Sure, there are a variety of ways to present information to your key stakeholders and steering committee and sponsor?
I use the necessary and required tools that are requested/required by the sponsor, steering committee, PMO, external reporting agencies, team and stakeholders.
Ask yourself, what is required, what does my team want, what is required for governance/PMO/oversight, and what is the best fit for this project? You may have many choices but ask yourself what is the best way to maximize what you need, what the team needs and what is required? You may have to pitch your recommendation so understands your choices and trade-offs. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Agree with Naomi. Senior Management like to see timelines, regardless of whether you are running an Agile Project or a Waterfall. your vendors may not necessarily be using Agile or iterative development.
Running an agile project does not mean you need to run a million miles an hour and not produce key documentation like schedules
It is very easy to quickly develop a sprint schedule and timeline in MS Project just for your own clarity. Saving Changes...
Denise CantyAgile Coach, Life Coach, Author, Senior Project-Program Manager| Cenden CompanyWashington, Dc, United States
Thanks for the information. I've only used agile tools like JIRA, VersionOne and I was very curious to those that use the traditional PM tools.
Thanks for the feedback! Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
What does means Agile project? it does not exists. What exists is project management performed in some way following some guide (PMI, PRINCE2, etc) inside an enviroment where some approach is in place. The use of Agile, Lean, Six Sigma, and any other type of approach is totally indpendent of the life cycle model/life cycle process/method you use. But, if you are talking about the use of MS Project in some Agile Solution Delivery Method (SCRUM, DSDM, etc) then I will answer that yes, we are using that software tool inside the organization I am working today. Saving Changes...
@Denise - It totally depends on how you want to use one of them and both of them.
My response will be a mix of both JIRA and MS Project based on my experience.
1. JIRA
- Pros
1. Online tool - u are not bottleneck to update status, progress.
2. Collaboration tools for exchanging information among themselves - this could be next steps, dependencies, blockers
3. Integration with tools like Confluence
4. Real time progress tracking which can also be shared with client like burndown charts etc.
And Many other such benefits
- Cons
1. Huge limitation is "real" scheduling of the project. Gnatt charts, vacation tracking, allocation charts, sequencing of activities etc
2. MS Project
- Pros
1. Scheduling
2. Timeline views
- Cons
1. Not an online tool
2. Collaboration is not possible/limited
I tried to run a project alone with JIRA, however realized pretty quickly that I was loosing control on the overall project schedule/LOE view. Unfortunately while we were running the project in Agile way - we had a high level scope and schedule in place which could not be deviated more than 10-15%.
So net net - I would say, don't discount the MPP. if you dont want to share with the world, keep it in your back pocket. Saving Changes...
Yes, sure. I worked at a company that created an Agile template for MS Project, that was very helpful. You can also search online for examples of this to help you out. Saving Changes...
Satish SharmaCertified SAP S4Hana 1909 Financials Expert| FreelanceNew Delhi, India
MS project is used for Project Planning, Scheduling and Resource assignments. But yes, its not collaboritve as pointed out by Prateek, but as a tool its has tremendous capabilities to be used in any project methodology. Saving Changes...
