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

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.

  Agile  

This is the third (and final) article in a three-part series on the factors to consider when determining whether an organization, team or project is “ready” for agile. The first and second articles discussed the major factors when determining whether the sponsoring organization is prepared to fully embrace agile practices and whether the project team is ready to begin using agile practices. This third article continues the discussion by examining factors that are specific to the project itself and whether it is really suited to an agile approach.

Project Suitability Factors
Like the factors discussed in the earlier articles, the list of factors below is not exhaustive. It does, however, contain the major factors that indicate whether or not the project is compatible with an agile delivery approach. These factors vary in importance from project to project, however, and some may not even be relevant for an individual project. Yet, these factors are the ones that are relevant for most candidate projects.

• Moderate-to-High Level of Change: Agile approaches are best suited to high-change and high-complexity project scenarios where frequent iterative feedback cycles give a chance of keeping projects in synch with changing business needs. On a high-change/high-complexity project, the costs of starting up and closing out the iterations is offset by the …

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