Agile Project Planning: Alex ‘Dr. Jira’ Ortiz Explains His Method
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Is the key to successful agile project planning just a simple diagram?
Alex Ortiz, a renowned Jira project management expert, says yes. In our recent interview with him, Alex explains that at their heart of his agile project management planning is a “snake chart” (or diagram). This chart allows agile teams to plan backwards, starting with the vision for the project’s objective in mind to identify the path toward successful project completion.
With a background as a software engineer and IT project manager, Alex now consults with teams of all different sizes and scopes. His agile tactics and hard-won wisdom have helped agile teams identify workflows, manage dependencies, and ensure that all a project’s components align. And because Alex is one of the project management influencers we love to follow on LinkedIn, we just had to sit down with him to learn more from “Dr. Jira” himself.
Whether you use Jira or other project management tools, Alex’s insights will help you develop tactical skills as a project manager that drive team camaraderie and deliver successful projects.
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Agile Project Planning: Full Interview
Visor’s CEO, Michael “Yaro” Yaroshefsky, sat down recently with Alex “Dr. Jira” Ortiz for our On the Roadmap podcast. Alex is a long-time Visor user. He’s even made videos about how to use Visor as an alternative to Jira Advanced Roadmaps. So, we were excited to bring him onto our podcast to chat about agile project planning (and more).
Our podcast aims to provide actionable insights in 30 minutes or less. We avoid the normal podcast fluff and instead chat with experts in project management about topics that you can learn and grow from as a PM. In this episode, Alex and Mike explore agile project planning, setting up workflows in Jira, and more.
We have the full interview below, along with summaries of key points Alex emphasized during our chat.
Using the “Snake Chart” for Agile Project Planning
“Project managers are the conductors of the orchestra,” Alex reminded us.
To further complicate their job as a conductor, PMs aren’t only holding the vision that their team is working toward; they must also demonstrate to their teams that they are walking the line along with them.
In order to do this, project managers need to have clarity of what the vision is for a project. In addition, they must know the directions that their team is taking to get toward the end vision. To walk between these two worlds, Alex suggests that PMs kick off agile project planning with a “Snake chart.”
This chart helps project managers and their teams work backwards to identify dependencies and other factors that will impact how they approach a project. See this short clip below to hear it explained.
Snake Chart Explanation for Agile Project Planning:
Alex hit home the importance of keeping that end objective in mind when working on projects and holding the vision.
“When you don’t know what the expectation is, you don’t get traction. You get stuck in all these rabbit holes. You need a vision you’re working towards.” – Alex Ortiz
For project managers to gain traction, they need their team to stay focused on work that will drive toward that end objective.
Mike and Alex discussed, at length, how failing to have that vision in mind can turn a project into an exploration that doesn’t actually drive results. When deliverables are expected but the team wastes precious time exploring possible routes they can take, stakeholders’ expectations will likely bit disappointed with how the team prioritized their time.
Holding the vision and working backwards with this Snake chart approach has helped Alex deliver successful projects with many different teams.
Tips for Configuring Jira for Agile Teams
Alex’s nickname, “Dr. Jira” is well earned. He not only has one of the most popular Jira-focused YouTube channels out there, where he teaches Jira best practices, but he also works with many clients.
One theme that he has seen is that companies don’t always have consistency across teams.
One client he spoke about had teams “speaking past each other” due to having different definitions of what things meant, inconsistent ways of estimating work, and divergent workflows.
Because Jira is such a flexible, customizable tool for agile teams, it allows teams to configure it to their liking. However, what Alex brings to the table is a synoptic overview where he can identify where the communication breakdowns are happening.
Similar to the “Snake chart” he uses for agile project planning, Alex likes to create a drawing that details the process teams have when communicating with each other. Only once he has this picture will he create the Jira workflows and processes will he codify this information into Jira by setting up automations and workflows.
Jira Configuration Tips for Agile Teams:
Why Project Management Can Be an Emotional Rollercoaster
Alex Ortiz, in this interview, offers tools and tactics for a role that can feel like “an emotional rollercoaster.”
Project managers have all the responsibility but none of the authority; they don’t actually manage people. Instead, project managers live in a grey area where they must get deliverables out of a team, while not being individual contributors themselves. Project managers aren’t software engineers who are writing code. However, they must work with engineers, testers, and other team members to get tasks done.
Alex emphasizes the importance of not being in “an ivory tower.” The team must know you are on the ground with them, working alongside them.
Alex points out that project managers are often working with developers who are highly skilled and technical people; this is not a group of people who like to admit defeat.
As a project manager, we often have to “fish” for obstacles. It can be hard for developers to admit they are encountering roadblocks. However, when project managers are “walking the line” and have skin in the game with the team, these kinds of conversations can be more natural.
So, Alex really makes a case that building team camaraderie through processes like the Snake chart also help dissolve walls that would otherwise be there.
Conclusion: A Picture Says 1000 Words (Especially During Agile Project Planning)
Alex Ortiz emphasizes to project managers that they must drive results.
By focusing on your end goal and keeping that vision in mind, you, as a project manager, can take the steps needed to achieve the results your stakeholders need.
Alex implores agile project managers to not get lost in excuses for not getting the right things done.
“I feel like too many people are like, ‘it’s too late to be in the sprint,” and come up with all these excuses to not get it done. Just learn to get things done quickly and effectively.”
Agile Project Planning Needs to Focus on Results:
By creating pictures of processes and what needs to actually get accomplished during the agile project planning stages, project managers can set them (and their teams) up for success.
Drive results. Don’t get lost in sauce. And create a picture at the beginning of your process using the Snake Chart method that Alex discusses throughout this interview.
