“A leader is a person who assists a group of people become a self-organizing, self-managing and self-sustaining team so that he/she no longer has to be a leader for that group.”

This is an interesting definition in contrast to the wikipedia one:

House defines “leadership” organizationally and narrowly as “the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members”. Organizationally, leadership directly impacts the effectiveness of costs, revenue generation, service, satisfaction, earnings, market value, share price, social capital, motivation, engagement, and sustainability. Leadership is the ability of an individual to set an example for others and lead from the front. It is an attitude that influences the environment around us.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership

Pitching Agile to Senior Management – This inability to articulate to senior management why they should adopt agile techniques is ironic considering our focus on communication. Ambler’s experience is that management is often very willing to become more agile if you’re able to describe to them the costs and benefits in an understandable and meaningful way.

Read more: http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/199300107

• Levent’s 10 Mistakes in Transitioning to Agile (10/2006)

To implement Agile processes and minimize business disruption, Ross Pettit (thoughtworks) advocates that IT organizations focus on three primary goals: achieving “completion integrity,” providing meaningful transparency, and removing underlying organizational constraints.

Shaping an Agile process that delivers value is not a selection of prescriptive actions. It is a conscious effort to fit and mature best practices in an environment. Three core questions guide this process:

• What will provide sufficient completion integrity for the work we do?
• What will create meaningful transparency of the work being done?
• What are the underlying organizational constraints that will impede changes in the way work is done?

• Ross Pettit’s Key Success Factors in Top-Down Agile Adoption (03/2007)
• Ross Pettit’s Enabling Global Business Success (07/2006)

And now the best news:

Thanks to Boris Gloger who held the Scrum Master Training in Zurich, May 2007 .

It were 2 wonderful days learning new thoughts on Scrum.

So i am prepared for my future without traditional project management methods.

I am now a Certified Scrum Master.

PHASE 1: Auftauen (unfreeze):

Zu Beginn eines jeden Veränderungsprozesses müssen Widerstände gegen die Veränderung abgebaut werden.

PHASE 2: Bewegung (move):

In Phase 2 kommt der Change-Prozess in Bewegung. Es geht darum, die Veränderungen umzusetzen.

PHASE 3: Einfrieren (freeze):

In dieser Phase geht es darum, Kurs zu halten. Ziel der 3. Phase ist daher, das neue Verhalten zu stabilisieren.

Überprüfen Sie anhand der folgenden Checkliste, ob Sie an alles gedacht haben:

PHASE 1: Auftauen

Kernaufgaben:

• Diagnose stellen: Warum muss Ihr Unternehmen sich verändern?
• Vision entwickeln
• Managementteam ins Boot holen

PHASE 2: Bewegung

Kernaufgaben:

• Ziele ableiten
• Vision, Ziele und Strategien kommunizieren
• Maßnahmen entwickeln
• Verantwortlichkeiten regeln
• Mitarbeiter qualifizieren
• Persönliche Positionierung im Changeprozess erarbeiten
• Veränderungsschritte steuern, kontrollieren und dokumentieren

PHASE 3: Einfrieren

Kernaufgaben:

• Ergebnisse reflektieren
• Stand der Veränderung festhalten
• Kontinuierliche Verbesserung verankern