The Buzz with ACT-IAC
The Buzz with ACT-IAC
Navigating Federal Tech: Scrum Mastery and Agile Principles at ACT-IAC Academy
In this episode we're in conversation with Manjit Singh, the president and founder of Agilious and an instructor at ACT-IAC Academy. They delve into the importance of agile frameworks, particularly scrum, for government IT acquisition and modernization. Manjit shares his extensive technical background and the significance of scrum mastery in managing projects efficiently. He discusses the role of a Scrum Master, common misconceptions, the importance of asking the right questions, and the impact of emerging technologies like AI. The episode also highlights continuous upskilling and the value of lean principles in achieving productivity.
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Intro/Outro Music: See a Brighter Day/Gloria Tells
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound
(Episodes 1-159: Intro/Outro Music: Focal Point/Young Community
Courtesy of Epidemic Sound)
YOHANNA: [00:00:00] Hey there, buzz listeners. Welcome to this episode where we get to talk to Manjit Singh, president and founder of agius and also one of ACT Iacs Academy Instructors Act. IAC Academy offers top tier educational training designed to elevate the skills of those passionate about leveraging technology in government.
YOHANNA: Our instructors are truly amazing. Get to know one now and enjoy this fun episode.
MANJIT: All right.
YOHANNA: All right, great. If you work in government IT acquisition modernization, or you're simply just committed to getting ahead of what's coming next in federal tech, this episode is pretty, pretty important. Um, so welcome to the buzz.
YOHANNA: My name is Joanna bi, I'm your host, and today we get to talk to one of the instructors behind the Acti Academy. Manji Singh. How you doing Manji?
MANJIT: I'm doing well. I'm doing well. What about you?
YOHANNA: I'm pretty good. A little sleepy, but so far, so good.
MANJIT: Wonderful. At least it's Friday so we can, we [00:01:00] can get some sleep this weekend and we get an extra hour of sleep.
YOHANNA: Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot. That's great. Oh yes. I can't wait. Thank you so much for reminding me. I'm gonna have like three extra dreams with that hour, extra hour. So, yeah. So I'd like to just start by, maybe you can share a little bit about your background, what led you to the work? Um,
MANJIT: thank you for this opportunity.
MANJIT: I'm glad, um, for the invitation to speak on this podcast. Uh, so my name is Manjit Singh. I'm the president and founder of a Judas. We are a highly specialized product development company. Using our expertise in Lean and Agile to develop products by helping our customers build what matters simply and efficiently.
MANJIT: And we work both with government, federal agencies, and commercial clients. Yeah, so my, um, background is technical. I have a master's in computer science and a bachelor's in computer engineering. I started my career as a software developer and, um, just love building new [00:02:00] products and code. Um, did that for many, many years.
MANJIT: And then one of the things I realized was, uh, I didn't have really great exceptional managers, so I thought I can be a better manager than all the managers that I've had. So I pivoted to project management and, um, just before I did that, I had been introduced to Agile. This was back in 2000. I was working at IBM as a software developer.
MANJIT: Um, did like it a lot. But then subsequently was introduced to other frameworks within Agile, uh, in 2005, which was specifically Scrum. And I just fell in love with it. Uh, at that point I'd also transitioned into project management. So I saw the value of an agile way of doing things and how effective it can be when it's done well in a healthy manner, right?
MANJIT: So we all eat food. The food can be [00:03:00] healthy or unhealthy.
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: So, so when you practice agile in a healthy way, it is, it can be eye-opening in terms of what it can help you achieve.
YOHANNA: Oh, yeah.
MANJIT: And, and prior to, prior to getting into government, uh, contracting and government technology, uh, I used to work in the private sector for commercial, um, organizations.
MANJIT: 2005 was when I transitioned to government contracting. Um, so I've been doing that since then. And, uh, just love what I do because I think technology is so powerful that we can use it to better all of our lives and help us, you know, do things better, more efficiently. Save resources, save time. And just be more productive.
YOHANNA: Oh, that's great. Yeah. So solid background. You are slated to lead a session on becoming a Scrum master. Why is this topic so critical for federal professionals right now? What is it about agile and, and being a scrum [00:04:00] master that you believe are, I guess our federal employees can really, um, use Yeah,
MANJIT: so a scrum master.
MANJIT: So, so let me, let me take a step back for those maybe who are listening and, and don't know. So Scrum is a very lightweight framework. It's one of, one of several frameworks within the broader agile landscape. It's a lightweight framework designed to help you manage how you do your work. Ah, it doesn't, it doesn't tell you how to do the work.
MANJIT: It tells you how to manage the work, and it helps you manage and predictability and control risk. Okay? So it's powerful because we live in very uncertain times. And very fast changing times. So if you look at apps on your phone, some of them get refreshed and updated several times a day. Right? That's the pace at which technology is evolving right now.
MANJIT: So how do you keep up with that? [00:05:00] And within the Scrum framework, the scrum master is like the glue that keeps all the pots working well, right? It's, it's. It keeps it all together. It's like the cog in the wheel, or the analogy I often like to use is, if you think of an orchestra, a musical orchestra, it's the conductor of the orchestra.
MANJIT: The conductor is not playing the music. The conductor didn't write the music. The conductor may not even know how to play all the instruments and that the musicians are playing. The conductor's job is to make sure every, every musician on that orchestra knows what to play, when to play at, you know, and synchronizes that so that it's a beautiful music for the listeners.
MANJIT: That's a role of a, of a scrum master.
YOHANNA: So what I'm listening to is also someone who does not know what a scrum master kind of does, and you, you did a really great job of explaining it all. It feels like a [00:06:00] program manager, a product manager. What are some of misconceptions that people often have about this area of work and how, how could you like.
YOHANNA: Reframe it so that it's, it's kind of like a program manager, but not really, and
MANJIT: essentially, yeah. So unfortunately there is no analogy that you can map a scrum master role. Mm, okay. They, they are a, a really effective scrum master is mission neutral and content neutral. What does that mean? So, if you think of a soccer game, a referee is there to make sure the game is played fairly.
MANJIT: Without any, any team, you know, res, resorting to any kind of foul play and so forth, and, and the rules of the game are maintained. So that's the role of a scrum master, right? They don't, they don't, their skin in the game is to make sure the game is played fairly. It starts on time. It ends on time.
MANJIT: Everybody is aware of what their role is. They don't care which team is playing. They don't care how many goals [00:07:00] each team is gonna score. Okay. So that's the role of a scrum master. So it doesn't map to a project manager or a program manager or a development manager or a task master. It's, it's their job is just to facilitate that, makes sure everybody knows what they have to do and help coordinate and synchronize that work.
YOHANNA: So being project neutral and content neutral, do you think that the greatest opportunities for collaboration between like government and industry. It's a scrum master being able to kind of like dip in both worlds or maybe understand both worlds.
MANJIT: Well, the scrum master is basically asking the, the, the, the questions that maybe nobody's asking.
YOHANNA: Okay.
MANJIT: Or even if you are asking, they're making sure that those questions are being asked. Right?
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: Um, why are we building this? Who are we building for? Have we talked to the people for whom we are building it? Is this what they say they wanted? Is this what they want first? Is this what they [00:08:00] want?
MANJIT: Second. Okay. Um, those are the things that, that, those are the conversations that should be taking place on a product development team. And the scrum mastery is making sure that the people who are in the roles, whether it's a product owner or a member of the development team, are getting answers to those questions.
YOHANNA: Yeah. Yeah.
MANJIT: So, so Scrum master. Regardless of what industry they're there to make sure that these, these important questions are being talked about and answers are being, being solicited so that the team that's going to build it knows what to build, how much to build, when to build, and the people who want it build who are paying for it, are communicating what is relevant.
MANJIT: Based on what, what outcomes they're trying to drive. Mission outcomes, business outcomes.
YOHANNA: Yeah, that makes sense. I also wanna understand like, are there any barriers that, that you [00:09:00] think, I guess maybe skills or mindsets that are needed to overcome specific barriers? Like if, if I'm a scrum master and I'm asking these questions and I'm not getting the answer that I want, what do you think I can, I can use to kind of overcome that?
MANJIT: So if you're not getting the answers, then a good scrum master. Would ask team to really pause and get the answers. There is more, there's more time and money lost by just continuing because then you may have to come back and rework.
YOHANNA: Mm-hmm.
MANJIT: You may have to do the rework. Right. So one of the concepts that is, is very counterintuitive and is difficult, especially in a lot of lot of organizations and especially, you know, sometimes leaders want.
MANJIT: Let's go, go, go, go. There is this, this kind of a urge to be fast.
YOHANNA: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
MANJIT: But there is no value in producing garbage very fast.
YOHANNA: Okay?
MANJIT: Right. There is value producing things. There is a benefit and a return [00:10:00] of investment by producing things that are of value, and that is why it is important to go slow to go fast.
MANJIT: What that means is doesn't mean that you purposely kind of dilly dally or procrastinate. It means slow down to understand are we building the right thing? Are we building the right thing? Are we building it right? Rather than have a have a mindset of let's just push out new code and new functionality and new features.
MANJIT: We, we don't be a, a feature factory because research shows that between one, between two thirds to 75%. Features or functionality in a product are rarely used or never used. Yeah, so if you think about that, that's a very high number. Five to 75 or 80% of features in a, in a product are rarely used or never used.
MANJIT: And a, a [00:11:00] good example is if you look at a traditional cable setup box, if you look at those, that remote, it has like 50, 60 buttons. Do we use all those buttons? We don't. At best, we use maybe five or six right power, you know, volume, up and down channel, up and down, mute, right? But we have 50 buttons. We barely use five of them.
MANJIT: So that's a real world example of how only a fraction of features and a product get used. And the organizations that have figured that out are the ones that see huge success. Because they're putting in money on that, which will be used by the majority of the user. It's, it goes back to that 80 20 principle.
MANJIT: Right? And in the software context, 80% of the users will use only 20% of their features. And, and that remote of a, of a cable setup box is a, is a prime [00:12:00] example. 80% of the, of the users only use 20% of those buttons.
YOHANNA: Yeah, that's true.
MANJIT: So I think this, this mindset of understanding this, that less is more is where one can see huge success.
MANJIT: Yeah.
YOHANNA: And it's tough because you hear just, you know, ship it, ship it, ship it. Let's go, let's go, let's go. And it's because technology is also moving really fast. You know, like every seven months there's something new out, there's a new AI thing that's doing something. How can government professionals keep pace without feeling overwhelmed?
MANJIT: I mean, I can, I can speak just from my personal perspective in like in, in our business we took think about how will this move the needle? What outcome will we achieve if we adopt this new product or this new solution or this new platform? There are a lot of new shiny objects that appear, um, [00:13:00] every day.
MANJIT: It's just taking the time to understand how this will, um, provide more efficiency. You know, lean and agile is all about efficiency. You know, agile places its roots to lean and, and lean. There are, you know, there's eight different types of waste. The moment you eliminate those waste, you have high efficiency.
MANJIT: That's what the Japanese did when they adopted this whole lean manufacturing with Toyota, pioneering that lean manufacturing process. So
YOHANNA: mm-hmm.
MANJIT: And that applies in, in pretty much all walks of life. Right? So when it comes to software, um, thinking about about these different types of waste and how the manifest itself, we are working with a customer now that.
MANJIT: Uh, has a broken way in which they gather requirements from their business stakeholders and how those requirements make its way to the, to the agile development teams. It [00:14:00] goes through five different handoffs and it takes them forever. And, and I haven't heard a convincing answer as to why, why there are so many intermediaries between.
MANJIT: The source and the end team that is gonna build it. Right? So this becomes a game of, of telephone and things get lost in translation. And that is a huge, huge source of inefficiency. Uh, and it's not that somebody's doing it intentionally, it is just, it's the nature of the, of the, of the process that is, that is being followed.
YOHANNA: Yeah,
MANJIT: so I think there is, there's a lot that one can learn from lean. The reason the Japanese car makers were so successful, and hence the world knew about, got to know about lean, and it became so prevalent with the American automakers is because [00:15:00] your efficiency, efficiency can be, can go through the roof.
MANJIT: Truly. So, so that's where my passion lies. It's just how do you think about this and how do you, how do you bring in that efficiency? By asking every step that you do, you should ask, will this deliver value to the customer who's paying for it? If no, throw it away.
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YOHANNA: Uh, when you think about. Uh, being more productive and, and efficiency. Is there anything that you can maybe recommend when it comes to like, continuing education or maybe even a habit that can help leaders stay ahead?
YOHANNA: Like, uh,
MANJIT: there are several things that come to mind. I'm, I'm trying to, trying to, um, kind of filter it in my head as to what I would, what I would want to share. I, I think one has to just slow down and think about. What, what is the mission and what will move that mission forward?
YOHANNA: Hmm. So like a habit of being patient?
MANJIT: Yeah, being patient and, and ask. In fact, in Agile, that is a, that is a concept called you have to wait to make a decision until the most responsible moment.
YOHANNA: Oh,
YOHANNA: okay.
MANJIT: Okay. And what that means is it doesn't mean that you procrastinate. What it means is don't rush to make a decision. See if you have all the information to make the decision.
MANJIT: If you don't have all the [00:17:00] information, then you have to wait. You have to seek that information. Once you have the information, then don't sit on it, then make a decision. Because not making a decision is a decision, right? So when you decide not to make, not to decide, that means you are accepting, your deciding in favor of the status quo.
MANJIT: So some of these are very, very, um, what's the right word here? Um, it's a, it's a, it's a state of mind that how you look at things and how you think about things. Um, you know, so there are various things. There is a, there's a great book that I would, I would give a plug for, uh, two books actually. One is called Start With Why by Simon Sinek, my Favorite Authors, and he talks about.
MANJIT: Start with why. When you are, when, when thinking about doing something, think about why. Why are you doing it? What is the end goal? What is the end purpose?
YOHANNA: Hmm.
MANJIT: Uh, and the other one is called, um, change Your Questions, change Your Life, uh, um, by Mary Lee Adams. Okay. Game changer book for me. [00:18:00] And it talks about the answers we come up with is directly correlated to the question that you ask.
YOHANNA: Okay? Yeah.
MANJIT: So think very carefully about the question you're asking and how you're framing it. If there is a judgment or a bias, you are leading somebody towards an answer, you'll get that kind of an answer.
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: Um, so I think these are some, some habits and mindsets that one can develop that helps us, you know, frame our thinking and how we interact with people and how we make decisions and what questions we ask.
MANJIT: Um, so I. Um, that's what I would say. I would say that if you, if you read that book by Mary Lee Adams, if you do find it powerful, please don't practice it on your significant other. We will get into trouble. So I'm mentioning a disclaimer right now
YOHANNA: from, from your [00:19:00] perspective, what are some emerging trends that, that I think were. Are going to reshape how government delivers on its mission in the next three to five years. And when I ask folks this question, it's usually ai, but when you, when. From what I've understood from Scrum master and, and, and, and being agile, I don't, I don't know how AI can, can decide decisions for us.
YOHANNA: Like, it, it feels as if we still have control over that. I don't, I don't see us giving all of our, our like, decision making to the robot just yet.
MANJIT: Yeah. No, I hear you. And a lot of people have similar, similar, you know, thoughts and perspective on ai. Look, AI is, is extremely powerful. It's here to stay. I think it, it, at the end of it, it's a tool at our disposal and you have to think about how do you want to use it, right?
MANJIT: Uh, a hammer is a tool, but that doesn't mean, you know, you go around hammering everything, you know, [00:20:00] just because you have a tool. Right?
YOHANNA: Right. Yeah.
MANJIT: So I think one has to be more conscientious about. Using ai. I think it ends up being, thinking about, and I keep going this, and I, and I hope it doesn't sound like cliche, but it is, what is the outcome you're trying to drive?
MANJIT: That can, and if AI can help you drive that, then use it. But don't use it just for the sake of using it because everybody else is using it.
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: Yeah. So I think want us to think about it from that perspective. It's, it's extremely powerful. We are using it in our business where things that were being done either manually or semi manually.
MANJIT: Can be done by AI much faster and much quicker. Um, we still have to, we still check the output that it produces, but at least we get to that output much sooner.
YOHANNA: Okay.
MANJIT: So, so one is to think about it from that, that lens, and then once you have AI that is trained appropriately within [00:21:00] your domain and within your business, um, data, it can provide insights and give you analysis of things that would take.
MANJIT: Much longer if it was done in different means than using an AI tool. Um, but to go back to your original question, I think efficiency is key. Um, that is waste all around, not just in government, but it's also in, in the commercial and private sector. It's, it's just thinking about what it is that we're trying to achieve.
MANJIT: Um. And, and just being mindful because I'll tell you one thing, the cost, sometimes building something may cost less, maintaining it long term, that cost of ownership is, is high, extremely high. So what do I mean by that? Now if you look at that remote that I talked about, the cable set, top box remote, even though people only use five or six or seven buttons on that, [00:22:00] the manufacturer is manufacturing the remote with 60 buttons.
MANJIT: They have to test it, they have to make sure it works. I I if you know, if, if they have to upgrade it, they have to make sure they're backwards compatible. You see what I'm saying?
YOHANNA: Mm-hmm.
MANJIT: That's how you have to think about it in software. You know the question I always ask sometimes people is. What's the best way to have zero code in your, zero bugs in your code?
MANJIT: Zero defects in your code? What is the answer? Johanna, what do you think?
YOHANNA: I, oh gosh. Maybe, I don't know. Not have any code. That's right.
MANJIT: Not having any code.
YOHANNA: Oh, really?
MANJIT: So don't, don't write code where you don't need to.
YOHANNA: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
MANJIT: Don't, don't, don't build functionality that you don't need to.
YOHANNA: Mm.
MANJIT: That's, that it's a, it's a mini minimalistic mindset, right? Only build what is needed and only as much as that is needed. Don't gold play day don't add bells and whistles, so that [00:23:00] saves you the cost of maintenance.
YOHANNA: Oh, okay. Yeah.
MANJIT: That's so it sounds, I know it sounds very simple, but that's, that's why the simplest things are the hardest, right?
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: If we, if we gather 10 people in a room and say, can you meditate for five minutes? Without opening eyes, without moving any part of your body, just sit on the floor, you know, cross-legged and just breathe. People find it difficult. Yeah, sounds very simple. So the simplest things are the hardest to do.
MANJIT: So that's, that's, that's what I feel is I think with this drive for efficiency, um, it's a, it's a great idea and a great concept. Let's apply it with its true intent, and I think we'll see a lot of savings in cost and effort and time.
YOHANNA: Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah.
MANJIT: Yeah.
YOHANNA: Um, I think there are a lot of changes right now happening, uh, uh, in [00:24:00] government.
YOHANNA: Do you, are, are there any, do you have like advice for anyone that's like early in their government career who wants to kind of future proof their skills?
MANJIT: Um. Three words. Upskill, upskill, upskill, continuously don't stop.
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: Technology is evolving. And the other thing I would say is learn to code. Oh
YOHANNA: yeah.
MANJIT: Never be out of a job because everything that is, that is software and code everywhere in, everywhere in your headphones that you're wearing. You know, in the, in the, in the TV remote, in the car. Our cars have millions of lines of code. There's code everywhere. So if you have electronic toaster, there is code in there.
MANJIT: Seriously. You know, so, so there is, there is software everywhere.
YOHANNA: Okay.
MANJIT: So, so a good way to future proof your career is [00:25:00] to, uh, keep upskilling and, and learn how to code. Because once you understand the concepts of coding, you can learn a new language, a new platform, a new tool, very easily.
YOHANNA: Okay. That's great.
YOHANNA: That brings me to my last question. When you think about ACT IAC and, and the Academy and, and all of the programs, how, uh, how can they help like professionals build skills needed to lead through change? So when you say upskill upskill, I know at ACT IAC. We're identifying places that folks that maybe aren't coders, that aren't engineers, maybe they can upskill in other ways.
YOHANNA: Why do you think programs like the act, IAC Academy, uh, matter?
MANJIT: Yeah, I think the, the Academy is a great idea, and I think the, the, the courses and the learning opportunities you provide, they're well curated and they're designed to meet the needs of the, of the professionals, uh, both in industry and in government, right?
MANJIT: So. Ai, [00:26:00] it's right there. Not too many people understand a lot about ai, right? Our understanding, majority of the people's understanding is limited to what Chad GT can do, you know, but understanding the, the behind the scenes, what Chad GT is doing, how it's, how it formulates the, the, the response to a query.
MANJIT: Um, where is it getting its data? What, what in its response is real and what is fake because, um, the AI models do fill gaps when they don't know they will imagine a correct answer and they will fill that gap to provide a response. And it's, that's called hallucination. So, so, so understanding these things are important because if you are gonna be, you know.
MANJIT: AI is introduced in your organization, you have to use it. Going in [00:27:00] with that understanding and knowledge helps you, you know, looking at the, how to use the tool, how to assess the output of the tool, whatever AI tool you're using, how do you, how do you cross reference things and how do you prompt, you know, that's why you may heard this when it comes to ai, it's called prompt engineering.
MANJIT: Because you have to truly design the prompt.
YOHANNA: Yeah. Okay.
MANJIT: Sometimes when I give a prompt, the prompt is multiple pages, because it has, it has a, a, it has a lot of detail because if you don't provide the detail, the tool, the AI tool will just fill in the gaps by making assumptions. I'll give you one tip, which, you know, some users may, may probably be already be aware of, but one thing that you can do is when you give a prompt, even now, when you give a prompt.
MANJIT: You can always say at the end, please ask me questions if you don't have enough information.
YOHANNA: Oh, that's a good one.
MANJIT: And the AI [00:28:00] tool, and ask you questions. Say You didn't specify this. What do you want me to do with this? And so right there it is prompting you because it, it identifies the gaps. If you don't tell it to prompt you to ask you, it'll fill the gaps by itself.
YOHANNA: Yeah.
MANJIT: But if you turn around and say, please ask me questions if you don't have enough information or clarity. It'll start prompting you and it will say, well, and if you tried, it'll say you didn't specify these five things. What do you wanna do about this? Have you thought about it? So that's, these are, that's why that's, that's why it's called prompt engineering.
YOHANNA: Yeah. That's pretty good.
MANJIT: So, so learns can help tremendously when it comes to, when it comes to using this AI tools. And then there are a lot of other, other things that people are, are learning as to how these tools behave and how they. How they come to the, how they, how they create the, the, the response and present the output.
YOHANNA: Okay.
MANJIT: So I think the academy, you know, as you're looking at these and looking at future courses that you would offer in a catalog, [00:29:00] uh, things that are trending and things that are going to be here. That would be a good, good thing to start offering those types of courses.
YOHANNA: Oh yeah, for sure. I've like listened in on some of our, our conversations for like future courses and stuff.
MANJIT: Yeah, no, that sounds great. I'm happy to support Act I I And thank you for the opportunity.
YOHANNA: Yeah, no problem. Thank you so much. You're so smart.
MANJIT: Thank you.
YOHANNA: Thank you so much for your time. This was, this was great. Um, can anyone, can folks maybe reach out to you on LinkedIn?
MANJIT: Yes, absolutely. So just search for me on LinkedIn.
MANJIT: Manjit Singh. You can also, um, you know, drop me an email. It's manji@julius.com. And would love to talk to anyone who's interested.
YOHANNA: Okay, great. Yeah. Thank you so much. Have, have a good day. That's time. Take care.
MANJIT: Bye-bye.
YOHANNA: Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Buzz. Stay tuned for more conversations and insights in future episodes.
YOHANNA: Until next time, stay curious and [00:30:00] connected.