A new agile procurement process--one that can operate in conjunction with and alongside an agile software development methodology--should significantly improve both the procurement of software vendor’s services and and successful delivery of software projects. This article will explore the underlying principles as well as map the reconciliation points required to harmonize agile development and procurement methods.
The worlds of classic project management and contemporary agile development are not as far apart as some seem to believe. Whether you are new to project management or a traditionally trained, PMP-certified project leader with years of experience, these five questions should help you evaluate what you can do to become more comfortable with Agile approaches. In turn, Agile methods could start paying dividends on your projects.
CollabNet updates its TeamForge platform and ScrumWorks project management application, focusing on scaling agile to the enterprise through flexible reporting, ease of use and other enhancements.
Agile and earned value are inherently different approaches to managing projects, but they can complement each other in support of flexibility and bottom-line value. Here are three practical tips to help you bridge the gap between an agile approach and the earned value reports and measurements many organizations require.
International Institute of Business Analysis and Agile Alliance seek feedback from users of new Agile Extension to BABOK Guide.
Adult children. Jumbo shrimp. Seriously funny. I’m sure you recognize these expressions as oxymorons — self-contradictory phrases, often with an ironic meaning. Should we add “agile requirements” to the list? Does agile development fit in with traditional requirements practices? And if so, how?
As businesses enter the "new normal" era of economic uncertainty, program and portfolio management offices that remain tactically and administratively-focused will struggle. Successful PMOs in 2012 will move towards a strageic, holistic view that embraces agile methods and increases visibility for executives.
An anniversary event in Utah celebrates the Agile Manifesto, gathering five of the original authors and others to address future industry challenges.
QA in an Agile environment is very different…are your teams ready? Here we look at how QA needs to evolve in order to best support Agile development practices.
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Agile development consists of a series of interdependent planning and delivery rhythms. These agile rhythms, while quite simple conceptually, have proven to be less simple to implement. Yet this reccurring series of meetings and events delivers the reliable beat which allows teams to find their own agile rhythm. Use the resources below to help you get started with or scale your agile efforts.
Agile vendors have done a good job providing project managers and product owners with planning and tracking tools. But the primary creators of project deliverables are software developers, and they have consistently been an afterthought. To scale across the enterprise, Agile work processes must embrace the individual contributors doing the actual work.
Three-day event in Boston will explore how serious play, collaboration and experiential learning apply to the field of agile software development and project management.
Gartner’s new report on the state of the PPM market evaluates 30 technology providers and identifies important trends, including the infiltration of the SaaS deployment model and increasing support of Agile.
A wide variety of technology solutions and services are available to help organizations implement, customize and improve their project portfolio management processes. Here is our April roundup of recent announcements from Daptiv, HP, Oracle, Planview and PowerSteering.
The top three agile methods are all about self-something, and these phrases provide a key to the unspoken core of agile development. And it's Crystal clear that self-awareness is crucial.
The first step in scaling agile is to move from partial methods to a full-fledged, disciplined delivery process. The second step is to understand eight scaling factors and determine which are applicable to the range of complexities your project teams face. Here, agile thought leader Scott Ambler presents his scaling model.
This will be the first in a series of articles that will look to provide the background of issues involved with managing an agile software development project under a traditionally linear and sequential project procurement process. Software development has been deliberately chosen for the example industry since that’s the domain for which agile is most typically used, but for those using agile in other industry domains, the general issues and proposed solution should work equally well within your industry.
Agility is a great process concept for small enterprise shops that have fewer resources and are obliged to keep their energies laser-focused. But for the larger organizations and their equally grand products, this development approach is problematic.
The smart project manager will be aware of agile development approaches--and be prepared to embrace them and adjust their PM approach accordingly. So let's try and bring some sanity to chickens and pigs...
There is lots of great information available on how to use agile methods for custom software development projects, but less so for package implementations. Commercial-Off-The-Shelf solutions make up a large percentage of the IT projects undertaken by companies each year, and many organizations are missing out on benefits that an agile package approach can bring.
The acquisition marks an aggressive move by CollabNet into cross-platform, Cloud-based developer services.
As a manger or coach, if you don’t change a pacesetter’s behavior you run a high risk of being held hostage by one person’s abilities--and pay a cost in team productivity. This article is about a pacesetter as a team member on an agile software development team. We will explain what a pacesetter is, why it’s a problem and the effect that a pacesetter has on agile software development.
As a manger or coach, if you don’t change a pacesetter’s behavior you run a high risk of being held hostage by one person’s abilities--and pay a cost in team productivity. This article is about a pacesetter as a team member on an agile software development team. In this installment, we discuss useful approaches to dealing with these sometimes problematic people.
What are hyper-productive teams doing differently to achieve such extraordinary results? This article introduces you to the key practices used by Scrum teams around the world to achieve hyper-productive results--practices your team can apply right now.
Some love 'em. Some loathe 'em. But these frameworks and schools of PM thought are here to stay. What benefits and challenges do they present? Read on for both sides of the alternative equation...
Using product quality to deliver business value in agile development is vital. This article provides a how-to for progressive change agents interested in delivering products that generate measurable business value for their customers and stakeholders. You’ll learn how product qualities differ from functions, how to identify the right ones, measure them and use improvements to drive business results.
As the project manager, you need to help the customer understand why agile could be a suitable approach for them. Here's some help in preparing them for a wild ride.
What's the right length for you? Establishing an appropriate iteration length in your agile development process is the first step to success.
A new study finds that Agile project teams are 37 percent faster to market, 16 percent more productive, and able to maintain quality even as schedules are dramatically compressed.
Product development requires a unified, collaborative team effort. A social project management framework, combined with the right social tools, helps to connect team activities to the product development process and stakeholders. The benefits include increased visibility, more accurate estimates, responsive, real-time analysis and streamlined workflows.
The Agile2011 Conference drew more than 1,600 attendees to Salt Lake City, where dozens of companies showcased new technology solutions and training offerings. Here is a recap from the busy exhibition floor.
HarperCollins needed an intuitive solution that could manage and track its Digital Technology Services work for over 100 global users. With Innotas’ on-demand IT Governance solution, the publisher was able to manage both strategic projects and sprints with the same tool.
Acquisition of makers of popular Kanban-based project collaboration tool will strengthen Rally’s position in emerging market.
Part 1 of this two-part series introduces the agile engineering principles and practices that, when implemented, enable some teams and their respective organizations to build high-quality software very quickly that will please customers. Organizations embracing these practices--when used in conjunction with agile and lean management practices--can gain delivery advantages on their competitors while managing lower maintenance and support costs in the long term.
Project managers can report progress on agile projects using metrics that may appeal to stakeholders steeped in more traditional practices. Two approaches gaining appeal are agile earned value management and iteration status reports.
While attending a recent course, this writer learned some simple techniques for better defining the customer and their desires. This article introduces some of the techniques that will help ensure teams know who their customers and users are, who they are not and how to create winning solutions for delivering value.
As part of an agile training session, attendees are shown that while there are many roles that are part of the process, they essentially break down into two basic types: pigs and chickens. Which one are you?
Stepping into a predecessor’s mess and facing a ruthless timeline, an IT contractor delivered a critical operations system for the 2010 Census by relying on agile expertise, an essential application lifecycle management tool and above-and-beyond dedication of the development team. But first politics and skepticism about agile practices had to be overcome.
Too many organizations confuse doing agile with being agile. They force adoption through command-and-control thinking combined with predictive planning. That won’t work. In this series of excerpts from their new book, Craig Larman and Bas Vodde share best practices for adopting and scaling lean and agile development.
Despite this global recession, the competitive landscape keeps becoming more urgent and faster paced. You will be expected to keep managing new projects to keep your organization competitive--but will do so with less (and exhausted) resources, tight budgets and more scrutiny for success. How does one meet such challenges and succeed? One of the agile practices tailor made for such an environment is the Lean method.
The 100,000-plus-member organization names Mike Cohn as chairman of the board, joining new managing director Donna Farmer in leading its mission to increase awareness and understanding of Scrum.
The first decade of the new millennium brought agile software development to the fore. What was learned and what does the future hold? Agile innovator and observer David A. Thomas offers his opinions.
And now for something completely different! There’s more than one way to manage a project, so don’t be afraid to shake things up. This writer wants to encourage you to be creative--and to look for different ways to manage your projects.
Here’s our December 2010 roundup of the latest technology solutions and services for project leaders, teams and organizations, including an application to leverage SharePoint … Agile offerings for distributed environments and portfolio-level planning … mobile capabilities for PPM … a free project management tool for small teams ... and more.
Agile practices are not intrinsically “value-adding” — they must be aligned to business needs and goals in order to provide true value. By measuring their agility based on compliance with a particular method, organizations may prevent their teams from adapting practices to suit projects with different characteristics and needs.
Agile adoption outside of software is nothing new--it dates back very close to the origin of today’s agile methods, predating the term “agile”. However, what is new and noteworthy is the rate and scale of non-software agile adoption being witnessed today. Now--as more companies than ever are exposed to agile methods in their IT practices--these methods are being employed beyond the regular IT domain.
Here’s our May 2010 roundup of the latest technology solutions and services for project management practitioners and teams, including collaborative access to the cloud and a variety of Agile offerings for portfolio management, application lifecycle management and dispersed teams.
Students in three countries test the value of an IBM all-in-one development tool as they learn about agile and Scrum.
With an integrated application lifecycle management solution, Rally Software addresses the challenges of transitioning to enterprise agile software development, with an emphasis on engaging communities of users and stakeholders.
A wide variety of technology solutions and services are available to help organizations implement, customize and improve their project portfolio management processes. Here is our August roundup of recent updates and announcements from CA, Daptiv, Innotas, Oracle Primavera, Planview, PowerSteering, Rally and others.
