How do you bridge the gap between SCRUM Agile Approach and Traditional Waterfall?
Saby WaraichCIO | CISO| Clackamas Community CollegeOr, United States
I work in a public sector entity. Most of the projects being done follow traditional waterfall. There is a need to be more Agile.
How do you bridge the gap? Any best practices out there? Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I worked in the public sector from years including the fact I was the leader of a program that got an award from the PMI. In the last one we use a mix of methods where DSDM was the main method we used. First of all, Agile is not a method is a practice then you can apply Agile with waterfall life cycle process. We did that and lot of others did that (SAP based methods for example). My recommendation is taking a look to the new PMBOK Guide version because is a very well explanation about all related to life cycle models, process, methods I think will help you. BUT take into account: each thing you use to make something will impact the organization as a whole and the decision is because it will solve a problem. Here a paper I wrote and was published by the PMI and the IIBA that perhaps it helps at least to give you another idea: https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-pos...-right-solution
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1 reply by Saby Waraich
Dec 22, 2017 4:54 PM
Saby Waraich
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Thanks Sergio. I will look into the information.
Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Depends on the projects that you are doing
Much easier with Software development projects, not so much with construction projects I have heard.
One of the first things you can bring agility into Waterfall projects is Instead of waiting for fortnightly , weekly or monthly meetings to discuss the project progress, why not do a Daily Scrum?
This improves stakeholder engagement, team cohesion and communication and helps identify gaps . For example , you may discover a key stakeholder that needs to be informed about the project or a team member that requires additional coaching. You may even be able to solve risks and issues faster than a traditional waterfall approach.
Next, you can break down the waterfall project into discrete phases
Plan a discovery Phase /Feasibility Phase where you are doing a market scan on choosing the best vendor out there. Go no further than planning to select the vendor. Produce a Solutions Options Paper at the end of the phase. This way you don't plan all the phases until execution and you are still using Rolling Wave Planning, but are more agile.
Next you have the build phase. No need to document all the requirements up Front.
Once you have the Vendor or the development team , do incremental requirements and development phases where you begin with a smaller set of requirements, develop the working product features to those specifications, get customer sign off on product acceptance for that phase Then start the planning and development of the next phase
You are therefore making sure that you are incrementally producing a working product, service or outcome.
Agility could apply even for process improvement type projects where you achieve quick wins first and then plan for the detailed phases to achieve subsequent objectives.
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1 reply by Saby Waraich
Dec 22, 2017 4:58 PM
Saby Waraich
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Thanks Deepesh. We are planning to daily standup meetings and try to implement some processes. The challenge comes in public sector is that you have limited resources and the trend is to keep doing more with less. 70-80% of the work team is doing is operational and rest 20-30% is new projects and innovations.
I appreciate your thought and feedback,
Does the gap need to be bridged, or do you just need to sell the benefits of Agile for the projects that could benefit from it? And also sell the disadvantages of waterfall in a project that would benefit from Agile?
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1 reply by Saby Waraich
Dec 21, 2017 7:02 PM
Saby Waraich
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The gap need to be bridged. We know the benefits of Agile for the projects but how do you make it possible when you can't implement a pure SCRUM and sponsors and stakeholders are not educated about Agile approach and still expect traditional waterfall project management. There needs to be a fine balance.
Saving Changes...
Saby WaraichCIO | CISO| Clackamas Community CollegeOr, United States
Dec 21, 2017 6:59 PM
Replying to Sante Delle-Vergini, PhD
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Does the gap need to be bridged, or do you just need to sell the benefits of Agile for the projects that could benefit from it? And also sell the disadvantages of waterfall in a project that would benefit from Agile?
The gap need to be bridged. We know the benefits of Agile for the projects but how do you make it possible when you can't implement a pure SCRUM and sponsors and stakeholders are not educated about Agile approach and still expect traditional waterfall project management. There needs to be a fine balance. Saving Changes...
Kailash KantProgram Management| DLF Ltd.New Delhi, Delhi, India
The benefit of agile begins with breaking of cilos.
Agile has more to do with the organization structure / its functioning.
Traditional organization would more likely be a Functional Organization and agile cant simply be implemented in such situations. Agile would require a Projectised Organizational setup. You may find some headway in a mix-and-match kind of organization (i.e. Matrix organizational structure).
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Dec 22, 2017 5:59 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Good to read somebody that puts Agile in the real context: organizational level. "Beaking silos", that´s the idea and it is the key success factor to use Agile. Just one comment: when you work on in you can not throw away the actual organization what is "silos" based and you have to maintain it and making things to put some kind of layer to integrate it. Trying to add something business analyst role was created to do that (remember it was created on 1993 not today and not for the PMI).
You bridge it with your heart and head first. It is about your mindset how you approach work to get it done with value. The general ideas and principles of agility are not new, do not refer only to IT and have been mainly borne in manufacturing industry with high influence from japanese company experiences in product development. The discussion agile vs. "traditional" leads to nothing - I fully support Sergios comments, as he is always on alert on this topic.
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
Dec 22, 2017 6:01 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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Fully agree with you @Peter. It is not because you named me is because when organizations and people understand what you stated it is simple to work with Agile.
Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Dec 22, 2017 1:44 AM
Replying to Kailash Kant
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The benefit of agile begins with breaking of cilos.
Agile has more to do with the organization structure / its functioning.
Traditional organization would more likely be a Functional Organization and agile cant simply be implemented in such situations. Agile would require a Projectised Organizational setup. You may find some headway in a mix-and-match kind of organization (i.e. Matrix organizational structure).
Good to read somebody that puts Agile in the real context: organizational level. "Beaking silos", that´s the idea and it is the key success factor to use Agile. Just one comment: when you work on in you can not throw away the actual organization what is "silos" based and you have to maintain it and making things to put some kind of layer to integrate it. Trying to add something business analyst role was created to do that (remember it was created on 1993 not today and not for the PMI). Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Dec 22, 2017 4:15 AM
Replying to Peter Ambrosy
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You bridge it with your heart and head first. It is about your mindset how you approach work to get it done with value. The general ideas and principles of agility are not new, do not refer only to IT and have been mainly borne in manufacturing industry with high influence from japanese company experiences in product development. The discussion agile vs. "traditional" leads to nothing - I fully support Sergios comments, as he is always on alert on this topic.
Fully agree with you @Peter. It is not because you named me is because when organizations and people understand what you stated it is simple to work with Agile. Saving Changes...
It's important to understand the difference between agility and an agile methodology. The former is about mindset and behavior which is applicable to any and all projects. The latter depends on mindset and behavior to be successful but is usually relevant to a subset of an organization's projects.
Agile transformation requires exceptional change management - top-down and bottom-up support is required to be successful, and the journey will be measured in years, not months, so patience & a willingness to play the long game are critical.
Kiron
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1 reply by Saby Waraich
Dec 22, 2017 5:00 PM
Saby Waraich
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Thanks Kiron.
Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
It reminds me of a friend who asked how he could run faster. A runner told him: "run faster".
How do you do Agile? Just do it. Saving Changes...
