As a project manager, I have delivered many complex initiatives, from re-platforming a consumer products website to doubling the size of a line of business. My most successful projects have one thing in common; I used an agile approach to deliver them.
According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), a project:
is a temporary endeavor with a beginning and an end
creates a unique product, service or result
Although agile frameworks are most helpful when they remain in place over the long term as product teams delivering and maintaining complex products, we can use agile within the project management process as well, which this article will discuss.
The Project Management Process
* The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) defines the five process groups as Initiate, Planning, Execution, Monitor & Control and Closing.
Initiate
The initiation phase in the project management process aims to determine whether you can meet the business case and includes high-level planning to validate initial constraints (dates, dollars and deliverables). We also create the project charter during this phase. The project charter typically provides an overview of the project’s purpose and goal and might include scope and high-level requirements.
Tips for agile delivery:
If you plan to use a predictive (waterfall) project approach, the charter will contain detailed scope and high-level requirements. The scope will be more general if you’re using an adaptive or agile approach and may translate more into planned epics and features rather than detailed scope or requirements. An agile charter will focus more on vision and measures of success rather than detailed requirements.
Planning and Execution
The project management planning and execution phases are the two steps most impacted by the project approach (predictive vs. adaptive). Using a predictive approach, your team first creates a detailed project plan. Then, they analyze what work needs to be done, document detailed requirements and design a technical solution approach. You will then move into the execution phase when the team builds and tests the product, service or planned result.
In my experience, agile project teams typically combine these two phases. Using agile, you will plan, analyze, design, build and test the product, service or result, but you do so in smaller increments repeated throughout the project. Similar to climbing a staircase, an agile team performs work in smaller deliverables.
Tips for Agile Delivery
If you plan to use Scrum to deliver your project, it’s critical all team members have agile training before beginning work. I recommend that project teams take the Applying Professional Scrum class together to learn the basics of the Scrum framework. In addition, the individual or individuals who will fulfill the Scrum Master accountability should take the Professional Scrum Master course, and the individual fulfilling the Product Owner accountability should take the Professional Scrum Product Owner course. Managers supporting individuals on an agile team will find the Professional Agile Leadership course helpful.
Rather than creating a project plan in the planning and execution phase, you will identify a Product Owner who creates the Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is the plan for delivery, and it grows as the team learns more about what is required. A Product Backlog is different from a project plan in several ways. While a project plan may include information about how the team will deliver items of work by identifying the names of who will complete each task, a Product Backlog does not. The Product Backlog contains a list of what the customer wants, not how the team will deliver it. Agile teams control how they will deliver their work.
During the execution phase, the Scrum Team will begin Sprinting. During each Sprint, the team will create an Increment of usable pro