Book Review: The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility

 

I'm finally got around to reading "The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility" by Michelle Slinger and Stacia Broderick, which as the title suggests, is a guide for the tradtional software PM to get up to speed with Agile/Scrum.

This book is particular suited for those PMP's looking to leverage their knowledge of the PMBOK and how Agile/Scrum can map to it.  Both authors are PMPs and Certifed Scrum Trainers.  The first third of the book provides a good overview of Agile for those who are not familiar with the method and the jargon used within Agile methods. 

The second third of the book is where the meat of the book is, as Slinger and Broderick break down each of the 9 Knowledge Areas and ITTO (Input, Tools & Techniques, Output) and show how Agile can be utilized.  The strongest chapters are where the authors show how scope, time and human resource management could be substituted with Agile methods: e.g., How a traditional WBS could be broken down into a feature based product backlog, traditional planning schedules with Agile lifecycles (Sprints), and how to incorporate cross functional teams with traditional project resourcing that will allow team members to adapt and learn new skills.  The mapping with procurement management was weak, but then Agile movement has never really addressed this.

The latter third of the book covers the bigger picture topics for the traditional PM looking to migrate to Agile, such as the changes to the roles and responsibility of the traditional PM vs. the Agile/ScrumMaster and some sound strategies on how to overcome this.  There are also chapters on creating an Agile PMO, selling Agile and mistakes to avoid.

Though the book provides a good overview of Agile as well as strategies on how to adopt this for the larger enterprise, the book is really for the traditonal project manager who is well versed in the PMBOK and looking for a way to deploy Agile/Scrum on a particular project.  It is a bottom up approach to bridging the gap between agile and traditional project management.

The authors provide a detailed side by side comparison of each of the ITTOs within each of the nine knowledge areas and how to migrate to a Agile method/process and do so within a vocabulary and framework a typical PMP certified project manager would understand.

Conversely, this book would work for the Agile PM/ScrumMaster looking to see how his/her knowledge areas map to the traditional PMBOK based practices.  I highly recommend this book!