Thought Leadership

Ideas worth taking into the boardroom.

Writing and contributions on AI leadership, value stream management, Lean Portfolio Management, and government transformation, for leaders who have to make the call.

Publications

21+ articles & whitepapers

Published with IEEE, the DevOps Enterprise Journal, Scaled Agile, SD Times, and more.

2025
  • The Hidden Reason Most AI Initiatives Fail
  • The Application of GovOps and Principles of Government Agility
2024
  • Enabling Strategic Alignment with an Enterprise Strategy Room
2023
  • The Future of Government Operations
  • Agile Acquisition and Guidance on RFIs and RFPs
  • 5 Reasons You Need Enterprise Portfolio Management
2022
  • Value Stream Management and Organizing Around Value
  • Writing Effective PI and Iteration Objectives
  • How To Be Agile When Remote Work Is Our Reality
2021
  • Challenging The Way We Organize Around Value
  • 5 Key Learnings for Building Cyberphysical Systems in a Distributed Environment
2020
  • OKR Writing 101: How to Write an Effective OKR
  • How to Be Successful When Remote Teams and Coaching Are Here to Stay
  • How To Land Your First Senior Management Consulting Role
2019
  • 8 Common Reasons Why SAFe® Transformations Fail (and how to avoid them)
  • The Scaling of SAFe Roles and Collective Ownership
  • Creating Great Products with Enterprise Business Agility
2018
  • Agile Contracts: Changing The Way You Work With Vendors Streamlines Your Development
  • Put Time On Your Side! Changing Your Company Culture Through Your Meeting Cadence
2016
  • Who Says Agile Is Just For Software?
2015
  • Big Data Science Is Answering the Questions You Haven't Even Thought to Ask
Speaking

33+ talks, including 3 keynotes

On stage at the SAFe Summit, VSMCon, IEEE Aerospace, DevOps Enterprise Summit, AGILE, and more.

2025
  • From Projects to Pitches: A New Dynamic for Portfolio Funding
  • Driving Customer Centric Portfolio Management
  • Authenticating Principles of Government Agility with GovOps
  • Tactical Tuesday: Managing Change
2024
  • Organizing SAFe Portfolios to Enable Strategic Agility
  • A Lion Tracker's Guide to Portfolio Transformation
  • Connecting Strategy to Execution Through Better Objectives
  • Coaching Trains to Better Communicate Business Value
  • Next Level Lean Portfolio Management
  • Enterprise Strategy Rooms
  • Coffee Club
2023
  • Managing Portfolios of Portfolios
  • Enterprise Portfolio Management in Cyberphysical Environments
  • Business Agility Value Streams
  • Enterprise Portfolio Management
  • Tactical Tuesday: Iteration Goals & PI Objectives
  • Tactical Tuesday: Strategic Themes
  • Tactical Tuesday: PO for the System Team
2022
  • Is Government Agility A Myth?
  • Techniques for Scaling Agile in Government
  • Agile Procurement in Government
  • LPM Experiences from the Field
  • LPM Strategize Guide
2021
  • Value Stream Fundamentals
  • Model-Driven Organizational and Business Agility
  • VSM Enables DevOps and Data-Driven Strategy
  • Quantifying the Value of Ways of Working
  • Connecting Operational and Development Value Streams
  • Digital Transformation in the Age of Covid
2020
  • Distributed PI Plannings
  • SAFe for Business Teams 101
2019
  • Is Lean Portfolio Management A Myth?
  • A Discussion on Complex Cyberphysical Systems
From the Desk

Latest writing

AI Leadership

AI-Native Leadership Is a Decision, Not a Deployment

Most enterprise AI programs stall not because the technology fails, but because leadership never made an actual decision.

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GovOps

Authenticating Agile Principles for Government Transformation

Two years after introducing GovOps, we went back to the field to validate it. Eight principles emerged, tested in real government programs with results that speak for themselves.

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AI Strategy

Clarity Comes First: The Hidden Reason Most AI Initiatives Fail

Most AI initiatives don't fail because the models fail. They fail because the people can't see the problem. Workflow clarity is the foundation everything else depends on.

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SAFe

The Scaling of SAFe Roles and Collective Ownership

There's an ever-increasing demand for clarity in how SAFe layers interact. These two frameworks have made things clearer for clients than any explanation I've given.

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Enterprise Strategy

Enabling Strategic Alignment with an Enterprise Strategy Room

Large enterprises struggle not because they lack strategy, but because they never give themselves the time and space to align on it. The Enterprise Strategy Room is the answer.

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Portfolio Management

Five Reasons Your Organization Needs Enterprise Portfolio Management

Lean Portfolio Management changed how large organizations connect strategy to delivery. But as organizations scale, a new gap emerges. That gap is what Enterprise Portfolio Management is designed to close.

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SAFe

Your Guide to Writing Great Iteration and PI Objectives

Teams often treat iteration and PI objectives as a feature summary. They're not. They're a commitment to business outcomes, and the difference matters.

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Government Agility

The Future of Government Operations

The limitations to government agility are self-imposed. GovOps offers a structured pathway to mission-driven agility that works within, not around, the realities of government.

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Value Stream Management

Value Stream Management and Organizing Around Value

Organizing around value sounds simple. In practice, most enterprises fall into four traps that recreate the very silos they were trying to eliminate.

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Value Stream Management

Value Streams: Challenging the Way We Organize Around Value

SAFe's Value Stream Identification is solid. But it skips the business processes that determine whether your organizational model will actually work.

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Cyberphysical Systems

Key Learnings from Distributed Cyberphysical Programs

Hardware doesn't go remote the way software does. After a year of managing highly distributed teams in classified, cyberphysical environments, here are the five learnings that made the difference.

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Vendor Management

Agile Contracts: How Changing the Way You Work with Vendors Can Streamline Your Development

Fixed-price contracts and agile development are fundamentally incompatible. Here is a practical framework for structuring vendor relationships that actually support the way agile teams work.

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Work With Atlas

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Atlas Revolutions partners with a small number of Fortune 100 and government leaders at a time. If you're navigating a transformation where getting it wrong isn't an option, start with a conversation.

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