Agile and Project Management - DrunkenPM Radio

In this episode, Dave Prior chats with Alex Sloley, an agile coach and Scrum Alliance Board candidate, about the evolving landscape of Agile, Scrum, and the impact of AI on teamwork and project management. They explore how community involvement, technological innovation, and leadership can shape the future of Agile practices.

Key Topics
• The significance of community engagement and serving through roles like the Scrum Alliance board
• The accelerating pace of iteration in Agile driven by AI and technological advancements
• How AI is transforming Scrum practices, from sprint durations to team collaboration
• The importance of adopting AI-guided discipline without losing human judgment
• The evolving skills required for future developers and project managers
• Vision for Scrum’s evolution to keep pace with rapid technological change
• The role of the Scrum Alliance in fostering innovation and listening to its members
• Strategies for balancing Agile principles with modern remote, digital work environments
• The necessity of healthy conflict within governance and leadership to drive progress
• The importance of positivity and realism in navigating industry change

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction to Alex Sloley and his background in Agile and Scrum
01:00 - The importance of community service and board participation in the Agile world
02:00 - Personal motivations for running for the Scrum Alliance Board
04:40 - Current state of the Agile community amid industry transformations
05:50 - Embracing change and the role of AI in agility and operations
09:55 - Integrating AI into Agile processes for discipline and efficiency
12:52 - AI as pair programmer and thinking partner for developers
17:40 - Rethinking Scrum practices in an AI-driven environment
20:26 - The potential for AI agents as part of Scrum teams and digital team members
24:56 - Revitalizing the Scrum Alliance: Listening to members and fostering innovation
28:08 - What members should expect from a visionary Scrum Alliance Board
32:25 - How to connect with Alex for insights into AI and Agile
33:01 - Closing remarks and encouragement to participate in the Scrum Alliance elections

Contacting Alex
• Web: https://alexsloley.com/
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexsloley/
• Alex’s book The Agile Community https://alexsloley.com/books

Vote in the Scrum Alliance Board Election!
Remember, voting ends June 24. Make your voice heard to shape the future of Agile leadership and community.

In this episode, hosts Dave Prior and Stuart Young sit down with Carl Smith, a "philosophical futurist" and leader of The Bureau (https://thebureau.community/), a community of over 1,500 creative leaders. The conversation explores how to "tune up" your personal and professional systems to better serve yourself and others by embracing vulnerability, mindfulness, and the power of imperfection.

Key Topics and Takeaways
- The Trap of Busyness vs. Productivity: Carl shares a recent "reset" triggered by a Saturday morning spent staring at spreadsheets. He discusses the danger of moving from a "creating" mindset to a "protecting" mindset, and how his attempt to become more efficient unintentionally made his team inefficient. 

- Energy Management and Burnout: Carl defines burnout as a state where you send all your energy out and none comes back. He uses a slot machine analogy to describe how different interactions can either deplete or replenish your internal "jackpot". 

- Self-Regulation Power-Ups:
-Speed Journaling
-NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Relaxation)
-Nose Breathing (Yes, it's a thing)
-Health Tracking Systems and why you might need more than one
-Stoicism


Links from the Podcast

No One Is Coming to Save You: The Power Ups to Help Surf the Chaos https://tinyurl.com/5dsh2n4v
The Bureau of Digital https://thebureau.community/
Breath by James Nestor https://tinyurl.com/38uemcx4
Outlive by Peter Attia https://tinyurl.com/4e5a6nc3
The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins https://tinyurl.com/2rpwe93u
Project to Product by Mik Kersten https://tinyurl.com/2rksj6bw
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman https://tinyurl.com/46xeh8nn
Everyday Stoicism by Gareth Southwell https://tinyurl.com/5c5n5392
Daily Stoic Podcast byRyan Holiday https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily-stoic/id1430315931
Life Saver Graphics LLC —https://tinyurl.com/yfr95r8u


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Systems of Imperfection
03:22 The Importance of Self-Care and Productivity
05:50 Navigating Work Overwhelm and Chaos
08:55 The Role of Community in Professional Growth
11:45 Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
14:50 Mindfulness Practices for Better Living
17:47 The Power of Authenticity in Leadership
20:59 The Intersection of Technology and Humanity
23:59 Stoicism and Its Relevance Today
26:54 Embracing Imperfection and Learning from Mistakes
29:52 The Future of Work and Community Engagement
32:57 Creating Value Through Collaboration
35:54 Final Thoughts on Being Human in a Digital Age
56:09 Outro.mp4

Contacting Carl:
The Bureau of Digital: https://thebureau.community/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-w-smith/

Contacting Stuart 
- linktr.ee/stuartliveart

Contacting Dave 
-linktr.ee/mrsungo

The Journey from Project Manager to Chief of Staff with Darby Strong

In this conversation, Dave Prior and Darby Strong explore the transition from project management to the role of chief of staff, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal skills, empathy, and systems thinking. They discuss how experiences in the restaurant industry can shape effective project managers and the significance of creating a supportive work environment. The dialogue highlights the need for leaders to be aware of their impact on team dynamics and the importance of fostering a culture of collaboration and trust. In this conversation, Darby and Dave explore the nuances of leadership roles, particularly the differences between project managers and chiefs of staff. They discuss the importance of trust, courage, and the ability to absorb ambiguity in leadership. Darby shares her personal journey and insights on transitioning from project management to a chief of staff role, emphasizing the need for cooperation and systems thinking. The conversation also touches on the significance of taking action and the value of interdisciplinary approaches in effective leadership.

Takeaways

- The restaurant experience provides valuable skills for project management.
- Effective project managers are often generalists with a systems thinking approach.
- Communication and empathy are crucial in leadership roles.
- Creating a supportive environment helps teams thrive.
- The role of chief of staff involves strategic partnership with leadership.
- Project managers can influence organizational culture positively.
- Understanding team dynamics is essential for effective leadership.
- Compassion for leaders can enhance team performance.
- Interdependence is key in collaborative work environments.
- Project managers should focus on nurturing both teams and leadership.
- Chiefs of staff need to absorb ambiguity for clarity.
- Building trust takes time and consistent effort.
- Courage to be candid is crucial in leadership roles.
- Project managers can transition to chief of staff roles with the right mindset.
- Creating systems for cooperation is essential in leadership.
- Influence is a key skill for project managers and scrum masters.
- Taking action can help overcome inertia and open new opportunities.
- Interdisciplinary approaches can enhance leadership effectiveness.
- Understanding natural systems is vital for effective project management.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background
02:58 The Restaurant Experience and Project Management
06:03 The Importance of People in Project Management
08:56 Transitioning from Project Management to Chief of Staff
12:04 The Role of a Chief of Staff
14:53 Navigating Leadership and Team Dynamics
18:02 Empathy and Perspective in Leadership
25:26 Interdependence Day: A Unique Celebration
26:10 Traits of a Chief of Staff vs. Project Manager
30:12 Building Trust and Courage in Leadership
32:23 Absorbing Ambiguity: The Role of a Chief of Staff
33:20 Transitioning from Project Management to Chief of Staff
35:15 Creating Systems for Cooperation
37:12 The Influence of Project Managers and Scrum Masters
41:56 Taking Action: Overcoming Inertia
43:42 Interdisciplinary Approaches in Leadership

Contacting Darby
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darbystrong/

Discover how AI can be seamlessly incorporated into Scrum teams to enhance productivity, storytelling, and problem-solving. Claudio Lassala shares real-world experiences of leveraging AI to fill skill gaps, automate tasks, and scale solutions, challenging traditional notions of team roles and developer identities.

Key Insights:
• The importance of teaching AI your principles for better, personalized outcomes
• AI's role in automating routine tasks allows developers to focus on high-value stakeholder engagement
• Emphasizing a solution-oriented mindset rather than coding as an identity
• Managing resistance by framing AI as a problem-solving partner, not a threat
• Continuous re-skilling and mindset shifts needed for teams to thrive with AI
• Leaders should focus on enabling their teams to leverage AI ethically and effectively

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction and Claudio's background in IT and agile coaching
02:21 - How AI is integrated into Scrum teams
03:45 - Using AI to write user stories and acceptance criteria
05:24 - The importance of conversations and stories in Agile
07:01 - Teaching AI to reflect team principles and critique solutions
08:15 - Addressing fears of losing roles with AI integration
09:42 - Resistance from team members and how to approach it
11:08 - Demonstrating productivity gains with AI-driven planning
12:13 - Balancing automation with the human touch in problem-solving
15:03 - Clarifying misconceptions about AI automating all tasks
16:38 - Managing detailed task decomposition with AI
18:04 - The evolution of developer roles and knowledge retention
20:17 - Using analogies like cars with carburetors to explain technological shifts
21:34 - Passion projects and opportunities AI unlocks
23:29 - How AI might change the identity of developers
26:38 - The need for continuous retraining and knowledge updating
29:43 - Supporting team members in adapting to AI tools
33:01 - Leadership strategies for leveraging AI ethically and effectively
36:16 - Personal storytelling: AI in content creation and blogging
37:04 - Claudio’s favorite guitar solo and closing thoughts

Contact Claudio
• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudiolassala/
• Web / Blog https://lassala.net/
• Improving https://www.improving.com/profile/claudio-lassala/

Endava set out to reinvent how IT services get delivered in an AI-native world. Dava.X.AI is the group inside Endava driving that shift. Miro is the workspace they're building it on. Together they've shipped Davaflow — an AI engagement lifecycle that runs from signal to explore to govern to evolve, with humans and agents working alongside each other the whole way.
On the latest drunkenPM Radio, Matt Cloke (CTO, Endava), Joe Dunleavy (Global Head of Dava.X.AI), and Dave Ross (Evangelist at Miro) talk about how the three came together, what real partnership looks like when two roadmaps quietly merge into one journey, and what it took to actually make it work.
Full episode is live.

Takeaways
- Reframe from value capture to value creation — don't use AI to make existing processes 10–15% better, reimagine the work entirely from an AI-first perspective.
- IT services hit its "ChatGPT moment" two years ago when clients and analysts started asking Endava why they were needed if AI could just write the code.
- AI is becoming a method, not a tool — just as Agile organized humans to do work, this new method organizes agents and the people working alongside them.
- The technology question is largely settled; the change management question isn't — quality has hit the inflection point, and what remains is the human shift, much like Waterfall-to-Agile.
- DavaFlow runs in four phases — Signal, Explore, Govern, and Evolve — moving from identifying the right problem, through virtual personas and prototypes, to governing agent output, to evolving in production.
- Chat is the wrong interface for most of this work — humans are visual creatures, and tools like Miro give LLMs context that a chat box never could.
- AI-driven work can produce better traceability than humans ever did — every decision and prototype connects back through the chain of thought, what Joe called "traceability on steroids."
- Anyone can buy the tools — what separates enterprise work from vibe-coding chaos is policy-as-code, defined skills, and human-in-the-loop checkpoints.
- Adoption happens in baby steps, not the full vision — showing people the end of the journey overwhelms them, so start at signal and layer in each next step.
- The hardest part is the identity question — engineers liked writing code and designers liked crafting prototypes, and the shift is a growth-mindset problem, not a skills problem.

Links from the Podcast
Endava: https://www.endava.com/
Dava.X.AI https://www.endava.com/dava-x/dava-x-ai
Miro: https://miro.com/index/

Upcoming Miro Canvas Events
Main Canvas 2026 landing page: https://canvas.miro.com/
Register for the streaming event on May 19 where Joe will be speaking:  https://canvas.miro.com/sanfrancisco/virtual-keynote
Register for the in-person event on May 19th in San Francisco where Joe is speaking live:  https://canvas.miro.com/sanfrancisco
Register for the in-person event on June 2nd in London where Matt will be speaking live: https://canvas.miro.com/london
Register for the in-person event on June 16th in Sydney where Wesley Fagan the APAC SVP for Strategy and Chief Design Officer at Endava will be speaking live: https://canvas.miro.com/sydney

Contacting the Guests
Matt Cloke https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcloke/
Joe Dunleavy https://www.linkedin.com/in/joedunleavy/
Dave Ross https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmross/
Dave Prior https://linktr.ee/mrsungo

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Endava and AI Transformation
08:54 Navigating the AI Landscape: Challenges and Opportunities
17:52 The Evolution of Miro and AI Integration
24:00 Dava Flow: The AI Engagement Lifecycle
25:49 The Power of Visual Context in AI
27:03 Enhancing Contextual Understanding with AI
29:12 Temporal Dimensions in Decision Making
31:27 Navigating Change in Organizational Mindsets
35:40 Demonstrating Value to the C-Suite
38:13 Embracing the Future of Work
41:09 Amplifying Human Creativity with AI