Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management

Principles of practice

Uses iterations (time boxes) to develop a workable product that satisfies

the customer and other key stakeholders.

Stakeholders and customers review progress and re-evaluate priorities to

ensure alignment with customer needs and company goals.

Adjustments are made and a different iterative cycle begins that

subsumes the work of the previous iterations and adds new capabilities to
the evolving product.

Continuous integration, verification, and validation of the evolving product.

Frequent demonstration of progress to increase the likelihood that the

end product will satisfy customer needs.

Agile PM Principles

Empirical project challenges

The client Doesnt know what they want

The client think they know what they want but are wrong
We dont understand what the client want
We think we understand but we are wrong
We dont know how to do it
We think we know but we are wrong
Changes on external factors alter the objectives
The client has learned along the way that now they want
something different
We have learned along the way that we can offer something
different

Agile project management methodology named OOSP

(Object Oriented Software Process)
The whole project management process is divided into the
four main phases very similarly as in the other project
management approaches.
The main four phases are

Initial Phase
Construction Phase
Deliver Phase
Support Phase

Initial Phase

The Initial Phase includes four main stages:

Input

includes artefacts and information from previous finished projects

together with suggestions of changes and reports of defects

Output

justification (assessment, feasibility study),

Definition and validation of requirements
definition of initial documents
definition of project infrastructure.

entire managerial and planning documentation necessary for

successful completion of all three subsequent phases

Goal

to lay the ground for successful project

Construct Phase

The Construct Phase includes four main stages:

modelling (analyzing, designing),

testing in the small,
generalizing (reusing)
producing (manufacturing) product or prototype.

Deliver Phase

The Deliver Phase includes four main stages:

releasing (assembling),
testing in the large,
Reworking (repairing)
assessing

Support Phase

The Support Phase includes three main stages:

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supporting and identifying of defects

Enhancements (change management)
outage concerned with operation termination and product disposal.

Advantages

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Completely developed and

tested features in short
iterations
Simplicity of the process
Clearly defined rules
Increasing productivity
Self-organizing
each team member carries a
lot of responsibility
Improved communication
Combination with Extreme
Programming

Drawbacks

Undisciplined hacking (no

written documentation)
Violation of responsibility
Current mainly carried by the
inventors

Key Practices: Agile PM

How

You View agile teams

Recognize the difference between formal and informal team

structures and structure agile teams accordingly

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Mold groups of individuals into high-performance agile teams

Integrate these teams into the larger agile enterprise

Encourage Diversified Roles

Define roles holistically so that team members can develop into

Generalizing Specialists (or Versatilists):

Generalizing Specialist

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Someone with one or more specialties who actively seeks to gain new skills
in existing specialties, as well as in other areas

Guiding Vision

Objective:

Key Implications:

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Create a shared vision or mental model for driving behavior on agile

projects. The Guiding Vision is an aggregate of three component
visions: team vision, project vision and product vision
Evolve team vision to drive team behavior
Create project vision to drive project behavior
Facilitate product vision to drive project evolution

Simple Rules
Objective:

Implement a set of simple, adaptable methodology rules that allow

agile teams to deliver business value rapidly and reliably

Key Implications:

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Assess the environment to determine its characteristics

Identify and implementing a simple set of methodology rules that is
congruent with the environment
Hone the discipline needed for continuous and consistent
application of the simple rules

How-To Rules: Key features of the process

Feasibility, Project Discovery

Release and Iteration Planning
Product and Iteration Backlogs
Tracking via Burn-down charts
Team collocated in team rooms
Core team dedicated to project

Boundary Rules: To define allowable action

Estimation done only by performers

Prioritization done only by product owners

Priority Rules: To rank work opportunities

Priorities always decided in Sprint Planning Meetings

Timing Rules: To define and synchronize delivery pace

3-Week Sprints

Exit Rules: To minimize sunk costs

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Sprint Reset allowable in extreme circumstances

Open Information

Objective:

Key Implications:

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Create an open flow and exchange of information among project

team members, and among other associated external groups

Reorganize team facilities and seating to institute agile information

sharing practices
Analyze the time taken to exchange information with external groups
to identify and reduce the information cycle time
Structure conversations on the project team so as to generate
transforming exchanges of information among project team
members

Encourage Information Radiators

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Light Touch
Objective:

Manage agile teams with a style that allows team autonomy and
flexibility, and a customer value focus without sacrificing control

Key Implications:

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Establish decentralized control that defers decision making for

frequently occurring, less critical events to the team
Manage the flow of customer value from one creative stage to
another
Recognize team members as whole-persons and treat them
accordingly
Focus on strengths, rather than weaknesses to leverage peoples
uniqueness.

Build on Personal Strengths

Applying it to Others:

Applying it to Yourself:

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Each person is unique and has unique strengths and weaknesses

whole persons
Great managers recognize that trying to standardize human
behavior is futile, and dont waste their time trying to change people
dramatically
Rather than focus on weaknesses, they build on the personal
strengths of their team members and help them become more of
who they already are
Find out what you dont like doing and stop doing it
"The point is to feel authentic, self-assured or creative

Adaptive Leadership

Objectives:

Key Implications:

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Track and monitor the project for timely and relevant feedback
Institute systemic procedures for learning and adaptation
Help the Agile Manager maintain a leadership presence that animates the
team

Track and monitor APM practices to ensure their proper application and
desired outcomes
Learn and adapt continuously according to the feedback obtained
Embody leadership that inspires and energizes the team

Be aware to the challenges

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It does not satisfy top managements need for budget, scope,

and schedule control.

Its principles of self-organization and close collaboration can

be incompatible with corporate cultures.

Its methods appear to work best on small projects that

require only five-nine dedicated team members to complete
the work.

It requires active customer involvement and cooperation.

Tools

Ace project
JIRA Agile
Agilealliance

Reading

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Somerville Software engineering 9th edition chapter 3