PMI-ACP Certification: Agile Project Management (Beginner)

This lesson will be very short and very clear. You are going to learn here what Agile project management means. This we can call the starting point, and with this we begin our course on Agile Project Management Essentials. And, please don’t expect more than the essentials in this course, the other courses that form the mentioned Certification Program will come with the rest of the information.

The Science of Better Learning

Agile project management has several key characteristics:

• it relies on cross-functional teams that work in short iterations, and
• uses an incremental approach to development;
• it also focuses on business priorities and customer value, and
• strives for continuous improvement.

Benefits of agile project management in relation to more traditional management approaches are that it can:

• reduce risk,
• speed up delivery,
• generate more value, and
• reduce the cost of making changes.

In 2001, representatives of different agile software development methodologies met to promote the development of the agile approach. They called themselves the Agile Alliance and drafted the Agile Manifesto which outlines basic values for agile development. In turn, these values are underpinned by specific principles.

The authors of the Agile Manifesto are Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, and Dave Thomas.

Twelve agile principles describe the four agile values in more detail. The first six principles are:

• to focus on satisfying the customer
• welcoming change
• delivering working software frequently
• ensuring that business people and developers work together
• motivating the individuals involved in development, and
• using face-to-face communication whenever possible

A development model is a guide to the development process, to help ensure that no important aspects of development are overlooked. Traditionally, development models were highly defined and linear. The trend now is toward more empirical models that include iterative and incremental processes, to provide greater flexibility.

The waterfall (also known as traditional) model divides the development process into five phases:

• Requirements
• Design
• Development
• Testing
• Deployment

Traditionally, a project plan is a document that helps project managers execute and control the phases of a project. It clarifies a project's objectives and how they can be achieved. Information included in a project plan typically includes the project's scope, cost, and schedule, as well as its activities, deliverables, milestones, and resources.

Highly defined and empirical development methods also differ in their approaches to product inspection, and to the adjustments required in response to customers' reviews of deliverables. Consider the differences between two teams that are developing a cell phone service, each using a different model.

The traditional iron triangle of constraints identifies three main types of constraints on the success of a project - scope, cost, and schedule. Change to any one of these constraints will affect the others. The quality of a project depends on satisfying all three constraints.

Based on the Agile Project Management model derived by Jim Highsmith, agile project management can be divided into five phases:

• Envisioning
• Speculating
• Exploring
• Adapting, and
• Closing.

Like the agile approach, traditional project management can be described in terms of five key phases. These are:

• Initiating,
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling, and
• Closing.

Each of these differs in specific ways from the corresponding agile phase.

Agile development avoids the prescriptive, plan-oriented approach associated with traditional project management, and makes use of self-organizing teams. However, it is a common misconception that agile projects don't require project management.

Project management is still necessary. But, the traditional responsibilities of the project manager may be handled differently and possibly be spread out across members of the agile project team.

You can implement agile project management using different methodologies. Although every agile methodology has different characteristics, they all maintain essential agile principles. Three widely used agile methodologies are:

• Scrum
• Extreme Programming - also known as XP, and
• Lean development

Other agile methodologies include the Crystal family of methodologies, Feature Driven Development, or FDD, Dynamic Systems Development Method - or DSDM - as well as Adaptive Software Development - also known as ASD. The methodology you choose should depend on what will best suit a particular project.

Section Project (Optional)

Congratulations! You finished the The Agile Project Management Essentials course!

After completing the first part of the course - called The Agile Approach -, you are now able to:

• understand the characteristics of agile project management, and why is this important;
• distinguish between primary and secondary agile values, and how this might help you in your work;
• recognize and apply agile principles in your projects;
• recognize and use the differences between defined and empirical methodologies; and
• compare the agile triangle of constraints with that of traditional project management.

Wise project leaders are able to examine their own situations and determine which agile practices to adopt given the nature of their projects, organizations, and teams.

This video will help you understand better the content of the other courses that will form this Agile Project Management - The PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) Certification Program.

Organizations across the world are using agile project management to get superior results. But this doesn't mean that the move from traditional to agile project management will be easy. One of the main challenges is overcoming the various myths and misconceptions about what an agile approach involves.

The approach you adopt doesn't have to be purely agile or purely traditional. Instead of viewing different project management methodologies as black and white, you should view them as points along a continuum, with many shades of gray.

Agile development requires just enough documentation. Creating unnecessary documentation is considered a waste of valuable development time.

Although agile methodologies were first geared towards software development projects, they're not just development methodologies. Instead they're project management methodologies.

Planning in Agile looks very different. In agile development, there's no work breakdown structure or time-phased and resource-assigned task list. Instead Agile uses just-in-time planning.

Various misconceptions about agile methodologies may prevent or hinder their adoption. Learn agile project management to apply it effectively.

Using an agile methodology may have a tremendous impact on a project. It can shorten development cycles, improve quality and efficiency, lower costs, and result in better customer satisfaction.

Some project types are more suitable for agile development than others. An agile approach is especially suitable when a project is characterized by a high level of internal uncertainty, a scope that isn't well- defined at the start of a project, and a product that benefits from ongoing customer feedback.

The structure of an organization is one of the key factors that determines how easily it will be able to transition into using an agile methodology.

The nature of the existing project management processes in an organization will help determine how easily a team can adapt to using an agile methodology. Generally, the more flexible and informal these processes are, the easier a team will find the transition.

The nature of your organization's industry is an external factor that may affect the suitability of an agile approach. Industries that are relatively stable tend to focus on updating or improving products that have already been tried and tested. They have a steady customer base and know their product and competition.

Which characteristics indicate that agile practices may be appropriate for this company and project?

It's not always appropriate to adopt a fully agile approach to project management. Organizations might not be ready to commit to the level of change and training that this requires.

Different agile methodologies use different techniques for defining requirements, and project teams may customize these to suit their needs.

Another general agile practice you can adopt is iterative development with incremental delivery. Instead of completing all project work and then delivering the result to the customer for review, you focus on completing regular, short bursts of work and delivering the results to the customer at the end of each cycle.

A final agile practice that can benefit most organizations and projects is frequent, open communication among project team members, and between the team and the project customer.

Agile methodologies don't generally prescribe exactly how you should manage a project. Instead they define principles that you can interpret and implement in your own way. By introducing these principles gradually into your workplace, you can transform the way your project teams operate.

Although lean principles can form the basis of an agile mindset and are generally easy to implement, they're not the only core principles used in an agile approach. Once you've introduced these principles and your team is familiar with them, you can begin introducing other agile principles.

An important step in the process of adopting agile practices is to obtain buy-in from stakeholders in your organization. Switching from a traditional approach to project management to an agile one involves making significant changes – and change can be difficult for people to accept.

When communicating the need for change to stakeholders, you should focus on explaining the weaknesses of the traditional – or waterfall – model your organization currently uses.

The next step in convincing others of the need to move from a traditional approach to a more agile one is to explain the potential benefits for the organization. When doing this, you can focus on three main benefits – reduced risk, improved control, and improved communications.

Statistics that prove the effectiveness of Agile practices to review some statistics you can use when explaining the benefits of adopting an agile approach.

When you tell stakeholders about agile project management, you should be open about the risks or pitfalls involved. This gives the message that you're not trying to convince them to use agile practices, but that the organization's interests are a priority and that you want them to make an informed decision.