What you must know about Agile Projects In this changing business environment, Executives and Professionals are struggling to find answers to some basic questions about Agile Project :- 1. What is an Agile project? 2. Why do you need an Agile Projects? 3. Who can Manage an Agile Project? 4. Where does this concept come from? 5. When do you need Agile Project? 6. How to execute an Agile Project? The above 5W1H is applicable for any project and obviously we must know these for any product or project from its ideation to retire. Let’s try answering some of them. Agile Project can be any type of project where requirement is not very clear and complexity can be defined at a high level at the start of the project. People may argue that “All of my projects fall under the same category”. I would reply “Very good. Hire Me”. To understand the concept of complexity and requirements, an Agile Practitioner must know some basic information about the Organization environment. It is preferred to have an Agile Certified Practitioner or the person who knows the concepts, methods, approaches and basic information about Agile tools can only help you Manage an Agile Project. If you want early value that means you need to adopt Agile Approach. When “you foresee changes in business environment”, “competitors strategy is not visible at all” and probably “the project area is not completely dependent on regulatory and compliance requirements”, then thi is the right time. To execute an Agile project, the Organization should be ready to adopt changes, involve and collaborate with the execution team, trust the product than the explanation, believe in the emotional intelligence of the team during execution and ready to accept the statement “making mistakes is not uncommon”. The concept is not new and it has been implemented in almost all Industries and Agile Certified Practitioner Certificate is from PMI (Project Management Institute).
I was thinking.. Is Agile Manifesto applicable to Non Agile Projects..?? The way Alistair Cockburns Failure Mode speaks, it can be appplicable to any projects. Probably the execution of the method may be different. Just a thought!!
Agile is something which I have been fascinated by ever since I heard about the concept. Agility as such has always struck me as a state of nirvana, where ordinary people perform extraordinary tasks together as a part of a team. I was struck by the opportunity to understand the concept where teams can be motivated to perform impossible tasks. As I prepared myself for the certification, realization dawned that the principles and values of agile are not much different from the principles I try to follow in my everyday life. I took to agile like a fish to water. Learning more about the principles, values, planning, approaches, and mainly people centricity of the various methods was an eye opener. Agility cannot be taken lightly. Everyone will not be able to implement it. It is a state of mind, purely based on trust, where the business and IT work together to deliver value to the stakeholders. Trust is a key factor, as business and IT are part of the same team, and need to build a relationship where they gel together to churn out valuable software, which ultimately makes the life of the stakeholders easier
The one basic and very important think that I liked about Agile Methodology is - Why did it start? There may be many answers but look at the below points:-
There is a natural tendency with the humans to :-
1, Make Mistakes 2, Prefer to fail conservatively 3, We are creatures of habbit 4, We are incosistent
So if you follow any standard methodolgies, you are boud to fall in betweem one of the above and hence reduce the success percentage.
Agile gives you felexibility to adopt to changes and show the proof. I think the above concept was derived from Alistair Cockburns Failure Mode Analysis.
What? Do you really need to plan when there are incremental delivery and demos of the product happening very often?
Yes, You have to plan for Demo, for changes and adjustments. This may happen at portfolio level, project level, release level or iteration level. But the major planning happens at the start of release or iteration.
It is changing agile
ReplyDeleteWho is a personna?
ReplyDeleteWhat you must know about Agile Projects
ReplyDeleteIn this changing business environment, Executives and Professionals are struggling to find answers to some basic questions about Agile Project :-
1. What is an Agile project?
2. Why do you need an Agile Projects?
3. Who can Manage an Agile Project?
4. Where does this concept come from?
5. When do you need Agile Project?
6. How to execute an Agile Project?
The above 5W1H is applicable for any project and obviously we must know these for any product or project from its ideation to retire. Let’s try answering some of them.
Agile Project can be any type of project where requirement is not very clear and complexity can be defined at a high level at the start of the project. People may argue that “All of my projects fall under the same category”. I would reply “Very good. Hire Me”.
To understand the concept of complexity and requirements, an Agile Practitioner must know some basic information about the Organization environment. It is preferred to have an Agile Certified Practitioner or the person who knows the concepts, methods, approaches and basic information about Agile tools can only help you Manage an Agile Project. If you want early value that means you need to adopt Agile Approach. When “you foresee changes in business environment”, “competitors strategy is not visible at all” and probably “the project area is not completely dependent on regulatory and compliance requirements”, then thi is the right time.
To execute an Agile project, the Organization should be ready to adopt changes, involve and collaborate with the execution team, trust the product than the explanation, believe in the emotional intelligence of the team during execution and ready to accept the statement “making mistakes is not uncommon”.
The concept is not new and it has been implemented in almost all Industries and Agile Certified Practitioner Certificate is from PMI (Project Management Institute).
I was thinking.. Is Agile Manifesto applicable to Non Agile Projects..?? The way Alistair Cockburns Failure Mode speaks, it can be appplicable to any projects. Probably the execution of the method may be different. Just a thought!!
ReplyDeleteAnwar
Agile is something which I have been fascinated by ever since I heard about the concept. Agility as such has always struck me as a state of nirvana, where ordinary people perform extraordinary tasks together as a part of a team. I was struck by the opportunity to understand the concept where teams can be motivated to perform impossible tasks. As I prepared myself for the certification, realization dawned that the principles and values of agile are not much different from the principles I try to follow in my everyday life. I took to agile like a fish to water. Learning more about the principles, values, planning, approaches, and mainly people centricity of the various methods was an eye opener. Agility cannot be taken lightly. Everyone will not be able to implement it. It is a state of mind, purely based on trust, where the business and IT work together to deliver value to the stakeholders. Trust is a key factor, as business and IT are part of the same team, and need to build a relationship where they gel together to churn out valuable software, which ultimately makes the life of the stakeholders easier
ReplyDeleteGood Reading for Agile certied Practioners would be:-
ReplyDeleteFaliure Mode
Agile Planning
Agile Modelling
Agile Tools
Agile Success
Agile Project Selection
Agile Manifesto
Agile DOI
Agile Methods
Scrum
XP
DSDM
TDD
Crystal
Emotional Intelligence
Situational Leadership
High Performing Team
Self Organized Team
Lean
Kanban
All are good philosophy and methods
The one basic and very important think that I liked about Agile Methodology is - Why did it start? There may be many answers but look at the below points:-
ReplyDeleteThere is a natural tendency with the humans to :-
1, Make Mistakes
2, Prefer to fail conservatively
3, We are creatures of habbit
4, We are incosistent
So if you follow any standard methodolgies, you are boud to fall in betweem one of the above and hence reduce the success percentage.
Agile gives you felexibility to adopt to changes and show the proof. I think the above concept was derived from Alistair Cockburns Failure Mode Analysis.
Anwar
How to Plan an Agile Project
ReplyDeleteWhat? Do you really need to plan when there are incremental delivery and demos of the product happening very often?
Yes, You have to plan for Demo, for changes and adjustments. This may happen at portfolio level, project level, release level or iteration level. But the major planning happens at the start of release or iteration.