Businesses have to respond quickly to changing needs - or could waste scarce resources doing the wrong things. We need the ability to anticipate changes so we can develop strategies to realign products and services in time. This is what is meant by ‘agility’, which comes from 'agere', the Latin for ‘to do’ and means the ability to move and change direction and position of the body (organisation) quickly and effectively while under control.
Like the crew of a supertanker, we often can’t move ‘quickly’ – but also can’t wait for opportunities or threats to come over the visible horizon. This means we have to develop early warning systems to see what is ahead as early as possible. Some of the information is unclear and needs analysis to turn it into information to support decisions about how best to respond. Like the supertanker crew, we may also be able to do something about what can be seen ahead. We can move resources to where they are needed most and manage stakeholder expectations
What is Agile Project Management?
Agile Project Management is a practical approach which can help us manage change consistently and effectively. It includes all the common sense ideas from a range of project management methods developed over many years but recognises that we have to be flexible, adaptable and ‘agile’.
By working with stakeholders to understand what is needed, we can plan and make changes that enable us to adjust to new situations. Agile Project Management is about ‘lean thinking’ and making the best use of limited resources, as well as affective coaching and mentoring to build successful, high performing, self directed teams. Notable 'champions' of Agile Project Management include Google and Microsoft, who both use the approach to deliver quick wins in an increasingly competitive environment.
The Agile approach has its roots in computer software development, where people found that requirements were changing too quickly for conventional methods to keep up. A new way of working called Rapid Application Development (RAD) was created to cope with this and gradually built into a set of techniques and management controls that can enable delivery twice as quickly - for half the cost with fewer errors.
Using Agile project Management for non-IT projects
Although it has very technical foundations, most of the principles can easily be transferred to non-IT projects. They are also ideal for managing change where there is a shortage of project management capability and a multi-agency approach is needed.
Agile is about continuous improvement and a focus on minimizing cost and avoidance of waste. As a result of that focus, stakeholders are involved in the early and continuous delivery of outcomes. Agile Project Management is not an alternative to PRINCE2 as the two work well together.
Agile Project Management is:
- Evolutionary – adapting to and anticipating internal and external events
- Modular – with scalable components to meet the needs of stakeholders
- Time-based – dividing work into short ‘timeboxes’ and parallel work cycles with good feedback loops and progress checks
- Simple – as the project evolves it is assumed that the lowest cost solutions are the best unless a compelling argument can be made as to why a more costly solution should be attempted.
- About expecting change – requirements will change over time - and project stakeholders may change as the project progresses
- Based on rapid feedback – the time between an action and the feedback is minimised by working very closely with stakeholders to understand requirements, analyse them and develop an action plan that provides opportunities for feedback.
The features that make a project ‘Agile’ include:
- Satisfying stakeholders through early and continuous delivery of valued outcomes.
- Welcoming changing requirements
- Project Teams and stakeholders working closely together
- Sharing information to and within the Project Team is face-to-face.
- Assuming that the simplest solution is the best.
- The Project Team reflecting on how to become more effective and adjusting accordingly at regular intervals.
Accurately anticipating change
The Agile approach is not a ‘short cut’ or quick way of doing things - the emphasis is placed on some specific things we need to do to make Agile Projects succeed, such as accurately anticipating change. We all have skills and abilities in anticipating change but it is important to make time to really listen to stakeholders. Looking at complaints can be a useful starting point but it is worthwhile setting up stakeholder focus groups to look at particular areas of the project and to improve understanding of what is possible with the resources available.
Tony Riches - Based in west Wales in the UK, I am a published Author and full time writer Follow me on twitter @tonyriches and visit my blogs: The ...
