Five Agile Pitfalls

Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.

  Agile   Estimating  

Agile methods are powerful approaches that bring many benefits to how we undertake project work. However, they are not immune to misuse or failure. The following list of five common pitfalls is often seen in organizations switching to agile. As they say: “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” So look out for these pitfalls and if you see any developing, a side step can be useful to help avoid the mistakes of others.

1. Agile as a silver bullet.Yes, agile methods can save time, increase business buy-in and create a high quality product, but they are no silver bullet. They will not bend space or time and allow you to deliver more work that is possible within the constraints of limited time, budget and resources.

Deciding to switch a doomed project to an agile approach will not make it succeed. You may fail faster, or at least discover realistic progress indicators (velocity) earlier than with a traditional approach--but unachievable goals will remain unachievable. By all means use an agile approach to salvage a core set of valuable functionality from a failing project, but don’t expect agile methods to miraculously make the impossible possible.

2. Agile as an excuse for no discipline.Contrary to some people’s beliefs, agile methods do not abandon discipline and jump straight to coding without the need for plans and estimates. Agile methods …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.