For experienced project management professionals, the transition to Agile can be one of the hardest things to do. I would sometimes explain it to people by saying: “It’s like learning to brush your teeth with the left hand, if you’re right-handed.”
It does not come naturally; it takes time and practice. There are a number of habits to unlearn, like the need to have all things under your control and being the center of coordination.
What I want to share with you today, is how to be successful in Agile, by creating new, small habits. You want to become an Agile Project Leader which is a journey that does not come overnight. What if I told you that you could succeed with small habits?
When you choose to go into a new direction, like following an Agile approach when delivering projects, instead of the traditional, waterfall approach, you can do that by using small habits. Take charge in tiny bit-size chunks. This will make change possible and help you to become that person you desire to be, and you know you could be, namely an Agile Project Leader.
How do you create a small habit successfully?
1. Don’t try to change the world overnight. Start with just one new habit and then go from there. Practice to let go of the need to be in control of everything.
2. Make a commitment. Not every habit is created equal, and some take longer to embed in your mind than others. However, one thing is true. The longer you perform the same activity day after day, the more success you will have in creating that habit.
Take the mindset change for example, to adopt a new culture of Agile values. Start with the 4 Values and 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto, study each one until you properly understand their meaning and the implications of the impact on the way you work. Decide right now that you are going to give this new habit of living the Agile values and principles at least 4 to 8 weeks to give it a proper start.
3. Link the habit to something that already works. If you have a successful habit already in place, ask yourself what small thing you can attach to that habit. For example, if you are already communicating with your team members daily, to add a daily standup would not be that hard, right?
4. Keep it small. Knowing that most habit formation fails because you are trying to do too much too soon, then make a point to keep the changes very small. That will give you a much higher rate of success than trying to create a great big change. For example, keep asking yourself, what is the least documentation we need to do in order to communicate enough detail for the work to continue.
5. Have a disaster plan in place. Knowing that things are going to go wrong from the start helps you to be ready when they do. If you want to step in and tell people what to do to solve a problem (so that you can stay in control), rather take a step back and ask a few questions that will lead the team to find a solution to a problem themselves.
6. Grab a friend. The only way to keep on track, especially when building habits, is to use your network. Have an accountability partner to keep you honest. This is one of the most important success criteria when adopting new habits.
Do it with friends / colleagues who are on the same journey than you, as well as with Agile coaches. They will give you answers and examples of doing things in diverse ways; different from what you thought would be the right way. Often, there is not only one right way. Be open to possibilities and become more creative in your thinking.
7. Reward yourself. Celebrate every little milestone with a reward, something that makes sense and will encourage you to keep going when motivation becomes low.
I used to belong to what is called “Agile Coaching Circles.” They consisted of a group of people who come together every second week at a time that is convenient for all, to discuss Agile topics of their choice. The knowledge sharing and learning that took place, was hugely rewarding and kept me motivated to come back for more.
8. Redefine yourself. Accept that this is the new you. The habits you are building are going to change who you are and how you do thing. Embrace the new identity. Enjoy the experience of doing things in a new way that will make you a good Agile Project Leader and will help you to be successful in delivering value to customers, just like you have been doing before.
By following these steps, you not only will succeed when applying small habits to your life, but over time you will see amazing growth and development as a person. That is pretty exciting, especially when you consider how little you had to do to get there.
Agile Project Leader Online Training
If you want results, and you want to fast-track your learning about Agile, the Agile Project Leader Online training course is just what you need. It will solve the transition challenge for existing project managers and give you the exact strategies, mindset, process and practices to move the needle on successfully implementing the strategic initiatives following an Agile approach. It provides much guidance on various Agile roles, frameworks and different certifications available to help you select the best one. You will find multiple Guides to download for immediate use.
Most project managers use multiple methods and tools to keep organized. We’re tracking people, tasks, files, updates, and changes while trying to make sure the quality of work is up to standard and that deadlines are met. Many companies use Project Management software for collaborative task tracking and communication, and then we supplement with spreadsheets, notebooks, to-do lists, calendar reminders, and, for those of us who are visually minded, bulletin boards.
Task Board
If you need an easy way to keep track of your projects, you may find that a revamped bulletin board, called a task board, can help you maintain a bird’s-eye view of what you’re working on. It also helps when we need backup: the internet goes down, the PM platform is unavailable due to maintenance, or some other issue means you need a physical (not virtual) means of managing of your project.
Depending on how you use it, a task board can tell you what you’ve committed to, what you’re working on, what you’ve accomplished, and whether or not everyone on the project is collaborating well.
Poster Board
One example of a task board is a large piece of poster board divided into three sections: to do, doing, and done. You can color-coordinate sticky notes and place them on the board depending on your needs, whether it’s by the person doing the task, the project, or another system you’ve created that works for you.
Window Board
Another option is to use a window. This takes a little more time to set up, but it can look more elegant since it uses a clear background (glass) instead of paper or brown corkboard. Once you’ve decorated your window and created sections, you use this version of a task board the same way you would the Poster Board.
Corkboard
On a corkboard you can use icons representing the work to be done. Use different paint colours to indicate the To Do and Done sections on the board.
Magnetic Board
Beyond the poster board, window, and cork board, you can also use a magnetic board. Each of these options have their own pros and cons, and then you have more than a few options for how to organize your projects on each.
Whatever you end up doing, if you use the task board in your office, it may help your team if you hang it in an area with high traffic so they can see at a glance where a project stands. In Agile this concept is known as an Information Radiator.
Benefits of a Task Board
Furthermore, to make it more interesting for everyone, try using photos of each team member instead of just their name: This can reduce confusion and make the board and its tasks feel even more important. For PMs who work remotely, task boards can serve as a colourful way to decorate your home office space, with the added benefit of making the work visible. If you can, put the board on the wall behind you so that it’s visible on video calls and during online meetings.
Task boards are excellent tools for any kind of project, especially Agile projects. Your team will appreciate a task board because it’s easy to update and shows valuable information in a visually appealing, easy-to-understand way.
If you’d like to learn more about task boards, check out this infographic, with compliments from Quill. It goes into detail about each type of task board and different ways of organizing the information on your board. You can also, of course, make your own completely unique task board that suits your project and flow of work. This infographic will give you a great place to start.
When I first transitioned to Agile, coming from a traditional project management background, I quickly realised that one of the keystones to become successful in Agile, would be to change my mindset. The mindset that needs to be adopted, is the Agile mindset, based on a set of key values and principles designed to better enable collaborative work and deliver continuous value through a “people-first” orientation. This means a huge move away from being very process driven and a focus on output (PMI’s PMBOK has 10 knowledge areas and 49 processes after all); to becoming more people focused and outcome driven. What a shift to make for any experienced professional project manager! Many project professionals rightfully ask how do they become credible Agile Project Leaders? This article aims to answer that question.
For the past few years many organisations have been on a mission to improve their Organizational Agility, meaning their capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner. The need to become more agile, has been fast-tracked by the world-wide COVID epidemic.
According to the PMI Report: Achieving greater agility, 2017, companies will be successful if they build a culture of Agility. Culture is a critical enabler. It needs to be a culture of readiness that supports flexible processes and employee training in support of agile practices. Those who succeed gain considerable efficiencies.
The Report goes further to state that 88% of organisations with high agility realise significant benefits including more efficient and effective processes and higher customer and employee satisfaction. These organisations are more likely to align their projects with strategic objectives which is critical to benefits realisation and success.
The Role of Project Leaders and the PMO
In addition to executives to advocate agility, project leaders could become evangelists for greater agility. In organisations with high agility, it is noted that 77% have an agile PMO or agile working group who are leading Agile Transformation. Successful transformation commonly requires new approaches in fundamental areas of business. Those include budget cycles, hiring practices, procurement practices, and role delineation.
An agile oriented PMO has a customer-collaboration mindset. In many cases, this means the PMO operates as an internal consultant, tailoring project delivery approaches to accommodate resources, timelines, and overall business needs, even as they change. Based on a documented case study in the PMI report, of TD Bank, the PMO can continue to perform similar functions than before, like:
Establishing standards
Serving as the Centre of Excellence
Educating the organization
Training and building talent
To achieve the above there are practical ways for a PMO to support and lead an organisation’s agile transformation. The PMO leaders need to become subject matter experts in agile. Develop and/or acquire the expertise to help guide agile practitioners, develop training, and establish a community of practice that provides coaching services. They need to define the value proposition of agile and the PMO’s role in agile delivery. Help the organization define the agile target state and a roadmap to get there. Drive the change beginning with successes in project delivery and extending it beyond projects to business agility. Build the capacity by acquiring and/or retooling the workforce with the necessary agile skills, build a culture of agile within the project delivery organization, apply agile concepts to all projects regardless of delivery method.
The Agile Project Manager
Where does the Project Manager fit in and continue delivering value in the agile context? Project Managers need more than technical skills. To sense change they need to be well informed about an organization’s strategic objectives and how their projects align. They need to forge strong relationships with business owners who request projects as well as with the functions that support them (e.g., finance, legal, risk management, and HR). Those with leadership skills and strong business acumen, can lead strategic initiatives and play a role to ensure projects stay aligned with strategic goals. Agile Project Managers will help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of how work gets done, including identifying unnecessary steps in work processes, as well as to share essential information broadly with all stakeholders.
The PMI Report: What’s next? Identifying new ways of working, Dom Price, a Futurist and Head of R&D at Atlassian is of the opinion that Project Managers will take on a more strategic role by managing for complexity, ambiguity, agility, and communication. As knowledge workers they will continue to learn and grow their strategic value. Project, Program and Portfolio Management will drive innovation and change by playing their role to enable the organisation to navigate change every day.
In a case study from AstraZeneca, they have evolved their PMO and Project Management capabilities by demonstrating the value of project management to build trust across the organisation, by:
involving project managers to identify smart and efficient processes,
improve ways of working,
streamline key areas such as risk management, planning, and control.
Enterprise-wide agility really requires everyone to understand what agility means—that it’s the capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner. Everyone also needs to adopt agile practices. The PMI Report conclude how project leadership can facilitate and advocate organisational agility by supporting the following:
Remove impediments and streamline processes when working with other areas of the business, such as HR and finance
Expose and communicate bottlenecks
Align stakeholder needs
Advocate for training in agile practices
How to be a credible Agile Project Leader
How do Project Managers become credible experts in Agile? To answer this question, I’m going to use guidance shared by Jo Ann Sweeney, a transformational change consultant based in the UK.
“To be viewed as a credible expert, you need to know the subject inside out, but expertise is not just about our knowledge on the topic. Substance does come first; close behind comes sincerity and passion.”
She explains that you don’t need to know everything about a topic. You need to be honest about the gaps in your knowledge, respect expertise in others and have a passion for your topic aligned with a passion for sharing. Credibility comes from three things:
your confidence – how you view and present yourself
your character – the innate qualities that make us unique based on your trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, fairness, caring and social responsibility
your capabilities – your knowledge, skills and aptitudes; the natural talents you’re born with and develop throughout your life when you interact with others as well as learning through academia, training, mentoring and coaching
What’s next
I would say that experienced project managers (often PMP’s) have confidence based on their past experiences and ability to lead projects. They are able to display character, based on upholding the ‘Code of Ethics’ and professional conduct expected of project professionals. And any gap in capability can be addressed by training and coaching. There are various good certifications to consider for Agile, see this article for more information.
In a Techrepublic.com article, Allen Barnard stated that tech-savvy project professionals with business skills are highly valued for their ability to understand and facilitate change. The trend is to solve problems by using a design-thinking perspective. This means you view challenges from different stakeholders’ point of view and generate ideas to address them with clients. To facilitate these types of problem-solving approaches, project managers will need to develop leadership and technical skills, as well as empathy to build the strong relationships that are required to support organizational change.
There is a massive contribution to be made while helping organisations to build their Agile culture. An Agile Project Leader can help with establishing standards, to educate, to train and to align stakeholder needs. Do use your strengths of improving processes and enabling teams towards high performance. In a world with so much change, Agile Project Leaders are ideally positioned to help executives to turn their ideas into reality.
Sources
PMI report: Pulse of the Profession 2021 Beyond Agility
What’s next? Identifying new ways of working, 2018
Forbes.com: Agility, not efficiency, is the key to business success In 2021, by Sherry Suski. December, 2020.
TechRepublic.com: Project managers playing larger role in organizational agility. February, 2020.
PMI Thought Leadership Report – Achieving greater agility, the critical need for cross-functional support, 2017
Most project management professionals are aware of the project management trend of the accelerated shift from Waterfall to Agile Project Management as the only way to deliver on benefits in a dynamic and complex environment in order to learn and adapt quickly.
When project managers find themselves moving into agile due to this shift, what does it mean for the careers of these professionals?
For one thing, project managers will have to transition from following the typical traditional life cycle on projects to an agile approach like Scrum as an example of one of the most popular approaches.
Furthermore, on agile project the triple constraint changes from having a fixed scope with time or cost being variable/ negotiable, to scope/feature being the variable part that will be negotiated, based on the needs of the customer.
Daunting Journey
This can be quite a daunting journey and puzzling to highly experienced project professionals to position themselves as an Agile Project Manager or an Agile Project Leader. There are a multitude of agile frameworks in the new paradigm to increase organsiations’ agility. Most project management professionals will find it challenging to get into that space where people can follow your lead, like they have been for years.
Quite often people will feel like they are starting from scratch. There is this long journey of having to adopt an Agile mindset, to go for Agile training and possibly become certified in a new role, and then to become completely familiar and competent with the Agile principles and practices that need to be followed daily.
How the Project Manager role is changing
Project Managers need a different mindset and be practicing the values and principles of agile. PM’s need a working knowledge of agile frameworks and how to best apply them in your organisational context. They need to apply new tools and techniques and let go of being centre of coordination.
As a facilitator and coach they need to build collaborative decision-making environment. And in the Leadership space, they should focus on people rather than process.
Challenges during the transition
As part of the change there are things that we need to stop doing and start doing. Both are equally hard to do.
Agile is fast paced, disciplined and demanding. In high-change projects, there’s more complexity than one person can manage. Instead, cross-functional teams coordinate their own work and collaborate with the business representative PO. PM are accustomed to being at the centre of coordination for a project, while tracking and representing a project’s status to the rest of the organization. This will need to shift from being the center to serving the team and management.
As agile project leaders there is a change in emphasis to coaching people who want help, to foster greater collaboration on team, and to encourage improved team performance due to the inspect and adapt approach.
The agile project leader needs to align stakeholder needs. Ensure appropriate engagement of all stakeholders, as the Product Owner (PO) is not always correctly positioned or skilled to do so. It’s really important to be very effective in stakeholder engagement to remain valuable. It doesn’t matter what you are called as long as you are clear about how you fit into the totality of project responsibilities.
Focus on the outcome (rather than output) and on what needs to be done to achieve client acceptance. Use judgment in aligning your approaches to the demands of the project. It undoubtedly means that project managers, must adapt our roles to the context.
Other Research Perspectives
Based on agile guidance from the Project Management Institute (PMI), it is said that each project is unique and that project success is based on adapting to the unique context of the project. Determine the most appropriate method to produce the desired outcomes.
Tailoring the approach is iterative and it will be a constant process throughout the project lifecycle. Depending on the project, objectives and stakeholders, use just enough process to achieve the desired outcome, while maximising value, managing costs and enhancing the speed. Tailor with a holistic perspective of the business environment, the team size, the degree of uncertainty and the complexity of the project. Then discuss and agree as a team on the best delivery approach and resources required.
Furthermore, it is good to remember that a Certified Project Manager (PMP) or other qualified project management professional is one of the most highly trained and skilled knowledge workers in the organization. Reducing the available pool of knowledge workers as an asset is highly questionable. Smart organizational leaders find ways to include everyone who can contribute to the overall success of developing products and services that meet customer demands.
Trained Project Management professionals are equipped with key characteristics:
Leadership,
Influencing
Team building
Motivation
Communication
Facilitation
Decision making
Political and cultural awareness
Negotiation
Trust building
Conflict management
Coaching
You can be confident about what it is that you bring to the table with your skills and experience.
Options in Agile
There are multiple agile frameworks to choose from, but one of the most popular is the Scrum approach and in an enterprise organization, it will need to be scaled.
Scrum has very defined roles like the Product Owner (PO) and Scrum Master (SM). You will find an overlap between PO and PM:
Both concerned about projects meeting their objectives
Negotiating work with teams
Managing scope, time and budget
Managing stakeholder communications
Similarly, there is an overlap between the roles of the SM and the PM, namely:
Leadership
Excellent communicator, facilitator
Conflict Manager
Analyst & lateral thinker
Content knowledge
People’s person
Enabler
In the corporate enterprise environment where all three roles are often present on strategic Programmes, you’ll see a distinct difference in terms of the focus areas and responsibilities.
A Product Owner
The PO is concerned about the overall scope and he’s responsible for the product backlog prioritization
The PO is responsible for the quality of delivery from a User Story acceptance, Definition of Done (DoD), sprint and release perspective.
The PO needs to know about the Release status and is involved with Scrum events like backlog refinement, end-of-sprint review and demo as well as sprint planning (what is required).
From a financial perspective, the PO is part of the Cost management and responsible for benefit realization.
Scrum Master
The SM’s concerns are the sprint goal and sprint backlog, as well as sprint prioritization.
The SM looks at the velocity of the team, driving delivery.
The SM is responsible for scrum events like the Daily standup, sprint planning and retrospective.
For status the SM looks at daily status (updates on tool), sprint status
Risks and issues management from the perspective of helping to remove impediments, blockers.
Project Manager
The PM will look at the overall agile project life cycle and is responsible for compiling a Conceptual Sprint Plan (CSP) view of the project.
The PM will look at Release planning and integration aspects within the project, as well as with external projects and vendors or stakeholders.
PM is still involved in many meetings like Steercom, Scrum of Scrum (SoS) and Change Control
The PM is concerned about overall status feedback to the Steercom and the Project Management Office (PMO).
The PM is responsible for risk and issue management and escalations.
The PM does Cost management – planned/forecasts and actuals.
Project Manager & SM combined
Another option is where people have combined the role of a PM with that of a SM in the context of a consulting company serving customers, while fulfilling both roles on some projects or just the PM role on other projects.
Source: Shama Bole – plastergroup.com
Project Manager in SAFe
Based on another source: PMI Conference Paper by D Cornelius, PMI Global Congress, Oct 2014, the Paper evaluated the PM role using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) practice. Since SAFe includes portfolio, program, and project levels, it provides the best opportunity for the PM to use the skills obtained from PM training. It will fulfill the role as Release Train Engineer (RTE). In this context the PM is also seen as a coach and facilitator.
The same Paper describes a trend where the PM practice is accepted as a key desired management skill and it moves project leadership from a specialized role back to the functional managers responsible for day-to-day operations. Project management is also one of the key courses required of students in MBA programs to ensure future business leaders obtain the knowledge to plan and execute projects. The elevation of project management as a key knowledge area for business leaders also will play a role in the reduction of the PM a specialized role.
The Paper concluded that the certified PM is a highly skilled knowledge worker that is capable of adding value in a lean and agile world, some-one who will participate effectively in enterprise agile organizations.
When a PM is deployed in a Scrum-only environment it limits the PM’s choices to participate as the Product Owner, a Scrum Master or a Scrum of Scrum Master (scaled).
The SAFe landscape provides the best opportunity for the professional PM to use their skills obtained from PM training. In Scrum @Scale, there is a Scrum of Scrum Master which could also be a good match for PM skills.
The PM is expected to lead by influence without authority. In the lean and agile world, the PM must become a servant leader which is only difficult when previous experience has been a command-and-control model, but In my opinion not so much if your leadership style was more facilitative and adaptive based on the context of the project. An agile PM provides a value that enables continual learning and improvement to members in the organization.
What Agile Project Leaders need for success
You need to work on growing skillsets beyond your area of expertise.
You need to tailor delivery approach based on the context.
It will be very valuable if you can coordinate between different systems, methodologies while coaching the teams in a singular direction.
You need to delegate control of detailed product planning and delivery to the team.
Focus on building a collaborative decision-making environment.
Ensure teams have the ability to respond to changes.
In an adaptive environment, you will use adaptive planning.
High emotional Intelligence with a focus on people rather than process.
Stakeholder engagement continuously and appropriately for the project needs.
Changed Leadership styles calling for situational and servant leadership.
You can transform yourself to become an agile project leader by knowing what your options are and by deciding where is the best fit based on your strengths, experience and value-add. Commit to continuous learning.
You will enjoy a stimulating work environment while your needs for variety, being autonomous and a change-maker are met.
Let us know what you think about the transitioning of project managers to agile?
As a Project Management Professional and Agile Practitioner, the startup of a new project is one of the most important activities to lead. There is a good chance that if you start well, you will also finish well.
How do you start an Agile project if you are working in an enterprise organization with a mix of projects ranging from the traditional plan-driven (waterfall) projects to agile projects to a more hybrid agile approach?
The purpose of this article is to provide you with guidelines for starting an agile project as an Agile Project Leader. It is based on my own experience as a professional project manager who has made the transition to following an agile approach.
Hybrid Agile
Let’s first clarify what I mean by a hybrid agile approach. Hybrid agile approaches typically combine traditional (predictive) and agile elements. Whereas a blended approach combine two (or more) similar approaches. So, using a combination of Scrum and XP is a blended agile approach since they are both agile to begin with.
According to Mike Griffiths, in his article on Projectmanagement.com, called “Flavors of Hybrid Agile”, he explains that the goal of combining project approaches is to create something better suited for our current environment than using either a pure agile or pure traditional (predictive) approach. He promotes the argument of being smart about the tools we use and to choose the best approaches for the circumstances we face. I have to agree with being pragmatic about this and to apply our efforts where we have the most influence. In the end it’s about the results.
Agile Project Lifecycle
One example of such a hybrid agile approach that I have worked with before, is below.
You start with a phase called Inception and in the case of a really large program, there will be pre-work, sometimes called the Pre-Inception. As expected you will do analysis, developing, testing and deploying in every iteration during Development . You still do development, testing and test automation in every sprint, but instead of releasing to production, you will release to a test environment (sometimes called Acceptance).
You then have a phase for testing that a new solution will work end-to-end, called Stabilization. This is usually applicable in an IT environment where the new solution (system) needs to integrate with multiple existing applications. In normal Agile, a test iteration at then end, is also called a ‘hardening sprint’.
Once the end-to-end testing has been completed, it will be followed by user acceptance testing, also known as UAT, where end-users will test actual business like scenarios to ensure that the new solution is performing as expected. Only when UAT is signed off, the solution is deployed to production during the Deployment phase.
During the Inception phase, you will review the Business Case (in the case of a formal strategic project), confirm the scope, plan for the project (sprints), ensure team members are trained, elaborate the requirements and establish the infrastructure plan, including hardware, software and various environments to work within (development, testing and production environments).
Startup
Typically, there needs to be a Project Kick-off workshop where the Product Vision and Scope of Work is shared with all the stakeholders. On a high level the business requirements, the in scope work, the key stakeholders as well as the agile approach are presented.
Next is the Release Planning where the conditions of satisfaction are agreed, for example the expected timeline for the project, the scope including the Product vision and roadmap, the epics (and user stories), as well as the budget.
The release plan activities will include agreement on the scope, in other words which epics and user stories will deliver the scope. Next you want to gain consensus on user story estimates. Then you need to determine the team’s capacity for completing the work. The activities are explained very well in this picture, adapted from ‘Mike Cohn – Agile Estimation and Planning’
If you are used to looking at a project planning as a process, it will look something like this.
The Team
Another important step in the startup process, is the Team Formation which will consist of several onboarding activities.
With each team that will be part of the project, you want to develop a Team Charter in which the project team’s vision, the objectives, and the team member roles and responsibilities are covered. The team also needs to develop a Working Agreement to agree aspects like:
Whatever agile approach has been decided on by the Management and Development teams, as fit for purpose based on the context of the organization, it needs to be documented as a process and explained and agreed with the overall team members.
The Tools
One thing that my experience has taught me, is that you need sufficient tools to support your agile process. Many people love Excel, but it certainly won’t be enough. Although it could be a good starting point, there are people who like to export data from electronic systems and use Excel to track the progress of the work. Try to stick to one system that will be the single source of truth, especially if coordination is required among multiple Development teams.
The tools can be as simple as physical white boards with stickies, so that the work in every sprint is visible and the stickies can be moved during daily standups. Impediments can also be clearly indicated so that action can be taken.
The tools can also be electronic task management systems with ‘whiteboards’ that allow for backlog refinement and boards that will make the work visible for teams to share and discuss. There are multiple good tools available in the market today and it’s up to the organization to find a tool suitable for their needs.
Ready, steady, go
At the end of Inception phase, the backlog will be ready and in a healthy state. This means that User Stories are adhering to the INVEST principle (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable), they have acceptance criteria, estimates and meet the Definition of Ready (DOR), based on what was agreed for them to be ready.
The Product Owner(s) will work with the teams to prioritise the work and it will be an ongoing refinement process before every sprint. Feedback will be provided and based on the inspect and adapt principle of agile, there will be continuous improvement in every sprint.
This is a very short synopsis of what it entails to start an agile project successfully. The aim is to give guidance and to provide a logical sequence of steps to be taken. As always, every project is unique, every organization is different, and as an Agile project leader you need to take your context into consideration to decide on the best approach for your situation.
The 14th annual State of Agile report has been published by Digital.ai, formerly known as CollabNet VersionOne. The report documents the experiences of more than 1,100 IT and business professionals across a range of industries and roles worldwide. With 40,000 participants contributing over 14 years, the State of Agile report is the longest running and most widely cited Agile survey in the world and provides global enterprises with comprehensive data to benchmark and guide their Agile practices.
Key findings
Notable findings from the 14th annual State of Agile report, completed in December 2019, include:
60 percent of respondents have increased speed to market
Risk and compliance continue to trend upward, as the value of identifying and measuring technical risk prior to deployment increased by 54 percent and the importance of automated audit compliance and governance across control points increased by 10 percent over last year.
A significant shift in Agile techniques occurred, as product road-mapping increased nine percent while release planning decreased 11 percent. Drivers for this change may include a general increase in continuous integration/continuous deployment and better-defined program increment planning.
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) continues to be the most popular scaling method cited by respondents, increasing 5 percent over last year and outpacing the number two choice, Scrum@Scale, by 19 percent.
55 percent are planning to implement Value Stream Management (VSM) a combination of people, process, and technology that maps, optimizes, visualizes, measures, and governs business value flow from idea through development and into production.
Interesting demographic analysis is showing that companies with more than 20,000 people were more likely to be practicing Agile for at least five years. While companies with less than 1,000 people continue to mature quickly and are increasingly embracing a broader view of business agility by applying Agile principles to areas of the business outside development, IT, and operations.
How COVID-19 affected Agile adoption
In mid-May 2020, Digital.ai conducted a brief supplemental survey of respondents to learn how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected their Agile adoption. The findings reveal:
55% say their company plans to increase the use of Agile in the next 12-14 months. This is an increase of 13 percent over the original survey completed just five months ago.
43% of organizations say their momentum for Agile adoption has increased over the past 90 days, with 15 percent saying it has increased significantly.
33% say they increased or expanded Agile adoption in the last 90 days to help manage distributed teams.
To find out what the survey reveals about Agile methods and practices, Agile benefits, scaling Agile, Agile Project Management tools, success and metrics as well as Devops and Value Stream Management, please download the 14thState of Agile Report here.
Many teams all over the world, have been forced into a ‘work-from-home’ situation due to the Coronavirus spread and countries’ response with different degrees of lockdown measures to curb the spread. Inevitably, virtual teams have many challenges. This article will position how the skill of ‘Active Listening’ can play a huge part when leading virtual teams.
What is active listening?
Active listening can be described as follows:
Clarifying
Feedback
Focus
Improve the communication
Repeating
Intent
Encouraging
What are communication challenges to overcome?
The challenges people are coming across, include the following:
How to listen when you are part of a virtual team
Technology is overloaded; organisations and schools are using the networks, which could cause connectivity or sound issues
When no video is used, you cannot read body language. Tone of voice becomes very important
Participants can talk over each another, or some don’t get a chance to speak
How to address communication challenges with listening skills?
You will find with remote work that virtual teams require new rules and new ways of collaboration. Different ground rules will apply, for example to time-box discussions and to ensure that every participant get a chance to speak. More 1-on-1 discussions are required and you need to have more empathy.
Communication with virtual teams can take a lot of energy. Therefore, beware of low energy levels, for example if a person hasn’t eaten, or it’s at the end of a long day, people may lose interest.
Stages of Listening
Reception during communication can be explained with:
Intake
Meaning
Significance
Response
3 Phases of active listing
The following image provides a nice breakdown of the three phases of active listening, namely comprehending, retaining and responding.
Levels of listening
There are also different levels of listening to be aware of.
Level 1: Internal listening
You ask a question. When a person answers, you think of your own life, interrupt them, or just keep thinking of your own things, and stop listening while they’re speaking. It’s all about ME.
Level 2: Focused listening
The person who listens, asks clarifying questions. Now it’s about voice, information, body language (if it can be seen), emotions that are being observed.
Level 3: Global listening
The person listening has a sense of curiosity. You listen with emphathy. You consider the environment and you take into account a person’s background.
Level 4: Listening for potential
You listen with intent and a positive attitude while thinking of future possibilities and potential.
How to become better with active listening
What will really help you is to have curiosity and to use keywords. If you’re not interested, or curious, you won’t listen, or spend energy there. While listening, look for keywords, ideas and concepts. If things are repeated, look for patterns, because repeated themes are more important.
Another way to become better with active listening, is thinking in a visual way. To do this, you can draw notes, or draw a picture. This gives context, meaning and focus.
You can also improve your active listening skills by being aware of yourself. Do this through reflection, mindfulness and self-awareness. Ask yourself questions like:
How do I listen?
What is good and what not?
Can I improve something?
Nonviolent communication
Nonviolent Communication is an approach to nonviolent living developed by Marshall Rosenberg beginning in the 1960s. NVC is based on the assumption that all human beings have capacity for compassion and empathy and is really about communicating honestly and receiving empathetically. It is an essential ingredient to active listening.
The steps involved with NVC are:
Observe – when I see, hear
Feelings – I feel
Needs – because I need
Requests – please could you now. The needs of the other person are important and always considered
Tips to improve
There are several ways to keep improving your active listening skills. They are:
Conscious practice
Write down keywords
Note your own ideas
Ask neutral clarifying questions
In your mind repeat what other persons says
Try to visualize what the other person is saying
Ask additional questions until you can form a mental image
Don’t talk; rather use non-verbal signals like sounds and expressions, grunts and body language
Reply with 1-2 syllables
Admit you are lost
Repeat back or paraphrasing to show understanding
Adjust your own posture
Mirror the other person
Apply mindfulness
Check the environment
Drawing of notes, or pictures
The skill of ‘Active Listening’ should not be underestimated; it becomes even more important with virtual teams. It is something that can be practiced and improved over time.
As a virtual team lead, it is your responsibility to hone this skill and to model the behavior of good active listening to your team members so that they can also practice it and improve their listening skills. You will find that it will greatly contribute to building trust within teams and to help overcome the challenges of working virtually.
Sources:
Webinar by Pascal Papathemelis from Agile 42
Corporatecoachgroup.com: “How to improve active listening skills”
If you’re working in a structured project environment with a project office, the chances are that you are using a right-size governance approach.
What does that mean? Essentially, the level of management attention and oversight varies appropriately, depending upon the characteristics of the project, such as size and complexity, or the level and significance of the impact of the project on the organisation.
In the example below, projects are classified for governance purposes into three types based upon size and complexity.
Project categorisation
Type ‘1’ projects demand formal ratification of key deliverables such as the business case and project initiation document. They will not be allowed to continue (or at least that’s the idea) until there is real evidence that the legitimate governance stakeholders have given their authorisation to proceed stage by stage.
Type ‘3’ projects? Well, they typically take only a few weeks, a few staff, and not a lot of money, and have a very limited impact on the organisation’s strategy. They often simply require a sign-off as an agreement to operationalise and close the project. It’s not unusual for work to continue while the sign-off is being negotiated.
Ultimately, the choice of governance affects the way the project is controlled, monitored, and the way decision-making is managed.
It all sounds good, doesn’t it? Except that it simply isn’t working.
Right-size governance is failing on so many levels
Twenty years ago, most of us recognised that adopting strict life cycles and gateway processes may well reduce risk, but at a huge cost to the agility of delivery. It didn’t matter how many times PRINCE2 theoreticians told us it was ‘just a framework’ and its strictures must be adapted to the project and organizational context, there were methodologist practitioners who were determined to implement a rigid, formulaic system. This was the era when the joke was:
What’s the difference between a methodologist and a terrorist?
“You can negotiate with a terrorist!”
Right-size governance was introduced to proceduralise the judgements about which governance techniques to apply and when. It makes logical sense. In line with Pareto’s law, you concentrate most management attention on the top 20% of projects. But like so many well-intentioned ideas, it had not factored in the Machiavellian behaviour of organizations and their project stakeholders. In a review comparing the actual governance approach taken by projects against the approach suggested by project size and complexity evaluation, we found over 25% of projects were not in line with the right-size governance recommendations. Here are just some of the examples we come across:
Under-inflation: When projects are misdescribed as ‘simple’ to ensure low levels of governance oversight. “I know I said it was large, but actually it’s quite straightforward – I’m sure it’s a type ‘3’.”
Over-inflation: When project classifications are confused with project ‘status’. Yes, it does happen! “This is definitely a type ‘1’ project. Look how important it is!” Perhaps we should read here – “…look how important I am!”
Process override: When there are clear indications of a project of being one type, but alternative governance approaches are mandated, often by a powerful stakeholder. “I don’t need all this, and I’m not prepared to pay for it.”
Right-size governance so rarely deals with change
In the organisations we work with, the classification of projects for governance purposes is part of the project initiation process. It must be because fundamental decisions to questions are dependent upon understanding the nature of the project. Questions such as:
Who will be involved?
What level of project manager skill is necessary?
How should we register the project?
This works well where the level of simplicity and complexity is obvious, but for those in between, it can be more difficult to predict in their early stages. We don’t know what we don’t know yet. Selecting and implementing the governance for the project at this stage is a problem.
The PMOs we work with report that it is often these projects that get into trouble simply because the management oversight is just wrong. While there may be good intentions to review the project categorisation at stage gates, in reality, what happens is that the project drifts into a governance black-hole with nobody prepared to expose the existing governance regime to challenge.
The PMO’s role
Clearly, with some projects and programmes lasting over several years, the governance approach must be reviewed. In these circumstances a PMO can add real value, monitoring the risks associated with projects in the wrong governance state and highlighting the need for change to occur. We suspect, however, that many PMOs are subject to the ‘magpie effect’ – they become overly focused on large projects and programmes. Strange really, because these are the ones we assign our most experienced (and costliest) project and programme managers to – exactly because of the known risks. It seems an exercise in project manager disempowerment for the PMO to pitch in as well. Rather it is those middle level projects where changes in context are most likely, and where the skills and experience of the managers involved may be more suspect, that the PMO should focus.
Adaptive governance
Reviewing your governance approach is one thing – adapting it is something else. Indeed, one might consider that the whole idea of adapting governance is an oxymoron. After all, the purpose of governance is to give predictable approaches, based upon best practices, to reduce the risks associated with the management of projects. Adapting governance – well it sounds like the sort of can that is best left unopened!
Yet if yours is a complex project environment where the organisational context of projects is varied and varying, or indeed if you are working on Agile projects, adapting governance approaches is exactly what you are expected to do.
As governance is about reducing management risk, it has to remain alert to the sources of management risk, and the first and possibly most important is where and by whom are management decisions being made. So often demanding and dangerous stakeholders are involved or included in the decision-making, and yet good practice means that only the decision-makers should be limited to those who have a legitimate right – which means the decisions are made at the right place by the right people.
A second, and in some ways, more subtle point about adapting governance to better suit changing circumstances was made by Cohn, an early Agile theorist. He pointed out that project governance – far from eschewing change – should welcome it and see change as a positive consequence of having learned something and avoiding the mistake of doing something not wanted. A far cry from the rigid, predictive governance strait jackets of yesteryear that saw the role of keeping to the script and frustrating change.
Agile projects
So in the Agile world, governance matters but it’s a much more consultative process. It’s not just about whether the project is complex, but what the clients’ attitudes and desires are around the way the project should be conducted. If the client is open to exploration and the requirements are difficult to define then the Agile space is a great place to be. But if the client needs and demands predictability in the delivery then it probably isn’t.
Bringing those legitimate stakeholders much closer into the project – moving from a negotiative relationship to a collaborative relationship – is key to shortening decision making time. Scrum practices such as the product owner is a good example of attempts to do this. But, as the use of these practices increases, there is a very real danger that (as per the role of the project sponsor) the business will become project-weary and circumvent the Scrum mandate, allowing projects to run without a genuine product owner in place. You may even know instances of that happening in your own organization right now!
Governance practices must diversify and become change competent
As project management disciplines and approaches extend into more diverse areas, as the product development processes projects encompass become more sophisticated, and the demands made by stakeholders increase, project governance must respond – it too has to diversify without losing its role of providing senior managers – the investors in projects – with the confidence they need to implement their organisation’s strategy.
About the Author
Christopher Worsley has over 40 years’ experience in project and programme management. He is a visiting lecturer on the University of Cape town MSc in project management and is the author of the following books with his wife, Louise Worsley.
Christopher will be talking on the importance of adaptive planning practices at the Project Management South Africa (PMSA) monthly meet-up on the 28thApril 2020.
There are a number of considerations to take into account before you decide on the best education in order to transition to agile.
Do some research to find out which qualifications are in demand. Also look at what the job market has to offer.
Some certifications have pre-requisites for taking exams to obtain the certification, for example, the fact that you need a number of project management hours experience.
There are costs involved for studying and taking the exam, consider what will your budget allow, or will your employer be willing to pay for this education?
You also need to consider what interests you? Where are you now on your career journey and what will be stimulating and fulfilling in the long run?
Another important factor that people might forget, is the perceptions of your peer group. Some people have preferences for one type of training/certification above another. Take the time and talk to colleagues and friends in the industry to find out what they think and recommend.
All the above considerations will inform your choice of which education to pursue and whether you want to take an exam to become certified or not.
In my experience, I have found that certification carries weight with employers and recruiters, because it gives an indication of knowledge and proven experience, as well as a willingness and commitment to invest in self-development, subsequently adding more value in the workplace.
Agile Certification options
Should you decide on any of the following certifications, remember that the companies offering the certifications, also have training that will prepare you for each type of certification. This is a summarized view of the popular, well-known certifications today, but not necessarily all inclusive.
Scrum Alliance:
Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
Advanced Certified Scrum Master (A-CSM)
Certified Scrum Professional – Scrum Master (CSP-SM)
Certified Product Owner (CPO)
Developers certifications
Scrum.org (Ken Schwaber in 2009):
PSM – Professional SM level I, II, III;
PSPO level I, II;
Prof Scrum Developer (PSD)
Prof Agile Leadership (PAL)
Prof Scrum with Kanban (PSK)
Scaled Professional Scrum (SPS)
APMG: Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) oldest full-project agile approach
AgilePM Foundation
AgilePM Practitioner
DSDM Agile Professional
PMI: PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Professional)
PMI-ACP for project managers who need to apply agile principles and practices in your projects. The qualification needs a combination of training, experience, and an exam. It covers a range of agile approaches such as Scrum, extreme programming (XP), Test-drive Development (TTD), Lean and Kanban. You will have PMI recognition and a very broad-based understanding of agile methods.
The pre-requisites are challenging:
2,000 hours of experience in project teams.
A current PMP® or PgMP® will satisfy this requirement but is not required to apply for the PMI-ACP.
1,500 hours working on agile project teams or with agile methodologies.
This requirement is additional to the 2,000 hours above.
21 contact hours of training in agile practices.
It is one of the more demanding examinations and also one of the more expensive.
Project management trends that make the shift to Agile approaches more inevitable
The Agile Project Manager in the enterprise context
The role of the Agile Project Manager and what they need to do in the Agile context
This article will focus on what is required to make a successful transition to Agile project management.
An Axelos survey among project managers in 2017, found:
The project manager of the future will be valued above all for creativity, flexibility, agility and emotional intelligence.
Axelos
Reward systems
When adopting an agile approach, organizations will need to re-evaluate their reward systems to encourage agile practices, where collective goals supersede individual accomplishments. Most performance evaluation criteria is still focussed on the individual as well as on the more traditional criteria for project delivery, namely time, cost, scope, stakeholder feedback and benefit realisation. In agile it should be more about the performance of the team, value and benefit delivery as well as customer satisfaction.
Challenges with transitioning to agile project management
Project managers are accustomed to being at the center of coordination for a project. During execution and as part of the controlling processes of a project life cycle, you would be monitoring and tracking progress through status meetings, minutes and status reporting to represent the project’s status to the rest of the organization.
Now, there is a shift from being the center to serving the team and management. In typical high-change projects, there’s more complexity than one person can manage. Instead, cross-functional teams coordinate their own work and collaborate with business representatives like the product owner and subject matter experts (SME) of the organisation.
Project managers are now servant leaders which changes the emphasis:
to coaching people who want help,
to foster greater collaboration on teams,
to align stakeholder needs.
Adaptive approaches use short cycles to undertake work, review the results, and adapt as necessary. This means that Agile is fast paced, disciplined and demanding, encouraging improved team performance due to the inspect and adapt approach. These cycles provide rapid feedback on the approaches and suitability of deliverables, and generally manifest as iterative scheduling and on-demand, pull-based scheduling.
This will require project managers to unlearn some behaviours, to develop a different mindset and developing some new technical skills such as running a retrospective or ‘orchestrating’ work where in the past it was ‘managed’.
What do Agile Project Managers need to be successful?
Taking guidance from the Agile Practice Guide (2017) Project managers need to work on growing skillsets beyond their area of expertise. Some valuable attributes include:
Knowing how to provide a tailored experience for every client
ability to work with flexible workflows – coordinate between different systems and methodologies,
coaching their team(s) in a singular direction,
delegating the control of detailed product planning and delivery to the team.
Rather focus on building a collaborative decision-making environment and ensuring the team has the ability to respond to changes.
Remember that an adaptive environment requires adaptive planning. Planning for agile projects look different to what project managers are proficient with on traditional projects. The different levels of agile planning are clearly explained in the image above.
In their book: Adaptive Project Planning, the authors, Christopher and Louise Worsley, found that one of the most distinctive characteristic of high performing project managers is their ability to use their experience and know-how to adapt the planning approach to meet the specific challenges of the project they were managing.
Develop characteristics of Servant Leadership. This is not the answer to it all, but when leaders develop their servant leadership or facilitative skills, they are more likely to become agile. Read: “Servant Leadership in the Agile context” for more information.
Servant leaders can help their teams collaborate to deliver value faster. They facilitate the team’s success by:
promoting self-awareness,
by serving those on the team,
by helping people grow,
active listening,
coaching versus controlling,
promoting safety, respect, and trust,
promoting the energy and intelligence of others.
Part of the transitioning process is to keep learning, because the demand for competent resources and certified practitioners will keep growing globally. If you want to be a complete Agile Project Manager, your learning should include:
Adopting an agile approach to project management
An overview of agile methodologies
Agile planning: project initiating and requirements gathering
Agile planning: doing estimates and completing the release plan
Planning and monitoring iterations on an agile project (example: conceptual sprint plan on scrum)
Leading an agile team
Managing stakeholder engagement on an agile project
Ensuring delivery of value and quality in agile projects
There are many training opportunities available. What you choose, will depend on your circumstances, your project management experience and your new role in the agile context.
In the next article, we will explore some of the Agile Certifications available, as well as the considerations before you make a selection.
If you are a seasoned project management professional like me (20 years) who is transitioning into agile, you will find that this article aims to give answers when you’re trying to make sense of what it means to be an Agile Project Manager (PM).
We know that Agile is not a new concept. In 2001 it was made official through the publication of the Agile Manifesto although it had been around before then. It is just my experience lately that project managers, especially experienced ones, as well as new Project Management Professionals (PMP’s) are expected to understand Agile better and to know how to operate efficiently within an Agile context.
That is why representing organisations, like the Project Management Institute (PMI), have included information on agile practices, alongside traditional approaches in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide– Sixth Edition, and partnered with Agile Alliance® to create the new Agile Practice Guide. The guide provides tools, situational guidelines and an understanding of the various agile approaches available to enable better results and is useful for more traditional project managers to adapt to a more agile approach.
Before talking about the Agile PM role specifically, I think it’s worthwhile to have a brief look at the trends that I believe, are impacting the project management profession currently. This is not meant to be a complete list, but rather a focus on those trends that make the transition, to become Agile project managers, necessary.
Project Management Trends (2019 research)
#1 Project Complexity
In the past few years we have seen an increasing complexity on projects which requires project managers to have the ability to simply interpret and explain complex business processes to project teams and stakeholders alike.
#2 Project thinking
There seems to be a shift where project thinking is integrated into all parts of the work processes.
#3 Design thinking
Development of design thinking as a new type of creative approach. This would be applicable for tasks like definition of requirements, solutions to atypical problems and so on.
#4 Distributed work teams
Due to globalization, more and more companies have distributed work teams due to the increase in the number of international teams in modern business. Often, a specialised stream of work, is outsourced to a vendor company who may supply resources from India and it will be a cheaper solution than to find internal resources with capacity or local resources whose specialized skills come at a higher cost.
#5 Shift from Waterfall to Agile approaches
We see an accelerated shift from Waterfall to Agile Project Management in larger organizations as the only way to deliver on benefits in increasingly dynamic and complex environments in order to learn and adapt quickly.
#5 Project Managers as all-rounders
There is a move for PM’s to be more all-rounders, requiring them to be flexible, strategic, focus on the dependencies within the project. At the same time there is more pressure from stakeholders for PM’s to be more creative to meet strategic objectives.
#6 Emotional Intelligence
The development of emotional intelligence as an important soft skill has become essential as part of the day to day through the project life cycle. Read what it really means here.
#7 Cloud-based systems
There is a huge push to move projects to cloud-based systems which are accessible from any-where.
#8 Enhanced Reporting and data
We live in a world with expectations for enhanced reporting and data. Project stakeholders, like management, want views, templates and saved filters for easy access. Management and team members also want real-time information to stay informed and to help make decisions on a day-to-day basis.
Sources for PM trends:
Merehead
PMI Pulse of the Profession 2017
Invensis Learning – excerpts from group of experts
Clickup.com
Agile considerations
On projects with evolving requirements, high risk, or significant uncertainty, the scope is often not understood at the beginning of the project or it evolves during the project.
Agile methods deliberately spend less time trying to define and agree on scope in the early stage of the project and spend more time establishing the process for its ongoing discovery and refinement. With emerging requirements there is often a gap between the real business requirements and the business requirements that were originally stated. Therefore, agile methods purposefully build and review prototypes and release versions in order to refine the requirements. As a result, scope is defined and redefined throughout the project. In agile approaches, the requirements constitute the backlog.
The main difference between traditional and agile approaches with regards to the triple constraints, is best illustrated with the image below. On traditional projects the scope is normally fixed at the beginning of the project with either the resources/cost or time being more flexible or negotiable. On agile projects the resources (teams) and time (time-boxed iterations) are normally fixed, with the scope being flexible based on delivering the most valuable products first.
This is why we see in trustworthy sources, like the PMI Pulse of the Profession 2017 Report, that there are several principles and methods to be considered for an Agile approach. They include:
Focus of the team of specialists on the needs and objectives of the company’s customers;
Simplification of processes and organizational structure;
Division of the workflow into short cycles with specific tasks;
Focus on feedback and active use of its results;
Increase the authority of members of the work team;
Introduction of a humanistic approach
The Agile Project Manager in the Enterprise context
With a view of the current trends impacting the Project Management profession as well as the Agile considerations, where does it leave professional Project Managers?
Here, I’d like to quote Alistair Cockburn, a signatory of the Agile Manifesto 2001, when he was asked at a conference in 2015 whether organisations should get rid of project managers and replace them with scrum masters, his response was,
“If organisations think that agile is a way of getting rid of project managers, they’re wrong. We need good people more than ever.”
Alistair Cockburn
Although the quote is 4 years old, it still rings true.
In agile it’s about working together more effectively to deliver value more quickly to the customer. The Manifesto called on organisations to “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.”
According to Collin D Ellis, a leadership and culture expert, organisations need to act as if people are the most important. He states:
“do this by regularly displaying behaviours such as empathy, respect, trust, courage, generosity and honesty. It means keeping promises and making sure people are recognised for their efforts. It’s about having a working environment that is diverse and inclusive by design and where people know that they are empowered as soon as they walk through the door to be able to act without fear”.
Collin D Ellis
Where do project managers fit in?
In the image below, you will see a framework for Agile (mostly Scrum) as it may typically look like in an enterprise environment.
It constitutes of three circles. The inner circle represents one (or more) Scrum teams with the cross functional dedicated team members fulfilling the three main roles, a Product Owner, a Scrum Master and the Development team who may consist of a Business Analyst, Developer(s) and Tester.
The second circle represents roles with people who are not necessarily dedicated to one team only, but who could support multiple scrum teams. They represent Architects (solution -, platform -, business -), Business Owner and Subject Matter Experts (SME), Release Manager, Project support (administrator), Project Manager and Agile Coach (optional).
The third circle will consist of a Business Sponsor and members of the Steering Committee, the Project Office (PMO), Change Management, Training, Enterprise Architecture and Program Management.
As you can see, the Agile Project Manager is part of the second and third circle and acts as the connection between the two. Where the Scrum Master is inward looking and responsible to support the team and to help remove impediments, the project manager is outward looking, more like a coordinator often overseeing multiple scrum teams on a project with duties including allocating and tracking budget, communicating with external stakeholders, contractors and vendors, maintaining a risk register and helping to manage interdependencies with other projects and teams.
The Role of the Agile Project Manager
According to the PMI PMBOK and Agile Practice Guide (2017), the role of the project manager in an agile project is somewhat of an unknown, because many agile frameworks and approaches do not address the role of the project manager.
Some agile practitioners think the role of a PM is not needed, due to self-organizing teams taking on the former responsibilities of the project manager. However, pragmatic agile practitioners and organizations realize that PM’s can add significant value in many situations.
The key difference is that their roles and responsibilities look somewhat different. The traditional role of a project manager as planner, organizer, and controller disappears, and the role of a facilitator or coach who effectively manages the collaborative efforts of team members without stifling their creativity takes its place (Highsmith, 2003). The focus is on people, rather than on process.
All project managers will not automatically move into the Scrum Master role, or alternatively into the Product Owner role. An Agile project manager must still monitor that corporate policies and project governance is followed. Mike Cohn (Mountain Goat Software, 2019) explains it well when he says that Scrum Master’s authority extends only to the process. The Scrum Master is an expert on the process, and on using it to get a team to perform to its highest level. But, a Scrum Master does not have many of the traditional responsibilities – scope, cost, personnel, risk management – that a project manager does. Duties, such as task assignment and daily project decisions revert back to the team. Responsibility for scope and schedule tradeoff goes to the product owner. Quality management becomes a responsibility shared among the team, a product owner and Scrum Master.
What Agile Project Managers need to do
Different Mindset
You will need a different mindset, considering the agile principles and values. There are new tools and techniques to understand and apply on agile projects for example Adaptive Planning techniques.
Servant Leader
The next thing to change is to let go of a command and control approach and being the centre of coordination. You will need to move into the Servant Leadership space in order to focus on people rather than process.
On a team level, the agile project manager can play a consultative role to put in place the appropriate people, process, and tools, to improve team efficiency and effectiveness. In addition you can be coaching members of the team as needed to optimise the project team’s performance.
Facilitator
Do encourage the distribution of your responsibility to the team: to those who have the knowledge to get work done. The team will be accountable as a whole for what needs to be delivered. For this to work well, you need to build a collaborative decision-making environment as a facilitator and a coach to empower the team to make decisions and to be high-performing.
Stakeholder engagement
The agile project manager works with the customer to layout a common set of understandings from which emergence, adaptation and collaboration can occur. The agile project manager lays out a vision and then nurtures the project team to do the best possible to achieve the plan, as per Mike Cohn.
Manage interdependencies
Another important responsibility on complex Agile projects will remain the management of project intra- as well as interdependencies, with other projects. To do this well, stakeholder engagement is still essential.
If your Business is running multiple Agile projects and you are seriously in need to scale, you would have heard of the Scaled Agile Framework also known as SAFe. Read more as an introduction to this framework and how you can use it to your advantage.
What is SAFe?
While most business users have heard the term Scaled Agile Framework, many of you are not familiar with what it actually means. This framework is a combination of both lean and Agile principles designed to make collaboration and centralized decision-making easier. Some examples of the principles would be cross-functional teams, continuous code integration and systems thinking among others.
One of the biggest benefits that comes with using SAFe is the various configuration options it offers. The three basic levels used in SAFe are:
team,
program and
portfolio.
When using SAFe, companies are able to view the “big picture” of a particular project. This level of visualization is only possible when mapping out the roles of your team and assigning them particular responsibilities. Luckily, the Agile principles SAFe is based on, can be scaled to fit the needs of large corporations. Most businesses find that the centralized decision making promoted by this framework helps to speed the progression of a project up without mistakes being made in the process.
The Benefits of Adopting SAFe
The main benefit that comes with adopting SAFe is the efficiency it can bring to the software development process. Using this framework not only benefits the developers in the trenches writing code and developing new programs, but it is also helpful for software leaders.
Often times, these leaders are tasked with answering high-level strategy questions. Getting the answers to these questions is easy when everyone is on the same page and decision-making is centralised. Most large corporations have found that SAFe’s big picture view helps them to coordinate strategies even on large scale projects that are complex in nature.
Another advantage of using SAFe is that it helps business owners stay aligned with shareholders goals and wishes. In some instances, the bottom-up approach of Agile can lead to developers and testers losing sight of the big picture. With the top-down approach of SAFe, you can keep everyone moving towards a common goal with ease.
One more major benefit is the Inspect and Adapt principles which support a systematic view of outcomes and will lead to continuous improvement.
Challenges of Implementing Scaled Agile Frameworks
The first thing you need to do before starting to use this framework is to put the right tools in place.
For instance, if you use Microsoft IIS to host your websites, investing in software that acts as a strong Monitor for IIS performance is a must. Putting the right tools in the hands of your developers will make the transition to SAFe and the software development process as a whole more successful.
As mentioned before, SAFe uses a “big picture” model to keep all of your team members on the same page. This is why creating a detailed roadmap for the project at hand is so important.
Furthermore, Lean-Agile leadership is required that will help management to lead the transformation rather than follow it.
Another challenge is to dedicate enough time for innovation and planning, else you will incur technical debt, more overtime will be required and teams will fall victim to the ‘tyranny of the urgent’.
Adopting SAFe Takes Time
As with any other project management methodology or framework, the SAFe adoption process will take time and effort. Instead of getting impatient and making mistakes, you need to take your time to implement it slowly. Consulting with professional Agile Practitioners who have experience with Scaled Agile Frameworks can be very beneficial and is recommended.
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