sprint burndown chart to track and communicate progress during the sprint. He set it up and updated it each workday, usually immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.
The Scrum Master created an impediment backlog to capture things preventing the team from progressing or improving. This backlog was updated daily, typically immediately after the daily Scrum meeting.
At the daily Scrum meeting event, the Development Team shared status, plans, and any impediments. Before this pilot with changes, the team was not conducting the daily Scrum (or updating the task board, burndown chart, and impediments backlog) consistently. Under the pilot (and subsequently), the Development Team met for up to 15 minutes (timebox) each workday, and it was conducted at the same time (10:00 a.m.) each day. At this daily stand-up session, the Development Team and the Scrum Master met where the task board, sprint burndown chart, and impediment backlog were posted. Each Development Team member described what he/she worked on since the last Scrum meeting, and he/she updated the task board. Next, the same Development Team member explained what he/she would work on that day, and he/she updated the task board. Lastly, the same Development Team member reported any impediments. (The Scrum Master recorded any issues in the impediments backlog. If a discussion was required, it took place immediately after the daily Scrum. The Scrum Master helped resolve impediments.) The steps were repeated for other members of the Development Team.
The Scrum Team built an increment of functionality during every sprint, and the increment was potentially shippable because the Product Owner might decide for it to be implemented at the end of the sprint. Said differently, potentially shippable is defined by a state of confidence or readiness, and shipping is a business decision. Commencing with the pilot, the organization started releasing products as often as every sprint (two weeks).
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story continues with Part Seven: The Pilot — Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Seven

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the seventh installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part One: The Call;
- Part Two: The Goals;
- Part Three: The Environment;
- Part Four: The Options;
- Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog; and
- Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution.
Part Seven: The Pilot – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective

The Scrum team—Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team—and I discussed techniques for the sprint review. The event is sometimes referred to as the sprint demo. The timebox (not to exceed duration) in hours for the meeting was calculated as:
- 1
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 2 hours for the event.
Participants included the Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team, and stakeholders. All of the stakeholders (the executives mentioned in earlier parts of the story) were invited to and attended the sprint review. At the session, the Product Owner welcomed attendees and communicated the agenda. He pointed out the sprint goal, which was displayed on the wall in the meeting room. Next, the Development Team listed the work that was committed to the sprint. They then listed the work that was completed and the work that was not completed. For each completed story/feature, the Development Team demonstrated the "done" working functionality and answered questions. Stakeholders were invited to interact with the "done" working functionality and they did so. Then the entire group reviewed the product backlog and collaborated on what to do next. The Product Owner incorporated feedback into the Product Backlog. It involved adding new items to the backlog and/or re-prioritizing existing items. After the sprint review, the Scrum Master incorporated any feedback related to problems into the impediments backlog.
The Scrum Master and I discussed techniques for the sprint retrospective event. The timebox in hours for the meeting was calculated as:
- 0.75
- multiplied by the number of weeks in the upcoming sprint (2 in this case),
- which equaled 1.50 hours for the event.
At the sprint retrospective, the Development Team identified what went well, what didn't go well, and improvements to be implemented in the upcoming sprint—an example of inspection and adaptation. For improvements to be implemented, each member of the Development Team wrote their top one, two or three suggestions on sticky notes. Each idea got its own sticky note. Then the Development Team grouped the sticky notes into categories/themes, and they discussed the items and voted to determine the top one (initially limited to one, later it was raised to two) for adaptation and improvement. The Development Team committed to the change and the Scrum Master recorded the information.
Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story concludes with Part Eight: The Success.

© 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.

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story | Part Eight

Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story
Scott M. Graffius, CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, helps companies achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. A fantastic agile transformation outcome with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott's award-winning book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. This is the story behind the book—told by Scott. Identifying details have been changed and certain elements are not included.
This article is the final installment of the eight-part story. If you haven't already read the earlier parts, you can find them here:
- Part One: The Call;
- Part Two: The Goals;
- Part Three: The Environment;
- Part Four: The Options;
- Part Five: The Pilot – Vision, Roadmap and Release Plan, and Product Backlog;
- Part Six: The Pilot – Sprint Planning and Sprint Execution; and
- Part Seven: The Pilot – Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective.
Part Eight: The Success

By adopting an agile mindset and providing improved engagement, collaboration, transparency, and adaptability via Scrum's values, roles, events, and artifacts, the results were excellent. After one sprint, satisfaction ratings for the Development Team and stakeholders were higher than the target. After three sprints, the output of the Scrum Team became consistent and predictable, satisfaction increased even further, and all of the seven goals mentioned earlier were achieved. Here's an overview:
🎯 Goal 1
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP (executive vice president)
- Desired outcome: Develop and deliver products and services faster than 6-12 months
- Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)
🎯 Goal 2
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
- Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the Scrum Team
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 3
- Source: This goal was identified by the EVP
- Desired outcome: Improve the satisfaction of the stakeholders
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 4
- Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team (Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team)
- Desired outcome: Meet or exceed the expectations of management
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 5
- Source: This goal was identified by the Scrum Team
- Desired outcome: Deliver valuable products/services
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 6
- Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
- Desired outcome: For stakeholders or their representatives to be more involved in requirements
- Result: The goal was achieved
🎯 Goal 7
- Source: This goal was identified by the stakeholders
- Desired outcome: Get useable products delivered more frequently than 6-12 months
- Result: The goal was achieved (with the agile transformation, delivery occurred as often as every two weeks)
The EVP, Scrum Team, and stakeholders declared the pilot a success and they made this implementation of Scrum the preferred approach for the development and delivery of products and services going forward.
In addition to achieving the goals summarized above, the agile transformation also supported the organization's efforts to innovate and drive their competitive advantage. It became more successful. As the business grew, so has the number of Scrum teams. Originally numbering one, the division presently has six Scrum teams.
This concludes Agile Transformation at an International Media Conglomerate: Based on a True Story. The agile transformation experience was the inspiration for Scott M. Graffius’ book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The publication helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, continuous improvement, and more. The book has garnered 17 first place awards and credit is shared with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on the publication. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, the PM World Journal, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, and a detailed list of awards are in the digital media kit. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Strand Books, Harvard Book Store, Books-a-Million, The Booksmith, Hudson Booksellers, Savoy Bookshop & Café, Compass Books at SFO/Books Inc., Books & Books - Miami, University Press Books - Berkeley, and other retailers, distributors, and partners in the United States and around the world.

© 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.

11 Most Valuable IT Certifications

In Technology, there's no substitute for experience. However, certifications remain a valuable tool for advancing one's career. Employers want candidates with up-to-date knowledge and skills, and certifications demonstrate a person’s mastery of the respective subject. Eleven certifications emerged as the most valuable in Technology and two of them are related to project management. [1] [2]
These are the most highly valued technology certifications today:
1. Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect
3. Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
4. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
5. Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)
6. Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
7. CompTIA A+
8. Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
9. ITIL
10. Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure
11. Project Management Professional (PMP)
If you're interested in learning about the project management related certifications, visit the Scrum Alliance for the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and the Project Management Institute for the Project Management Professional (PMP).
Many employers prefer to hire certified professionals, especially those who also have college degrees and successful work experience to accompany them. Those who invest in professional credentials typically enjoy larger salaries among other benefits.

Sources:
[1] Robert Half. “Which IT Certifications are Most Valuable?” The Robert Half Blog. October 4, 2018, https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/which-it-certifications-are-most-valuable.
[2] Robert Half Technology (2018). Technology Salary Guide 2019. Menlo Park, CA: Robert Half International, Inc.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
This article by Scott M. Graffius on the most valuable IT certifications was published in 2019. Graffius periodically refreshes his work. The most current (2024) edition of his report is here.

A version of this article also appears at Exceptional-PMO.com and AgileScrumGuide.com. Both of those sites and ScottGraffius.com are owned by Scott M. Graffius.
© 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.

New 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"

Agile Transformation was previously available in 34 countries. This article was updated on May 22, 2020 to reflect the expanded distribution. It's now available in 46 countries.
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 book appeared on Amazon's "Hot New Releases" list as shown in the following screen shot.

You’re invited to watch the trailer, visit the website, read the blog, and connect on social. Like Agile Transformation on Facebook, and follow Agile Transformation on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

About the Author
Follow @scottgraffius
Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott and his award-winning book on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. His second title, 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 published in April 2019. Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


© 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.

Content from Scott M. Graffius Featured in Story Published by Computer Weekly

I'm honored to be quoted in a piece by Tech journalist Adrian Bridgwater, published by Computer Weekly. Here's an excerpt from the story:
“As the Agile author Scott M. Graffius put it: ‘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.’”
I share the credit with Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, the technical editors on Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. The quote is from the book. For additional information on Agile Scrum, please see the digital media kit.
You can read the story (Bridgwater, Adrian. “Plandek Co-CEO: 5 Areas for Agile Team Self-Improvement.” ComputerWeekly.com, April 30, 2019) here: https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/CW-Developer-Network/Plandek-co-CEO-5-areas-for-Agile-team-self-improvement
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

© 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 Named Author of the Week by AUTHORSWEEK for "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"

AUTHORSWEEK named Scott M. Graffius as Author of the Week for his new title, 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. This is Scott's second book.

About the Author

Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott's first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, garnered 17 first place awards. Scott and Agile Scrum have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. He regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:



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 AUTHORSWEEK
AUTHORSWEEK provides a weekly round-up of the latest book releases and author platform programs. For additional information, visit their website at AUTHORSWEEK.COM.

© 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.

Trailer for "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"
Based on a true story, 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 by Scott M. Graffius provides a revealing behind-the-scenes account of a successful agile implementation at a global entertainment company. You're invited to watch the trailer for the book. It runs 30 seconds.
About the Author
Scott M. Graffius is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he partners with client companies to help them achieve their strategic objectives and business initiatives through project management leadership. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott's first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242), garnered 17 first place awards. Scott and Agile Scrum have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Computer Weekly, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. He regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:



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

© 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.

BookAuthority Names "Agile Transformation" One of the Best New Scrum Ebooks

BookAuthority named Scott M. Graffius' 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, as one of the best new ebooks on Scrum!


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 Author Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, international speaker, and award-winning author.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Learning Solutions, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. A trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a detailed list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit. His second title, 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 published in April 2019.
Scott 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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds six professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional (CSP), 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Within the IEEE, Scott is a member of the Computer Society, the Consumer Electronics Society, the Broadcast Technology Society, the Internet of Things Community, and the Consultants Network.
He 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. Scott was a contributor and reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition and The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. He was also a subject matter expert reviewer of content for the PMI EMEA Congress 2019.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the globe where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.
FHis full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.org.

© 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.

BookAuthority Names "Agile Transformation" One of the Best Scrum Ebooks of All Time

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 initially offered only in ebook format. Soon after it was released, BookAuthority named Agile Transformation as one of the best *new* ebooks on Scrum! BookAuthority gave it an additional award. It's now on the list of the best Scrum ebooks of *all time.* Details on the award are available here. Thank you BookAuthority!
For those who prefer the visual and tactile experience of physical books, a paperback version of Agile Transformation was added and is also available.
Grab a copy of Agile Transformation in ebook or paperback -
● In the United States: bit.ly/at-us
● Outside the United States: bit.ly/intl-links
#Agile #AgileProjectManagement #AgileTransformation #AgileTransformationBook #AgileCoach #Author #Book #Business #Change #ChangeManagement #Entertainment #IT #ITManagement #InformationTechnology #Innovation #Leadership #Management #PMO #Product #ProjectManagement #ProjectMgmt #Scrum #Success #Tech #Technology #Transformation


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 Author Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott and his award-winning book on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. His second title, 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 published in April 2019. BookAuthority named it one of the best new books on Scrum. Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
His full bio is available here.
Connect with Scott on:


About BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.org.

© 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.

AGILE TRANSFORMATION Snags Additional Awards from BookAuthority; Trailer Updated

Soon after 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 released earlier this year, BookAuthority named the ebook/Kindle format of the publication a winner in multiple categories, including Best Scrum Ebooks of All Time. Agile Transformation is also available in print, and BookAuthority recently honored the paperback as a winner in multiple categories, including Best Project Management Books of All Time. Thank you to BookAuthority for the recognition! The short (30-second) trailer for the book was updated to highlight the two awards listed above. Details and the refreshed trailer are available here: https://www.facebook.com/AgileTransformationBook/videos/450537145587506/. You’re invited to check them out.

About Author Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, speaker, and author. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott and his award-winning book on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, Learning Solutions, Informa, Innovation Management, and additional media publications. His second title, 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 published in April 2019. BookAuthority named it one of the best new books on Scrum. Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the world.
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 BookAuthority
BookAuthority curates the books recommended by the world's most successful CEOs, business leaders, and domain experts such as Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, Sheryl Sandberg, and David Allen. Only the very best books are featured on BookAuthority. To keep BookAuthority's site objective and unbiased, ratings are calculated purely based on data. BookAuthority uses a proprietary technology to identify and rate the best nonfiction books, using dozens of different signals, including public mentions, recommendations, ratings, sentiment, popularity and sales history. BookAuthority does not accept requests to feature books, nor does BookAuthority conduct business with publishers or authors. BookAuthority has been featured on CNN, Forbes and Inc. The preceding information is based on content from BookAuthority.org.

© 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 to Speak at Virtual Event of Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute

An earlier version of this story appeared on March 21, 2019. This version includes the update that Scott's talk will be a virtual event.
Scott M. Graffius will present "Getting (More) Benefits from Agile" at a virtual event of the Los Angeles chapter of the Project Management Institute. He will deliver practical information including top factors from successful Scrum implementations—based on his first-hand experience and 116 sources—which attendees can leverage to gain (more) benefits from agile.
⁃ Location: Virtual event
⁃ Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2020
⁃ Time: 5:30-7:15 p.m. Pacific Time
For more information and to register for the virtual event, visit bit.ly/agile-virtual.
This will be Scott's second talk at the chapter.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a technology leader, project management expert, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. His content has been used by corporations, governments, and universities.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to governance and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, Informa, Innovation Management, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, NHD Podcast, Learning Solutions, Dr. Harold Kerzner’s Innovation Project Management, and additional media outlets and publications. The trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit.
His second title, 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), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority.
Scott's content has been used by corporations, governments, and universities—including Cisco, RSA, Ford, LITE-ON Technology Corporation, Liberty Mutual Group, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M University, The Open University, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, and others.
Scott 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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds seven professional certifications: 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
He 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. Scott 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 EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott regularly speaks at conferences and other events around the globe where he delights audiences with presentations on agile, traditional, and hybrid project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. He integrates content on professional standards, best practices, and his first-hand experience with successful implementations. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. Appearances and testimonials are listed at the public speaker section of his website.
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 the Los Angeles Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI-LA)
The Los Angeles chapter (PMI-LA) was chartered by the Project Management Institute in 1974. The chapter's vision is "PMI-LA will be recognized as a premier PMI chapter for the advancement of project management and a benchmark for other PMI chapters." Its mission is “To provide opportunities for individual growth in project management and increase corporate awareness of the project management profession.” For more on the PMI-LA, visit https://pmi-la.org. The chapter's hashtag is #PMILA.


© Copyright 2020 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.

Thank You to Gartner for the Shout-Out!

The photo was taken during Gartner VP Cathleen Blanton’s session on IT Governance at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in Orlando, Florida on October 20, 2019.
The quote on metrics ("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 Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions ― Scott M. Graffius, Author; Chris Hare and Colin Giffen, Technical Editors.
The context of the presentation was on governance and decision-making. Cathleen conveyed that the idea for the slide pictured was that if you measure something that matters, you can use those metrics to drive better behavior through visibility and focus.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, PMP, ITIL, LSSGB is a project management expert, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker. He is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. Before that, he ran and supervised the delivery of projects and programs in public and private companies with businesses ranging from e-commerce to advanced technology, manufacturing, entertainment, and more. Scott is the author of two award-winning books on agile project management, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 978-1533370242) and 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: 978-1072447962). Scott's content has been used by businesses, governments, and universities—including Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, LITE-ON Technology Corporation, Liberty Mutual Group, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M University, The Open University, and others. He regularly speaks at in-person and virtual online conferences and other events around the world. Additional information is available in Scott’s full bio at https://www.scottgraffius.com.


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 Cathleen Blanton
Cathleen Blanton, Vice President at Gartner, is a member of their Public Sector Government team. She focuses on U.S. Federal agencies, covering strategic planning, governance, and ensuring IT enables businesses and mission value. Cathleen specializes in helping CIOs position themselves to partner with executive counterparts on the issues that help their organizations achieve outcomes in both efficiency and mission effectiveness. She takes an approach that is both pragmatic and tailored to organizations’ culture. For more information, visit https://www.gartner.com.

About Gartner IT Symposium│Xpo
The Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo is billed as “the world's most important gathering of CIOs and IT executives.” The conference enables more than 9,000 attendees to shape the future of IT and business strategies. For details, visit https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/na/symposium-us.

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. is the world’s leading research and advisory company and a member of the S&P 500. They equip business leaders with indispensable insights, advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the successful organizations of tomorrow. To learn more, visit https://www.gartner.com.

© Copyright 2020 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's Speaker Reel
Scott M. Graffius delivers dynamic and engaging talks at in-person and online events in the United States and around the world. He delights audiences with presentations on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with information they can use. Check out his speaker reel (above).
Bio for Scott M. Graffius
Scott M. Graffius is a project management practitioner and consultant with expertise in project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. He is an award-winning author and international speaker. His content has been used by businesses, governments, and universities.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to governance and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book has garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. Scott and Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions have been featured in Yahoo Finance, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, Informa, Innovation Management, the Dallas Business Journal, Computer Weekly, the PM World Journal, BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, NHD Podcast, Learning Solutions, Dr. Harold Kerzner’s Innovation Project Management, and additional media outlets and publications. The trailer, high-resolution images, reviews, a list of awards, and more are available in the digital media kit.
His second title, 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), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority.
Scott's content has been used by businesses, governments, and universities—including Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, LITE-ON Technology Corporation, Liberty Mutual Group, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the State of Wisconsin, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M University, The Open University, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, and others.
Scott 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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds seven professional certifications: 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
He 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. Scott 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 EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott delivers dynamic and engaging talks at in-person and online events in the United States and around the world. He delights audiences with presentations on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with information they can use. To learn more, visit the public speaker section of his website.
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

© Copyright 2020 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 a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile

Content from Scott M. Graffius's award-winning books on agile project management, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M University, and others.
Thinkers360, the world’s first open platform for thought leaders and influencers, named Scott as a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile. 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.


Thinkers 360's post on LinkedIn

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a project management practitioner and consultant with expertise in project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. He is an award-winning author and international speaker. His content has been used by businesses, governments, and universities.
Scott is a Principal Consultant and the CEO of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™, a professional services firm, where he helps clients strengthen their project management capabilities and realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives. The consultancy provides advisory, training, and facilitative consulting services related to governance and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management. The firm’s expertise spans agile, traditional waterfall, and hybrid approaches. While every engagement is unique, outcomes typically include getting more projects done, faster delivery time, improved on-budget performance, improved customer and stakeholder satisfaction, and more. Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Scott’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. It presents top practices from successful implementations based on Scott's hands-on experience and 116 diverse sources such as the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, MIT, the IEEE, Gartner, and the Software Engineering Institute. The book garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. His second title, 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), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. Scott and his works have been featured by media outlets and publications including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, the Boston Herald, NBC WRAL, Informa (UAE), the Dallas Business Journal, Innovation Management (Sweden), the PM World Journal, ip-label (United Kingdom), BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Software Quality Management, Nimble Ways (Morocco), The Hiring Analytics Playbook, ALLAGIS (Guatemala), Business Application Monitoring, Human-Station (France), Learning Solutions, The Marketing Factory (Netherlands), DZone, BRP Creative (Australia), Innovation Project Management by Dr. Harold Kerzner, TopDevs (Canada), Shelf Unbound, Better Humans, NHD Podcast, and others.
Scott 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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Scott has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds seven professional certifications: 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 a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
He 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. Scott 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 EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Scott delivers dynamic and engaging talks at in-person and online events in the United States and around the world. He delights audiences with presentations on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. Scott uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with information they can use. For details including his speaker reel video, visit the public speaker section of his website.
Content from Scott's award-winning books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities including Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, LITE-ON Technology Corporation, Liberty Mutual Group, Atlassian, the United States Department of Energy, the United States Army, the State of Wisconsin, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, James Madison University, Santa Clara University, Brigham Young University, Texas A&M University, The Open University, Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation, and others.
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


© Copyright 2020 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 Speaking on Ensuring that Projects are Aligned with Strategic Objectives and Other Key Factors at California Inland Empire Chapter of Project Management Institute

Scott M. Graffius will present “10 Ways to Score and Prioritize Project Proposals Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment” at an event of the California Inland Empire Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMICIE Chapter). The session will occur on Tuesday, February 9, 2021. It will be Scott's third talk at the Chapter.
- Description on PMICIE Chapter’s website
- Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2021
- Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time
- Location: Virtual
Everyone is welcome to attend (PMICIE membership is not required). To register, visit here.
Attendees of this session may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.50 hours. For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it’s 1.50 professional development units (PDUs), under the Strategic and Business Management category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it’s 1.50 Scrum educational units (SEUs), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.

Description of Talk
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


Benefits (Key Learning Objectives)
This talk will help you develop and enhance the contributions you make to your organization 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 presented during the talk.
- Put the practical, actionable information presented to use. During the session, we will run an example project proposal through the process, step-by-step. You will receive a summary “cheat sheet” that you can reference as a guide to help implement or improve this process at your organization.

Audience
This session is designed to be of value to project, program, and portfolio managers; project, program, and portfolio management office staff; Center of Excellence staff; Scrum Masters, Product Owners, agile coaches, and other agile practitioners and staff; executives making decisions about organization strategy; functional managers; researchers; customers; and additional stakeholders.


References
The talk draws on the speaker’s first-hand experience, with his guidance supported by related standards, best practices, and recommendations from the Project Management Institute, IEEE, MIT, Harvard Business Review, Scrum Alliance, Deloitte, and others.

Speaker Bio

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and keynote speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities, including: Gartner, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile.
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 the California Inland Empire Chapter of the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute - California Inland Empire (PMICIE) Chapter was chartered by the Project Management Institute in 2002. Based in Rancho Cucamonga, California, it is committed to the advancement of the project management profession. The Chapter provides its members with networking, training, and professional development opportunities. Its website is https://pmicie.org.

© Copyright 2020 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.

Four Ways to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills Today

Strategic thinking is often considered essential to an organization's successful performance. Some have even advocated for companies to develop the strategic thinking skills of their executives and other staff as a core competency. How can strategic thinking skills be developed? But first, here's a definition.
“Strategic thinking is a distinctive management activity whose purpose is to discover novel, imaginative strategies which can rewrite the rules of the competitive game; and to envision potential futures significantly different from the present. Furthermore, strategic thinking is specified as being conceptual, systems-oriented, directional (linking the future with the past), and opportunistic.”
— Ellen F. Goldman
In other words, strategic thinking is a process used to broaden an individual's perspective to achieve successful outcomes such as competitive advantage. And it can happen at every level of the organization; it's not just for executives.
Here are four specific things you can do to improve your strategic thinking skills.
1. Schedule Time for Strategic Thinking
You are investing in your success as well as that of the organization. Find the time to focus on strategic thinking. A tip is to place a recurring event on your calendar to reserve time for strategic thinking activities.
2. Monitor the Big Picture Including Trends
The default focus at most organizations is on what’s directly ahead. However, "peripheral vision"—including keeping sight of the big picture and industry trends—is essential for long-term success. Some tips follow. Keep abreast of industry organizations and publications. Build external networks to help you best scan the competitive landscape. Determine the unique perspective that your role provides, and define its favorable impact on the organization’s vision, mission, and/or strategic objectives.
3. Ask Questions to Uncover Patterns
Further to your mindfulness of the big picture and understanding of changes in the industry, you can put strategic thinking to work by asking yourself and others questions. A few examples follow. "What if _____?" questions are frequently effective in helping one "see around the corner." And variations such as "If _____, then _____?" often yield insights as well.
4. Embrace Uncertainty and Conflict
Strategic thinking involves envisioning the future and potential proactive ways the organization can change to remain competitive and successful. You should accept that the future is uncertain, and challenging assumptions by asking questions and other tactics may make some people uncomfortable. Remaining mindful of those aspects will help you stay the course in regularly practicing strategic thinking and securing the benefits summarized in this article.
Conclusion
By sharpening your strategic thinking skills, you benefit both yourself and your organization. It helps you make a greater contribution to the business—which may also support your advancement—and it helps the company enjoy greater competitive advantage and long-term success. So, start work on your strategic thinking skills today!

Bibliography
Atsmon, Yuval (2017, May 2). How to Unleash Your Strategic Thinking. Digital article. McKinsey & Company.
Bonn, Ingrid (2005, June). Improving Strategic Thinking: A Multilevel Approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26 (5). DOI: 10.1108/01437730510607844.
Cowan, N. (2001, February). The Magical Number 4 in Short-Term Memory: A Reconsideration of Mental Storage Capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24 (1): 87-119.
Dixit, Avinash K. and Nelebuff, Barry J. (1993). Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Goldman, Ellen F. (2007, Summer). Strategic Thinking at the Top. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48 (4): 75-81.
Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Thinking Strategically and Acting Tactically. Winnetka, CA: Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions.
Reynolds, K. (2013). Strategic Thinking for Today's Project Managers. Paper presented at PMI Global Congress 2013—North America, New Orleans, LA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Syrett, Michael and Devine, Marion (2012). Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times. London, United Kingdom: Profile Books.

About the Author

Scott M. Graffius is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and keynote speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities, including Gartner, Cisco, RSA, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer.
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

The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/4-strategic.
This article was first published here. Later—on August 24, 2021—the article was posted to LinkedIn here as well.

© Copyright 2020 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 Speaking on Agile at Scottish Summit 2021

🔥 Update: The Scottish Summit 2021 tech conference recorded sessions and made the videos available to the public. The video for Scott's session is included at the end of this post.
Scott M. Graffius will present "Are You Realizing All the Benefits from Agile?" at Scottish Summit 2021. The tech conference is normally conducted as an in-person gathering at the University of Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. In 2021, the event will be virtual.
- Date: Saturday, February 27, 2021
- Location: Virtual
For more information and to register for the conference, visit https://scottishsummit.com.
Attendees of this talk may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 45 minutes. For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it’s 0.75 professional development unit (PDU), under the Technical Project Management category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it’s 0.75 Scrum educational unit (SEU), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer their respective instructions.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management consultant, practitioner, award-winning author, and keynote speaker. Content from his books, speaking engagements, and more has been used by businesses, governments, and universities, including: Gartner, Cisco, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Bayer, the National Academy of Sciences, the United States Department of Energy, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Tufts University, Texas A&M, and others. Thinkers360 named Scott a Top 20 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Agile. His full-length bio is available at https://www.scottgraffius.com/bio.html.
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 Scottish Summit 2021
Scottish Summit is a diverse and inclusive tech conference that features a broad range of topics presented by the best speakers. It provides attendees with an excellent experience in a fun, relaxed, and friendly environment. Normally conducted as an in-person gathering at the University of Strathclyde Technology and Innovation Centre in Glasgow, UK, the event will be virtual in 2021. To learn more, visit https://scottishsummit.com.

Update on March 5, 2021
If you missed the event, recordings of sessions are now available on YouTube. Scott's talk is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydwIehQdLKU and the video is also shown below.

© Copyright 2020 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 Speaking at Southwest Virginia Chapter of Project Management Institute

Scott M. Graffius will deliver the talk, “10 Ways to Score and Prioritize Project Proposals Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment,” at a virtual event of the Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute on May 11, 2021, from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To learn more and to register for the event, visit here.
Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.50 hours. For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.50 professional development units (PDUs), under the Strategic and Business Management category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.50 Scrum educational units (SEUs), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.

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 the Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute
The Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute was founded in 2003 to serve the southwestern part of Virginia including the metro areas of Roanoke, Lynchburg, Blacksburg, Lexington, Martinsville, Danville, and Bristol. The Chapter's mission is to foster a community of project management excellence in Southwest Virginia. To learn more, visit https://pmi-swva.org.

© 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 Speaking on Ensuring Strategic Alignment at PMI Central Virginia

Scott M. Graffius will lead a session on strategic alignment, “10 Ways to Score and Prioritize Project Proposals Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment,” at a virtual event of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute on Wednesday, June 16, 2021. To learn more and to register for the event, visit https://pmicvc.org/calendar?eventId=6905.
Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.50 hours. For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.50 professional development units (PDUs), under the Strategic and Business Management category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.50 Scrum educational units (SEUs), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.

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 the Central Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute
The vision of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMICVC) is to be the premier professional project management organization for business, civic, government, and education communities in Central Virginia. Its mission is to serve the professional interests of chapter members by enhancing expertise through project management education and training, supporting PMI certifications, and promoting association with other project management professionals. To learn more, visit the PMICVC website at https://pmicvc.org.

© 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 Speaking on Ensuring Strategic Alignment at Florida Suncoast Chapter of the Project Management Institute

Scott M. Graffius will lead a session on strategic alignment, “10 Ways to Score and Prioritize Project Proposals Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment,” at an online event of the Florida Suncoast Chapter of the Project Management Institute on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. To learn more and to register for the event, visit https://suncoastpmi.org/meetinginfo.php?id=125.
Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.50 hours. For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.50 professional development units (PDUs), under the Strategic and Business Management category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.50 Scrum educational units (SEUs), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.

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 the Florida Suncoast Chapter of the Project Management Institute
The Florida Suncoast Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI) leads the local community in the advancement of project management by promoting the PMI’s values and principles, as well as by organizing and facilitating events, activities, and initiatives to support individuals and organizations. The Chapter's objectives include:
- Advance the mission and objectives of the Project Management Institute within the West Coast Florida area.
- Develop a growing and committed membership of local Project Management Professionals through an aggressive recruiting and retention plan.
- Promote Professional Project Management principles and techniques with local businesses, universities and professional associations.
- Support and enhance Project Management Professionalism by developing and providing quality programs based on local Project Manager needs.
- Create and deliver an educational program that strengthens local Project Manager skills and supports the Project Management Institute Certification Program.
To learn more, visit the Chapter's website at https://suncoastpmi.org.
© 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 Speaking at Frug'Agile Conference Armenia and France 2021

Scott M. Graffius will speak at October 2021 edition of Frug'Agile Conference (Photo of Khor Virap monastery in the shadow of Mount Ararat by Andrew Behesnilian; used under license, CC BY-SA 3.0)
🔥 Update: The Frug'Agile Conference recorded sessions and made the videos available to the public. The video of Scott's talk is included at the end of this post.
Scott M. Graffius will be speaking at the October 2021 edition of Frug’Agile. The conference will take place in Armenia and France, attendees can participate in-person or virtually, and sessions will be delivered in French or English. Scott will present “The Journey to Happier and More Productive Agile Teams” — in English — on Friday, October 15th at:
🕖 Armenia Time: 7:00-8:00 p.m. AT
🕔 Central European Time: 5:00-6:00 p.m. CET
🕗 Pacific Time: 8:00-9:00 a.m. PT

Attendees may be eligible to receive continuing education unit (CEU) credit, equivalent to 1.00 Professional Development Hour (PDH). For reporting with the Project Management Institute (PMI), it's 1.00 Professional Development Unit (PDU), under the Leadership category. For reporting with the Scrum Alliance, it's 1.00 Scrum Educational Unit (SEU), under either the Learning category or the Events category. For reporting with other organizations, refer to their respective instructions.
To learn more and to secure tickets for the conference, visit https://www.frugagile.org.

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 Frug’Agile Conference
Frug’Agile 2021 is a global conference on agile. The theme for this edition is "back to basics," and it runs from October 14-15. The conference features speakers from Armenia, France, and around the world. Sessions will be presented in either French or English, and attendees may participate in-person — from venues in Armenia or France — or virtually.
To learn more about Frug’Agile, visit https://www.frugagile.org.

Update on November 13, 2021
If you missed the event, recordings of sessions are now available on YouTube. Scott's talk is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewokhrpMCIE and the video is also shown below.

The short link for this blog post is: https://bit.ly/frug-21
The short link for a related post on LinkedIn is: https://bit.ly/frug-in
© 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 Speaking at United Arab Emirates Chapter of Project Management Institute

Scott M. Graffius will present a talk on team development and leadership, "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility for Happier and More Productive Teams," at an event of the United Arab Emirates Chapter of the Project Management Institute on Thursday, 13 January 2022, from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. Gulf Time. Register at https://pmiuae.org/en/event-registrations/webinar-navigate-the-phases-of-team-development-with-speed-and-agility-for-happier-and-more-productive-teams.

About "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility or Happier and More Productive Teams"
Description
Want happier and more productive teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams of all types successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success.
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, Google, Microsoft, IEEE, MIT, Software Engineering Institute, Harvard Business Review, and many others.
Benefits/Key Learning Objectives
This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:
- Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
- Learn the characteristics of each phase.
- Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' (and their own) success.


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 1.75 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 the United Arab Emirates Chapter of the Project Management Institute
The United Arab Emirates Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI UAE) is a professional project management organization, chartered by the PMI in 2014. The Chapter’s vision is: “Empower and influence individuals with the innovative Project Economy principals to turn ideas into a reality.” Its mission is: “To disrupt and create value driven to our chapter members and partners to become agile, innovative, productive in the platform for the growth of Project Economy.” And the Chapter is driven by 11 values: innovation, accountability, trust, equality, compassion, collaboration, commitment, community, determination, engagement, and learning.
To learn more about the PMI UAE, visit https://pmiuae.org/en/.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading professional association for a growing community of millions of project professionals and change-makers worldwide. As the leading authority on project management, the PMI empowers people to make ideas a reality. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, the PMI helps prepare organizations and individuals to work smarter in a dynamic and rapidly changing world.
Building on a prominent legacy dating to 1969, the PMI is a “for-purpose” organization working in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, strengthen organizational success, and enable change-makers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact. The PMI provides global standards, certifications, online courses, thought leadership, tools, digital publications, communities, and more.
To learn more about the PMI, visit https://www.pmi.org/.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/blg-uae
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website here
© 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 Speaking at PMI Budapest, Hungary

Scott M. Graffius will present a talk on leadership, "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility for Happier and More Productive Teams," at an event of the Budapest Chapter of the Project Management Institute. It will be held on Wednesday, 16 February 2022, from 12:00 to 13:00 Central European Time. The event is virtual and free. Register at https://pmi.hu/en/calendar?eventId=9624.

About "Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility or Happier and More Productive Teams"
Description
Want happier and more productive teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams of all types successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success.
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, Google, Microsoft, IEEE, MIT, Software Engineering Institute, Harvard Business Review, and many others.
Benefits/Key Learning Objectives
This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:
- Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
- Learn the characteristics of each phase.
- Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' (and their own) success.

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 1.75 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 the Budapest Chapter of the Project Management Institute
The Budapest Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI Budapest) is a professional project management organization, chartered by the PMI in 2003. The Chapter works as a community of volunteers to improve the quality of the project management profession by increasing the recognition and value of project management certifications, and by building relationships. To learn more about PMI Budapest, visit https://pmi.hu.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading professional association for a growing community of millions of project professionals and change-makers worldwide. As the leading authority on project management, the PMI empowers people to make ideas a reality. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, the PMI helps prepare organizations and individuals to work smarter in a dynamic and rapidly changing world.
Building on a prominent legacy dating to 1969, the PMI is a “for-purpose” organization working in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, strengthen organizational success, and enable change-makers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact. The PMI provides global standards, certifications, online courses, thought leadership, tools, digital publications, communities, and more.
To learn more about the PMI, visit https://www.pmi.org/.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/pmi-bud
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website, here
A related post is on LinkedIn here
© 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 Speaking at Ireland Chapter of Project Management Institute

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Scott M. Graffius will deliver his talk on team development and leadership, “Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams,” at an event of the Ireland Chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session will be held on Thursday, April 14, 2022, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time. Register at https://pmi-ireland.org/events/calendar/events/webinar-level-up-the-happiness-and-productivity-of-your-project-teams.

About "Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams"
Description
Want happier and more productive teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams of all types successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success.
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, Google, Microsoft, IEEE, MIT, Software Engineering Institute, Harvard Business Review, and many others.
Benefits/Key Learning Objectives
This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:
- Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
- Learn the characteristics of each phase.
- Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' (and their own) success.


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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. 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, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 67 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, 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 the Ireland Chapter of the Project Management Institute
Chartered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 1998 the Ireland Chapter advances the mission and objectives of the PMI by promoting project management professionalism within businesses, universities, and professional organizations in Ireland. Its members include over 1,600 current or aspiring project, program, portfolio, and PMO management professions. To learn more, visit the Chapter’s website at https://pmi-ireland.org.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading professional association for a growing community of millions of project professionals and change-makers worldwide. As the leading authority on project management, the PMI empowers people to make ideas a reality. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, the PMI helps prepare organizations and individuals to work smarter in a dynamic and rapidly changing world.
Building on a prominent legacy dating to 1969, the PMI is a “for-purpose” organization working in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, strengthen organizational success, and enable change-makers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact. The PMI provides global standards, certifications, online courses, thought leadership, tools, digital publications, communities, and more.
To learn more about the PMI, visit https://www.pmi.org/.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/blg-irl
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website, here.
© Copyright 2022 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 Speaking on Project Team Leadership at California Inland Empire Chapter of Project Management Institute

Scott M. Graffius will deliver a talk on project team development and leadership, “Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams,” at an event of the California Inland Empire Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMICIE). The session will be held on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, from 6:00-7:30 p.m. Pacific Time. Register at https://pmicie.org/events/calendar/future-meetings/march-8-2022-scott-m-graffius-level-up-the-happiness-and-productivity-of-your-project-teams.

About "Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams"
Description
Want happier and more productive teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams of all types successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success.
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, Google, Microsoft, IEEE, MIT, Software Engineering Institute, Harvard Business Review, and many others.
Benefits/Key Learning Objectives
This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:
- Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
- Learn the characteristics of each phase.
- Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' (and their own) success.

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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. 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, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 59 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, 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 the California Inland Empire Chapter of the Project Management Institute
Chartered by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2002, the PMI California Inland Empire Chapter (PMICIE) is committed to the advancement of the project management profession and is focused on enhancing the growth of its members through networking, training, and professional development opportunities. The PMICIE’s mission, vision, and core values follow.
Mission
The PMICIE’s mission is to connect with its community to:
- Recognize the value of project management.
- Advance the practice of project management.
- Deliver successful project results.
- Improve their professional and personal lives.
Vision
The PMICIE’s vision is to be recognized in the California Inland Empire area as a dynamic organization dedicated to serving its communities through the advancement of the project management profession.
Core Values
The PMICIE’s core values provide continuity and a moral compass, communicating its key beliefs and guiding its behavior:
- Trust and Integrity
- Collaboration
- Accountability
- Commitment
- Excellence
- Engagement
- Creativity and Innovation
To learn more about the PMICIE, visit https://pmicie.org.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading professional association for a growing community of millions of project professionals and change-makers worldwide. As the leading authority on project management, the PMI empowers people to make ideas a reality. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, the PMI helps prepare organizations and individuals to work smarter in a dynamic and rapidly changing world.
Building on a prominent legacy dating to 1969, the PMI is a “for-purpose” organization working in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, strengthen organizational success, and enable change-makers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact. The PMI provides global standards, certifications, online courses, thought leadership, tools, digital publications, communities, and more.
To learn more about the PMI, visit https://www.pmi.org/.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/blg-up
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website, here
© Copyright 2022 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 Speaking at Microsoft #TeamsCommunityDay 2022

Scott M. Graffius will deliver a talk on project team development and leadership, “Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams,” at Microsoft #TeamsCommunityDay. Created in 2017, Teams Community Day is a free community-driven annual conference providing talks and workshops in German and English from experts around the world. The 2022 event will take place online and in-person on January 28th from 22 locations: Berlin, Bochum, Bremen, Cologne, Dresden, Emden, Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Heilbronn, Karlsruhe, Lingen, London, Lüdinghausen, Madrid, Munich, Münster, Nürnberg, OWL (Paderborn, Bielefeld, Gütersloh, Herford, and Lippstadt), Saarbrücken, Trier-Föhren, and Vienna. To register for the event, visit https://teamscommunityday.de/en/registration-2022/.

About "Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams"
Description
Want happier and more productive teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams of all types successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success.
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from Microsoft, Google, IEEE, MIT, Project Management Institute, Software Engineering Institute, Harvard Business Review, and many others.
Benefits/Key Learning Objectives
This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:
- Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
- Learn the characteristics of each phase.
- Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' (and their own) success.


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 1.75 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 Microsoft #TeamsCommunityDay
Created in 2017, Teams Community Day is a free community-driven annual conference providing talks and workshops in German and English from experts around the world.
The 2022 event will take place online and in-person on January 28th from 22 locations: Berlin, Bochum, Bremen, Cologne, Dresden, Emden, Graz, Hamburg, Hanover, Heilbronn, Karlsruhe, Lingen, London, Lüdinghausen, Madrid, Munich, Münster, Nürnberg, OWL (Paderborn, Bielefeld, Gütersloh, Herford, and Lippstadt), Saarbrücken, Trier-Föhren, and Vienna.
To learn more, visit https://teamscommunityday.de.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/tcd2022
The short link for a related post on LinkedIn is: https://bit.ly/link-tcd
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website, here
© 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 Delivered 40 Talks and Workshops Across 17 Countries in 2021

In 2021, Scott M. Graffius delivered 40 dynamic and engaging talks and workshops across 17 countries. His sessions spanned leadership, technical project management (inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches to project, program, portfolio, and PMO management), and strategic and business management. He incorporated everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provided audiences with practical information they can use. His engagements were highly rated by attendees and event organizers alike.
Here's an abridged list his 40 sessions in 2021 (most recent shown first):
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | DevOps Experience 2021 Conference
- 🇦🇲 | Frug'Agile Conference Armenia 2021
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | IEEE Day 2021
- 🇧🇷 | Private event
- 🇬🇧 | BSides Newcastle England 2021 InfoSec Conference
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇧🇷 | Agile Trends Gov Conference 2021
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇭🇰 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | Florida Suncoast Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | Central Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇸🇪 | Private event
- 🇱🇹 | DevOps Pro Europe 2021 Conference
- 🇺🇸 | Southwest Virginia Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇬🇧 | Private event
- 🇱🇺 | Luxembourg Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇬🇧 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | Monterey Bay Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇦🇺 | Private event
- 🇳🇿 | New Zealand Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇮🇪 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | Southern Nevada Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇺🇸 | California Institute of Advanced Management
- 🇦🇺 | Private event
- 🇬🇧 | Scottish Summit 2021
- 🇫🇮 | Finland Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇨🇦 | ConFoo Developer Conference 2021
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇨🇿 | DevConf.CZ 2021 Conference
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | California Inland Empire Chapter of Project Management Institute
- 🇺🇸 | Private event
- 🇩🇪 | Private event
- 🇺🇸 | Alaska Chapter of the Project Management Institute
- 🇺🇸 | North Alabama Chapter of Project Management Institute
- 🇳🇱 | Netherlands Chapter of the Project Management Institute
Visit here for detailed listings, videos (where available), testimonials, and more.

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 international speaker. He has generated over 1.75 billion dollars of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from Graffius's books, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Loughborough University London, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Thinkers360 named Graffius a global top thought leader and influencer in four domains: Agile, Change Management, Digital Transformation, and GovTech.
Graffius is the founder, CEO, and principal consultant at Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™, based in Los Angeles, California. The professional services firm provides client organizations with advisory, training, speaking, embedded talent, and facilitative consulting services to help them advance their agile project, program, portfolio, and PMO management capabilities to best realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives, making them more competitive and valuable. The company confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Graffius’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. His second title, 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), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. Graffius and his works have been featured by media outlets and publications including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, MobileAppDaily, Innovation Management, the PM World Journal, NASSCOM, Software Quality Management, Nimble Ways, Business Application Monitoring, Learning Solutions, Innovation Ecosystem Metrics, DZone, Innovation Project Management (by Dr. Harold Kerzner), TopDevs, NHD Podcast, and others.
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, as well as experience spanning 20 countries.
Graffius has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds eight professional certifications: Certified Scrum Professional - ScrumMaster (CSP-SM), Certified Scrum Professional - Product Owner (CSP-PO), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Scrum Foundations Educator (SFE), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He 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 EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Graffius delivers dynamic and engaging talks and workshops at public and private/corporate events. His engagements include 59 in-person and online conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Graffius delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. For details, visit the public speaker section of his website here.
He resides in Los Angeles, California.
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

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/40-in-2021
The short link for a related post on LinkedIn is: https://bit.ly/21-in
© 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 Speaking at PMI Greece

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Scott M. Graffius will deliver a talk, “Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams,” to an audience of project management professionals at an event of the Greece Chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session will be held online on April 6, 2022, from 18:30 to 19:30 Eastern European Time. That's 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Register at https://pmi-greece.org/events/calendar/events/workshop/level-up-the-happiness-and-productivity-of-your-project-teams.

About "Level Up the Happiness and Productivity of Your Project Teams"
Description
Want happier and more productive teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman's phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams of all types successfully. You'll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success.
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, Google, Microsoft, IEEE, MIT, Software Engineering Institute, Harvard Business Review, and many others.
Benefits/Key Learning Objectives
This talk will help attendees develop and enhance the contributions they make to their organizations by being able to:
- Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning.
- Learn the characteristics of each phase.
- Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams' (and their own) success.

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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. 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, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 67 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, 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 the Greece Chapter of the Project Management Institute
Charted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2002, the Greece Chapter serves its members and community stakeholders. The Chapter’s mission, vision, and goal follows.
Mission
- Promote the aims and objectives of the PMI in Greece.
- Disseminate developments in the project management related profession.
- Provide a platform for the exchange of reflections and views on project management.
- Encourage training, certification, and professionalism in project management.
- Facilitate the connection of professional practice—in both public and private sectors—with the academic space in the field of project management.
- Provide for the professional networking of its members.
Vision
The vision of the Greece Chapter of the PMI is to be recognized for continuous contribution to the promotion of best practices of project management in the Greek business community, in both public and private sectors.
Goal
The goal of the Greece Chapter of the PMI is to make known and more widely understood the need for good project management to achieve business results in all sectors of the Greek economy.
To learn more, visit the Chapter's website at https://pmi-greece.org.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading professional association for a growing community of millions of project professionals and change-makers worldwide. As the leading authority on project management, the PMI empowers people to make ideas a reality. Through global advocacy, networking, collaboration, research, and education, the PMI helps prepare organizations and individuals to work smarter in a dynamic and rapidly changing world.
Building on a prominent legacy dating to 1969, the PMI is a “for-purpose” organization working in nearly every country around the world to advance careers, strengthen organizational success, and enable change-makers with new skills and ways of working to maximize their impact. The PMI provides global standards, certifications, online courses, thought leadership, tools, digital publications, communities, and more.
To learn more about the PMI, visit https://www.pmi.org/.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/blog-gr
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website
© Copyright 2022 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 Speaking at Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon 2022

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Scott M. Graffius will be speaking at one of the largest Microsoft events in the world – the Microsoft 365 Virtual Marathon 2022. It’s a 60-hour conference which will span from May 4-6, and it will feature talks from thought leaders around the world. Sessions will be presented in English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Graffius's talk is “Tradecraft: Team Building.” To lean more and register for the event (which Microsoft has made free of charge!), visit the website for the conference here: https://www.m365virtualmarathon.com.

About "Tradecraft: Team Building"
Description
If you're a technology leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a tech team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to level up your leadership skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman's model, but with an entirely fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams successfully.
You'll learn about the five phases—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning—including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! By doing so, you’ll advance the teams' happiness, productivity, and success.
The session draws on the speaker's first-hand, real-world experience—with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from Microsoft, Google, Software Engineering Institute, MIT, IEEE, and many others.

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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. 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, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 67 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, 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 Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. To learn more, visit https://www.microsoft.com.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/mvm-smg
The short link for a related post on LinkedIn is: https://bit.ly/m365vm-in
The short link for a related post in Instagram is: https://bit.ly/m365vm-ig
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website
© Copyright 2022 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 Speaking at Agile Nepal 2022

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Scott M. Graffius will be speaking at Agile Nepal 2022. Endorsed and sponsored by the Scrum Alliance, this Regional Scrum Gathering will feature speakers and delegates primarily from Nepal but also from around the world. Graffius will deliver the talk, “Level Up the Happiness of Agile Teams.” The event will be conducted at the Hotel Himalaya, Lalitpur, Nepal, on April 16-17, 2022. Register at https://AgileNepal.org.

About "Level Up the Happiness of Agile Teams"
Description
Want happier agile teams? Among other things, it takes great leadership. And proven strategies can provide a real edge! Enter Bruce Tuckman’s phases of team development — a model that’s stood the test of time because it remains highly relevant and beneficial. If you are an agile leader (or aspire to be one), a member of an agile team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (based on Bruce Tuckman’s model, but with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading agile teams successfully.
You’ll learn about the five phases — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning — including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You’ll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from set-up to the after-party. Which helps advance the teams’ happiness, productivity, and success!
The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with guidance supported by research, recommendations, and coverage from Scrum Alliance, Google, DevOps Institute, Software Engineering Institute, IEEE, MIT, NASA, Microsoft, Project Management Institute, GitLab, Harvard Business Review, and many others.

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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. 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, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 67 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, 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 Agile Nepal
Agile Nepal is an Open Agile Community that provides an opportunity for those involved or interested in agile to connect and learn about adopting or improving agile. It organizes meetups, workshops, trainings, conferences, and more to advance collaboration and learning. To learn more, visit https://agilenepal.org.

About the Scrum Alliance
Founded in 2001, the Scrum Alliance is the largest, most established and influential professional membership and certification organization in the Agile community. The Scrum Alliance is a nonprofit association with more than 750,000 certified practitioners worldwide. Its vision is to "Transform the World of Work” with a mission to guide and inspire individuals, leaders, and organizations with practices, principles, and values that create workplaces that are joyful, prosperous, and sustainable. For more information, visit https://www.scrumalliance.org.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/nepal-sg
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website
© Copyright 2022 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 Speaking at D.C. Cybersecurity Professionals Meetup Group

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Scott M. Graffius will be speaking at the D.C. Cybersecurity Professionals Meetup Group. He will present “Level Up the Happiness of Cybersecurity Teams” at a virtual session on Saturday, April 16, 2022, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon Eastern Time. To learn more and register for the event, visit https://www.meetup.com/DCCyberWarriors/events/284929925.

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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. 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, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius has spoken at 67 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, 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 the D.C. Cybersecurity Professionals Meetup Group
Founded in 2012 and with 9,120 members, D.C. Cybersecurity Professionals is the country's largest Cybersecurity Meetup Group. At in-person and virtual meetings, members and guests discuss the latest technology topics, conduct hands-on offensive and defensive sessions, and more. Visit https://www.meetup.com/DCCyberWarriors.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/dc-cyber
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website
© Copyright 2022 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 Speaking at BSides Vancouver 2022 Conference

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
Scott M. Graffius will be speaking at BSides Vancouver 2022 — a not-for-profit, independently run, community supported cybersecurity conference. He will present a talk on leveling up team happiness on Monday, May 2, 2022, from 5:00-6:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Tickets are available at: https://sites.google.com/fourthplanet.ca/bsidesvan.

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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from his books (Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions and 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), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius's engagements include 72 conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, 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 Vancouver 2022
BSides Vancouver is a not-for-profit, independently run, community supported cybersecurity conference and part of the worldwide Security BSides movement. In 2022, the conference will be a virtual event. To learn more, visit https://sites.google.com/fourthplanet.ca/bsidesvan.

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/bsides-van
The event covered by this article appears in the Public Speaker section of the website
© Copyright 2022 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 14 Most Valuable IT Certifications

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
In Technology, there's no substitute for experience. However, certifications remain a valuable tool for advancing one's career. Employers want candidates (and employees) with up-to-date knowledge and skills, and certifications demonstrate a person’s mastery of the respective subject. The author reviewed data from multiple sources — including BMC, CIO, Clearance Jobs, Indeed, and Robert Half — to determine the consensus on the most valuable Technology related certifications. Fourteen emerged. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
- AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
- Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
- Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE)
- Certified Data Professional (CDP)
- Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
- Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
- Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
- CompTIA (A+, Cloud+, Security+)
- Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
- Oracle MySQL Database Administration
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
- Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer
If you're interested in learning about the project management related certifications, visit the Scrum Alliance for the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and the Project Management Institute for the Project Management Professional (PMP).
Many employers prefer to hire certified professionals, especially those who also have college degrees and successful work experience. Those who invest in professional credentials typically enjoy larger salaries.

Sources:
- Hamilton, Jillian (2021, July 9). Top 10 IT Certifications Held by Cleared Professionals. Clearance Jobs. Accessed at https://news.clearancejobs.com/2021/07/09/top-10-it-certifications-held-by-cleared-professionals-2/.
- Miller, Austin (2021, June 25). Top Paying IT Certifications in 2022. BMC Software, Inc. Accessed at https://www.bmc.com/blogs/top-paying-it-certifications/.
- Robert Half (2021, September 9). The 29 Most Valuable IT Certifications. Robert Half. Accessed at https://www.roberthalf.com/blog/salaries-and-skills/which-it-certifications-are-most-valuable.
- Vallee, Megan (2022, March 4). 21 IT Certifications in Demand for 2022. Indeed. Accessed at https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/top-it-certifications.
- White, Sarah K. (2022, January 14). Top 15 IT Certifications in Demand for 2022. CIO. Accessed at https://www.cio.com/article/193586/top-15-it-certifications-in-demand-for-2021.html.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
This article by Scott M. Graffius on the most valuable IT certifications was published in 2022. Graffius periodically refreshes his work. The most current (2024) edition of his report is 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 international speaker. He has generated over $1.75 billion 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™. Content from his books (Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions and 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), workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities including Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, EY, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, English Institute of Sport, Ford, Qantas, Atlassian, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, United States National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others. Graffius delivers dynamic and engaging talks and workshops at public and private/corporate events. His engagements total 78 in-person and online conferences and other events around the world, including Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States. Graffius delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use.
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

The short link for this article is: bit.ly/14-certs
© Copyright 2022 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.

‘Innovation Project Management’ (Second Edition) Features Content from Scott M. Graffius on Agile and Innovation

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.

Thinkers360 Named Scott M. Graffius an Agile Thought Leader and Influencer

Click here to download this article as a PDF.
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 highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. He is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. 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, 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 leadership at 84 conferences and other events across 25 countries.
Thinkers360, the world’s first open platform for thought leaders and influencers, included Graffius on their March 31, 2023 list of Agile Thought Leaders and Influencers. Thinkers360's patent-pending approach to ratings factors each candidate’s diverse contributions and content such as articles, books, media coverage, podcasts, social media, speaking events, videos, and more.



About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, multi award-winning author, and highly sought-after international keynote speaker. He has generated over $1.9 billion of business value in aggregate for the organizations he has served. His expertise spans project, program, portfolio, and PMO leadership inclusive of agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches. Content from Graffius's books, workshops, speaking engagements, and more have been featured and used by businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities. Examples include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Deloitte, EY, Project Management Institute, IEEE, SANS Institute, U.S. Soccer Federation, Ford, Qantas, Wrike, Bayer, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, United States Army, United States National Park Service, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Yale University, Tufts University, Texas A&M University, Warsaw University of Technology, University of Waterloo, National University of Ireland Galway, CQUniversity Australia, Scrum Inc., Zurich University of Applied Sciences, and others.
Graffius is the Founder of Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions™ and subsidiary Exceptional Agility™. The professional services firm provides client organizations with advisory, training, speaking, embedded talent, and facilitative consulting services to help them advance their agile project, program, portfolio, and PMO management capabilities to best realize their strategic objectives and business initiatives, making them more competitive and valuable. The company confidently backs its services with a Delighted Client Guarantee™.
A fantastic agile transformation experience and result with a client organization in the entertainment industry was the inspiration for Graffius’s first book, Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions (ISBN-13: 9781533370242). It helps technical and non-technical teams develop and deliver products in short cycles with rapid adaptation to change, fast time-to-market, and continuous improvement—which supports innovation and drives competitive advantage. The book garnered 17 first place awards from national and international competitions. His second title, 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), was named one of the best Scrum books of all time by BookAuthority. Graffius and his works have been featured by media outlets and publications including Yahoo Finance, Computer Weekly, MobileAppDaily, Informa, Innovation Management, NASSCOM, Software Quality Management, ALLAGIS, Business Application Monitoring, Learning Solutions, Innovation Ecosystem Metrics, DZone, Innovation Project Management, TopDevs, NHD Podcast, and others.
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.
Graffius has a bachelor's degree in Psychology with a focus in Human Factors. He holds nine 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), Scrum Foundations Educator (SFE), Project Management Professional (PMP), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (LSSGB), and IT Service Management Foundation (ITIL). He is a member of the Scrum Alliance, the Project Management Institute (PMI), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He 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 EMEA Congress 2019, and he served as a member of the review team for the Scrum Alliance’s Global Scrum Gathering—New York City 2020.
Graffius delivers dynamic and engaging talks and workshops at public and private/corporate events. His engagements include 84 in-person and online conferences and other events around the world, 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 delights audiences with sessions on technology leadership and project, program, portfolio, and PMO management inclusive of agile, waterfall, and hybrid approaches. He uses everyday language and vibrant custom visuals to make complex topics clear, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. Visit https://scottgraffius.com/publicspeaker.html to learn more.
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/agile-ldr
© 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.

Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences Features Scott M. Graffius' Content

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Businesses, professional associations, governments, and universities have used and featured Scott M. Graffius and content from his books, talks, workshops, and more. Examples of organizations include Microsoft, Oracle, Broadcom, Cisco, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, New Zealand Ministry of Education, Yale University, Tufts University, and many others.
This month, Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz (Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences) was added to the list of organizations. Dr. Ingo Cassack, Professor at the university, incorporated Graffius' Phases of Team Development work into Dr. Cassack's material on project management. Two excerpts follow.


To learn more about Scott M. Graffius' Phases of Team Development, visit here.
Oksana Makovoz wrote about the presentation which included Graffius' work, among other details. She posted on:
About Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz
Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz (Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences) is a non-profit public higher-education institution located in Zittau — in the border triangle between Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland . The institution also has a branch campus in Görlitz, Saxon, Germany. Officially recognized by the Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst (Saxon State Ministry of Science and the Arts), Hochschule Zittau/Görlitz is a top tier coeducational German higher education institution with no tuition fees, state-of-the-art equipment, and intensive support. Visit https://www.hszg.de to learn more.



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 leadership at 85 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/hszg-2023
© 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.

AI is a Team Sport: A Confluence of Diverse Technical and Soft Skills are Crucial for Success

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This article covers the significance of well-rounded AI teams, including how both soft and technical skills are critical and fuel success. It’s informed by Graffius' work on AI projects as well as research and coverage from DARPA, Exceptional Agility, IBM, IEEE, Intel, MIT, Microsoft, Nvidia, Samsung, Software Engineering Institute, Stanford University, United States Artificial Intelligence Institute, and others (all listed in the bibliography section of this article).

Introduction
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force across a growing number of industries, revolutionizing how we live, work, and interact. From autonomous vehicles and virtual assistants to personalized recommendations and medical diagnoses, AI systems have become integral to our daily lives. Behind these cutting-edge, life-changing solutions are AI teams that possess a combination of soft skills—also known as core skills, interpersonal skills, people skills, power skills, transferable skills, or transversal skills—and technical expertise.
This article highlights the synergy between soft skills and technical skills in the world of AI. While technical skills provide the general foundation for AI development, it’s the soft skills that elevate AI projects to new heights. From effective communication and critical thinking to leadership and teamwork, soft skills play a pivotal role in translating technical knowledge and capabilities into real-world applications.
The thesis of this article is that the successful development and application of AI requires a combination of soft skills and technical expertise. Technical competencies alone are not enough. Rather, it’s the combination and integration of soft and technical skills that truly unlocks the power of AI.
Next, this article focuses on the importance of soft skills in the AI landscape, highlighting how they complement and enhance technical abilities. The collaboration between these skill sets drives AI innovation.

Understanding Soft Skills in AI Teams
In the realm of AI, technical expertise often takes center stage. However, soft skills advance the successful outcomes of AI projects, as they facilitate effective communication, foster collaboration, and promote critical thinking. Soft skills are powerful facilitators of success.
Soft skills encompass a range of interpersonal and cognitive abilities that enable teams to work harmoniously, adapt to evolving challenges, and solve complex problems. In the AI landscape, where multidisciplinary teams come together to create innovative solutions, these soft skills are essential.
Effective communication stands at the forefront of soft skills in AI. AI teams must articulate complex technical concepts in a manner that is understandable to diverse stakeholders, including non-technical staff and internal or external customers/users. Clear communication promotes collaboration and ensures alignment of purpose and objectives throughout the AI development lifecycle.
Soft skills such as problem-solving and critical thinking are vital as well. AI teams frequently encounter multifaceted challenges, and it is through these soft skills that teams can identify potential bottlenecks, navigate complexities, and devise innovative solutions. By leveraging critical thinking, AI team members can evaluate different approaches, consider ethical implications, and make informed decisions that shape the development and application of AI systems.
Leadership and teamwork skills are also paramount. AI projects involve team members from diverse backgrounds, including data scientists, engineers, domain experts, designers, and others. Effective leadership enables the coordination of efforts and guides the project towards success. Similarly, teamwork skills foster an environment of trust and respect, promoting synergy among team members and enhancing overall productivity.
Recognizing the importance of soft skills in AI is crucial for fostering a balanced and effective team dynamic. It ensures that AI teams possess the interpersonal and cognitive abilities necessary to bring AI projects to fruition. The integration of soft skills alongside technical expertise sets the stage for a cohesive team capable of tackling complex AI challenges with agility and innovation.
The role of technical skills—including how they intersect with soft skills to create a powerful combination that drives success—are covered next.
The Role of Technical Skills in AI Teams
Technical skills provide the tools and knowledge required to design, build, and implement AI systems. This section explores the role that technical skills play in AI and their specific applications in various stages of AI projects.
- Programming Languages and Algorithms: Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, or R is essential. These languages enable team members to write efficient code, manipulate and analyze data, and implement machine learning algorithms. Understanding algorithms, from classic ones like linear regression to cutting-edge deep learning models, empowers AI professionals to leverage mathematical principles and statistical techniques to train and optimize AI systems.
- Data Analysis and Management: AI relies on data, making data analysis and management skills crucial. AI team members need to be adept at collecting, cleaning, and preprocessing data, ensuring its quality and relevance. They must possess the knowledge of statistical methods, data visualization techniques, and data engineering practices to extract insights from complex datasets and prepare them for AI model training.
- Machine Learning and Neural Networks: Technical skills in machine learning are at the heart of AI systems. Understanding machine learning algorithms, such as decision trees, support vector machines, or convolutional neural networks, enables AI team members to create models that can learn from data and make intelligent predictions or decisions. Expertise in neural networks and deep learning architectures equips professionals with the ability to develop complex models capable of handling tasks like image recognition, natural language processing, and reinforcement learning.
- AI Frameworks and Tools: Proficiency in AI frameworks and tools (such as TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, Caffe, Scikit-learn, and others) are essential for building AI systems efficiently. These frameworks provide pre-built modules, libraries, and APIs that simplify the implementation of AI algorithms and models. Technical skills in utilizing these tools effectively enable AI team members to accelerate the development process, streamline model training, and optimize system performance.
- Domain Knowledge and Application-Specific Skills: Technical skills also encompass domain knowledge and application-specific expertise. Understanding the nuances of the industry or problem domain in which AI is being applied allows professionals to tailor AI solutions to meet specific requirements. For example, healthcare-focused AI projects may require knowledge of medical terminologies and regulatory considerations, while AI solutions for financial services may demand expertise in risk assessment and fraud detection.
Technical skills are essential for AI projects. They enable team members to translate concepts, theories, and algorithms into practical applications. However, technical skills alone are not sufficient for success. The collaborative nature of AI development and the need for a well-rounded AI team—including the synergy between technical skills and soft skills—is covered next.
The Power of Synergy: Soft Skills and Technical Skills in AI Teams

The convergence of technical and soft skills is where true innovation and breakthroughs occurs. The successful development and application of AI systems rely not only on technical expertise but also on the harmonious integration of soft skills. Here’s some examples of the power of synergy between these skill sets, including how they work together to drive AI advancement:
- Effective Communication and Technical Expertise: Communication bridges the gap between AI professionals and others who may not possess technical backgrounds. AI experts with strong communication skills can articulate complex technical concepts in plain English, ensuring that everyone involved understands the goals, challenges, and progress of the project. By effectively conveying ideas, AI professionals foster collaboration, gather valuable insights, and create a shared vision for AI initiatives.
- Collaboration and Problem-Solving: Collaboration is at the core of AI development, and soft skills such as teamwork, empathy, and active listening facilitate effective collaboration among diverse team members. AI teams with strong collaboration skills can effectively pool their technical expertise, brainstorm ideas, and solve complex problems together. By leveraging their collective intelligence and diverse perspectives, AI teams can overcome challenges, refine AI models, and optimize the performance of AI solutions.
- Critical Thinking and Technical Innovation: Critical thinking, coupled with technical expertise, leads to innovative AI solutions. AI professionals with strong critical thinking skills can evaluate different approaches, challenge assumptions, and identify potential shortcomings or biases in AI models. They can think creatively to address issues such as data biases or fairness concerns, ensuring that AI systems are developed responsibly and ethically.
- Leadership and Team Empowerment: Effective leadership in AI projects involves establishing and maintaining a collaborative and inclusive environment, empowering team members, and harnessing their full potential. AI leaders with exceptional interpersonal abilities can inspire and motivate their team, foster a culture of continuous learning, and provide guidance in navigating complex technical challenges. They encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, respect diverse perspectives, and drive the team towards achieving AI objectives.
The synergy between soft skills and technical skills is the catalyst that drives AI projects towards success. It enables AI teams to go beyond technical expertise and develop AI systems that address real-world problems effectively. By embracing a holistic approach that values both soft skills and technical skills, organizations can foster an environment where AI thrives, resulting in innovative solutions that have a positive impact on society.
Strategies for developing and nurturing soft skills are covered next.
Developing and Advancing Soft Skills in AI Teams
AI teams need soft skills to be successful. Organizations and teams should prioritize the development and advancement of these skills. Here are some strategies to enhance soft skills and foster a well-rounded AI workforce:
- Training Programs and Workshops: Implement specialized training programs and workshops focused on enhancing soft skills. Offer courses in effective communication, leadership (including how to navigate the phases of team development), problem-solving, critical thinking, and collaboration. These programs can provide AI professionals with the necessary tools and techniques to effectively apply soft skills in their work.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage interdisciplinary collaboration by creating opportunities for AI team members to work alongside experts from diverse fields such as psychology, design, ethics, and business. This collaboration allows for cross-pollination of ideas, encourages different perspectives, and broadens the skill set of AI teams. Foster a culture of knowledge sharing, where professionals can learn from each other and leverage their collective experiences and expertise.
- Real-World Project Engagement: Provide AI team members with opportunities to work on (other) real-world projects, allowing them to apply their soft skills in practical scenarios. Engaging in projects that involve interaction with clients, end-users, and stakeholders helps AI team members develop effective communication, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.
- Continuous Learning and Professional Development: Encourage AI team members to engage in continuous learning and professional development activities. This can include attending conferences, participating in webinars, reading industry publications, and pursuing certifications in relevant areas. Promote a growth mindset among AI team members, emphasizing the importance of lifelong learning and staying current with the latest developments in both technical and soft skills domains.
- Mentorship and Coaching: Establish mentorship and coaching programs where experienced AI professionals guide and support individuals with less experience. Mentors can provide valuable insights, share their experiences, and offer guidance on developing skills. Regular feedback and coaching sessions help AI professionals identify areas for improvement and provide targeted development opportunities.
By implementing these strategies, organizations can cultivate a workforce that excels not only in technical skills but also in the essential soft skills required for AI success. Nurturing well-rounded AI professionals creates a collaborative and adaptive environment, where AI teams can effectively address complex challenges, drive innovation, and deliver impactful solutions.
The next section wraps up this exploration.


Conclusion
The successful development and application of AI systems rely on the synergy between soft skills and technical skills. While technical expertise forms the foundation, it's the integration of soft skills that elevates AI projects to new heights. Effective communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and leadership are among the key soft skills that enable AI teams to excel.
This article explored the significance of soft skills in AI, emphasizing their role in fostering effective teamwork, problem-solving, and innovation. It also acknowledged the indispensable role of technical skills in AI development, including programming languages, algorithms, data analysis, domain knowledge, and more.
Organizations can create well-rounded AI teams with a holistic set of abilities by embracing the power of synergy between soft skills and technical skills. AI team members with strong soft skills can effectively communicate their ideas, collaborate seamlessly, think critically, and provide leadership that empowers their teams.
To advance soft skills among AI professionals, organizations should invest in training programs, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, encourage continuous learning, and foster mentorship and coaching relationships. These efforts will help AI professionals develop the interpersonal and cognitive abilities necessary to thrive in the dynamic and collaborative AI landscape.
AI is a team sport that thrives on the confluence of soft skills and technical skills. By recognizing and embracing this synergy, organizations can unlock the full potential of AI, delivering innovative solutions that address real-world challenges and have a positive impact on the world.

References/Sources
All of the supplied links were functional when this article was published.
- Accenture (2023, March 30). Accenture Technology Vision 2023: Generative AI to Usher in a Bold New Future for Business, Merging Physical and Digital Worlds. Available at: https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-technology-vision-2023-generative-ai-to-usher-in-a-bold-new-future-for-business-merging-physical-and-digital-worlds.htm.
- Alsever, Jennifer (2020, January 20). Medicine by Machine: Is A.I. the Cure for the World’s Ailing Drug Industry? Fortune. Available at: https://fortune.com/longform/ai-artificial-intelligence-medicine-healthcare-pharmaceutical-industry.
- Anthropic (2023, March 14). Introducing Claude. Available at: https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-claude.
- Berlin School of Business and Innovation (2022, September 22). How Do Technical Abilities Combined with Leadership Skills Fuel Career Growth? Available at: https://www.berlinsbi.com/blog/career-advice/how-do-technical-abilities-combined-with-leadership-skills-fuel-career-growth.
- Bhatti, Shawaiz, Demir, Mustafa, Cooke, Nancy J., & Johnson, Craig J. (2021). Assessing Communication and Trust in an AI Teammate in a Dynamic Task Environment. In: 2021 IEEE 2nd International Conference on Human-Machine Systems (ICHMS): 1–6. DOI: 10.1109/ICHMS53169.2021.9582626.
- Brooks, David (2023, February 2). In the Age of A.I., Major in Being Human. The New York Times. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/opinion/ai-human-education.html.
- C3.ai (n.d.). Best Practices in Prototyping: Cross-Functional Teams. Available at: https://c3.ai/introduction-what-is-machine-learning/cross-functional-teams/.
- Crampton, Natasha (2021, January 19). The Building Blocks of Microsoft’s Responsible AI Program. Microsoft. Available at: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2021/01/19/microsoft-responsible-ai-program.
- Dolev, Niva, & Itzkovich, Yariv (2020). In the AI Era, Soft Skills are the New Hard Skills. In: Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Business, pp. 55-77. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Dzombak, Rachel, & Palat, Jay (2021, August 30). 5 Ways to Start Growing an AI-Ready Workforce. Pittsburgh, PA: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.
- Elliott, Joshua (n.d.). Artificial Social Intelligence for Successful Teams (ASIST). Arlington, VA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
- Exceptional Agility (2023, April 10). What's the Future of Agile? Available at: https://exceptionalagility.com/blog/files/the-future.html.
- Fountaine, Tim, McCarthy, Brian, & Saleh, Tamim (2019). Building the AI-Powered Organization. Harvard Business Review, 97 (4): 62–73.
- Gartner (2020, December 15). How to Staff Your AI Team. Available at: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/how-to-staff-your-ai-team.
- Gong, Michelle; and Zhernov, Anton (2019, November 18). Advanced Machine Learning Helps Play Store Users Discover Personalised Apps. Google DeepMind. Available at: https://deepmind.google/discover/blog/advanced-machine-learning-helps-play-store-users-discover-personalised-apps/.
- Gorman, Austin (2023, April 27). How to Strengthen Your Soft Skills for AI and the Future of Work. Fast Company. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90887540/how-to-strengthen-your-soft-skills-for-ai-and-the-future-of-work.
- GovExec Events (2020, July 1). Human Machine Team: The Intersection of Diverse Skill Sets [Video]. Defense One. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93wbNLKpbxg&t=1s.
- 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.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, April 26). The Science of High-Performance Teams [Presentation]. Talk delivered at the DevOps Institute’s SKILup Day 2023 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.15888.28169. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.15888.28169.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, January 9). Use the Phases of Team Development (Based on Bruce W. Tuckman's Model of Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning) to Help Teams Grow and Advance: 2023 Update. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.10720.35846. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.10720.35846.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2022, May 13). Want Happier and More Productive DevOps Teams? [Presentation]. Talk delivered at DevOpsDays Geneva, Switzerland 2022 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.22252.85127. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22252.85127.
- 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. (2021, February 20). But First, the Team! [Presentation]. Talk delivered at the Brno, Czech Republic DevConf.CZ 2021 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.29016.72964. DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.29016.72964.
- Gupta, Arun (2022). Non-Technical Skills Eat Technical Skills for Breakfast [Video]. Recording of Arun Gupta, VP and GM of the Open Ecosystem at Intel, speaking at the All Things Open Conference. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNPxRBhYNU4.
- Humpton, Barbara (n.d.). The Future of Jobs. Siemens. Available at: https://www.siemens.com/us/en/company/press/siemens-stories/ceo-perspective/the-future-of-jobs.html.
- IBM (2019, September 26). Assemble the Team to Support a Data-Driven Project. Available at: https://www.ibm.com/garage/method/practices/culture/assemble-team-for-data-driven-project.
- IBM (2019). Everyday Ethics for Artificial Intelligence. Available at: https://www.ibm.com/watson/assets/duo/pdf/everydayethics.pdf.
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (2021, November 8). The IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems. Available at: https://standards.ieee.org/industry-connections/ec/autonomous-systems.html.
- Kenan Institute (2023, February 20). The Must-Have Skills in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: How AI’s Democratization Will Impact Workers. Available at: https://kenaninstitute.unc.edu/commentary/the-must-have-skills-in-the-era-of-artificial-intelligence-how-ais-democratization-will-impact-workers.
- Lindzon, Jared (2017, February 28). How AI is Changing the Way Companies are Organized. Fast Company. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3068492/how-ai-is-changing-the-way-companies-are-organized.
- Marr, Bernard (2023, March 20). Beyond The Hype: What You Really Need to Know About AI In 2023. Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/03/20/beyond-the-hype-what-you-really-need-to-know-about-ai-in-2023.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory (2023, January 17). Human-AI Performance Incubator. Available at: https://www.ll.mit.edu/r-d/projects/human-ai-performance-incubator.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (2021, January). Cognitive Science as a New People Science for the Future of Work. Available at: https://workofthefuture.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021-Research-Brief-Polli-Kassir-Dolphin-Baker-Gabrieli.pdf.
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan (2019, October 15). Winning With AI. MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/projects/winning-with-ai.
- McNeese, Nathan J., Demir, Mustafa, Chiou, Erin K., & Cooke, Nancy J. (2021). Trust and Team Performance in Human–Autonomy Teaming. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 25 (1): 51–72. DOI: 10.1080/10864415.2021.1846854.
- Mearian, Lucas (2023, February 24). Skills-Based Hiring Continues to Rise as Degree Requirements Fade. Computerworld. Available at: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3689170/skills-based-hiring-continues-to-rise-as-degree-requirements-fade.html.
- Meta (2017, October 11). Inventing the Future. Available at: https://www.meta.com/blog/quest/inventing-the-future/.
- Microsoft (2019, June 15). Is the Latest Technology the Key to Your Team’s Success, or is There Something Else? Available at: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/premier-developer/is-the-latest-technology-the-key-to-your-teams-success-or-is-there-something-else.
- New South Wales Technical and Further Education Commission (TAFE NSW) (2019). Soft vs. Hard Skills: Why Successful Australian Businesses Need Both. Ultimo, New South Wales: TAFE NSW.
- Nvidia (n.d.). Partner Innovation. Available at: https://www.nvidia.com/en-ph/self-driving-cars/partners/.
- O’Dea, Blathnaid (2023, February 17). These are the Top Skills AI and Analytics Professionals Need. Silicon Republic. Available at: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/advice/top-skills-ai-data-analytics-professionals-need.
- Olmstead, Brett (2023, February 15). Driving AI Success by Engaging a Cross-Functional Team. Available at: https://www.datarobot.com/blog/driving-ai-success-by-engaging-a-cross-functional-team/.
- Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (n.d.). OECD Programme on AI in Work, Innovation, Productivity and Skills. Available at: https://oecd.ai/en/work-innovation-productivity-skills/key-themes/skills.
- Oswald, Andrew. J., Proto, Eugenio, & Sgroi, Daniel (2015). Happiness and Productivity. Journal of Labor Economics, 33 (4): 789-822.
- Project Management Institute (2020, March 10). Tomorrow's Teams Today: The Future of Teaming: Creative, Collaborative and Agile. Pulse of the Profession. Available at: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/pulse-indepth-tomorrows-teams-today-11941.
- PwC (2017). Sizing the Prize: What’s the Real Value of AI for Your Business and How Can You Capitalise? PwC’s Global Artificial Intelligence Study: Exploiting the AI Revolution. Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/data-and-analytics/publications/artificial-intelligence-study.html.
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- Stanford University (2019, September). Gathering Strength, Gathering Storms. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.
- Tredinnick, Luke (2017). Artificial Intelligence and Professional Roles. Business Information Review, 34 (1): 37–41.
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How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 1). AI is a Team Sport: A Confluence of Diverse Technical and Soft Skills are Crucial for Success. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/successful-ai-teams.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20321.79200.



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 leadership at 85 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.
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- 🇨🇦 Canada
- 🇨🇿 Czech Republic
- 🇩🇰 Denmark
- 🇫🇮 Finland
- 🇫🇷 France
- 🇩🇪 Germany
- 🇬🇷 Greece
- 🇭🇺 Hungary
- 🇮🇳 India
- 🇮🇪 Ireland
- 🇮🇱 Israel
- 🇮🇹 Italy
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
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- 🇬🇧 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/ai-teams
© 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.

Ford Features Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' Work


With a license from Scott M. Graffius, his copyrighted ‘Phases of Team Development’ work is featured and used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Examples include Yale University, IEEE, Constructor Institute (Switzerland), Adobe, Boston University, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, United States National Park Service, Bayer, University of Galway (Ireland), Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany), American Management Association, UC San Diego, and many more.
Ford was added to the list.

Email 1 of 3 is shown above.

Email 2 of 3 is shown above.

Email 3 of 3 is shown above.
More Information on Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development'
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.’ It’s a unique perspective and visual conveying the five phases of team development — Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. It’s also inclusive of a graph showing how performance varies by phase, as well as the characteristics and strategies for each phase.
Leaders of teams — Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, DevOps Leads, and others — can apply the information to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams’ (and their own) happiness, productivity, and success.
Graffius initially developed the material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. For details on the current (2024) edition including permission request information, high resolution files, and more, visit here.
Graffius has presented talks and workshops at 89 conferences and other events across 25 countries. While each session is unique, the top topic is high performance teams. In those sessions, he expands upon on his ‘Phases of Team Development’ work. Sessions are dynamic, engaging, and packed with fresh insights and usable information. They’re highly rated by attendees and organizers alike. Visit here to learn more.
About Ford
Ford Motor Company is a multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. Ford develops and delivers Ford trucks, sport utility vehicles, commercial vans and cars, and Lincoln luxury vehicles. The company does that through three customer-centered business segments: Ford Blue, engineering gas-powered and hybrid vehicles; Ford Model e, developing electric vehicles (EVs); and Ford Pro, helping commercial customers transform and expand their businesses with vehicles and services tailored to their needs. Additionally, Ford provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. Ford employs about 177,000 people worldwide. More information about the company and its products and services is available at https://corporate.ford.com.




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, thinker, 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, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 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 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

Short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/ford-2024
© 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.

Division of the EU’s European Commission Used Material Developed by Scott M. Graffius


Strategic objectives play a crucial role in guiding organizations towards achieving their vision and mission. They’re fulfilled by projects, endeavors undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
The art and science of project management (Agile or otherwise) — the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to projects — is indispensable for the management and completion of projects. And tools can make a significant contribution to successful outcomes.
In 2007, Scott M. Graffius developed a fresh take on RACI charts, a simple project management tool. His unique material provides audiences with practical information they can use to leverage RACI charts to help manage complexities and achieve success. Graffius periodically refreshes his work. In 2020, he published an updated version on ResearchGate, a European platform for researchers and scientists.
Graffius' respective work is here and citation information follows:
Graffius, Scott M. (2020). How the RACI Tool Can Help You: Use RACI to Establish Roles and Responsibilities—and Improve Outcomes—for Projects and Other Work. Los Angeles, California: Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14713.62561/4.
A division of the EU’s European Commission, Erasmus+, used Graffius' material in one of their publications. Their work is here and select visuals follow.

The cover page is shown above.

Page 13 is shown above.

A zoomed-in version visual of page 13 is shown above.
About the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the governing body of the European Union (EU). It represents and upholds the interests of the EU as a whole and it is independent of national governments. The EC prepares legislation for adoption by the Council (representing the member countries) and the Parliament (representing the citizens). It administers the budget and the policy programs in cooperation with authorities in the member countries. The EC has an administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants. Visit https://commission.europa.eu to learn more.
About Erasmus+
Erasmus+ (which is short for "EuRopean Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students") is the European Union’s program to support education, training, youth, and sport in Europe. To learn more, visit https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu.
About ResearchGate
Started in 2008, ResearchGate is a platform for researchers and scientists to connect, collaborate, and share their work. It reports, "Our mission is to connect the world of science and make research open to all." Visit https://www.researchgate.net to learn more.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, April 1). Division of the EU’s European Commission Used Material Developed by Scott M. Graffius. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/eu-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23115.40488.




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, thinker, 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, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 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 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

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/eu-2024
© 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.

"How Teams Work" Book Referenced Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development'


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.
Leaders of teams — Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, DevOps Leads, and others — can apply the information to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams’ (and their own) happiness, productivity, and success.
Graffius initially developed the material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. For details on the current (2024) edition including permission request information, high resolution files, and more, visit here.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ work is used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Examples include Yale University, IEEE, Constructor Institute (Switzerland), Adobe, Boston University, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, United States National Park Service, Bayer, University of Galway (Ireland), Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany), American Management Association, UC San Diego, and many more.
How Teams Work: A Playbook for Distributing Leadership was added to the list.

The cover image of the book is shown above.

Page 108 from the book is shown above.

A zoomed-in view of page 108 from the book is shown above.
About How Teams Work: A Playbook for Distributing Leadership
From the product description: “Creating strong, cohesive teams is an art, and How Teams Work: A Playbook for Distributing Leadership is the essential guide for school leaders looking to master this craft. This interactive playbook doesn't just advise but actively equips leaders with the tools they need to foster trust, accountability, and engagement in their teams.”
How Teams Work: A Playbook for Distributing Leadership is available at Amazon and other sellers.
Google highlights the book here.
About the Authors
How Teams Work: A Playbook for Distributing Leadership was written by Cathy J. Lassiter, Douglas Fisher, Toni Osborn Faddis, and Nancy Frey.
Cathy Lassiter, Ed.D., is an international consultant with over 35 years of combined experience as a public school teacher, principal, central office administrator, and consultant. She is on X (stylized as 𝕏) at @cathy_lassiter. Visit here to learn more.
Douglas Fisher, Ph.D., is professor and chair of educational leadership at San Diego State University and a leader at Health Sciences High and Middle College. He is on X (stylized as 𝕏) at @DFISHERSDSU. Visit here to learn more.
Toni Faddis, EdD, is a Corwin author and full-time professional learning consultant. Additional information is available here. She is on X (stylized as 𝕏) at @ToniFaddis. Visit here to learn more.
Nancy Frey, Ph.D., is a professor in Educational Leadership at San Diego State University and a member of the International Literacy Association’s Literacy Research Panel. She is on X (stylized as 𝕏) at @ToniFaddis. Visit here to learn more.
Graffius Presents Unique and Compelling Talks and Workshops on High Performance Teams
Graffius has presented talks and workshops at 89 conferences and other events across 25 countries. While each session is unique, the top topic is high performance teams. In those sessions, he expands upon on his 'Phases of Team Development' work. Sessions are dynamic, engaging, and packed with fresh insights and usable information. They’re highly rated by attendees and organizers alike. Visit here to learn more.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, April 2). "How Teams Work" Book Referenced Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development.' Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/htw.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23495.51368.




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, thinker, 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, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 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 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

The short link for this article is: https://bit.ly/htw-2024 .
© 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.

Cisco Features Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' Work


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.
Leaders of teams — Project Managers, Scrum Masters, Agile Coaches, DevOps Leads, and others — can apply the information to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams’ (and their own) happiness, productivity, and success.
Graffius initially developed the material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. For details on the current (2024) edition including permission request information, high resolution files, and more, visit here.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ work is used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Examples include Yale University, IEEE, Constructor Institute (Switzerland), Adobe, Boston University, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, United States National Park Service, Bayer, Ford, University of Galway (Ireland), Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany), American Management Association, UC San Diego, and many more.
Cisco was added to the list.

Excerpt 1 of the request from Cisco and the license granted by Scott M. Graffius to Cisco is above.

Excerpt 2 of the request from Cisco and the license granted by Scott M. Graffius to Cisco is above.

Excerpt 3 of the request from Cisco and the license granted by Scott M. Graffius to Cisco is above.
About Cisco
Cisco is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. It develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, and other high-technology services and products. Visit https://www.cisco.com to learn more.
How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, April 5). Cisco Features Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' Work' Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/cisco-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.16689.60000.




About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius, PMP, SA, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CSM, CSPO, ITIL, LSSGB is an agile project management practitioner, consultant, thinker, 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, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 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 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

© 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 Speaking on Agile, AI, and Innovation at a Private Event in Dubai


Scott M. Graffius will present "Leverage Agile and AI to Innovate at the Speed of Light" at a private/corporate event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on 3 May 2024. This will be his 90th speaking engagement.
Here's a short description of the session:
Agile approaches foster collaboration, responsiveness to change, and continuous improvement. And AI advances automation, efficiency, decision-making, and accuracy. Together, Agile and AI help organizations drive innovation by navigating complex landscapes with agility and precision, accelerating the pace of technological progress. Graffius' talk — "Leverage Agile and AI to Innovate at the Speed of Light" — provides unique material on the relationship between Agile and AI including how their convergence propels innovation. Most importantly, the talk provides actionable insights event delegates can use.

Conference organizers, businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities invite Graffius to speak and share actionable insights on topics related to Agile Project Management, Business, and Technology. He has delivered talks and workshops at conferences and other events — public and private/corporate — across 25 countries. Graffius uses everyday language and vibrant custom content to make complex topics clear and understandable, and he provides audiences with practical information they can use. His sessions are highly rated by attendees and organizers alike.
To learn more, visit his Public Speaker page. To book Graffius for your conference or other event — for this new session ("Leverage Agile and AI to Innovate at the Speed of Light"), one of the top five sessions (read on for details), or another topic — complete a speaker engagement request form or email him.
The five most popular talks and workshops are highlighted next.

High Performance Teams
High Performance Teams is first on the list. Scott customizes each session to the audience and other factors, so each one is unique. The following provides a general overview.
- Title: Talks or workshops on High Performance Teams may be called “Navigate the Phases of Team Development with Speed and Agility” or “Want Happier and More Productive Teams?” or another title.
- Description: Help your teams go farther, faster! Perhaps you’re heard about the phases of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. But are you aware of the unique behaviors specific to each phase? What exactly should you do during each phase to help the team (Agile or otherwise) tackle challenges, make progress, and become successful? If you are a leader (or aspire to be one), a member of a team (or may be in one in the future), or are just looking to develop your skills, this talk (with a fresh angle: 0% theory, 100% real-world-based) will give you a practical framework with actionable tips for working in and leading teams successfully. You'll learn about the five phases—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning—including detailed descriptions of each along with proven strategies for addressing challenges or issues which may occur along the way. You'll understand how to use the model to your advantage by effectively navigating all of the phases with speed and agility, from team set-up to the after-party! The presentation draws on the speaker’s first-hand, real-world experience, with his guidance supported by additional research, recommendations, and coverage from the Project Management Institute, IEEE, Google, NASA, and others.
- Key learning benefits: This talk will help you develop and enhance the contributions you make to your organization by being able to: (1) Understand the five stages of team development: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. (2) Learn the characteristics of each phase. (3) Apply proven strategies to help handle challenges or issues experienced by the team. By doing so, you'll advance the team's happiness, productivity, and success.
- Information sheet: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Scott-M-Graffius---Public-Speaker---Example-Session---Team-Development---v24012907.pdf.

Strategic Alignment
Strategic Alignment is second on the list of the top five topics. Scott customizes each session to the audience and other factors, so each one is unique. A general overview follows.
- Title: Talks or workshops on Strategic Alignment may be called “10 Ways to Score and Prioritize Project Proposals Based on Multiple Factors, Including Strategic Alignment” or “10 Ways to Achieve and Sustain Strategic Alignment” or another title.
- Description: 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 key factors—to quickly and easily identify the objective value of each proposal (including how important it is relative to other initiatives)? If the answer is “no,” keep reading. If the answer is “yes,” you are likely to find practical information and examples in this talk to adapt and adopt to improve the process at your organization.
- Key learning benefits: This talk will help you develop and enhance the contributions you make to your organization by being able to: (1) Understand the benefits of scoring and prioritizing project proposals based on strategic alignment and other key factors. (2) Identify selection and prioritization criteria appropriate for your unique organization, leveraging the flexible framework and some or all of the 10 factors presented during the talk. (3) Put the practical, actionable information presented to use. During the session, we will run an example project proposal through the process, step-by-step. And you will receive a summary "cheat sheet" digital download that you can reference as a guide to help implement or improve this process at your organization.
- Information sheet: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Scott-M-Graffius---Public-Speaker---Example-Session---10-Ways-Strategic-Alignment---v24012907.pdf.

Agile
Agile is third on the list of the top five topics. Scott customizes each session to the audience and other factors, so each one is unique. A general overview follows.
- Title: Talks or workshops on Agile may be called “Are You Realizing All the Benefits from Agile?” or “Agile Scrum Helps Innovators, Disruptors, and Entrepreneurs Develop and Deliver Products at Astounding Speed Which Drives Competitive Advantage” or another title.
- Description: Organizations are increasingly embracing Agile to best meet their shifting business needs and successfully manage projects. Potential business benefits from Agile include faster delivery and ROI, rapid response to change, higher satisfaction, and continuous improvement. All of which supports innovation and helps drive competitive advantage. Are you realizing all of the benefits? This session will cover the full lifecycle of the most popular Agile approach, Scrum. You will be presented with practical information including top factors from successful implementations—based on the speaker's first-hand experience and 116 sources, including the PMI, IEEE, Google, Agile Alliance, and others—you can use to gain more benefits from Agile.
- Key learning benefits: How you will benefit: (1) Gain a high-level understanding of the Scrum framework-from vision through release. (2) Learn the roles, responsibilities, tools, and techniques unique to Scrum. (3) All of which are inclusive of top factors from successful implementations, which you can put to use to help you get more benefits from Agile.
- Information sheet: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Scott-M-Graffius---Public-Speaker---Example-Session---Agile-Benefits---v24012907.pdf.

AI Development
Successful AI Development is fourth on the list of the top five topics. Scott customizes each session to the audience and other factors, so each one is unique. A general overview follows.
- Title: Talks or workshops on Successful AI Development may be called “What Successful AI Development Teams Have in Common” or “Fueling the Development of Innovative and Life-Changing AI Solutions” or another title.
- Description: Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a transformative force across a growing number of industries, revolutionizing how we live, work, and interact. From improved medical diagnoses to self-driving cars, and more, AI systems have become integral to our daily lives. Behind these cutting-edge, life-changing solutions are AI teams with a combination of skills. This session reveals exactly how the fusion of technical skills and soft skills within AI teams fuels the successful development of innovative and effective solutions. Informed by “In the AI era, soft skills are the new hard skills” (from Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Business), “Soft skills are becoming a key focus” (from Computerworld), “Don’t underestimate the power of a team dynamic – your product becomes the result of it” (from Microsoft), and “Competencies like teamwork are crucial” (from MIT), this talk also delivers a deep-dive on essential team development skills based on the science of high-performing teams. Scott’s talk draws from his work with AI development teams as well as research and coverage from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, Google, IBM, IEEE, Microsoft, Software Engineering Institute, and many others. The usable information can provide you, your teams, and your organization with a competitive advantage.
- Key learning benefits: How you will benefit: (1) Understand technical skills and soft skills leveraged by successful AI teams to develop innovative and effective solutions. (2) Understand the essential team development skills based on the science of high-performing teams. (3) Understand specific techniques including how to apply them to advance the happiness, productivity, and success of teams.
- Information sheet: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Scott-M-Graffius---Public-Speaker---Example-Session---AI---v24012907.pdf.

Video Game Development
Successful Video Game Development is fifth on the list of the top five topics. Scott customizes each session to the audience and other factors, so each one is unique. A general overview follows.
- Title: Talks or workshops on Successful Video Game Development may be called “The Science of High-Performance Video Game Development Teams” or “Level-Up Your Team: Science-Backed Strategies for High-Performance Video Game Development” or another title.
- Description: Behind every great video game is a team of creative and technical wizards. Creators, storytellers, designers, artists, developers, testers, and others collaborate and leverage a diverse range of hard skills (also known as technical skills) and soft skills (also known as interpersonal skills) to craft an exceptional end-product. Of the many skills, one — a soft skill — is paramount. Activision Blizzard and other premiere developers and publishers of entertainment experiences identify teamwork as critical for the successful development of video games. Informed by Scott’s first-hand work with video game development teams as well as research and coverage from Activision Blizzard, Gameloft, International Game Developers Association, Microsoft, Rockstar Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft, and others, this talk delivers a deep-dive on the essential teamwork skill based on the science of high- performing teams. The information can provide you, your teams, and your organization with a competitive advantage!
- Key learning benefits: How you will benefit: (1) Understand that a confluence of both hard skills and soft skills (notably, teamwork) are crucial. (2) Learn the five phases of team development and recognize the identifiable characteristics of each phase. (3) Learn how to apply strategies to improve teams' efficacy, happiness, and success.
- Information sheet: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Scott-M-Graffius---Public-Speaker---Example-Session---Video-Game-Development---v24012907.pdf.
Those are the top five topics for talks and workshops.


Before concluding this article, we’ll also point out a new topic which is becoming increasingly popular. It's "Agile for Unicorns." This session is for privately-held companies valued (or soon to be valued) at US $1 billion or more, and it’s limited to small groups at private/corporate events. To learn more, check out the information sheet: https://scottgraffius.com/resources/Scott-M-Graffius---Public-Speaker---Example-Session---Agile-for-Unicorns---v24012907.pdf.
Visit Scott’s Public Speaker page for a detailed listing of events, testimonials, and more.
Scott speaks around the world. To book him for your conference or other event, complete a speaker engagement request form or email him.




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, thinker, 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, Gartner, Project Management Institute, IEEE, National Academy of Sciences, United States Department of Energy, Yale University, Tufts University, and others. He delights audiences with dynamic and engaging talks and workshops on agile project management, AI, Tech leadership, video game development, strategic alignment, the science of high performance teams, and more. To date, he's presented sessions at 89 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 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

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30790.48960
© 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.

Oracle Featured Scott M. Graffius' IP on Team Tradecraft in Their Publication


Oracles Featured Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' IP in Their Publication
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' 'Phases of Team Development' is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Leaders of teams can apply Graffius' information to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams’ (and their own) happiness, productivity, and success.
Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property is used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Select examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- Boston University,
- Cisco,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- Ford Motor Company,
- Hasso Plattner Institute (Germany),
- IEEE,
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Torrens University Australia,
- UC San Diego,
- TBS Switzerland,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- U.S. National Park Service,
- U.S. Tennis Association,
- Virginia Tech,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
Today, Oracle was (re)added to the list. It incorporated Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property in its 2024 publication, CFOs as Growth Leaders. Images follow.

The cover page of Oracle's CFOs as Growth Leaders is shown above.

Page 7 of Oracle's CFOs as Growth Leaders is shown above.

A zoomed-in view of page 7 of Oracle's CFOs as Growth Leaders is shown above.
Oracle’s publication is available at https://www.netsuite.com/portal/resource/wp/business_mgt.shtml and https://bit.ly/oracle-cfo and other locations.
Graffius initially developed his respective material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. Information on the current (2024) edition of his 'Phases of Team Development' IP is available at https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/teams-2024.html and other locations.
Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. Oracle’s CFOs as Growth Leaders is copyright © Oracle. Oracle and NetSuite names and marks are the property of Oracle.





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, award-winning author (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), 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

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 Oracle
Oracle Corporation is a multinational computer technology company. In 2020, Oracle was the third-largest software company in the world by revenue and market capitalization. The company sells database software and cloud computing. Oracle's core application software is a suite of enterprise software products, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, human capital management (HCM) software, customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise performance management (EPM) software, Customer Experience Commerce (CX Commerce) and supply chain management (SCM) software.
To learn more, visit https://www.oracle.com.

About Oracle NetSuite
For more than 25 years, Oracle NetSuite has helped organizations grow, scale, and adapt to change. NetSuite provides products and services tailored for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) including accounting and financial management, customer relationship management, inventory management, human capital management, payroll, procurement, project management, and e-commerce software. Its solutions are used by more than 38,000 across 219 countries.
Visit https://www.netsuite.com/portal/home.shtml to learn more.

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, June 13). Oracle Featured Scott M. Graffius' IP on Team Tradecraft in Their Publication. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/oracle-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14627.05920.



A PDF of this article is here.
© 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.

Johns Hopkins University Features the Work of Scott M. Graffius


Johns Hopkins University features Scott M. Graffius’ work!
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' 'Phases of Team Development' is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Leaders of teams can apply Graffius' information to help handle challenges or issues experienced by teams. By doing so, they’ll advance the teams’ (and their own) happiness, productivity, and success.
Graffius' copyrighted 'Phases of Team Development' work is used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world. Select 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 (Germany),
- IEEE,
- London South Bank University,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle
- Torrens University Australia,
- UC San Diego,
- TBS Switzerland,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- U.S. National Park Service,
- U.S. Tennis Association,
- Virginia Tech,
- Yale University,
- and many others.
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) was added to the list. JHU Carey Business School features Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP in its Business Communications (BU 120.601) course, taught by Steven D. Cohen, Ph.D., M.P.P.
Excerpts from a related presentation follow.

The title page of the JHU presentation is shown above.

Page 2 of the JHU presentation is shown above.

Page 3 of the JHU presentation is shown above.
Current Edition of Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP
Graffius initially developed his respective material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. Information on the current (2024) edition of his 'Phases of Team Development' IP is available at https://www.scottgraffius.com/blog/files/teams-2024.html.
About Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins, founded in 1876, is America's first research university and home to nine world-class academic divisions working together as one university.
- The Johns Hopkins Carey Business School is the graduate business school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. It was established in 2007 and offers full-time and part-time programs leading to the Master of Business Administration and Master of Science degrees.
- The School of Advanced International Studies’ interdisciplinary curriculum—delivered at locations on three continents and grounded in the study of international economics, international relations, and regional studies—prepares students to address the multifaceted challenges facing the world today.
- Krieger School of Arts and Sciences—comprised of 22 departments and 33 centers, programs, and institutes—is home to students interested in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.
- The School of Education prepares educators to make a difference in the lives of children and adults.
- The Whiting School of Engineering, a global leader in innovation and research, teaches students to think creatively while drawing upon mathematics and scientific principles to tackle difficult, real-world problems.
- The School of Medicine has revolutionized the education of physicians, the practice of medicine, and medical research nationally and internationally.
- The School of Nursing aims to improve health locally and globally through leadership and excellence in nursing education, research, practice, and service.
- Founded in 1857 as America’s first academy of music, the Peabody Institute trains musicians and dancers of every age and at every level through its degree-granting Conservatory and its community-based Preparatory.
- The Bloomberg School of Public Health educates scientists and public health professionals committed to the improvement of health and prevention of disease and disability around the world.
Visit https://www.jhu.edu/ to learn more.
About Business Communication (BU 120.601)
The JHU Business Communication (BU 120.601) course refines students’ skills in business writing, public speaking, and interpersonal communication. Through analyses and practice of communication strategies adopted by successful business professionals, students learn to write clearly and concisely, deliver compelling presentations, and construct effective arguments. See JHU’s course catalog at https://e-catalogue.jhu.edu/course-descriptions/management/ to learn more.
About Steven D. Cohen, Ph.D., M.P.P.
Steven D. Cohen is a Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. He is well known for helping leaders communicate with confidence, influence, and authority. Dr. Cohen has been quoted in media outlets such as the Financial Times, Forbes, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, and NBC News. To learn more about Professor Cohen, visit https://carey.jhu.edu/faculty/faculty-directory/steven-d-cohen-phd.





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, award-winning author (Agile Scrum and Agile Transformation), 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

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 1). Johns Hopkins University Features the Work of Scott M. Graffius. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/jhu-cbs.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35998.34889.

A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/jhu-cbs
© 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.

Boston Scientific Corporation Utilizes Scott M. Graffius' Intellectual Property

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' Intellectual 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.
Graffius' property applicable to this story is here.
For reference only, the visual for the current (2024) edition is below and the details are here.

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 IP 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.
Boston Scientific — a global BioMed and BioTech corporation — used Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP without permission or attribution.
Notes:
- This article includes brief excerpts from Boston Scientific and other sources, attributed and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Graffius redacted sensitive information.
- Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.
- Boston Scientific name, mark and content are the property of Boston Scientific Corporation. Boston Scientific images (logo and corporate headquarters) provided courtesy of Boston Scientific. © 2024 Boston Scientific Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Boston Scientific Utilizes Scott M. Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' IP Without Permission or Attribution
Boston Scientific is a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm and multinational manufacturer of medical devices. Their website at https://www.bostonscientific.com/en-US/about-us.html informs that the company operates globally, employs 48,000 people, has invested $1.4 billion in research and development, and has $14.2 billion in net sales. A photo of their corporate headquarters is shown below.

Boston Scientific did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' IP.
Unfortunately, Boston Scientific's "Presentation Templates" site, shown next, includes content which infringes on Graffius' copyright.

The top of Boston Scientific's website includes four elements: Home, PowerPoint Templates, Visual & Data Templates, and “?”. As delineated below, selecting the "?" starts an email to [name redacted]@bsci.com.

As shown next, BSCI.com is the property of the Boston Scientific Corporation. Visual 1 of 2 is below.

Visual 2 of 2 is below.

And entering BSCI.com into a browser automatically takes the user to Boston Scientific's main website.
Selecting the URL (shown in the visual below) at Boston's Scientific's "Presentation Templates" site downloads a PowerPoint. Slide 1 (also shown in the visual below) infringes on Graffius' copyright.
Boston Scientific's use of Graffius' copyrighted text content is covered shortly.

As shown below, summary information for Boston Scientific's respective PowerPoint lists the author of the file as [name redacted]@bsci.com. That's the same identifier listed earlier. And again, @BSCI.com is a Boston Scientific address.

Boston Scientific's material infringes on Graffius' copyright. The infringement uses a significant portion (the majority of) Graffius' IP. There are too many examples to list, but some follow.
🟢 Under Forming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Questioning”
🔴 Under Forming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Questioning”
🟢 Under Forming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Socializing”
🔴 Under Forming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Socializing”
🟢 Under Forming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Displaying eagerness”
🔴 Under Forming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Displaying eagerness”
🟢 Under Forming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Sticking to safe topics”
🔴 Under Forming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Sticking to safe topics”
🟢 Under Forming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Taking the ‘lead’”
🔴 Under Forming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Taking the ‘lead’”
🟢 Under Forming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Quick response times”
🔴 Under Forming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Quick response times”
🟢 Under Storming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Resistance”
🔴 Under Storming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Resistance”
🟢 Under Storming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Lack of participation”
🔴 Under Storming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Lack of participation”
🟢 Under Storming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Conflict”
🔴 Under Storming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Conflict”
🟢 Under Storming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Competition”
🔴 Under Storming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Competition”
🟢 Under Storming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “High emotions”
🔴 Under Storming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “High emotions”
🟢 Under Storming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Normalizing matters”
🔴 Under Storming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Normalizing matters”
🟢 Under Norming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Encouraging leadership”
🔴 Under Norming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Encouraging leadership”
🟢 Under Norming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Reconciliation”
🔴 Under Norming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Reconciliation”
🟢 Under Norming, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Developing cohesion”
🔴 Under Norming, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Developing cohesion”
🟢 Under Performing, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Healthy system”
🔴 Under Performing, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Healthy system”
🟢 Under Performing, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Celebrating”
🔴 Under Performing, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Celebrating”
🟢 Under Adjourning, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Shift to process orientation”
🔴 Under Adjourning, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Shift to process orientation”
🟢 Under Adjourning, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Sadness”
🔴 Under Adjourning, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Sadness”
🟢 Under Adjourning, Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property includes “Recognizing change”
🔴 Under Adjourning, Boston Scientific’s infringing material includes “Recognizing change”
Those are just some examples.
Corresponding visuals follow. Here's part 1 of 2.

And here's part 2 of 2.

Boston Scientific did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius' IP. Nevertheless, Boston Scientific used a significant portion (the majority) of Graffius' IP and Boston Scientific did not credit Graffius as the author and copyright owner.
Ethics, Integrity, and IP Rights Including Copyright
What are Boston Scientific's stated commitments to ethics, integrity, and copyright and other IP rights? Answers follow.
As reported at https://www.bostonscientific.com/en-US/corporate-responsibility/integrity.html, Boston Scientific’s priorities include: “We believe in strong corporate governance and business practices that reflect our priorities, values and commitment to ethics and integrity.” But Boston Scientific infringed on Graffius' copyright.

In a press release at https://news.bostonscientific.com/news-releases?item=58870, Jim Tobin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boston Scientific, is reported as saying: “Boston Scientific was built on the strength of its intellectual property.” But Boston Scientific utilized Graffius' IP — and without permission or attribution.

The company’s ‘Code of Conduct’ at https://www.bostonscientific.com/content/dam/bostonscientific/corporate/citizenship/compliance-ethics/Code%20of%20Conduct/2022/2022_CodeofConduct_English.pdf states that: “Boston Scientific protects its intellectual property rights to patents, trade names, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property. We also respect the intellectual property rights of others.” But Boston Scientific infringed on Graffius' IP rights.

Boston Scientific addresses copyright infringement at https://www.bostonscientific.com/en-US/medical-specialties/electrophysiology/CRM-YouTube-Disclaimer.html, among other places. There, it informs that: “It is strictly forbidden to make copies, whether partial or total and on whichever media without prior approval. Anyone failing to respect this provision will be guilty of copyright infringement and liable to criminal punishment according to the law.” As shown, Boston Scientific's content infringes on Graffius' copyright.

Status
Scott M. Graffius notified Boston Scientific Corporation of their infringement. Here's an excerpt from Graffius' respective email:
"I did not receive a request to use my ‘Phases of Team Development’ IP nor did I provide an authorization/license for use. A significant portion (the majority) of my IP was used. The use did not credit me as the author and copyright owner. The use has damaged the marketability and value of my IP. For those reasons, among others, your use is not ‘fair use’ nor ‘fair dealing.’ Your use infringes on my copyright."
"Immediately remove your infringing material from your website at the aforementioned link and anywhere else it is located or used, in any form — digital or hard copy."
"I reserve all rights in this serious matter."
As of the time of this article, Boston Scientific Corporation has not responded to the notice nor discontinued their infringement of Graffius' IP.
Post-publication notes appear at the end of this article.







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 19). Boston Scientific Corporation Utilizes Scott M. Graffius' Intellectual Property. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/bsci.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14032.32001.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Update on 13 October 2024
Graffius notified Boston Scientific via email on 12 August 2024 about their violation of his intellectual property rights. This article was published on 19 August 2024.
As of today, 13 October 2024, Boston Scientific has not responded to Graffius’ notice of their violation. However, Graffius observed that Boston Scientific disabled access to their infringing content. Specifically, the https://r.mobirisesite.com/292221/assets/files/Stages-of-Group-Development-.pptx link that went to their infringing content before now displays an error page. A screen shot is below.

Again, Boston Scientific blatantly violated Graffius' copyright, damaging the marketability and value of his intellectual property. Copyright infringement is so serious that it is a Federal crime.
This consequential matter is currently open. It is not resolved.
Graffius reserves his rights. If Graffius opts to take legal action against Boston Scientific for their violation of his copyright, the Federal case will include the greater of statutory damages or actual damages, special charges for willful infringement (which has been clarified by the courts to be either "intentional behavior" or merely "reckless behavior"), and additional costs.
Any additional updates will appear here.

A PDF of this article is here
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/bsci-x
A link to the infringing PowerPoint file is here
© 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


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.

FINAT (Fédération Internationale des Fabricants et Transformateurs d'Adhésifs et Thermocollants sur Papiers et Autres Supports) Features Scott M. Graffius’ Intellectual Property


Scott M. Graffius' Intellectual Property on Teamwork Tradecraft
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 for the current (2024) edition is below and the details are here.

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: 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.

Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' Intellectual Property Is Used By Organizations Around The World — And FINAT Was Added To The List
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 globe. Examples include:
- Adobe,
- American Management Association,
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute,
- Bayer,
- Boston University,
- Broadcom,
- Cisco,
- Deimos Aerospace,
- DevOps Institute,
- Erste Group Bank AG (Austria),
- Ford Motor Company,
- FSU College of Medicine,
- Hasso Plattner Institute,
- IEEE,
- James Madison University,
- Johns Hopkins University,
- LeadingEng,
- London South Bank University,
- Manufacturers Alliance,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle,
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Torrens University Australia,
- Tufts University,
- U.S. National Park Service,
- U.S. Tennis Association,
- UC San Diego,
- UK Sports Institute,
- University of Galway Ireland,
- Victorian Institute of Technology (Australia),
- Virginia Tech,
- Warsaw University,
- Western Sydney University,
- World Resources Institute,
- Yale University,
- ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences,
- and many others.
FINAT — the international association for the label industry’s development, education, and innovation — was added to the list.
The following visual shows a post from FINAT on LinkedIn with text about and pictures (including one featuring Graffius’ IP) from the FINAT Committee Summit in May 2024 in Amsterdam.

The following visual includes a picture from FINAT on LinkedIn. It shows Graffius’ 'Phases of Team Development' IP displayed on-screen in a talk at the FINAT Committee Summit in May 2024 in Amsterdam.

To learn more about FINAT, read on.
To learn more about Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property, visit here.

This article uses limited excerpts from FINAT (a post shared by FINAT on LinkedIn, and a picture from the same post featuring Graffius’ IP), attributed to FINAT and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. FINAT name, mark, and content are the property of FINAT. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.

About FINAT
FINAT is the international association for the label industry’s development, education, and innovation.
FINAT is an abbreviation for Fédération Internationale des Fabricants et Transformateurs d'Adhésifs et Thermocollants sur Papiers et Autres Supports. In English: International Federation of Manufacturers and Processors of Adhesives and Heat-Sealable Materials on Paper and Other Supports.
FINAT’s mission involves empowering the label industry by being the uniting platform that helps the international label industry excel in their daily business. FINAT's scope is to:
- Provide a global communication and networking platform for converters and direct and indirect suppliers.
- Represent members' interests.
- Provide a central source for industry information.
- Produce and distribute related educational and technical publications.
- Represent the industry's views at the EU level.
- Establish and maintain industry-related best practices, standards, and test methods.
To learn more, visit https://www.finat.com.

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 12). FINAT (Fédération Internationale des Fabricants et Transformateurs d'Adhésifs et Thermocollants sur Papiers et Autres Supports) Features Scott M. Graffius’ Intellectual Property. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/finat.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.16446.50244.


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/finat-24
© 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.

What Are Your Chances of Project Success? [From the Archives - First Published in 2003]


This article was first published on 12 July 2003.

The Standish Group provides research reports valued by those in technology management. In their Chaos Report and the follow-up Compass Report, Standish reported the top 10 criteria for project success.
This unique self-assessment is based on Scott M. Graffius' professional experience and Standish's findings. You're invited to take it to identify your project's success potential.
Note: This tool is tailored for projects utilizing a waterfall or hybrid approach and is not applicable to agile projects.
User Involvement
- Are the right users involved?
- Additionally, are the right users involved early and often?
- Are there good relationships with the users?
- Is involvement easy (frictionless)?
- Are the users’ needs uncovered?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 3.8 = ___.
Executive Management Support
- Is the right key executive(s) involved?
- Does the key executive(s) have a stake in the outcome?
- Does the project team have a stake as well?
- Is there a well-defined project plan?
- Is it understood that failure is a possibility?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 3.2 = ___.
Clear Statement of Requirements
- Is there a concise vision?
- Is there a business case?
- Is there a functional analysis?
- Is there a risk assessment?
- Have metrics been identified for tracking and reporting?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 3.0 = ___.
Proper Planning
- Is there a problem/pain/opportunity statement?
- Is there a solution statement?
- Have the right team members been assigned to the project?
- Is there a firm specification/requirements?
- Are there attainable milestones?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 2.2 = ___.
Realistic Expectations
- Are the specifications/requirements clear?
- Prioritization of needs? (While the default plan is to fulfill all requirements, the importance/value of each one should be quantified or qualified so that the most important items are prioritized.)
- Are there small/manageable milestones?
- Is change manageable (through a change management process or otherwise)?
- Can the project be prototyped or delivered in phases or incrementally?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 2.0 = ___.
Small Milestones
- Is the 80/20 rule observed (focus on the 20% of features that result in 80% of the benefit)?
- Is top-down design used?
- Are time limits set?
- Is a prototype tool used?
- Can progress be objectively measured?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 1.8 = ___.
Competent Staff
- Has a gap analysis on skills been done (and needed skills identified, if applicable)?
- Are the right people on the team?
- Is there a training program or otherwise an opportunity for team members to level up their skills?
- Are there appropriate incentives?
- Is the team appropriately skilled/equipped/available to see the project to completion?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 1.6 = ___.
Project Ownership
- Are roles for team members defined?
- Are roles for those involved with the project but not a member of the team (such as sponsors or executives) also defined?
- Does everyone have a good understanding of they will collaborate and contribute on the project?
- Are incentives tied to success?
- Is everyone involved committed?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 1.2 = ___.
Clear Vision and Objectives
- Is the vision shared?
- Is the vision aligned with the organization’s goals?
- Are objectives achievable?
- Are objectives measurable?
- Are sanity checks/gates in place?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 0.6 = ___.
Focused Staff
- Are there incentives?
- Is there a focus on the deliverables?
- Does each team member have part ownership?
- Is everyone working together?
- Is confidence being built as the team progresses?
___ total items with a “Yes” x 0.6 = ___.
Add all of the points to obtain the final score. Total score is ____ out of a maximum of 100 points.
Results range from 100 to 0, with 100 being the ideal for the project's success potential.
It is suggested that projects with a score less than 90 are revisited, and that challenges or impediments are resolved.

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2016, January 2). What Are Your Chances of Project Success? [From the Archives - First Published on 12 December 2012]. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/archive---chances-of-project-success.html.

© Copyright 2016 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.

Typical Software Development Risks: Symptoms, Causes, Indicators, and Mitigations [From the Archives - First Published in 2012]


This article was first published on 16 December 2012.

The risks for software development projects can vary. However, this article provides a view of the typical risks along with the respective symptoms, root causes, leading indicators, and mitigations for each.
Risk: Inaccurate effort and estimates and schedules
- Symptoms to watch for: Pattern of late deliverables; lack of awareness of schedule and status.
- Potential root cause: Schedules based on business ('top down') need rather than team-generated ('bottom up').
- Leading indicators: Earned value - schedule performance index (SPI).
- Mitigations: 'Bottom up' planning; monitor effort and schedule; engage earned value for monitoring, control as needed.
Risk: Unconstrained requirements growth
- Symptoms to watch for: Development staff cannot keep up with requirements changes.
- Potential root cause: Requirements change not well-managed.
- Leading indicators: Requirements change rate.
- Mitigations: Plan for change (employ a requirements/change control process); don't start development until there is a stable set of requirements.
Risk: Dysfunctional organization
- Symptoms to watch for: High project staff turnover; frequent staff reassignments; poor work environment; low productivity; staff lacks necessary skills and experience; and key role(s) are vacant.
- Potential root cause: Lack of motivating work environment; poor management of project prioritization; lack of experience with work needed on project.
- Leading indicators: Project staff turnover compared with historical trend; productivity; project team does not have an appropriate understanding of the requirements and project status.
- Mitigation: Monitor, manage, and control issues and risks; status reporting; external (peer) assessment of project plans.
Risk: Poor software quality
- Symptoms to watch for: High test defect counts; significant rework.
- Potential root cause: Focus on schedule rather than quality.
- Leading indicators: Test inspection yield; test defect density; defect discovery and closure rates/profiles.
- Mitigation: Create a development quality plan that focuses on inspection rather than (only) test; measure and track against quality plan; cultivate a focus on software quality.
Risk: Under-performance
- Symptoms to watch for: Low productivity.
- Potential root cause: Technical complexity; development environment changes; under-achievement.
- Leading indicators: Earned value - cost performance index (CPI).
- Mitigation: Engaged earned value, control as needed.
Manage risks and you'll greatly improve the probability of success.

How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2016, January 2). What Are Your Chances of Project Success? [From the Archives - First Published on 16 December 2012]. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/archive---software-development-risks-and-mitigations.html.

© Copyright 2016 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.

Pennsylvania State Agency Used Scott M. Graffius' Intellectual Property


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

Introduction
A whistleblower/tip informed Scott M. Graffius that a Pennsylvania state agency is using his copyrighted property without credit. After Graffius received the details, he confirmed that the report was valid. Based on the indisputable facts, the bad acts involve the ethical issue of plagiarism and the legal issue of copyright infringement. The Pennsylvania state agency's use of Graffius' intellectual property was not ‘fair use’ nor otherwise allowed.
Graffius vigorously maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights. This article serves as a clarion call for the Pennsylvania state agency to face the repercussions of, and take responsibility for, their blatant and damaging violation.

Background
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 (v2019) [Exhibit 1] is shown below. It is also available here and other locations. The integrated text applies.

As shown above, Graffius’ copyright ownership details are integrated into and appear on his copyrighted property. Specifically, it reads: “Copyright © 2008-2019 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 here and here, 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.
Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Publication Uses Graffius’ Copyrighted Property Without Permission and Without Attribution, Violating Graffius' Intellectual Property Rights
Exhibit 2 is below. It shows pages 1, 54, 55, and 56 of the infringing publication.

As shown above, the infringing document is marked with:
- “Pennsylvania”
- “Department of Human Services”
- “Office of Developmental Programs”
- “Quality Management Certification Handbook”
The PDF file is named ‘QM_Handbook_FINAL_20220322.pdf.’
The infringing document is known to reside here and here.
The infringing document may reside at additional locations.
Exhibit 3 is below. It provides a view of characteristics and strategies content from Graffius’ 2019 copyrighted ‘Phases of Team Development’ property, contrasted with infringing corresponding content from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ 2022 ‘Quality Management Certification Handbook.’

Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
Permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property was not requested nor approved.
Nevertheless, Graffius’ copyrighted property was used in the infringing publication.
Comparing Graffius' copyrighted 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property with the infringing document is reveals blatant infringement. As a supplement to the visual above, here are some examples, shown in-line:
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: ”Sticking to safe topics”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “stick to safe topics”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Taking the ‘lead’”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “taking the lead”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Providing clear expectations and consistent instructions”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “providing clear expectations and consistent instructions”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Competition
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “competition”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “High emotions”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “strong emotions”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Normalizing matters”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “normalizing”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Reconciliation”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “reconciliation”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Members are engaged & supportive”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “engaged and supportive of each other”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Relief, lowered anxiety”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “relief/lowered anxiety”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Developing cohesion”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “cohesion”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Recognizing individual and group efforts”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “recognizing individual and group efforts”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Providing learning opportunities and feedback”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “providing learning opportunities and feedback”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Monitoring the ‘energy’ of the group”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “monitoring the energy of the group”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Reconciliation”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “reconciliation”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Demonstrations of interdependence”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “demonstration of interdependence”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Ability to effectively produce as a team”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “ability to effectively produce as a team”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “’Guiding from the side’ (minimal intervention)”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “guiding from the side lines with minimal intervention”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Celebrating”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “celebrating”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Encouraging group decision-making & problem-solving”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: “encouraging group decision-making and problem-solving”
🟢 Graffius’ copyrighted 2019 property includes: “Providing opportunities to share learning across teams”
🔴 The infringing 2022 publication includes this: ”providing opportunities to share learning across teams”
Conclusion
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
Permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property was not requested nor approved.
Nevertheless, the infringing Pennsylvania Department of Human Services publication used Graffius’ copyrighted property.
A significant volume of Graffius’ copyrighted property was used.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services infringing publication did not attribute Graffius’ copyrighted property to Graffius. Accordingly, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services wrongly leads others to falsely believe that it is the author and owner of Graffius’ respective intellectual property.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services blatantly violated Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
Copyright infringement is disgraceful, unprofessional, unethical, immoral, and illegal.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ infringement damaged the marketability and value of Graffius’ intellectual property.
For the aforementioned reasons, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ use of Graffius’ copyrighted property was not ‘fair use’ nor otherwise allowed.
So long as the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ infringing publication exists anywhere, in any form, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services must immediately implement the following three (3) actions regarding their infringing publication—and any other documents or materials containing infringing content:
- Remove the Infringing Material. Electronic Versions: Immediately remove the infringing publication from all 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; destroy all physical copies.
- 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.
- Notify Relevant Parties. Recipients: Inform the respective subscribers, purchasers, users, or other 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.
Copyrights and other intellectual property rights are essential because they safeguard the works of creators, allowing them to benefit from their efforts, which in turn fosters creativity and innovation. Graffius vigorously maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights.
This troubling and consequential case is open.
If there's an update after this article is published, the information will appear in the Post-Publication Notes section.
Read on to learn:
- About Pennsylvania,
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- References/Sources,
- How to Cite This Article,
- Post-Publication Notes,
- and more.

About Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States.
It’s the fifth-most populous state, with over 13 million residents as of the 2020 U.S. census.

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.



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


References/Sources
The following is a list of material on publishing standards and procedures. Some cover the reporting and handling of copyright infringement.
- Alter, Alexandra (2019, September 22). It’s a Fact: Mistakes are Embarrassing the Publishing Industry. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/business/publishing-books-errors.html.
- American Psychological Association (2019, November). Correction Notices. Available at: https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/research-publication/correction-notices.
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (2018, November 15). ACM Publications Policy on the Withdrawal, Correction, Retraction, and Removal of Works from ACM Publications and ACM DL. Available at: https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/retraction-policy.
- Cambridge University Press (n.d.). Publishing Ethics. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/flow/information/journal-policies/publishing-ethics.
- Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (n.d.). Post-Publication Discussions and Corrections. Available at: https://publicationethics.org/postpublication.
- Elsevier (n.d.). Policy and Best practice: Errata & Corrigenda. Available at: https://www.elsevier.com/editor/perk/policy-and-best-practice-errata-and-corrigenda.
- Emerald Publishing (n.d.). Article Withdrawal & Correction. Available at: https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/publish-with-us/author-policies/article-withdrawal-correction.
- Faust, Jessica (2007, October 3). Typos and Errors After Publication. Available at: https://bookendsliterary.com/typos-and-errors-after-publication.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, March 22). The Protocol for Reporting an Error to an Author or Publisher. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/error-reporting.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.18830.98883.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, November 10). An Error Was Introduced Into the Seventh Edition of 'A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)'. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pmbok7.html.
- Idunn (n.d.). Publishing and Research Ethics Policy. Available at: https://www.idunn.no/info/publiseringsetikk.
- IEEE (n.d.). Publishing Ethics: Guidelines and Policies: Post-Publication Policies. Available at: https://books.ieeeauthorcenter.ieee.org/book-publishing-at-ieee/publishing-ethics/guidelines-and-policies/post-publication-policies.
- Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) (n.d.). Guidelines for Ethical Behavior in Publishing. Available at: https://pubsonline.informs.org/page/opre/guidelines-for-ethical-behavior-in-publishing.
- IntechOpen (n.d.). Retraction and Correction Policy. Available at: https://www.intechopen.com/page/retraction-and-correction-policy.
- Marasović, Tea; Utrobiĉić, Ana; and Maruŝić, Ana (2018, March 31). Transparency of Retracting and Replacing Articles. The Lancet, 391 (10127): 1244-1245.
- Nature (n.d.). Editorial and Publishing Policies. Available at: https://www.nature.com/srep/journal-policies/editorial-policies.
- O’Reilly Media (n.d.). Errata for Java in a Nutshell. Available at: https://www.oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=0636920030775.
- Palgrave Macmillan (n.d.). Corrections and Retractions. Available at: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/editorial-policies/corrections-and-retractions.
- Pearson Education / InformIT (n.d.). Contact Us: Submit Errata. Available at: https://www.informit.com/about/contact_us/index.aspx?ContactUs_Topics_Partners_id=9d39709c-c911-4c96-ac2c-2c5a22d68ba9.
- Project Management Institute (PMI) (n.d.). PMI Standards Program Comment Form. Available at: https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/pmbok-standards/pmi-standards-program-comment-form.pdf.
- Project Management Institute (PMI) (n.d.). Standards Errata Sheets. Available at: https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/foundational/pmbok/errata-sheets.
- Public Library of Science (PLOS) (n.d.). Corrections, Expressions of Concern, and Retractions. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/corrections-and-retractions.
- SAE International (n.d.). ARINC Standard – Errata Report Template. Available at: https://wcm14.sae.org/site/binaries/content/assets/itc/content/arinc/errata-form.docx [note: selecting the link will download the file].
- Sage Publications (n.d.). Sage Corrections and Retractions Policy. Available at: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/sage-corrections-and-retractions-policy.
- Science Publishing Group (n.d.). Ethical Guidelines. Available at: https://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/information/ethical-guidelines.
- Springer (n.d.). Editorial Policies: Corrections and Retractions. Available at: https://www.springer.com/gp/editorial-policies/corrections-and-retractions.
- Taylor & Francis (n.d.). Publishing Ethics for Journal Editors: FAQs. Available at: https://editorresources.taylorandfrancis.com/publishing-ethics-for-editors/publishing-ethics-faqs.
- Ubiquity Press (n.d.). Correction and Retraction Policy. Available at: https://ubiquitypress.com/site/corrections.
- Warner, Brooke (2019, April 26). How to Publish a Perfect Book. Available at: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/79902-how-to-publish-a-perfect-book.html.
- Wiley (n.d.). Best Practice Guidelines on Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics. Available at: https://authorservices.wiley.com/ethics-guidelines/index.html.
- Wiley Author Services (n.d.). Wiley's Policy for Handling Retractions, Withdrawals, and Expressions of Concern. Available at: https://authorservices.wiley.com/ethics-guidelines/retractions-and-expressions-of-concern.html.
- World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) (n.d.). Managing Intellectual Property in the Book Publishing Industry. Available at: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/copyright/868/wipo_pub_868.pdf.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, October 21). Pennsylvania State Agency Used Scott M. Graffius' Intellectual Property. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/pa-state-agency-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29391.09120.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication (21 October 2024), they will appear here.
Update on 25 October 2024
Graffius emailed the details of the violation—as delineated in this article—to multiple people with Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services. That email was titled "Notice to Pennsylvania Department of Human Services on the unauthorized and unattributed use of Scott M. Graffius' intellectual property; copyright infringement, damages."
Update on 26 October 2024
Additionally, Graffius forwarded the email referenced above to Valerie A. Arkoosh. She is the head of Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services.
Update on 28 October 2024
To date, Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services has not addressed nor resolved their violation. Accordingly, it knowingly and willfully continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
Update on 6 November 2024
To date, the agency has failed to remove their infringing publication (or even respond). Accordingly, it knowingly and willfully continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
Any further updates on this consequential matter will appear here.
Update on 7 November 2024

Among other actions, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services must immediately remove their infringing publication from all platforms/channels/distributions. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services continues to serve their infringing publication at https://palms-awss3-repository.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Shared_Content/Quality+Management/2022+Certification/QM_Handbook_FINAL_20220322.pdf. Graffius included that link along with other details in his initial email to the agency, titled "Notice to Pennsylvania Department of Human Services on the unauthorized and unattributed use of Scott M. Graffius' intellectual property; copyright infringement, damages." Graffius specified the locations known to him; the agency may be serving their infringing publication at additional locations; the agency is responsible for everywhere they published their infringing publication.
By still serving its infringing publication, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services continues to knowingly and willfully spread misinformation and violate Graffius' intellectual property rights.
Any further updates on this consequential matter will appear here.
Update on 14 November 2024
As noted in the article, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services was serving its infringing publication (PDF with file name 'QM_Handbook_FINAL_20220322.pdf') at multiple locations. The two locations known to Graffius were here and here. However, there may be additional locations.
The agency disabled access to their infringing publication at the first location known to Graffius - https://palms-awss3-repository.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Shared_Content/Quality+Management/2022+Certification/QM_Handbook_FINAL_20220322.pdf. Going to that link now displays an error page. A screen shot is below.

The agency replaced their infringing publication with a different publication at the second location known to Graffius - https://www.myodp.org/course/view.php?id=1795.
Again, the Pennsylvania state agency blatantly violated Graffius' copyright, damaging the marketability and value of his intellectual property. Copyright infringement is so serious that it is a Federal crime.
Graffius reserves his rights. If Graffius opts to take legal action against the Pennsylvania state agency for their violation of his copyright, the Federal case will include the greater of statutory damages or actual damages, special charges for willful infringement (which has been clarified by the courts to be either "intentional behavior" or merely "reckless behavior"), and additional costs.
Further updates, if any, will appear here.



Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ content, attributed to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services’ content (excerpt for what was stolen from others) is the property of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved. Visit ScottGraffius.com.


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.


Toastmasters Used Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property Word-for-Word in Their Publication Without Authorization or Attribution


Introduction
Toastmasters used—without authorization or attribution—Scott M. Graffius’ copyrighted property in their publication. Based on the indisputable facts, Toastmasters’ bad acts involve the ethical issue of plagiarism and the legal issue of copyright infringement.
Graffius maintains, enforces, and protects his copyright and other intellectual property rights. This article serves as a clarion call for Toastmasters to face the repercussions of, and take responsibility for, their blatant and damaging violation.

Background
Informed by the research of Bruce W. Tuckman, Ph.D., 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.’ It’s a unique perspective on the five phases of team development—Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning—and it’s inclusive of the characteristics/features/traits and strategies for each phase.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ intellectual property is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
Graffius initially developed his intellectual property in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. For reference, an authorized example of his copyrighted property applicable in this case (2021 edition) is here: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.22040.42246 . It is shown below as well (as Exhibit 1).

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.”
Conference organizers, businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities around the world engage Graffius to deliver compelling talks and workshops. Examples are here.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ intellectual property is central and key to many of those sessions. Details including his rate card, a listing of his engagements, and more are here.
With an authorization/license from Graffius, many organizations around the world have featured and used his copyrighted ‘Phases of Team Development’ work. Select examples include Yale University, Adobe, IEEE, Microsoft, UK Sports Institute, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, American Management Association, 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.
Toastmasters Used Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property Word-for-Word in Their Publication Without Authorization or Attribution, Violating Graffius’ Intellectual Property Rights
Toastmasters infringing 2022 publication is marked with:
- “Toastmasters International”
- “Area Director Handbook”
- “2022”
- “Guide to a successful year as Area Director”
- “District 101”
Exhibit 2 is below. It shows pages 2, 19, 20, and 21 from the infringing 2022 publication.

Further details follow.
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
Toastmasters did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Nevertheless, Toastmasters used Graffius’ 4 January 2021 copyrighted property in their 2022 publication.
Comparing Graffius' copyrighted 4 January 2021 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property what Toastmasters has in its 2022 publication is reveals Toastmasters’ blatant infringement.
Exhibit 3 is below. It shows Toastmasters extensive—including word-for-word—use of Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the Forming stage of team development.

Exhibit 4 is below. It shows Toastmasters extensive—including word-for-word—use of Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the Storming stage of team development.

Exhibit 5 is below. It shows Toastmasters extensive—including word-for-word—use of Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the Norming stage of team development.

Exhibit 6 is below. It shows Toastmasters extensive—including word-for-word—use of Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the Performing stage of team development.

Exhibit 7 is below. It shows Toastmasters extensive—including word-for-word—use of Graffius’ copyrighted property on the characteristics and strategies for the Adjourning stage of team development.

Further, Toastmasters did not attribute their use of Graffius’ copyrighted property to Graffius. Accordingly, Toastmasters is wrongly leading others to falsely believe that they (or others) are the author and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted property.

Conclusion
Again, Graffius’ copyright ownership details and permission request information are integrated into and appear on his intellectual property.
Toastmasters did not request nor receive permission to use Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Nevertheless, Toastmasters used Graffius’ 4 January 2021 copyrighted property in their 2022 infringing publication.
Toastmasters used a significant volume of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Toastmasters’ infringement included extensive word-for-word use of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
Toastmasters did not attribute their use of Graffius’ copyrighted property to Graffius. Accordingly, Toastmasters is wrongly leading others to falsely believe that they (or others) are the author and owner of Graffius’ respective copyrighted content.
Toastmasters damaged the marketability and value of Graffius’ copyrighted property.
For the aforementioned reasons, Toastmasters’ use of Graffius’ copyrighted property was not ‘fair use’ nor otherwise allowed.
Additionally, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S. Code § 1202, addresses the integrity of copyright management information. It specifies that that removal of copyright information from another’s intellectual property is a crime. That’s for all cases, including educational/non-commercial use. As shown by comparing Graffius' copyrighted property (Exhibit 1) and with page 19 of Toastmasters infringing publication (shown in Exhibit 2), Toastmasters cropped-out or otherwise removed Graffius’ copyright information. That alone makes Toastmasters' actions not ‘fair use’ and a crime.
Toastmasters’ actions in this matter are a disgraceful breach of professional ethics, moral standards, and Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
So long as the infringing publication exists in any form, Toastmasters knowingly and willfully continues to spread misinformation and violate Graffius’ intellectual property rights.
Toastmasters must immediately implement the following three (3) actions:
- Remove the Infringing Material. Electronic Versions: Immediately remove the infringing material from all 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; destroy (recycle) physical copies.
- 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.
- 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 damaging, disturbing, and consequential matter.
This article serves as a clarion call for Toastmasters to face the repercussions of, and take responsibility for, their blatant and damaging violation.
This case is open.

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.










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. (2023, October 23). Toastmasters Used Scott M. Graffius' Copyrighted Property Word-for-Word in Their Publication Without Authorization or Attribution. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/ti-23.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.18914.34240.


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


Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Toastmasters International content, attributed to Toastmasters International and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Toastmasters International name, mark, and content (except for what was stolen from others) are the property of Toastmasters International.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.


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.

Strategies for Medical Team Success Featured Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ Intellectual Property


With authorization/license from Scott M. Graffius, his ‘Phases of Team Development’ property is featured and used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities worldwide. Among the organizations, scientific and medical-related ones include the Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Bayer, Johns Hopkins University, Life Sciences Trainers & Educators Network (LTEN), Royal Australasian College of Physicians, TBS Switzerland, and others. Naso Sano—a medical education and research organization based in Italy—was added to the list.
On 6 November 2024, Naso Sano published a presentation on strategies for medical success which featured Graffius’ work. Puya Dehgani-Mobaraki, MD (Naso Sano, Italy) hosted the session and Professor Saad Alsaleh (King Said University, Saudi Arabia) delivered the talk. The presentation was recorded, and the video is available on YouTube here.
A screen shot is below.

The current (2024) edition of Graffius' 'Phases of Team Development' is here.
Read on to learn:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to Cite This Article,
- and more.

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.










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, October 23). Strategies for Medical Team Success Featured Scott M. Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ Intellectual Property. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/nso.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28413.78562.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28413.78562.
DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.28413.78562.


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


Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Naso Sano, attributed to Naso Sano and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Naso Sano name and mark are the property of Naso Sano.
King Saud University name and mark are the property of King Saud University.
Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.


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.

Side-by-Side Comparison of Retrospectives and Hot Washes


Scott M. Graffius delivers talks and workshops at conferences and other events around the world. Participants have frequently inquired about the distinctions between retrospectives and hot washes. Based on that, Graffius decided to develop this concise article.
Retrospectives (including post-project reviews) and hot washes are valuable practices for distilling actionable insights and enhancing future performance. But they serve distinct purposes and contexts including differences in timing and intent. Retrospectives are usually conducted at the end of an agile sprint or project, where the team reflects on what went well, what didn’t go well, and any changes to be implemented as improvements going forward. Hot washes happen immediately after a high-stakes event or operation to address real-time challenges and inform swift adjustments or decisions.
The visual shown at the top of this article provides a side-by-side comparison of retrospectives and hot washes including the typical characteristics and strategies unique to each. See the Permission Request Information section of this article if you'd like to request use of the copyrighted visual. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.
Here's the text from the visual:
Retrospectives
- Also Known as: Post-project review, lessons learned meeting, post-mortem, sprint retrospective, project debriefing, project review
- Intent: Provide actionable insights for future projects or iterations
- Context: Project management (agile or otherwise) in technology or business
- Examples of Use Cases: Evaluating a sprint, project completion, or a product launch
- Participants: Scrum team or project team; sometimes others participate as well
- Scheduling: Scheduled in advance
- Timing: End of a sprint, project phase, or entire project
- Duration: 30-90 minutes
- Focus: Identifying successes, challenges, and changes to be made for future work
- Goal: Drive continuous improvement
- Strategy: Structured and reflective, use prompts (see Questions to Ask)
- Questions to Ask: What worked well? What didn’t? What should we change going forward?
- Facilitator Role: Scrum Master, project manager, or team leader
- Methods Employed: Retrospective frameworks, whiteboards, sticky notes, collaborative applications like Miro or Trello
- Documentation: Usually formal (written), with a report documenting findings and recommendations
- Emotional Tone: Fostering openness, introspection, and learning in a collaborative setting
Hot Washes
- Also Known as: Hot debrief, mission debrief, operational debrief, rapid debrief, tactical debrief, after-action review, immediate action review, post-event analysis
- Intent: Capture lessons while fresh and inform immediate adjustments or decisions
- Context: High-stakes operational settings such as intelligence, military, or emergency response
- Examples of Use Cases: Assessing a high-stakes intelligence operation or an emergency response
- Participants: Individuals involved in the immediate event or operation
- Scheduling: Not scheduled in advance; occurs as needed
- Timing: Immediately after an event, incident, mission, or exercise
- Duration: 15–30 minutes, focused on speed and efficiency
- Focus: Assessing immediate challenges and corrective actions required now
- Goal: Implement real-time changes as needed
- Strategy: Rapid, real-time, and conversational—focused on urgent issues
- Questions to Ask: What went wrong? What needs immediate attention? What actions should we take now?
- Facilitator Role: Team leader, mission commander, or operational lead
- Methods Employed: Quick debriefs, oral discussions, brief note-taking
- Documentation: Often informal (verbal), with key points summarized quickly for immediate use; there may or may not be a written report
- Emotional Tone: Urgent, action-oriented, and often high-energy

Read on to see and learn:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- References/Sources,
- Permission Request Information,
- How to Cite This Article,
- and more.

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.










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


References/Sources
- Abel-Hamid, T.K., & Madnick, S.E. (1990, Fall). The Elusive Silver Lining: How We Fail to Learn from Software Development Failures. Sloan Management Review, Fall 1990: 39-48.
- Agile Alliance (n.d.). Heartbeat Retrospective. Available at: https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/heartbeat-retrospective.
- AgileScrumGuide.com (2017, August 21). Side-by-Side Comparisons of Agile Scrum and Waterfall Models: A Quick Look at Integration Management. Available at: https://agilescrumguide.com/blog/files/Side-by-Side-Comparisons-of-Agile-Scrum-and-Waterfall-Models-A-Quick-Look-at-Integration-Management.html.
- AgileScrumGuide.com (2017, August 24). Side-by-Side Comparisons of Agile Scrum and Waterfall Models: A Quick Look at Communications Management. Available at: https://agilescrumguide.com/blog/files/Side-by-Side-Comparisons-of-Agile-Scrum-and-Waterfall-Models-A-Quick-Look-at-Communications-Management.html.
- AgileScrumGuide.com (2017, August 7). Side-by-Side Comparisons of Agile Scrum and Waterfall Models: A Quick Look at Quality Management. Available at: https://agilescrumguide.com/blog/files/Side-by-Side-Comparisons-of-Agile-Scrum-and-Waterfall-Models-A-Quick-Look-at-Quality-Management.html.
- Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute (2021). APH Quality Handbook. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute.
- Bellet, C., De Neve, J., & Ward, G. (2019 October 14). Does Employee Happiness Have an Impact on Productivity? Saïd Business School WP 2019-13. Oxford, UK: Oxford University.
- Bennett, M., Gadlin, H., & Marchand, C. (2018). Collaboration Team Science: Field Guide. Rockville, MD: National Institutes of Health.
- Boddie, J. (1989, December 7). The Project Postmortem. Computerworld.
- Carn-Bennett, Erin (2024, June 19). Using the Army’s Hot Wash Debrief Technique in Civilian Healthcare Simulation. Available at: https://www.healthysimulation.com/healthcare-simulation-hot-wash-debrief/.
- Cassell, Greg (2024, September 20). IAFC Releases New “Hot Wash” For Major Incidents and Training Exercises. Available at: https://www.iafc.org/blogs/blog/iafc/2024/09/23/iafc-releases-new-hot-wash-for-major-incidents-and-training-exercises.
- Coleman, Stan (2009. November 25). Hot Wash—A Tool For Feedback. Available at: https://www.dobbins.afrc.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/171803/hot-wash-a-tool-for-feedback/.
- Collier, B, DeMarco, T., & Fearey, P. (1996, July), A Defined Process for Project Post Mortem Review. IEEE Software, 13 (4): 65-72.
- Creately (2024, August 23). After Action Review: What is it and How to Use it to Improve Team Performance. Available at: https://creately.com/guides/after-action-review/.
- DevOps Institute (2021). 2021 Upskilling Enterprise DevOps Skills Report. Boca Raton, FL: DevOps Institute.
- Exceptional Agility (2023, January 1). Making Teams More Agile: Strategies and Benefits. Available at: https://exceptionalagility.com/blog/files/teams.html.
- Farr, J. V., & Brazil, D. M. (2012, September 5). Leadership Skills Development for Engineers. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 40 (3): 13-22.
- Fletcher, Angus; Cline, Preston B.; & Hoffman, Matthew (2023, January 12). A Better Approach to After-Action Reviews. Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2023/01/a-better-approach-to-after-action-reviews.
- GitLab (2019, December 13). Strengthen Your Agile Teams with Tuckman's Stages of Group Development. At: about.gitlab.com. San Francisco, CA: GitLab, Inc.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016, January 21). 2014 NSDM Publication on Leadership by National Security Affairs Professor Mary Raum Featured the 2008 Edition of Scott M. Graffius’ Work on Team Development. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/nsdm-leadership.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22276.33920.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2018, August 25). Retrospectives and Continuous Improvement in the Agile Scrum Framework [Workshop]. Session at private event in Las Vegas, NV. 10.13140/RG.2.2.16620.51843
- 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 20). But First, the Team! [Presentation]. Talk delivered at the Brno, Czech Republic DevConf.CZ 2021 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.29016.72964.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, June 21). DevOps and Team Leadership [Workshop]. Session at private event in Las Vegas, NV. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15380.22401.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, May 13). But First, the Team! [Presentation]. Lecture delivered at DevOps Pro Europe 2021 Conference. Based and simulcast live from Vilnius, Lithuania. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30524.36481.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, November 10). An Error Was Introduced Into the Seventh Edition of 'A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).’ Los Angeles, CA: Scott M. Graffius.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2021, November 8). Bruce Tuckman’s Model (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning) is Highly Relevant and Beneficial, But It Doesn’t Please Everyone. Los Angeles, CA: Scott M. Graffius.
- 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.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2022, February 4). Team Development Tradecraft: A Source of Competitive Advantage [Workshop]. Session at private event in Adelaide, Australia. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14092.80002.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2022, May 13). Want Happier and More Productive DevOps Teams? [Presentation]. Talk delivered at DevOpsDays Geneva, Switzerland 2022 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.22252.85127.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, April 26). The Science of High-Performance Teams [Presentation]. Talk delivered at the DevOps Institute’s SKILup Day 2023 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.15888.28169.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, July 15). Successful Video Game Development Teams Leverage an Extensive Range of Hard Skills and Soft Skills. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/gamedev.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, June 29). What Successful AI Teams Have in Common [Presentation]. Talk delivered at Conf42 Quantum Computing 2023 Conference. Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.13140/RG.2.2.29382.45120.
- 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.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, January 8). Scott M. Graffius’ Phases of Team Development: 2024 Update. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/teams-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.28629.40168.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, July 16). Consider Asking and Answering These Questions at Your Next Retrospective, Post Project Review or Debrief Meeting (But Not a "Hot Wash"). Available at: https://x.com/ScottGraffius/status/1813233611212222578.
- Helgesen, Sally (2022, June 8). How Wash, Cold Wash. Available at: https://allrise.substack.com/p/hot-wash-cold-wash.
- Jovanovic, M., Mesquida, A., Radaković, N., & Mas, A. (2016). Agile Retrospective Games for Different Team Development Phases. Journal of Universal Computer Science, 22: 1489-1508.
- Kerzner, Harold (2022). Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects (Second Edition). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
- Luckner, M. (2020, November 18). Data Science Workshop (Version 1.1). Warsaw, Poland: Warsaw University of Technology.
- Microsoft (2019, June 15). Is the Latest Technology the Key to Your Team’s Success, or is There Something Else? Microsoft Developer Support. Accessed at: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/premier-developer/is-the-latest-technology-the-key-to-your-teams-success-or-is-there-something-else. Redmond, WA: Microsoft.
- Project Management Institute (2021). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) – Seventh Edition. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
- Raum, Mary (2014, April 10). Leader Theory Explanations and Original Texts. Newport, RI Naval War College. NSDM.
- Rowley, D., & Lange, M. (2007). Forming to Performing: The Evolution of an Agile Team. IEEE Computer Society Proceedings. Agile 2007, 1: 408-414.
- Salas, E., Grossman, R., Hughes, A.M., and Coultas, C.W. (2015), Measuring Team Cohesion: Observations from the Science. Human Factors, 57 (3): 365–374.
- Scaled Agile, Inc. (2023, March 14). Working Successfully in Agile with Remote Team Members. Available at: https://scaledagileframework.com/working-successfully-in-agile-with-remote-team-members/.
- Scrum Alliance (2020). Learning Objectives Examples. Denver, CO: Scrum Alliance.
- Scrum Alliance (n.d.). The Sprint Retrospective. Available at: https://resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/sprint-retrospective.
- Sutherland, Rory (2019). Alchemy: The Dark Art and Curious Science of Creating Magic in Brands, Business, and Life. New York, NY: William Morrow and Company, an imprint of HarperCollins.
- Tuckman, Bruce W. (1965). Developmental Sequence in Small Groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63: 384-399.
- Tuckman, Bruce W., & Jensen, M. A. C. (1977). Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited. Group and Organizational Studies, 2 (4): 419-427.
- United States Army (2015). Innovative Learning: A Key to National Security. Washington, DC: United States Army.
- United States General Services Administration, Office of the CTO (2021). GSA Tech Guides: Establishing an Agile Team Working Agreement. Washington, D.C.: United States General Services Administration.
- University of Waterloo (2021). SE Capstone Design Project Handbook. Edited by Derek Rayside. Waterloo, Ontario, Canada: University of Waterloo.
- Williams, T., Eden, C., Ackermann, F., Howick, S., Bergamini, V., Daley, A., & Gill, K. (2001, November). The Use of Project Post-Mortems. Paper presented at Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, Nashville, TN. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
- Yahoo News (2021, August 17). National Security Adviser Calls for a 'Hot Wash' to Review U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Available at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/national-security-adviser-calls-hot-191627245.html.
- Yu, Shuo; Bedru, Hayat Dino; Lee, Ivan Lee; and Xia, Feng (2019, February). Science of Scientific Team Science. Computer Science Review, 31: 72-83. DOI: 10.1016/j.cosrev.2018.12.001.


Permission Request Information
To request permission to use the visual shown at the top of this article, email Scott M. Graffius. If your request is approved, Graffius will give you an authorization/license and, if applicable, high-resolution files of the visual.


How to Cite This Article
Graffius, Scott M. (2024, November 18). Side-by-Side Comparison of Retrospectives and Hot Washes. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/retrospectives-and-hot-washes.html.


Post-Publication Notes
If there are any supplements or updates to this article after the date of publication, they will appear here.
Update on 20 January 2025
The first paragraph appeared as this: "Participants at conferences and other events where Scott M. Graffius has delivered talks and workshops have sought clarity on the distinctions between retrospectives and hot washes. Particularly by those possibly in intelligence or military communities, the question has been asked with increasing frequency. Based on that, Graffius decided to develop this concise article."
It was revised to this: "Scott M. Graffius delivers talks and workshops at conferences and other events around the world. Participants have frequently inquired about the distinctions between retrospectives and hot washes. Based on that, Graffius decided to develop this concise article."


Short Link for Article
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/retro-hot


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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.

Hochschule Coburg (Coburg University) Germany Uses Scott M. Graffius’ Phases of Team Development IP in Coursework on Agile Development


Professor Dr. Lucila Patiño Studencki is a specialist in Vehicle2X Technologies at Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Germany. Renowned for her expertise in autonomous driving technologies and sensor data fusion, she has held pivotal roles, including expert and team manager at Elektrobit Automotive GmbH, and senior scientist in tracking and navigation at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits. She has made significant contributions to the development of autonomous vehicle technology.
As shown below, Scott M. Graffius received and approved Dr. Studencki’s request to include Graffius’ 'Phases of Team Development' intellectual property in coursework on agile development. Redacted content is designated by a red rectangle.

The visual above includes the current (2024) edition of Graffius’ ‘Phases of Team Development’ visual. Read on to learn more about it, Coburg University, Scott M. Graffius, How to Cite This Article, and more.

About Graffius' Phases of Team Development
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 is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
He initially developed his ‘Phases of Team Development’ unique material in 2008, and he periodically refreshes it. The current (2024) edition of Graffius' work is here.
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’ intellectual property is central and key to many of those sessions. His rate card and a listing of his engagements are at here and here, respectively.
With authorization/license from Graffius, his ‘Phases of Team Development’ property is featured and used by businesses, professional associations, government agencies, and universities worldwide. 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,
- Manufacturers Alliance,
- Microsoft,
- New Zealand Government,
- Oracle,
- Royal Australasian College of Physicians,
- Singapore Institute of Technology,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Torrens University Australia,
- Tufts University,
- US National Park Service,
- US Tennis Association,
- UC San Diego,
- 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.

About Coburg University
Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts, located in Coburg, Germany, is renowned for its practical approach to education, blending theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience. Founded in 1796, it offers a wide array of programs focusing on disciplines like engineering, computer science, business, and design. The university prides itself on fostering innovation, with strong ties to industry, which ensures its courses are aligned with market needs. Its commitment to applied research, particularly in areas like energy efficiency, mobility, and health, enhances its reputation as a hub for technological advancement and sustainable solutions. With a vibrant campus life, state-of-the-art facilities, and an international outlook, Coburg University prepares students not only for successful careers but also for roles as responsible global citizens.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is an agile project management expert practitioner, consultant, 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.
Organizations around the world invite Graffius to speak on tech (including AI), agile, project management, program management, portfolio management, and PMO leadership. He has developed and delivered unique and compelling talks and workshops. To date, Graffius has delivered 91 sessions across 25 countries. Select examples of events include Agile Trends Gov, BSides (Newcastle Upon Tyne), Conf42 Quantum Computing, DevDays Europe, DevOps Institute, DevOpsDays (Geneva), Frug’Agile, IEEE, Microsoft, Scottish Summit, Scrum Alliance RSG (Nepal), Techstars, and W Love Games International Video Game Development Conference (Helsinki), and more. With an average rating of 4.81 (on a scale of 1-5), his sessions are highly valued.
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,
- Boston University,
- Broadcom,
- Cisco,
- Constructor University Germany,
- 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,
- Pinterest Inc.,
- Project Management Institute,
- TBS Switzerland,
- Torrens University Australia,
- Tufts University,
- UC San Diego,
- 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,
- 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.










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, December 2). Hochschule Coburg (Coburg University) Germany Uses Scott M. Graffius’ Phases of Team Development IP in Coursework on Agile Development. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/coburg-university-agile-2024.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21272.00002.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21272.00002
DOI link: https://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21272.00002


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


Content Acknowledgements
This article includes limited excerpts from Coburg University (Hochschule Coburg), attributed to Coburg University and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis.
Hochschule Coburg name, mark and content are the property of Hochschule Coburg.
Graffius’ Phases of Team Development is copyright © Scott M. Graffius. All rights reserved.


Short Link for Article
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/coburg-u


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.

When Agile, AI, and Strategic Thinking Converge


Introduction
Agile, artificial intelligence (AI), and strategic thinking are essential for businesses to thrive in today’s fast-paced world. Each pillar stands on its own. Combined, the synergistic intersections of these pillars forge a powerful triad, capable of revolutionizing operations, supercharging performance, and delivering unprecedented results.
Agile is an iterative and incremental methodology. Agile approaches (such as Scrum and Kanban) help teams work in short cycles, rapidly adapt to change, and deliver products and services expeditiously.
AI adds a new dimension to adaptability. Leveraging vast datasets, AI can automate tasks, generate actionable insights (for smarter, faster decisions), and more.
Strategic thinking is about anticipating change and identifying opportunities. It helps individuals navigate complexities and achieve long-term goals. Strategic thinking centers on understanding the broader context. It considers market dynamics, competition, and internal capabilities. It ensures efforts align with a clear vision. While agile promotes adaptability and AI powers insights, strategic thinking ties everything together.
The Real Magic Happens When Agile, AI, and Strategic Thinking Converge
Here’s how the synergy plays out.
Agile Plus AI Provides Enhanced Agility with Intelligence
Agile combined with AI enables teams to work more effectively. For example, AI can analyze customer/user feedback and market data in real-time. This helps agile teams prioritize features or quickly pivot when needed.
AI also automates repetitive tasks. For example, it can handle some testing in software development. This frees teams to focus on innovation and higher-value work.
In addition, AI provides predictive insights. It helps improve sprint planning by anticipating challenges or uncovering opportunities. This helps teams stay one step ahead.
AI Plus Strategic Thinking Provides Data-Driven Strategy
AI and strategic thinking together create data-driven strategies. This empowers organizations to make informed and effective decisions.
AI provides precision at scale. It helps leaders analyze vast amounts of data, from market trends to user behavior. It assists them in crafting more impactful strategies.
AI’s predictive capabilities enhance scenario planning. Organizations can model potential outcomes and reduce uncertainty. This can provide a competitive edge.
Agile Plus Strategic Thinking Provides a Flexible Vision
Agile combined with strategic thinking creates a flexible vision. This helps organizations adapt and thrive in dynamic environments.
Agile methods allow strategies to evolve as real-world results emerge. Adaptable approaches replace rigid plans. This flexibility best positions businesses to respond effectively to new insights and changing conditions.
Agile also bridges the gap between execution and vision. It transforms ambitious goals into actionable steps; incremental progress aligns day-to-day efforts with long-term objectives.
Agile Plus AI Plus Strategic Thinking Provides Synergy at Its Best
When agile, AI, and strategic thinking converge, they create a powerful synergy. This drives a dynamic and adaptive approach to problem-solving and innovation.
Integrating AI into agile processes allows organizations to measure strategy effectiveness in real-time. They can make adjustments as needed, enabling real-time adaptive strategies.
This combination fosters a culture of fast-paced innovation. Agile frameworks and AI insights embed innovation into daily operations.
Strategic thinking ensures agility and AI are applied with purpose. It aligns efforts with long-term objectives. This provides resilience and better future-proofing in our ever-changing world.
Conclusion
Combining agile methodologies, AI technologies, and strategic thinking is not just advantageous—it's essential in today's rapidly evolving business landscape. Agile provides the framework to adapt quickly, AI augments decision-making with data-driven insights, and strategic thinking ensures a clear vision aligns these elements. Together, they create a synergistic system where responsiveness, innovation, and foresight form the foundation of sustainable success.

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


References/Sources
Select bibliography:
- Atsmon, Yuval (2017, May 2). How to Unleash Your Strategic Thinking. Digital article. McKinsey & Company.
- Beall, Justin L. (2024, March 15). Revolutionizing Agile Ceremonies with OpenAI. Available at: https://dev.to/dev3l/revolutionizing-agile-ceremonies-with-openai-a-game-changer-in-software-development-177p.
- Berlin School of Business and Innovation (2022, September 22). How Do Technical Abilities Combined with Leadership Skills Fuel Career Growth? Available at: https://www.berlinsbi.com/blog/career-advice/how-do-technical-abilities-combined-with-leadership-skills-fuel-career-growth.
- Bonn, Ingrid (2005, June). Improving Strategic Thinking: A Multilevel Approach. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 26 (5). DOI: 10.1108/01437730510607844.
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (2024, September 27). Teaching AI What It Should and Shouldn’t Do. Available at: https://www.darpa.mil/news/2024/teaching-ai.
- Dixit, Avinash K., & Nelebuff, Barry J. (1993). Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Dolev, Niva, & Itzkovich, Yariv (2020). In the AI Era, Soft Skills are the New Hard Skills. In: Artificial Intelligence and Its Impact on Business, pp. 55-77. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Engineering Research Visioning Alliance (n.d.). Strategic Thinking for Engineering Research in the Era of Artificial Intelligence. Available at: https://www.ervacommunity.org/task-force/visioning-event-strategic-thinking-for-engineering-research-in-the-era-of-ai/.
- Exceptional Agility (2023, April 10). What's the Future of Agile? Available at: https://exceptionalagility.com/blog/files/the-future.html.
- Goldman, Ellen F. (2007, Summer). Strategic Thinking at the Top. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48 (4): 75-81.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2016). Thinking Strategically and Acting Tactically. Winnetka, CA: Exceptional PPM and PMO Solutions.
- 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. (2020, October 16). Four Ways to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills Today. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/4-Strategic.html.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2023, May 1). AI is a Team Sport: A Confluence of Diverse Technical and Soft Skills are Crucial for Success. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/successful-ai-teams.html. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20321.79200.
- Graffius, Scott M. (2024, May 3). Leverage Agile and AI to Innovate at the Speed of Light. Talk at private event in Dubai, UAE. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.30790.48960.
- Kerzner, Harold (2022). Innovation Project Management: Methods, Case Studies, and Tools for Managing Innovation Projects—Second Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.
- Kilby, Mark (2024, February 2). How AI Will Reshape Agile Development: Takeaways from a Recent Briefing. Agile Alliance. Available at: https://www.agilealliance.org/how-ai-will-reshape-agile-development-takeaways-from-a-recent-briefing/.
- Lang, Trudi, & Ramírez, Rafael (2023, October 11). How Ghost Scenarios Haunt Strategy Execution. MIT Sloan Management Review. Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-ghost-scenarios-haunt-strategy-execution/.
- Lieberman, Marvin (2021, February). Is Competitive Advantage Intellectually Sustainable? Strategic Management Review, 2 (1): 29-46.
- Maneria, Sumitra, & Paikaray, Divya (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Agile Based Business Development Review. Third International Conference on Advance Computing and Innovative Technologies in Engineering (ICACITE), 2023, pp. 2091-2095. DOI: 10.1109/ICACITE57410.2023.10182756.
- Panesar, Gurpreet Singh, and Chadha, Raman, and Sharma, Ashim, and Tinna, Mandeep Singh, and Gupta, Anish, & Puri, Digvijay (2022). Atificial Intelligence in Business Development and Agile Software. Second International Conference on Advance Computing and Innovative Technologies in Engineering (ICACITE), 2022, pp. 306-311. DOI: 10.1109/ICACITE53722.2022.9823907.
- Reynolds, K. (2013). Strategic Thinking for Today's Project Managers. Paper presented at PMI Global Congress 2013—North America, New Orleans, LA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
- Schoemaker, Paul J. H. (1993, March). Multiple Scenario Development: Its Conceptual and Behavioral Foundation. Strategic Management Journal, 14 (3): 193-213.
- Steinberger, Tom, & Wiersema, Margarethe (2021). Data Models as Organizational Design: Coordinating Beyond Boundaries Using Artificial Intelligence. Strategic Management Review, 2 (1): 119-144.
- Syrett, Michael, & Devine, Marion (2012). Managing Uncertainty: Strategies for Surviving and Thriving in Turbulent Times. London, United Kingdom: Profile Books.
- Tallman, Stephen, and Shenkar, Oded, & Wu, Jay Valerian. (2023). Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: Use and Abuse of Culture in International Strategy Research. Strategic Management Review, 4 (2): 193-229.
- TechRepublic (2023, December 22). Crucial Skills Gaps in the UK Include AI and Strategic Thinking, According to Red Hat. Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/red-hat-uk-tech-skills-gap-survey/.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a high impact and globally recognized AI, advanced technology, agile, and project management researcher, thought leader, author, and 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, January 24). When Agile, AI, and Strategic Thinking Converge. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/when-agile-ai-and-strategic-thinking-converge.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22277.46565


Short Link for Article
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/ai-agile


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 PMI + Agile Alliance Merger: A Recipe for Success?


Introduction
In a significant move for the project management community, the Project Management Institute® (PMI) and Agile Alliance® announced a merger, effective December 31, 2024, as detailed in PMI's press release and Agile Alliance’s announcement. This union aims to combine the structured methodologies of PMI with the adaptive practices of Agile Alliance, heralding a new era for professionals in the field.
With the merger between PMI and Agile Alliance sizzling in the project management community, it’s only fitting to present a recipe that blends both worlds. Bon Appétit!


Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup of Agile Manifesto Values - The foundation of adaptability and collaboration.
- 2 tablespoons of PMI's Traditional Project Management - Adds structure with a dash of predictability.
- A sprinkle of PMI's Global Reach - Expands influence for widespread appeal.
- 3 doses of Agile Thought Leadership - Infuses bold ideas with a rebellious spirit.
- 1 part Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) - Previously acquired by PMI, it layers in complexity.
- A pinch of Controversy - Keeps the medley lively.
- Generous helping of Certification Programs - Thickens with professional credibility.
- A dash of Agile Events - Enhances community engagement and networking.
- 1 heaping tablespoon of Integration - Ensures Agile methodologies blend smoothly with PMI's framework.
- A few drops of Irony - A nod to Agile’s transformation from disruptor to establishment.
- Optional: A hint of Corporate Speak - Adds a polished, boardroom-friendly finish.
Steps
- Heat Expectations: Begin by heating the industry's expectations in a large pot over medium heat.
- Establish the Base: Pour in the Agile Manifesto Values, ensuring an even spread at the bottom.
- Add Structure: Slowly stir in PMI's Traditional Project Management, ensuring it blends without overpowering Agile.
- Expand the Flavor: Introduce PMI's Global Reach, ensuring it is distributed throughout.
- Infuse Innovation: Gently add doses of Agile Thought Leadership to ensure innovative ideas simmer into the mix without boiling over.
- Layer Complexity and Controversy: Incorporate Disciplined Agile Delivery for depth, and a pinch of Controversy to keep the medley bubbling.
- Thicken the Mix: Add Certification Programs to refine the medley’s texture.
- Foster Community: Diligently mix in Agile Events, ensuring they enhance rather than dissolve the communal spirit of the medley.
- Integrate: Add a cup of Integration and stir until seamless.
- Serve with Irony: Add a few drops of Irony for a reflective touch.
- Garnish as Desired: Optionally, top with Corporate Speak for boardroom appeal.
Serving Suggestion
Serve the PMI Agile Alliance Medley hot at industry conferences, where it will be both critiqued and celebrated. Pair with a side of LinkedIn posts and blog articles for the full experience.
Note: This medley is meant to be enjoyed by all (agile or otherwise) in the project management community. Taste may vary depending on one’s perspective on the merger.

This article was simultaneously published here (the initial, working title was "Recipe for PMI® Agile Alliance® Medley") and on LinkedIn.

Read on for:
- About the Project Management Institute,
- About the Agile Alliance,
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to cite this article,
- A PDF of a stylized version of this article,
- and more.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a leading global association for professionals in the field of project management. Founded in 1969, PMI is dedicated to advancing the profession through research, standards development, education, and certification. With members in nearly every country, PMI offers resources like the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, which is recognized worldwide as a benchmark for project management expertise. The organization also promotes project management practices that drive better results, foster innovation, and enhance career opportunities for professionals across various industries. Through its extensive network and resources, PMI helps in connecting project managers, sharing knowledge, and advocating for the strategic value of project management.

About the Agile Alliance
The Agile Alliance is a global nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting Agile software development principles and practices. Founded in 2001, it was established by a group of leading figures in software development who crafted the Agile Manifesto—emphasizing values like collaboration, customer focus, and adaptability. The organization supports a community of over 90,000 members through various initiatives, including conferences, resource sharing, and local community groups. Agile Alliance has been instrumental in advancing Agile methodologies, providing educational resources, and fostering professional development. Its merger with the Project Management Institute (PMI) aims to enhance the integration of Agile practices with traditional project management, offering new opportunities for professionals worldwide.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a high impact and globally recognized AI, advanced technology, agile, and project management researcher, thought leader, author, and 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,
- Gartner,
- 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, February 3). The PMI + Agile Alliance Merger: A Recipe for Success? (The earlier, working title was: Recipe for PMI® Agile Alliance® Medley.) Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/recipe-for-pmi-agile-alliance-medley.html.


Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.20537.48485


A PDF of a stylized version of this article is here.


Short Link for Article
The short link for this article is https://bit.ly/pmi-aa


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' Role in Advancing Project Management Institute (PMI) Standards Excellence


Introduction
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a globally recognized authority in project management, publishing standards that guide professionals and organizations worldwide. As part of its rigorous development process, PMI engages subject matter experts to contribute to and review its publications, ensuring their accuracy, relevance, and applicability. Scott M. Graffius has had the privilege of contributing to several PMI standards. This article details his involvement.


Graffius was Involved in the Development of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition
- Publication Title: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition
- Credit: Graffius was an expert contributor and reviewer. His involvement was credited in the publication (see visual above).
- Description: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (6th Edition) (PMBOK Guide) is a fundamental resource published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2017, providing the essential knowledge base for managing projects across industries. This edition introduces the concept of Agile and other adaptive project management approaches alongside traditional methods, reflecting the evolving landscape of project management. It outlines 49 processes organized into ten knowledge areas and five process groups, serving as a guide for project managers to enhance project success rates through structured planning, execution, and monitoring. The PMBOK Guide is widely recognized as the standard for project management practices, supporting certifications like the Project Management Professional (PMP).
- Date of Publication: 2017
- If Available, Public Link to Preview of Entire Publication Including Credits Section: Link
The above information pertains to Graffius' involvement in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Sixth Edition. The PMI subsequently released the Seventh Edition. Here are links to it—the current edition—on Amazon:


Graffius was Involved in the Development of The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition
- Publication Title: The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition
- Credit: Graffius was an expert contributor and reviewer. His involvement was credited in the publication (see visual above).
- Description: The Standard for Program Management (4th Edition), published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 2017, is a definitive guide that outlines the principles and practices for managing multiple related projects under a program. This edition integrates the latest insights on program governance, stakeholder engagement, and benefits management, providing a framework for aligning projects with strategic business objectives. It's designed to help program managers navigate the complexities of coordinating, prioritizing, and optimizing resources across projects to achieve broader organizational goals.
- Date of Publication: 2017
- If Available, Public Link to Preview of Entire Publication Including Credits Section: Link, link
The above information pertains to Graffius' involvement in The Standard for Program Management—Fourth Edition. The PMI subsequently released the Fifth Edition. Here are links to it—the current edition—on Amazon:


Graffius was Involved in the Development of The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition
- Publication Title: The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition
- Credit: Graffius was an expert contributor and reviewer. His involvement was credited in the publication (see visual above).
- Description: The Practice Standard for Project Estimating (2nd Edition), issued by the Project Management Institute (PMI), serves as an authoritative guide for professionals engaged in project cost estimation. Released in 2019, this edition provides updated methodologies, tools, and techniques for developing accurate and reliable project estimates, covering everything from initial rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates to definitive estimates. It emphasizes the importance of aligning estimates with project scope, schedule, and resource availability, offering guidance on how to manage risks and uncertainties inherent in estimating. This standard is invaluable for those looking to improve their project management practices, ensuring projects are planned with financial realism in mind.
- Date of Publication: 2019
- If Available, Public Link to Preview of Entire Publication Including Credits Section: N/A
The above information pertains to Graffius' involvement in The Practice Standard for Project Estimating—Second Edition. It remains the current edition. Here are links to it—still the current edition—on Amazon:


Graffius was Involved in the Development of the Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition
- Publication Title: The Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition
- Credit: Graffius was an expert contributor and reviewer. His involvement was credited in the publication (see visual above).
- Description: The Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures (2nd Edition) by the Project Management Institute (PMI) serves as an essential guide for project managers to effectively plan, organize, and manage project deliverables. Published in 2006, this edition explains the principles of creating a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), a key project management tool used to break down project scope into manageable sections. It aligns with the PMBOK Guide, ensuring consistency with broader project management practices. The book outlines how to develop a WBS to clarify project goals, manage resources, and monitor progress, making it invaluable for both new and experienced project managers in various industries.
- Date of Publication: 2006
- If Available, Public Link to Preview of Entire Publication Including the Credits Section: Link

Conclusion
The above publications represent significant contributions to the field of project management. Graffius' involvement underscores his commitment to advancing the discipline with reliable, well-researched and validated guidance for field application. These resources continue to shape the industry and empower practitioners to achieve excellence in their projects.

Read on for:
- About the Project Management Institute,
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to cite this article,
- and more.

About the Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a leading global association for professionals in the field of project management. Founded in 1969, PMI is dedicated to advancing the profession through research, standards development, education, and certification. With members in nearly every country, PMI offers resources like the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, which is recognized worldwide as a benchmark for project management expertise. The organization also promotes project management practices that drive better results, foster innovation, and enhance career opportunities for professionals across various industries. Through its extensive network and resources, PMI helps in connecting project managers, sharing knowledge, and advocating for the strategic value of project management.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a high impact and globally recognized AI, advanced technology, agile, and project management researcher, thought leader, author, and 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,
- Gartner
- 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, February 12). Scott M. Graffius' Role in Advancing Project Management Institute (PMI) Standards Excellence. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/scott-m-graffius-role-in-advancing-project-management-institute-(pmi)-standards.html.


Content Acknowledgements
This article uses limited excerpts from Project Management Institute (PMI) publications (Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures—Second Edition, 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), attributed to the PMI and used under fair use for news reporting and analysis. PMI name, mark, and content are the property of PMI.


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.

Agile's Journey Through the Decades


Introduction
Agile has come a long way since its early days, evolving through decades of adaptation and innovation. What began as a response to rigid development practices has become a global movement, influencing industries beyond software. Along the way, principles and practices have shaped how teams collaborate and deliver value. This article (and the related infographic) takes you through Agile’s history, highlighting key moments that have defined its evolution. Discover the decades of transformation that keep Agile evolving and relevant in today’s world.

Agile Through the Decades
The 1950s
- 1957: IBM began utilizing incremental development in software projects.
- 1958: Software for Project Mercury, the United States’ first human spaceflight program, was developed in half-day iterations.
The 1960s
- 1968: IBM’s Harlan Mills advocated for staged, incremental software development with continuous user involvement.
The 1970s
[Agile took a Disco Nap]
The 1980s
- 1980: Toyota introduced visual control, a predecessor to Agile’s information radiators.
- 1984: Leo Brodie described the concept of factoring, an early influence on code structuring.
- 1985: Tom Gilb introduced the Evolutionary Delivery Model, an alternative to the Waterfall methodology.
- 1986: The influential article "The New New Product Development Game" by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka was published in the Harvard Business Review, laying the groundwork for Scrum.
- 1988: The timebox approach was central to DuPont’s Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping.
The 1990s
- 1990: Bill Opdyke coined the term refactoring, which became fundamental in Agile software development.
- 1991: James Martin described timeboxing and iterations, core components of Agile frameworks.
- 1993:Jim Coplien introduced the stand-up meeting pattern. Scrum was first used as a process by Jeff Sutherland, John Scumniotales, and Jeff McKenna at Easel Corporation.
- 1994: Alistair Cockburn advocated working in increments.
- 1995: Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland co-presented Scrum.
- 1997: Ken Schwaber described the daily Scrum.
- 1998: The Chrysler Goes to Extremes case study detailed Extreme Programming (XP) practices like self-chosen tasks, three-week iterations, and pair programming.
The 2000s
- 2000: Martin Fowler published an article defining continuous integration. Ken Schwaber introduced the burndown chart.
- 2001: Seventeen software development experts—Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Dave Thomas, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Ken Schwaber, and Jeff Sutherland—formulated the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, emphasizing individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change. Mary Poppendieck highlighted Agile’s similarities with Lean manufacturing. Alistair Cockburn coined the term information radiator.
- 2005: Mike Cohn’s Agile Estimating and Planning introduced techniques such as Planning Poker.
- 2008: Kane Mar formally described backlog grooming. Jeff Patton introduced story mapping.
- 2009: The concept of DevOps emerged from John Allspaw and Paul Hammond’s talk on 10+ daily deployments, while Patrick Debois coined the term.
The 2010s to Present
- 2010: Dean Leffingwell and Drew Jemilo introduced the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), designed for enterprise-level Agile adoption.

Conclusion
Agile has continually evolved, proving its resilience and relevance across industries. It adapts to new challenges and innovations. And its core principles of collaboration, flexibility, and continuous improvement remain as vital as ever.
Scott M. Graffius developed a related infographic—'Agile's History, Visualized'—and released it via Exceptional Agility AI. It's also available here.

Many individuals and organizations have made valuable contributions to Agile. This article highlights select major milestones and is not intended to be an exhaustive list.

Read on for:
- About Scott M. Graffius,
- How to cite this article,
- and more.

About Scott M. Graffius

Scott M. Graffius is a high impact and globally recognized AI, advanced technology, agile, and project management researcher, thought leader, author, and 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,
- Gartner
- 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, February 21). Agile's Journey Through the Decades. Available at: https://scottgraffius.com/blog/files/agile's-journey-through-the-decades.html.

Scott M. Graffius wrote this article. He wrote a related article at Exceptional Agility AI.


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.
