About Mind Tools Membership Corporate Services Tool Explorer Contact Us Newsletter 286 May 14, 2013 In This Issue... Agile Project Management Business Requirements Analysis Why Do Projects Fail? Gantto App Review Project Milestone Reporting Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter   Project Management - the Agile Way! With traditional approaches to project management, it can take months or years to deliver positive change. That's why many savvy organizations take an agile approach to project management. In this week's featured article, find out about the advantages of this approach, and learn how you can use it with your own projects. We also look at conventional project tools with a framework for understanding project requirements, and we explore common causes of project failure. Enjoy this newsletter!         James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson MindTools.com - Essential skills for an excellent career!     Featured Resources at Mind Tools Agile Project Management Organizing Flexible Projects Explore a project management approach that's ideal for fast-changing environments. All Readers' Skill-Builder Business Requirements Analysis Agreeing Clearly What You're Going to Deliver Learn a step-by-step process for conducting an in-depth business requirements analysis. All Readers' Skill-Builder Why Do Projects Fail? Learning How to Avoid Project Failure Find out about common causes of project failure, and learn how to avoid them. All Readers' Skill-Builder   ... And From the Mind Tools Club Gantto Use this intuitive Web-based app to create Gantt Charts. All Members' App Review Project Milestone Reporting Keeping Projects On Track by Monitoring Significant Check Points Learn when and how to use this type of reporting to keep your project on track. All Members' Skill-Builder What is Project Management? In this short training session, learn more about what project managers do, and what it takes to be a good one. All Members' Bite-Sized Training "Disrupting" Your Career Finding a Rewarding Career Path Find out how to create a role that matches your skills and meets your organization's needs. All Members' Skill-Builder   5 Reasons to Join the Mind Tools Club! The Mind Tools Club gives you much, much more than you get on the basic Mind Tools site - or in this newsletter. Find Out More Now >>   Editors' Choice Article Agile Project Management Organizing Flexible Projects Picture a start-up technology business, where the founders are trying to carve out a sustainable business niche. The sector is changing fast, and they must quickly develop a service that users are prepared to pay for. This is tricky! They can only find out so much through market research, so they need to experiment. This means trying a variety of different offerings. Step-by-step, they need to learn from these and try improved offerings until they develop a solution that really works. Agile Project Management is about developing successful solutions in a constantly changing environment. © iStockphoto/nadla You can probably see that many work-related projects - particularly those involving complex, fast-moving situations - resemble this scenario. You can be working towards one deliverable or solving one problem, but then need to change course and revise your plans. If you're using a traditional project management approach, these revisions will lead to missed deadlines, inflated costs, and increased workloads. And, in a worst-case scenario, you can find that the situation has changed so much during the course of the project that your final product, when it is eventually delivered, is no longer relevant. Agile Project Management is an approach that helps you deal with these challenges. In this article, we'll describe what Agile is, and we'll explain why it's beneficial. What is Agile Project Management? Agile Project Management is built around a flexible approach. Team members work in short bursts on small-scale but functioning releases of a product. They then test each release against customers' needs, instead of aiming for a single final result that is only released at the end of the project. The end product of an agile project may be very different from the one that was envisaged at the outset. However, because of the checking process, team members can be sure that the product is one that customers want. This makes Agile Project Management particularly appropriate for new or fast-moving businesses, for those in a fast-changing environment, or for highly complex situations, where managers are "feeling their way forward" to find the optimum business model. It's also helpful with urgent projects that can't wait for a full, traditional project to be set up. The Origins of Agile The elements of Agile Project Management have been around for decades. However, two events helped to lay the foundations for the approach. First, in 1986, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka published an article called "The New New Product Development Game" in the Harvard Business Review. In it, the authors outlined a new way of developing products that resembled a rugby match. They imagined a project management approach in which, just as on the pitch, team members would achieve their goal by constantly re-evaluating the situation and responding accordingly. Projects would therefore evolve, but would lead to products that met customers' needs more fully as a result. The second event occurred in 2001, when a group of software and project experts met to discuss what their most successful projects had in common. They created the Agile Project Manifesto, which outlined the values and principles that underpinned Agile Project Management. Agile Project Management is built on the product development approach of Takeuchi and Nonaka, and incorporates the values and principles outlined in the Agile Project Manifesto. Agile Versus Traditional Project Management Let's compare Agile Project Management with traditional project management to show how the approaches differ. Agile Project Management Traditional Project Management Teams are self-directed and are free to accomplish deliverables as they choose, as long as they follow agreed rules. Teams are typically tightly controlled by a project manager. They work to detailed schedules agreed at the outset. Project requirements are developed within the process as needs and uses emerge. This could mean that the final outcome is different from the one envisaged at the outset. Project requirements are identified before the project begins. This can sometimes lead to "scope creep," because stakeholders often ask for more than they need, "just in case." User testing and customer feedback happen constantly. It's easy to learn from mistakes, implement feedback, and evolve deliverables. However, the constant testing needed for this is labor-intensive, and it can be difficult to manage if users are not engaged. User testing and customer feedback take place towards the end of the project, when everything has been designed and implemented. This can mean that problems can emerge after the release, sometimes leading to expensive fixes and even public recalls. Teams constantly assess the scope and direction of their product or project. This means that they can change direction at any time in the process to make sure that their product will meet changing needs. Because of this, however, it can be difficult to write a business case at the outset, because the final outcome is not fully known. Teams work on a final product that can be delivered some time - often months or years - after the project begins. Sometimes, the end product or project is no longer relevant, because business or customer needs have changed. Ultimately, traditional project management is often best in a stable environment, where a defined deliverable is needed for a fixed budget. Agile is often best where the end-product is uncertain, or where the environment is changing fast. About the Process Agile Project Management is also different from other project management techniques in the roles and events it uses. We've outlined these below. "Scrums" and "Sprints" The heart of Agile Project Management is the "scrum" framework. This uses specific roles, events, meetings, and increments to deliver a usable product, say, every 30 days. The framework involves three key roles: 1. The product owner is an expert on the product being developed. He or she represents key stakeholders, customers, and end users, and is responsible for prioritizing the project and getting funding. The product owner describes how people will use the final product, communicates customer needs, and helps the team develop the right product. His or her expertise also helps combat scope creep. 2. The scrum master is responsible for managing the process. This person solves problems, so that the product owner can drive development and maximize return on investment. The scrum master ensures that each sprint is self-contained, and that it doesn't take on additional objectives. The scrum master oversees communication, so that stakeholders and team members can easily understand what progress has been made. 3. The team is the group of professionals responsible for turning requirements into functionality. The team should be working on this project and nothing else until its completion. The team will work on each project via "sprints" - 30-day phases of work which deliver completed, tested, documented, and functioning products at their conclusion. Each sprint begins with a sprint planning meeting. Here, team members decide what they can deliver within 30 days. They define the goal and assign task responsibilities. During the sprint, team members focus solely on achieving their defined goal. They will meet every day for a 15-minute meeting to report on progress, to discuss what they will work on that day, and to talk through any challenges that they're facing. These meetings are an essential part of the daily inspection process. Teams are free to change their approach, based on what works for the specific project. Reporting In Agile Project Management, there are regular opportunities for reporting on progress. As well as daily scrum meetings, team members meet the product owner and key stakeholders after each sprint to present the sprint deliverable. In this meeting, the group decides together what they should change for the next sprint. After this, the scrum master (and sometimes the product owner) holds a retrospective meeting, in which they look at the process that they used in the last sprint and decide what they can improve for the next one. Tip: If you're working with a virtual team, make sure that everyone is using the same instant messaging (IM) software to speed communication. Virtual meeting software is essential for daily scrum meetings. Social media can also be useful for helping team members collaborate between meetings. Key Points Agile Project Management aims to deliver fully working upgrades of a product or process on a regular basis - typically, every 30 days. It's ideal for software development and other projects where requirements are likely to change during the project - for example, in new or fast-growing businesses or in fast-changing business environments. Teams are entirely self-managed and have the freedom to change their approach when needed. This flexibility can save costs and ensure that the final product meets customers' needs. References Share this article:         A Final Note More and more organizations are taking an agile approach to managing projects - make sure that you know about its advantages! Next week, find out how to maintain a great online reputation. See you then! James Manktelow Email us Mind Tools Essential Skills for an Excellent Career! References Beck, K. et al. (n.d.) Manifesto for Agile Software Development. (Available here.) [Accessed 18 February 2013.] Schwaber, K. (2004) 'Agile Project Management with Scrum,' Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. Takeuchi, H. and Nonaka, I. (1985) 'The New New Product Development Game,' Harvard Business Review, January. (Available here.) [Accessed 18 February 2013.] Wernham, B. (2012) 'Agile Project Management for Government. Case study: Case study: The Success of the FBI Sentinel Project,' Talk given at the Agile Business Conference (ABC2012), October 2012. (Available here.) [Accessed 8 March 2013].   Mind Tools will treat your email address with complete respect and will not circulate it to any third party. (Click here to view our Privacy Policy.) If you have enjoyed this issue, please do email it on to your friends and co-workers. To find out about new resources on the Mind Tools site as soon as they're uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed). You can also use Mind Tools in your organization. Our corporate division provides solutions from 25 to 10,000+ users and we connect seamlessly with leading LMS/Portals, so you can put our unique toolkit directly into the hands of your workforce. Find out more here. We welcome appropriate reprinting and reuse of Mind Tools material, but you must get our permission first! To do this, please visit our Permissions Center. © Mind Tools Ltd, 2013. 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