Agile Project Management
Enabling Development While Meeting the Needs of the Business
“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” - George S. Patton
When moving beyond all but the smallest development effort there is a need for coordination, planning, and alignment beyond the development team. Yet, many Agile Software Development efforts operate in conflict with the Project Management Organization. This can be due to a lack of maturity in the software organization or a high level of ceremony on the part of the existing project management organization. Regardless, different expectations can lead to conflict that slows down the delivery of value to the customer and reduces the quality of the working environment.
Agile Project Management encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. When done right product management, software development, quality assurance, deployment, and the implementation and support organizations are aligned so that Business Value is prioritized and Risk is managed effectively.
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F. Drucker
While Agile Project Management addresses the areas of Traditional Project Management such as Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resources, Communications, Risk and Procurement. It is primarily about business leadership. Unlike Traditional Project Management, Agile Management focuses on reducing transaction and coordination costs while enabling and empowering the sofware development teams. In cases where there are multiple teams, Agile Project Management enables the coordination between teams to reduce friction, align value delivery and focus on risk reduction.
Our approach brings together the experience of traditional project management with the needs of the software development organization. We have successfully led multiple Agile projects from small teams to Enterprise projects. In each case we were able to overcome any organizational conflict and increase the rate that the team delivered value to the organization. We deal with the pragmatic uncertainty around scope and method of implementation by focusing on reducing risk early and then delivering the highest business value items. APM is more about common sense and leadership than about formalizing process. But, APM recognizes the real needs of the business to understand what it is getting for its investment and when commitments can be made to customers.
Offering: Agile Project Management
Our approach to Agile Project Management involves understanding the strategic goals of the project and then facilitating alignment across the delivery organization. In those cases where a formal PMO process exists, we work to provide responsible management information to ensure they are able to meet their needs. We don’t believe Agile is a “no documentation, not planning, you get what you get when you get it” endeavor. We help bring responsible practices to the development organization that will optimize the delivery of business value while focusing on meeting cost and schedule expectations.
Contact Us to engage an experienced Agile Project Manager for a project recovery or a new project.
