Comments on: Doing More with Less by leveraging Agile & PMI

By: Eric Williamson

Eric Williamson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:01:39 +0000

Hi Donna, you might want to take a look at our web site. Eric

By: Donna Reed

Donna Reed — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:52:50 +0000

@Lindsay – Sounds like you are a progressive thinker….Instead of “comparing” Agile to PMBoK…..what if you leverage Agile in phases of the PMI process?

Coming from AGILE OPEN 2009, I found many people leveraging Agile to improve on the PMBoK and other waterfall-like frameworks that many companies use today. They are using it in all kinds of projects. Although Agile started with software development…it has morphed and is being used all over the place.

It comes down to PEOPLE….Not process (as you mentioned) — if you can make people more effective – then you have more effective projects. And Agile is much more adaptive and people enabling….something that seems to have been erased from many workplaces. So if you can interject Agile practices into the the PMI process flow – you “will” help the project out. I’ll post some great notes in the next few days on a session I ran on this exact topice – and what others are doing to “do more” with Agile + PMI.

By: Donna Reed

Donna Reed — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:39:26 +0000

I just returned from hosting a session at AGILE OPEN 2009, where we discussed how Agile techniques can be used in a more traditional waterfall or PMI type project. It was a great discussion that I’ll type up some notes & post in the next few days. Come back to see how others are using Agile in all types of projects to do thing quicker – more effectively – etc….

*** Note: if you have a change to go to an Agile Open – go – you will learn more from people on what’s working then you will ever seen in a book !!!

By: Donna Reed

Donna Reed — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:36:35 +0000

@Margaret – Are you holding daily standup’s & managing a backlog of requirements? I’d love to know how and where you are using Agile.

By: Lindsay Dickson

Lindsay Dickson — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:18:20 +0000

This is great topic. Based on my (limited) experience, Agile/Scrum is great for development, but does not really compare to the PMBOK as a framework for Project Management. The PMBOK comprehensively covers the entire spectrum of project management activities and associated artifacts, while the majority of Scrum/Agile is focused on product development, and lacks specific processes for managing other important project considerations such as risk and cost.

On the other hand, over-emphasis on the PMBOK has it’s own challenges. I have seen many PMOs fail because they were focused on the process (e.g. PMBOK) instead of delivering value to the customer. A successful PMO will allow a project manager the flexibility to apply the appropriate knowledge areas and documentation for each project, while leveraging Agile methods to more effectively develop and deliver the products and services to satisfy the customer.

That said, a more progressive thinker might argue that Agile/Scrum methods could be used for non-development project activities (e.g. create Project Charter, Close Project or Phase), but that is a topic for another time.

By: Jesse Fewell

Jesse Fewell — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:34:49 +0000

Great post, Donna. Thanks for raising awareness and engaging in dialog.

By: margaret motamed

margaret motamed — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:45:36 +0000

Hi Donna!
I agree “the changes you make to be able to do more tend to be more “agile”.”
That’s what happened to me over the past year, we were trying to improve and we naturally gravitated towards some ideas that, in retrospect, turned out to be heading towards agile. We have weekly “reviews” of one page project plans owned by the sub teams.. Teams commit at the beginning of the quarter what each can do, we allow change as long as the sponsor agrees with the change in planned quarter end results, etc. It’s a great team to be part of.

Margaret

By: Donna Reed

Donna Reed — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 20:23:30 +0000

Hi Brad –

I actually agree with you – servant leadership skills are part of being a good team leader. I’m a huge fan of Covey, Greenleaf, Jennings and others. I actually have Hunter’s “The Servant – the true essence of Leadership” on my desk right now. They will all tell you that servant-leaders have the following qualities: Listening, commitment to growth, foresight, building community etc. All of which I agree only great leader possess.

I was referring to the worldly typical view of “servant” here. Where servants just do what they are told, don’t really have much to do with influence or decision making, and definitely no part as a strategic member. More of a “slave” rather than a strategic contributing member of the team.

ScrumMasters and Team Leads should play a much more strategic role…they must be the “servant-leader” Greenleaf and Hunter talk about. Not just a slave. Leader to Leader institute goes into this in more detail as well at http://ow.ly/o7NI.

I thank you for bringing this up so I could clarify things – we want “great” leaders as PM’s !

Donna

By: Donna Reed

Donna Reed — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:58:01 +0000

Hi Margaret – I just shared this same thing with a gentleman on the LinkedIN Certified ScrumMasters group…since he felt, “agile or lean are not always helpfull to do more with less. This depends on how good or bad you did before changing anything. You could also do things better or maybe just do the right things with the same effort than before and therefore optimize the output instead to cut the efforts … ”

My reply was, “I see your point of view and believe that the changes you make to be able to do more tend to be more “agile”. Such as the more iterative approach that allows you to “continuously improve”. Toyota calls this Kai-sen, where I led projects for several years – and they did ITIL methods for IT projects and Agile methods sometimes over on software development side. I was able to integrate methods from both worlds to speed up projects….make decisions quicker….and keep a much better handle on Time & Budget. Scope is what killed us – as it changed all the time – and by being more agile/iterative in my approach – I was able to manage Scope changes while keeping Time/Budget on track.

What would you have said to this gentleman?

Donna

By: Brad Barton

Brad Barton — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:50:41 +0000

Hello Donna,

I must admit, I was a bit surprised to see how you’ve addressed servant leadership in your post. Forgive me if I was left with the wrong impression, but you seem to suggest that a servant leader does not provide true leadership? I would argue that a great deal of the most effective leaders, across industries and throughout history, have demonstrated many of the characteristics that are often associated with servant leadership.

Are you familiar with the works of Greenleaf and others who have done their best to describe this concept in detail? A brief interview for those not familiar with the concept: http://clientserviceinsights.blogspot.com/2008/04/servant-leadership-in-dr-keiths-own.html