Historically a large proportion of
companies have used Prince2 or a derivative for their standard project
methodology. However, over recent years the move of companies to a more
dynamic and flexible approach to projects has increased. There are a
variety of these new approaches e.g. scrum, lean etc., which generally
are more about being adaptive.
There are some common misconceptions about the agile methodology:
• It is only related to development projects.
• “Agile” is an undisciplined process of
simply writing code with no planning, no documentation, and no
disciplined methodology for how it is done.
• The only way to be “agile” is to implement pure agile methodologies such as Scrum.
• At one end of the spectrum is the most
extreme forms of traditional plan driven, control-oriented
methodologies like the Waterfall process; at the other end are pure
agile approaches like Scrum, with nothing in between.
Waterfall Model
The truth is that:
• Implementing an “agile” process
requires just as much or more discipline as traditional approaches such
as the Waterfall model, but it is a different kind of discipline. Rather
than relying on rigidly defined and prescriptive methodologies, agile
approaches rely much more heavily on the training and skill of
collaborative, cross-functional teams to adapt the methodology to the
problem that they are attempting to solve.
• Pure forms of agile like Scrum have
many advantages, but they can be very difficult to implement and are not
necessarily appropriate for all business environments and projects.
Many businesses require a balance of control and agility, which may be
more suited to a hybrid approach.
• There are many ways companies can
become “more agile” without necessarily going to the extreme of a pure
agile approach, but it may take a more sophisticated approach to blend
together the right combination of agile and non-agile methodologies and
practices to craft a customised approach.
Agile Model
How can companies fit agile methodologies into an overall business strategy that provides the right balance of control and agility for their business?
Traditional project management e.g.
Prince involves deliberate planning and control methods which makes the
project life cycle phase easily identifiable. Tasks are generally done
in an orderly sequence, which requires a significant part of the project
to be planned at the start. This assumes that the events affecting the
project are predictable and that the tasks in hand are well understood.
The main strength of this approach is that it emphasises the importance
of requirements. The down side is that some projects do not follow a
sequential flow and the clients or stakeholders quite often find it
difficult to completely state all of the requirements at the beginning
of a project.
Agile project management is a highly
iterative and incremental process where all parties actively work
together to understand the scope, identify what needs to be built and
prioritise functionality.
The best approach is generally to fit
the methodology and practices to the business environment and problem
that you are trying to solve, rather than force-fitting a project to a
particular methodology, however, doing that requires a much higher level
of skill and requires developing an understanding of the methodologies
and practices at a deeper level. There are many companies that are
locked into very cumbersome and bureaucratic traditional methodologies
that do not see how to improve that situation because it can be so
difficult to move to a pure agile approach with the added fear of losing
control in the process.
One final thought is that many companies
view project management as an IT tool, but there are many aspects of
project management, especially Agile methodologies, that could and
should be applied to business – especially management and sales
approaches or virtually any corporate initiative.
Kevan Dix - Project Manager - Celerity Limited
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