PM at Noon Chapter Event, March 4^th, 2026, Noon – 1pm CT

A link to the session will be sent after Registration

Speaker Name: Steve Adolph

Presentation Title: Strategic Agility in the Age of AI: Remove Zombie Projects with Lean Portfolio Management and AI

Speaker’s Biography

Steve is a Strategic Advisor at Scaled Agile, where he pursues his passion for improving people's working lives by working differently and building the future. Steve's been in this industry longer than he cares to think about, and if you remember Fortran, TTL, 8-bit logic, and can solder, then you’re probably in his demographic.

Steve started his career doing engineering and building cool things like telephone switches and railway signaling systems. Around the late 90s he was seduced by the dark side of greater salary plus an office with a door that could close and moved into management. There, he became interested in how ways of working and organizational culture influence enterprise outcomes.

Steve has worked with a wide variety of clients using SAFe to better their way of working for nearly 15 years. Steve has written numerous papers on agile and software engineering. He has authored several books on analysis, including the recently published “The Rock Crusher.”

Education-wise, Steve has a PhD in electrical and computer engineering and is a SAFe SPCT. But despite that, he is still an OK guy. For fun, Steve enjoys the usual West Coast lifestyle: skiing, hiking, kayaking, and complaining about housing prices. There is a nasty rumor circulating that Steve is an opera fan.

Presentation Description:

 Zombie projects are initiatives that quietly trap capital while delivering little or no value. Possibly over half of projects are zombies and can reduce enterprise shareholder value by more than 30%.

 Despite growing investments in AI, many organizations still struggle to detect these initiatives early. Even then, despite early detection of a zombie project, traditional portfolio management practices, create friction that slows decision making and action. This undermines strategic agility and traps investment that could otherwise be redirected to more promising opportunities.

This session introduces a 4-level maturity model that explains why AI alone isn’t enough—and how Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) clears the path to smarter, faster investment. You’ll learn how to spot trapped capital, eliminate friction, and build a learning portfolio that adapts in real time. Key Takeaways:

• Identify the four levels of AI-powered portfolio maturity—and why most organizations stall at level 1.
• Recognize how zombie projects thrive in the gaps between insight and action.
• Understand why AI without LPM is often starved of the data it needs.
• Learn how LPM enables faster, frictionless investment shifts.
• Take away patterns for building an adaptive, learning-driven portfolio.

To sign up for the event, go to our menu calendar, click on the event you would like to register for and go to the bottom of the page to register as an individual  https://pmi-milwaukee.org/calendar

To claim your PDU after the event (the link works) consult 
https://pmi-milwaukee.org/static/uploaded/Files/Documents/How_to_claim_one_PDU_for_a_chapter_event_-_revised_in_March_2022.pdf

For any question before or after the event, please contact speakerscommittee@pmi-milwaukee.org