Creative License

Michael Aucoin, D. Engr., PE, PMP is president of Leading Edge Management, LLC in College Station, Texas and author of Right-Brain Project Management: A Complementary Approach. He can be reached at [email protected].

  Agile   Talent Management  

One of the fundamental principles stated in the Agile Declaration of Interdependence is, “We unleash creativity and innovation.” That sounds like a great objective to work toward, but why is creativity important to the agile project and, more importantly, how do we give our teams the creative license to be successful on an agile project?

The agile project requires creativity for two reasons:

1. Agile projects often push the envelope. Creativity is a critical tool needed to stretch capabilities.
2. Agile projects must be nimble. These projects progress best when they follow a framework but are not smothered by arbitrary or unnecessary rules. Creativity offers teams the flexibility to accomplish important objectives while allowing freedom to choose the means that works best.

Consider the story of Apollo 13, the moon mission during which an explosion severely crippled the spacecraft and threatened the lives of the three astronauts. The astronauts landed safely back on Earth only because NASA specialists creatively solved crisis after crisis, even resorting to the use of duct tape! A truly novel situation demands creativity--nothing else will work. But what about the more mundane situations we encounter on our projects? We may grind through the project and persevere, and doing so often leads to mediocre results or stress for everyone involved.

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