Project Management

Are You Ready to Go Agile? (Part 1 of 3)

PMI Durham Highlands Chapter

Kevin Aguanno is the agile practice lead for Procept Associates Ltd., one of PMI’s first Registered Education Providers, specializing in training and project and programme strategy consulting. Author of over 30 books, audiobooks and DVDs on project management topics, he teaches agile methods at several universities and at conferences around the world. He spends most of his time helping large, complex organizations integrate agile project management methods into their governance frameworks.


Topics: Agile, Business Case, Estimating, Governance, Strategy

Many organizations have struggled with their early agile experiments. They have tried to pilot agile methods in a small part of their businesses to see if the approach can work in their organizational cultures and management frameworks. Due to the issues faced by these early experiments, however, these organizations typically cannot answer the simple question: “Are we ready to go agile?”

In my own consulting practice, I offer an agile readiness assessment that has been very popular. This assessment is based on factors in three areas:

  1. Is the sponsoring organization (the “client”) prepared to engage fully in an agile manner?
  2. Is the project team prepared (and willing) to begin using agile practices?
  3. Is the project well-suited to an agile delivery model?

This three-part series of articles examines these questions in more detail. This first article examines the factors that indicate whether the sponsoring organization is ready (and able) to modify the way it works to increase the chances of a successful agile project. Factors to consider include cultural, structural and management elements.

Sponsoring Organization Readiness Factors
While not an exhaustive list, some of the most important sponsoring organization readiness factors are discussed below.

1. Single Sponsor– Since agile methods involve closer working …


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