On This Episode of No Doubt, Let’s Go! Coach Reggie interview Anupam Beeharry, an enterprise transformation expert with 14 years of experience leading complex programs.
Anupam discussed his approach to removing bottlenecks and implementing delivery intelligence through a three-layered dashboard system tracking cycle time, throughput, and WIP aging metrics.
He emphasized the importance of listening over talking, focusing on building trust with a “coalition of the willing” rather than convincing resistant stakeholders, and using data-driven decision making to address overcommitment and burnout issues.
Anupam shared his methodology for handling red status items by investigating root causes and improving transparency, while also discussing how to translate technical risks into business terms for executive leadership.
Career Transition and Agile Opportunities
Coach and Anupam discussed Anupam’s current career situation and upcoming transformation work with a company in Wisconsin. Anupam mentioned being between jobs and taking the opportunity to reflect on his career direction.
Coach noted that the Agile industry is experiencing a resurgence due to AI, and introduced Anupam as a guest on “No Doubt, Let’s Go!” show, highlighting his extensive experience in enterprise transformation and his work on delivery intelligence.
Task Management and Priority Setting
Anupam discussed his approach to managing tasks and identifying priorities by observing and listening carefully to others. He emphasized the importance of asking probing questions to understand the root of issues and help others think through solutions rather than immediately providing answers. The conversation then shifted to discussing bottlenecks and the note-out method, though the specific details about bottlenecks were not covered in the provided transcript segment.
Agile Adoption and Transition Challenges
Anupam discussed challenges with agile adoption at Sun Life, noting that resistance often comes from employees who don’t believe in the methodology, while others are fully committed.
He emphasized the importance of working with “coalitions of the willing” rather than trying to convince resistant individuals. Anupam also shared insights about transitioning teams from Rally to JIRA, highlighting the need to address data preservation concerns and demonstrating the limitations of JIRA for program management at scale, which often requires additional tools like Jira Align.
Project Discipline Restoration Strategies
Anupam and Coach discussed approaches to restoring discipline in project management, particularly when dealing with red-rated projects. Anupam explained his method of first investigating how a project moved from green to red status, often finding issues with assumptions or lack of transparency.
He emphasized the importance of building trust with teams by addressing transparency and clarity issues, rather than focusing solely on tool usage or structure.
Command and Control Implementation Challenges
Anupam and Coach discussed challenges in implementing command and control systems and building execution discipline. They explored reasons why organizations struggle with following established processes, including lack of executive decision-making, priority changes, and team dynamics. Anupam highlighted how initiatives often stall due to complex dependencies, misalignment, and the need for clear ownership and buy-in from executives and product owners.
Delivery Intelligence Dashboard System
Anupam described a three-layered delivery intelligence dashboard system that tracked JIRA data, manual inputs, and metrics like cycle time, throughput, and WIP aging. The system helped teams and leadership identify bottlenecks and improve predictability by 20-25%, allowing for data-driven decision making. Anupam also explained how technical risks were translated into business impacts for executives by demonstrating how technical work could affect delivery timelines and production stability, helping leaders understand the dollar value of technical decisions. The discussion ended with Coach asking about how the system prevents overcommitment and burnout, but this part of the conversation was not included in the transcript.
Team Burnout Prevention Strategies
Anupam discussed strategies for avoiding team burnout by implementing better capacity planning and early communication of plans to the organization. They emphasized the importance of data-driven planning using delivery dashboards to help teams avoid overcommitment, particularly by considering factors like context switching and support needs. Anupam also highlighted how PI planning often reveals teams being over-allocated, with workload typically peaking at 120% early in the planning cycle before tapering off later.
Product Development Decision-Making Strategies
Coach and Anupam discussed the balance between qualitative and quantitative decision-making in product development. Anupam emphasized the importance of not being too rigid and suggested validating gut feelings through SMEs and small tests before making major changes. They also talked about how to convince stakeholders to stop doing something by creating a decision environment where stopping becomes rational. Regarding transformation, Anupam advised listening on the ground, getting a mentor, and understanding pain points before starting, emphasizing the importance of proper preparation and guidance in leading change.
