Making Sense of Agile Project Management: Balancing Control and Agility

by Charles G. Cobb

Overview

The book is intended to provide a much deeper understanding of agile principles, methodologies, and practices to enable project managers to develop a more agile approach and understand how to blend and tailor agile and traditional principles, methodologies, and practices to create an appropriate balance of control and agility to fit a business environment as well as the risks and complexities of any individual project. The book will also provide business managers and leaders an understanding of how to fit agile methodologies into an overall business strategy that provides the right balance of control and agility for their business.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118015704
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/08/2011
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

CHARLES G. (CHUCK) COBB, PMP, is President of Breakthrough Solutions, Inc., of Medfield, Massachusetts. He is a senior-level project/program manager with a broad and deep background in business systems analysis and software development. He has worked with many companies in different application environments using numerous project management methodologies—both agile and not-so-agile—for more than twenty years.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Who Should Read This Book? ix

Brief Overview of the Book x

Why I Wrote This Book xii

How to Use This Book xiv

Part I xiv

Part II xv

Part III xvi

Acknowledgments xvii

Part I Overview

1 Introduction 3

Meaning of the Word “Agile” 3

Meaning of the Word “Waterfall” 5

Polarization of Agile and Traditional Waterfall Approaches 7

The Program du Jour Effect 9

Impact on Project Management 10

Common Agile Misconceptions 14

The Pizza Box Methodology 14

All-or-Nothing Thinking 15

Traditional Development Approaches Are Dead 15

Just Do It Faster 16

Becoming Agile Only Impacts the Development Organization 16

Agile Is Just a Development Methodology 17

What Agile Doesn’t Tell You 18

2 Agile Values, Principles, and Practices 21

Lean Software Development Principles 21

Lean Principles 22

Interrelationship of Lean and Agile 36

Agile History and Overview 38

Agile Perceptions and Reality 44

General Agile Practices 47

Organizational Practices 48

Planning Practices 49

Requirements Definition Practices 51

Summary of Agile Techniques and Practices 54

3 Becoming More Agile 57

Agile Benefits and Tradeoffs 57

Focus on Successful Business Outcomes 57

Customer Satisfaction and Competitive Advantage 60

Organizational Effectiveness, Cross-Functional Synergy, and Employee Morale 60

Higher Productivity and Lower Costs 60

Potential for Higher Quality 62

Obstacles to Becoming Agile 62

Corporate Culture 63

Organizational Commitment 66

Risk and Regulatory Environment 66

Developing a More Agile Approach 67

Developing an Agile or Lean Mindset 67

Hybrid Approaches 68

4 Case Studies 71

Sapient 73

Unique Challenges 73

Process Methodology Selection and Design 74

Methodology Summary 77

Methodology Description 78

5 Part I Summary and Action Plan 85

Overall Summary 85

Developing an Action Plan for Your Business 88

Planning Questions 88

Alternative Approaches 91

How Do You Get There? 93

Part II Overview

6 Agile Project Management 101

Agile Project Management Roles 101

Comparison of Traditional and Agile Project Management Roles 103

Agile Business Analyst Role 106

Agile Project Management Approach 107

Project Management Mindset 107

Project Management Skills 111

Agile Project Management Practices 112

Agile Project Management Principles 113

Agile Project Management Techniques 117

Agile Project Management Models 119

Agile and A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) 124

Merging PMBOK® Thinking and Agile Thinking 130

7 Fundamental Principles behind SDLC Models 131

General Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Considerations 132

Flexibility versus Rigidity 133

Relationship of Training and Process Design 135

Reliable versus Repeatable Processes 136

Interrelationship of Life-Cycle Model Selection Factors 138

Requirements Definition and Management Approach 138

Business Process Considerations 141

Requirements Complexity Considerations 142

Testing Considerations 142

Supportability Considerations 144

Prioritization of Requirements 145

Risk Management, Uncertainty, and Planning Approach 148

Risk Management Considerations 148

Management of Uncertainty Considerations 151

The Role of Planning 154

The Role of Leadership and Training 156

Leadership 156

Training 158

The Role of Documentation 160

8 Software Development Life Cycles 163

Types of Software Development Life Cycles 164

Traditional Plan-Driven Life-Cycle Model 168

Incremental Life-Cycle Model 173

Iterative Plan-Driven Life-Cycle Model 174

Iterative Emergent Life-Cycle Model 176

Adaptive Life-Cycle Model 178

Summary of SDLC Guidelines 180

General Considerations 180

Requirements Management Considerations 181

Risk Management Considerations 181

Project Scope and Complexity Considerations 182

Other Considerations 182

Selecting a Software Development Life Cycle 182

Comparison of Approaches 182

Life-Cycle Model Selection Examples 184

9 Part II Summary and Action Plan 191

Summary of Impact on Project Managers and PMI® 191

Developing an Action Plan for Project Managers 193

Incremental Improvements 193

Designing and Implementing Hybrid Approaches 194

Implementing Pure Agile Project Management Approaches 194

Helping Companies Move in the Right Direction 195

Part III Appendices

Appendix A Overview of Agile Development Practices 199

Extreme Programming 199

Feature-Driven Development 202

Test-Driven Development 205

Pair Programming 207

Code Refactoring 208

Continuous Integration 209

Appendix B Overview of Agile Project Delivery Frameworks 211

Scrum 211

Dynamic Systems Development Model (DSDM) 215

Agile Modeling 219

Agile Unified Process 221

Lean Software Development 224

Additional Reading 228

Glossary of Terms 228

Index 235