BSOM071: Fundamentals of Project Management

Agile Project Management

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 Learning Objectives:

At the end of this week’s session, you will be able to:

• Understand the Agile Project Management

• Discuss the 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto
• Explore some Agile methods including Scrum and DSDM

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 What is Agile?

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 What is Agile?

• A framework of controls for the development of processes or systems

to tight timescales but can be applied to any project
• The basic concepts
• User involvement ensures right business solution
• Requirements evolve but the timescale is fixed
• Early delivery enables early pay-back
• Nothing is built perfectly first time
• Business Agility

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 Agile Methodologies Overview

• The core of the agile methodology was developed by 17

people in 2001 in written form.
• Agiles four main values are expressed as:
• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan
 Agile Manifesto in a nutshell
Individuals and
over Process and tools
interactions
Comprehensive
Working software over
documentation

Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation

Responding to change over Following a plan

Source: www.agilemanifesto.org
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 What is Agile Project Management?

• Agile is a process by which a team can manage a project by

breaking it up into several stages and involving constant
collaboration with stakeholders and continuous
improvement and iteration at every stage.

Note: Agile is a philosophy, a set of values and principles

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 Comparison between Waterfall and Agile

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 What does this mean for the Project
Manager?

Different style of management

–Detailed work-based plan vs high-level plan
–Very active involvement vs Delegation and empowerment)
–Waterfall approach vs iterative approach
–In summary: train journey (traditional) and sailing trip (Agile)

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 Why Agile?

Copyright © 2019 Northampton University BSO3014 - Project Management: Managerial Perspectives

18/08/23
 The ‘need’ for agile
• High proportion of project failures (74%)
• Projects do not meet business needs
• Projects do not meet financial objectives
• People issues
• Poor management
• Common factors in failures
• Poor communication
• Not working effectively together

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 The 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto by
Fowler and Highsmith (2001) are: (1)
1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and
continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile
processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software or outputs frequently, from a couple of weeks
to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout
the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment
and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and
within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

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 The 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto by
Fowler and Highsmith (2001) are: (2)

7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors,
developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace
indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances
agility.
10. Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is
essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-
organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more
effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
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 Flavours of agile processes

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 Project Management Knowledge Areas

Integration
Agile
Project Scope
Management Schedule
Cost
Scrum
Quality Kanban
Resource Lean
Communications Extreme Programming (XP)
Test-Driven Development (TDD)
Risk
Procurement
Stakeholder

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 Agile Example : Scrum
It’s about common sense
Scrum:
• Is an agile, lightweight process
• Can manage and control software and product development
• Uses iterative, incremental practices
• Has a simple implementation
• Increases productivity
• Reduces time to benefits
• Embraces adaptive, empirical systems development
• Is not restricted to software development projects
• Embraces the opposite of the waterfall approach…
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 Scrum at a Glance

24 hours
Daily Scrum
Meeting

Backlog tasks 30 days

expanded
Sprint Backlog by team

Potentially Shippable
Product Backlog Product Increment
As prioritized by Product Owner
Source: Adapted from Agile Software
Development with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
and Mike Beedle.

Video Introduction to Scrum

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 Scrum Roles
• Product owner
• Possibly a product manager or project sponsor
• Decides features, release date, prioritization, £££

• Scrum master
• Typically, a project manager or team leader
• Responsible for enacting scrum values and practices
• Remove impediments / politics, keeps everyone productive

• Project team
• 5-10 members; teams are self-organizing
• Cross-functional: QA, programmers, UI designers, etc.
• Membership should change only between sprints

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Agile example – DSDM (dynamic systems
development methodology)
DSDM AND PROJECT PHASES
 Controlled prototyping
• Evolutionary and incremental prototyping
• DSDM prototypes evolve to become the working solution

• Prototyping within a controlled process

• Gives regular opportunities to demonstrate progress and check direction
• Ensures all sides have the same picture
• Build the right (business) system before you build it right (technically)
Facilitated workshops
 Facilitated workshops
• Used throughout agile project management to achieve
• Speed
• Decision made in days, not months
• Ownership
• All stakeholders present
• Productivity
• Ideas born and grown quickly
• Overall perspective
• Wider involvement of participants possible
• Consensus
• Agreement and acceptance from empowered stakeholders
• Quality decision making
• All parties hearing the same information
 Timeboxing
• A timebox is a previously agreed period of
time during which a person or a team works
steadily towards completion of some goal.
• Each timebox has
• Immovable deadline
• Set of prioritised requirements
• Short, focused, immovable checkpoints
• Consists of investigation, refinement and
consolidation
• Focus is on delivery
• Concentrates on top priorities
• Controls function drift
 How to use PRINCE2 in an agile context?

• Each has own strengths and weaknesses but when combined they
compliment and create a holistic approach
• Strengths of prince2 – project direction and management
• Weaknesses – product delivery
• Reverse this for agile
• Blend/mixture and NOT in parallel
 How PRINCE2 will look when
working in an agile way
• Depends on the project context
• Briefly look at ‘a’ way not ‘the’ way
• PRINCE2 provides a process model in ‘an agile way’
• Can easily be scaled and tailored to suit requirements
• Consists of a set of activities required to
• Direct; manage; deliver… in

• Pre-project, initiation stage, subsequent delivery stage(s), final

delivery stage.
 Next week
Lecture: Requirements – elicitation techniques

Homework:
Online activities

Before next week

Engage with the material on NILE

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 Thank you
for listening

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