Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Naricar, put what ever label you like, agile, extreme, etc. The only trend in PM is to accelerate the process with good govenrance. Trust me the CEO does not lay awake at night wondering weather projects are being run via agile, extreme, traditional or any other label... All they want are projects that achieve the intended outcome, on time, on budget or better.
So focus on what tools and techniques need to be used to achieve that goal and you will go far. Saving Changes...
Bipin Lekshmanan PMPProject Manager| Wipro TechnologiesEdison, Nj, United States
Agree completely on that. The results matter in business! Saving Changes...
R. Max WidemanMr.| AEW ServicesRichmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
I have no idea what "Agile" project management is - an obscure meaning designed to attract attention perhaps? If however, the intent is to imply and apply the "Agile" methodology of software development to the discipline of project management, then this can only be seen as a skillful attempt to conduct a project without the tedious business of being accountable for time and cost. Good try!
The real problem is trying to start the execution of the project before you really know what has to be done. After all, it is much more fun "doing" a project' than having to figure out what it is that you should be doing.
In this regard, there is a very good Gantthead case study/article/approach here:
http://www.gantthead.com/wiki.cfm?ID=233030&authenticated=1
I'm PMP, Prince2 and Agile qualified (CSM). The real power in project management is when you cherry pick the most relevant parts of each methodology. If you go straight into a project with a rigid method, you will most likely fail. Right now I'm rolling out a very large program in London and New York, and the one thing that has made this work is tailoring. I'm using the best practises from several methodologies. With regards to Agile PM, I think it depends on your definition. If it’s empowering PM’s to adapt and change to that particular situation, then its got to be a good thing. Saving Changes...
R. Max WidemanMr.| AEW ServicesRichmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Congratulations, Anthony, I am sure you are doing a good job and no less than I would expect. You said "Agile PM, I think it depends on your definition". Most likely true. Would you like to give me a definition?
Max Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
Actually, "Agile Project Management" is a misnomer. Think of it as "Agile Program Management" and you will be closer to the reality.
The iterations in agile development are really the essence of projects done in 1 - 4 weeks. It is at the iteration level that one has fixed scope, time, and budget. Scope is determined and fixed at the start of an iteration. Level of effort is determined. At the end of an iteration, product has been produced. It is evaluated and a lessons learned is conducted. It is an approach that seems to get the necessary buy in from the team so that the niceties of project management are actually performed.
Taking this approach lets us look at a series of iterations as a program. Throughout a program, one expects to have multiple deliveries. One also expects that the projects within a program are scheduled based up priorities not dependencies. This is where agile management meshes well with software development.
Good software is often defined as having low coupling, which is another way of saying that the tasks do not have very many dependencies. There is nothing implicit in most of the tasks that requires adherence to any specific sequence. This allows tasks to be scheduled based upon prioritization and allows reprioritization of uncompleted tasks.
The value of this approach to customers is that should initial estimates prove incorrect, the customer is no longer faced with the choice of either getting nothing or extending the contract with the hope that some value will be achieved by the end of the extension. In an agile program approach, the customer can choose to accept what is currently available or continue to fund enhancements with visible increases in capability for each iteration.
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R. Max WidemanMr.| AEW ServicesRichmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Wayne, I agree with you and the "iterative" approach you describe. However, it all looks remarkably like the "RUP" approach. Is it really any different? Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
Hi Robert, because there are so many variations of agile development, it is difficult to give an absolute answer. I am aware of at least two RUP adaptations called "Agile Unified Process", http://www.ambysoft.com/unifiedprocess/ and http://home.comcast.net/~salhir/TheAgileUnifiedProcess.PDF . There is Scrum, which I would consider neutral in regards to RUP, and there is Extreme Programming / XP, which I would consider almost a complete rejection of RUP. In whatever version, however, I feel adoption of agile development will require changes in the way one does business.
I would describe the defining concept of agile as frequent releases or deliveries. This is often a culture shock; many organizations are unprepared to deliver more than every 6 - 12 months. There are some benefits that can be leveraged by this approach. A somewhat anecdotal description was provided by Frank Hayes in a recent ComputerWorld column, http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...rticleId=292237
Some of the changes are: one is no longer concerned with "When will it be done?", decision making is quicker and done just in time, and the cost of a "failed" iteration is kept small. Everything is done on a smaller scale requiring a reduction in complexity and hand-offs in the process.
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R. Max WidemanMr.| AEW ServicesRichmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
Wayne: What is interesting about this exchange is that we are now discussion deployment of a variety of methodologies, or variations of a methodology, that inevitably vary with the technology that we are faced with, or the technological conditions that we are working under. Whereas, the thread started out by discussing "Agile Project Management". It is my view that managing the project, i.e. how the project life span should unfold together with its various project management processes, is quite different from adopting a suitable methodology to manage the development of the technology involved. In other words, I think we are beginning to talk about two different animals that are nonetheless frequently confused.
Max Wideman Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
Max, I agree. One of the problems with current descriptions of agile is that they cover the low level details of particular implementations rather than how agile affects an organization. To go back to my original point, shifting from a fixed scope, single delivery approach to an indeterminate scope, multiple delivery approach affects how the entire business operates. This is something that should be a concern all the way up to C-Level executives. I feel it is a change for the positive, but it affects more than just programmers writing code.
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