PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Adopting and Embedding Agile Project Management, what
CURRENTLY, there is a tremendous appetite from industry to adopt and embed agile way of delivery of products and services. Agile has a very strong focus on product delivery. Agile also works well in both project environment as well as business as usual (BAU). When chosen project methodology and agile are combined, project direction, project management and project delivery are optimised to create a complete project management solution. Organisations thinking of adopting and embedding agile in their business units as a way of product and services delivery need to carefully understand that embedding of agile is the “adoption” of agile across an organisation whereas the adoption may require the necessary buy-in from senior executives to support and agree the agile way of working and delivery of products and services. It is therefore important that organisations and particularly project managers become more and more aware of the side effects likely to be encountered when adopting the agile frameworks. Common agile frameworks available are SCRUM are KANBAN and a combination of the two known as SCRUMBAN. There are also other existing agile frameworks used commonly in software development. Most agile flavours are having some common behaviours, techniques, concepts and frameworks and the question is how much of each can be used or how little of each can be used in projects. It is therefore important to have some mechanism to determine some level of agile maturity or optimum usage. It will also be helpful for project managers to know when and how to measure how much of agile is being used or to be used. This measurement can form part of the risk assessment of organisations of teams using agile. The best time to assess or measure the suitability of agile in the team or organisation is when you are determining the project approach. Project approach is part of the section of the project charter or project brief. Under project approach section, the project manager determines or makes a decision in consultation with the team and key stakeholders whether work will be sub-contracted or built by the project team (Make or Buy analysis and decision). The project manager also develops project strategy or methodology to be used to deliver the project’s objectives and meet customer expectations. Agile has risk areas of its own which needs to be addressed and assessed during project chartering and at subsequent milestones or end stage or phase. Generally there is relatively less prominence given to the area of risk in agile however agile concepts mitigate many risks associated with other approaches (e.g. waterfall). The level of formality should be appropriate and risks should be addressed during stand-up meetings. In this discussion we will focus on risks associated with the adoption and embedding of agile way of working for the delivery teams. The areas of risks may be scaled e.g. from 1 to 5 where 5 is the optimum ideal situation. The exercise of assessing risks may be done collectively as a tem facilitated by the project manager. Here are the risk areas indicating optimum scale of 5 respectively: 1. Flexibility on what is delivered a. Flexibility on what is delivered-LEVEL-5: Stakeholders are very comfortable that change is inevitable and needs to happen in order to converge on an accurate product. They are also very comfortable in the role they need to play in prioritising work and they understand that scope of the product and the quality criteria are being flexed in order to protect the level of quality and deadline for what is being delivered. 2. Level of collaboration a. There is a very high level of collaboration amongst all parties involved-Level-5. This is typified by a one-team culture and excellent working relationships both internally and externally. High levels of trust exist and a desire to be helpful is prevale 3.Ease of Communication a. Communication is very easy amongst all parties involved – Level-5. The environment is “communication rich” with face- to-face interactions and visual information is readily available in form of prototypes and models. Retrieval of information is also easy in order to reference knowledge, information or data that is either historical or current 4.Ability to work iteratively and deliver incrementally a. LEVEL-5: It is very easy to deliver benefit to customer by regular partial deliveries of the final product. It is also very easy to work iteratively in the sense that products and understanding can be refined interactively by the frequent delivery of formal and informal deliverables. There is desire to learn experiment and explore (and fail) as well as an overarching feeling of “Think big and start small.” 5. Advantageous environmental conditions a. The overall working environment is very skilled – Level-5; they are very efficient platforms to work from (e.g. tooling, supportive of working in an agile way. Personnel are assigned full-time to their work; they are appropriately communications) Contractual frameworks and compliance considerations are not seen as restrictive. 6.Acceptance of agile a. Level-5, all stakeholders closely involved are fully aware of the behaviours, concepts and techniques of working in an agile way. They have been trained and have experience. They are not only happy to work in this way but they prefer it and understand the advan tages that it brings. Peripheral stakeholders are also aware of the need to carry out their roles in an “Agile friendly way.” Please note level-5 is considered here as the highest optimum level and level levels 1-4 could be determined on a scale basis by the team. This approach is known as Agilometer and pronounced as Agile-O-meter used as a risk assessment tool specifically to address the risks as a result of using agile. It is not advisable to average the scales across the risk areas but rather consider them in isolation The above 6 agile risk areas can be managed or mitigated by the agile team by practicing or using the following 5 five behavioural areas: 1. Transparency: The more information that is out in the open, the better this is for the agile way of working. It enables speed, clarity and engagement, even if the news is not so good. 2. Collaboration: A motivated and respectful team is greater than the sum of its parts if people work together and provide cover for one another. More can be achieved in this way of working than in silos. 3. Rich communication: People should always use the most effective channel to communi cate. Using face-to-face and/ or visualization are many times faster and more effective than words on their own. 4. Self-organisation: People closest to the work will usually know how best to get the job done. 5. Exploration: Projects are difficult and in order to create the right thing you need to work out what the right thing is first. Frequent iteration and rapid feedback provide an opportunity to learn It is also important for the team as well as the project manager to monitor that these behaviours are happening in the team and update respective risk dashboard for enhanced visual reporting. The format of the reporting dashboard can take the traffic lights format to highlight any behavioural area which needs attention. In conclusion Analogously, just like when we embark on a long journey by car, we normally check and assess the car and road detours, terrain, weather and mitigate by having for example misty lights, spare wheels or winter tyres. We also need to take the same precaution with projects as the project is considered a journey from start to finish, especially when determining the project approach during project chartering or assembling the project brief. Project approach on methodology could be waterfall, agile or hybrid depending on whether the project is simple where outputs are fairly simple to predict, complicated project whether there is enormous amount of sub-contracted work or inter-connected components or dealing with a complicated project where output is evolving and difficult to predict with certainty. Agile would be recommended in both complicated and complex project environments. Nevertheless it is also a good idea to assess the use of agile at critical points during the life of the project in order to provide assurance that the project is on course to deliver the right product rightly. This article was written by Dr Laban Mwansa, MSP®, PMP®, PRINCE2® Practitioner, P2Agile®, COBIT®, ITIL®. Laban is a consultant and trainer in project management and specifically trainer/coach in Agile, PMP®, PRINCE2® Practitioner, PRINCE2 Agile® in Zambia, South Africa and Europe for many years. He is also the managing partner of Betaways Innovation Systems and can be reached at: Laban.Mwansa@betaways-innovations.com or WhatsApp +27817029669.
It is therefore important that organisations and particularly project managers become more and more aware of the side effects likely to be encountered when adopting the agile frameworks