Business Value vs. Compliance: The Agile Leader’s Balancing Act

 

One of the better books I read recently that gives a broad, yet practical overview of Agile project management is the book by Jim Highsmith titled “Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products, Second Edition” published in 2009.
 

Though I do find the book to be a bit overzealous at times in it’s advocating of the superiority of Agile methods over traditional project management, it can act as a good guide for those from the traditional, process oriented side to get a broad overview of Agile.  He outlines an “Agile Project Management” (APM) delivery framework that incorporates five phases of Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close, which closely maps PMI’s five process groups of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitor/Control, and Close.

What I’d like to talk about is one section from Chapter 2 titled “Simplicity” and especially with regard to the section about “Delivery vs. Compliance”.  Agile practices have a strong emphasis on delivery, since the deliverables of the project are what really bring business value.  I will agree with his assertion that too many process oriented organizations get too pre-occupied with compliance items such as status reports, schedule, and project documentation and mistake these as being the true deliverables of the project, when in fact at the completion of the project, very little and in some cases, none of the business values were realized.

My problem though, is that some Agile advocates have taken this to mean that ALL compliance activities and artifacts should be discarded and use this to site why process oriented project management fails.  The reality is that in many, if not all cases with projects that have a fiduciary obligation to be meet with stakeholders, there will be a need for the Project Manager or Scrum Master to provide status and documentation and if your working in a highly regulated environment like finance or healthcare, there are compliance duties you must adhere to for regulatory compliance and approval that if not met, can be catastrophic for the company involved.

I think this is where a highly competent and experienced Project Manager or Scrum Master would have to employ his/her skills to know what is needed for compliance and minimize or eliminate if possible, these activities from his/her team members so they can work to deliver the project deliverables in a timely manner and with the highest quality.  It will be a constant balancing act to manage and balance the tensions between ensuring compliance and delivering business value.

Contrary to the image of a Scrum Master who steps back and just lets their team self-organize or the traditional Project Manager who micro-manages their team’s task to each line item on the WBS and checks these off for a status report, there are lots of leadership and management skills both subtle and multi-faceted that a great Project Manager or Scrum Master will know how to employ, which will ensure these roles will be in demand for some time to come.

What do you think about balancing business value verses compliance for your projects?