Looking for some key lessons that you could share on what have you faced when adopting or incorporating an agile methodology for project execution. Are you 100% agile? Are you hybrid? What is the nature of the projects you execute and how have you adapted these methodologies? Please share. Saving Changes...
Reporting project progress to senior management can be a challenge. They are used to having a set of milestones, knowing when things are completed. Under Agile, you are technically never done. This can be difficult to impress upon them. Be prepared to find a happy medium. Saving Changes...
Melissa SabileProduct Owner| Internet Network and EngineeringSacramento, Ca, United States
If you have a roadmap that shows where you're heading, it can be a lot easier to get your team and leadership on board with agile. Our roadmap shows the time frame of the sprints we are doing along with the major elements of the development work we are completing within that sprint.
Generally, our sprints are three weeks long and we are releasing new functionality every 5 weeks. If something new becomes the priority, we adjust the roadmap accordingly. This process has made it a lot easier to show leadership where we are heading since it is all tracked in the roadmap (which also makes it easier for them to speak to the agile process to their senior leadership).
Not going to lie, it took about 2 years to get all the development team, product managers, and leadership on board, but now that we are all on the same page we are so much more efficient in our work. Saving Changes...
Ruth Marina Lopez PerezResponsable TI| INSTITUTO DE PREVISION SOCIAL MILITAR - NICARAGUAMasaya, Los Madrigales, NindirÃ, Nicaragua
The most difficult thing that I have faced, has been risks not identified by extreme trust in the expert staff.
I can not be 100% agile because the organization is not, nor does it have a plan to be agile.
I can affirm that according to the nature of the project, I use a hybrid or agile approach.
The nature of my projects are technological infrastructure and maintenance to information systems.
The lesson learned in my last project, not having extreme confidence in the expert staff, should always be intuitive and proactive. Saving Changes...
Lonnie PacelliAuthor & President| ProjectManagementAdvisor.comBellevue, Wa, United States
Here are a few:
1. "Agile" is not code for "Anarchy". Make sure there is a good governing architecture that everyone subscribes to.
2. Effective agile requires deep business domain expertise embedded into scrum teams. If you don't have the domain expertise you'll have lots of rework in later sprints
3. Don't underestimate regression testing effort to ensure work in current sprint doesn't break features developed in prior sprints.
4. It's OK to be hybrid where you follow waterfall-like steps in a sprint, particularly if the culture is heavy waterfall.
5. Don't let the methodology become a project in and of itself. Agile is just the means to getting work done. Don't make agile the focus of the work, particularly with stakeholders. Let the speed to market speak for itself. Saving Changes...
"This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy."
