"So what do you do?"
See, this is why I hate dinner parties. Now if I
was a doctor, a pilot, heck even a mechanic, it would be easy. I'd just say it
and we'd move on to the meaningless small talk portion of the evening. But no...
I had to decide to become a project manager, even worse an agile project
manager. With a deep internal sigh I sized up the person who had just asked me
the question.
Neil was nice enough, but I could already tell it
was going to be an uphill battle. He was the neighbor of the host who was a
friend of my wife's. I already knew Neil was in Real Estate (he'd left a stack
of his business cards in the bathroom), I didn't relish the next few
moments.
"I'm a project manager."
Neil cocked his head to the side. The look of
confusion on his face was all too familiar. Taking a breath I tried to explain.
I don't know why I did. It's not like I'd ever had any success before. And yes,
I've tried the "I heard cats for a living." I really didn't want to be asked
what circus I worked for again.
"I'm responsible for managing the scoping, planning
and execution of project deliverables with a cross functional team in order to
get a product shipping."
"Oh, so you're a manager?" Neil asked. Of course
what he was really asking was if I was in charge of people. Why is it that a
measure of your worth is how many people call you boss?
I shake my head, "No, I don't have direct reports.
My job is to facilitate the project and help the core team
deliver."
"Like a hostage negotiator?"
I sighed. Smiling, I nodded my head. "Yeah, just
like that."
"Cool."
I wasn’t even going to try and explain how agile
project managers were more like coaches. Not being a sports fan myself I didn’t
want the conversation to go down the rat hole of how I thought the local pro
sports teams would do this season.
Just then I spotted a dark shape duck around the
side of the house. Hiding a groan I excused myself from Neil and left the smell
of BBQ cooking on the patio behind me. Coming around the corner of the building
I found what I feared most.
"Hogarth, let go of that branch."
Hogarth turned towards me still holding onto a
large branch sticking out from the tree in the side yard.. "This is an Arkansas
Black apple tree, do you know how rare those are?"
"Hogarth, you can't eat that tree, it's not
yours."
He gave a sigh and let go of the tree. "Fine..." He
flopped to the ground and picked at the overgrown lawn. "You won't begrudge me a
little grass, will you? I'll give you the secret of explaining your
job."
"Hogarth, I've been a project manager for years.
There are even people in my company that don't have a clue what a PM
is."
Nibbling some of the green grass he looked up at me
a smiled a toothy white grin. "That's ‘cause you never told anyone that you're
R2-D2."
"Wha...?"
R2-D2 - Robot side kick to the Skywalker's of Star
Wars and Agile Project Manager: He's not the hero of the show and he's never been
a leader, but it would be hard to imagine the Star Wars universe without this
plucky little trashcan on wheels. But what does R2 have to do with being project
manager?
Everything! R2 is the ultimate Agile Project
Manager. Or perhaps we project managers are the ultimate R2 Astromech
droids.
R2-D2 knew all about responsibility without
authority: Princess Leia, his project sponsor, assigned him
the project but gave him no resources to do it with. He even had to track down
the product owner for more information. He enlisted C3PO on the force of their
relationship alone. As the project progressed he collected more resources on
influence or by working with his project team.
R2-D2 understood that project requirements
change: When his sponsor first gave him the project it was
very simple, get this message to Obi Wan Kenobi (his product owner) so that
Kenobi could stop the Death Star. But he knew the requirements would change. He
didn't demand a full list of requirements before he headed for the escape pod.
He was confident that future backlog grooming would reveal more requirements. He
also knew that iteration planning would break the epic scale user stories down
into smaller stories and tasks. So he started the first sprint with just a
couple of user stories. Engage existing resources. Get off the Ship. Don’t get
shot.
R2-D2 knew how to motivate his teams: When R2 met Luke Skywalker, he knew who the boy
was. He leveraged past project retrospectives for that (Okay, he was in the
first three movies). So with that in mind do we really think he accidentally
showed Luke the holo of the princess? Heck no! He remembered that Obi Wan
told Senator Bail Organa he would watch over the boy. So by revealing the holo,
not only would he possibly find a clue to where his product owner (Kenobi) was,
but also could motivate the young man to help the project.
R2-D2 knew his job was to guide the use of proper
process, but also knew that sometimes you trust your team: Process said you used a targeting computer when
firing a proton torpedo. But he chose to trust his team member, Luke, when he
turned off the computer. Good thing he didn't stick to rigid process
enforcement, right?
R2-D2 knew all about removing
impediments: Shut down the trash compactor. Fix the
hyper-drive. Stop the elevator from falling. Shift power to the rear deflector
shields. Open this door. Put C3PO's head back on. Put C3PO's head back on,
again. When his project team encountered an impediment he jumped right in and
owned clearing that impediment.
R2-D2 was the ultimate servant leader: R2 knew exactly what needed to happen. After all,
he'd been working on related projects since the Phantom Menace. By the time it
came time to destroy the Death Star, good old R2 knew all the players. He could
have told Luke that Vader was his dad on the first day they met. But he didn’t.
He knew he had to let his team member discover some things himself. Instead he
carefully guided his team member on the path.
He was never the hero, but he always saved the day.
He worked quietly and tirelessly in the background to ensure all went well.
Emperor Palpatine may not have known who he was, but his team did and they
appreciated him for his efforts.
So you see, the next time someone asks you what you
do for a living. Stand up proud and declare.
“I’m R2-D2.”
Joel
Bancroft-Connors
The Gorilla Project
Manager
Want me to talk to your gorilla?
Send me an email
Who is Hogarth? Read Blog 001 to find out all
about my personal gorilla.
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