In Search of Clarity on an Agile Project

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Agile   Strategy  

I received an email the other day from a former colleague who is now an agile project manager. He’s thoroughly enjoying the role with a company that has embraced the concepts of agile. They’re taking the time to do it right, with extensive use of coaches and training—not only for people involved in the work but also customers and sponsors.

The first line of his email was “I know Agile’s for uncertain solutions, but… ." He went on to explain that the company was using agile extensively for the first wave of projects that had been commissioned as part of the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. His company had to furlough a number of workers, but it wasn’t in one of the industries that was hardest hit. Nevertheless, the majority of previously prioritized strategic initiatives had been put on hold and the company was reassessing how best to deploy its investment dollars to achieve the best possible return.

A lot of the projects were small-scale initiatives designed to improve things while the company figured out where it needed to concentrate its bigger investment plans, but my former colleague had been asked to manage the one major initiative the organization had continued—a project to move all of the company’s customer service staff to a work-from-home model. One thing that had become clear during the pandemic was that the current customer service software was inadequate for…

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