PMI Forum Agile Project Management

1
PMI ForumAgile Project Management

• Winnie Gibson
• Mar 8, 2006

2
Purpose

• Examine the impact Agile software development
  methodologies has on project management of
  software development projects

3
Waterfall Method
4
Tracking Progress
Feedback and Control is complete on activities
and artifacts (e.g. a data model).
5
Pros Cons

• Pros
• Good progress tracking due to clear development
  stages
• Milestones and deliverables can be clearly
  identified.
• Project Management and control
• Cons
• Difficult to respond to changing customer
  requirements
• The lifecycle can take so long that the original
  requirements may no longer be valid by the time
  the system is implemented
• Plans become less precise as they get further
  into the future, decreasing the effectiveness of
  detailed planning and requiring more and more
  re-planning
• Risks increase as projects are planned further
  into the future

6
What is Agile

• Agility is the ability to both create and
  respond to change in order to profit in a
  turbulent business environment.Jim Highsmith,
  Agile Software Development Ecosystems
• Nimbleness and flexibility balanced with
  structure
• Balancing on the edge between order and chaos
  determines success
• "It is not the strongest of the species that
  survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones
  most responsive to change."- Charles Darwin, The
  Origin of Species

7
Agile Methodologies

• A conceptual framework for undertaking software
  development projects providing
• techniques for delivering customer value on
  software development projects
• while creating agility through rapid iterative
  and incremental delivery, flexibility, and
  working code

8
Manifesto For Agile Software Development

• We are uncovering better ways of developing
  software by doing it and helping others do it.
  Through this work, we have come to value
• Individuals and interaction over processes and
  tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
• That is, while there is value in the items on the
  right, we value items on the left more
• Source http//www.agilemanifesto.org

9
Characteristics of Agile

• Small Releases
• Iterative and incremental development
• Collocation
• Release plan/feature backlog
• Iteration plan/task backlog
• Self-organizing teams
• Tracking
• Simple, lean, and adaptable
• Pairingxp
• Test-driven developmentxp

10
An Agile Process Diagram

• Feature 1
• Feature 2
• Feature 3

Release N Theme
R
Release
Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3
Iteration
Backlog
Backlog

• Story 1
• Story 2

• Story 3
• Story 4

• Story 5
• Story 6
• Story 7

• Story 8
• Story 9
• Story 10

• Story 1
• Story 2
• Story 3
• Story

• Story 11
• Story 12
• Story

11
Continuous Delivery
Continuous Delivery
12
Why Agile

• Return On Investment
• Forrester Total Economic Impact Studies (1)
• 5 Companies piloting Agile methods
• 3 yr, Risk-adjusted ROI of 23 66
• Agile Methodologies Survey (2) , 131 respondents
• 49 stated that costs were reduced or
  significantly reduced,
• (46 stated that costs were unchanged)
• 93 stated that productivity was better /
  significantly better
• 88 stated that quality was better /
  significantly better
• 83 stated that business satisfaction was
  better or significantly better
• 1) Forrester Consulting, 2004
• 2) Agile Methodologies Survey Results, Shine
  Technologies Pty Ltd, 2003

13
A Short Comparison

• Traditional Method
• Plan what you expect to happen
• Enforce that what happens is the same as what is
  planned
• Directive management
• Control, control, control
• Use change control to manage change
• Change Control Board
• Defect Management

• Agile Methodologies
• Plan what you expect to happen with detail
  appropriate to the horizon
• Control is through inspection and adaptation
• Use Agile practices to manage change
• Continuous feedback loops
• Iterative and incremental development
• Prioritized backlogs

14
The Continuum
Agile Development
WaterfallDevelopment
Iterative Development
Iterative and Incremental Development
Parallel Development
AcceptanceTest Driven Development
Process
Measure of Success
Conformance to Plan
Response to Change
Culture
Command-and-Control
Leadership /Collaborative
Design
QC
15
Which Methodology

• It depends on what is the problem you are trying
  to solve
• There is no right or wrong

16
Role of the Project Manager

• Embrace Change
• Safeguard the process
• Remove roadblocks
• Act as a sheepdog for the team
• Protects the team
• Eliminates distractions
• Foster team communications
• Maintain unrelenting dedication to teams success
  in meeting its commitments
• Servant Leader
• Deliver Customer Value