Agile project management: Everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask, by Adrian Pyne, 12th March 2015

Agile project management

Everything you wanted to

know but were too afraid to

ask

Adrian Pyne

Pyne Consulting l

About Adrian...... • Organisation culture development

• Coaching and mentoring

• Collaboration

• Professional Services build and management

• Business Transformation programme delivery and rescue

• Portfolio, programme and project management capability development

• Enterprise PMO design/build/operate

• Intelligent Client model development

• Member of APM approx. 20 years

• APM Audit Committee

• Frequent speaker , conference chair and blogger

• Cabinet Office White Paper

• OGC: MSP, P3M3 & Portfolio Mngt review panels

• APM – Intro to Programme Mngt & Portfolio Mngt

• The Gower Handbook of Programme Management

• APM Registered Project Professional and Assessor 2

Pyne Consulting l Applied Impact Technology 3

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We were Agile

The pace of change and the value of being Agile

Being Agile at two levels

Agile Organisational Project management

Being Agile in projects and programmes

Avoiding the pitfalls

Content

4

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We were Agile – principles

Satisfy the customer, produce outcomes that result in benefits

Embrace changing requirements

Provide an environment for success that is sustainable

Collaborative behaviours based on Trust

Keep it simple

At regular intervals – reflect, learn and adjust

Steve Messenger

Chair: DSDM Consortium

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"Vercingetorix Throws Down His Arms at the Feet of Julius Caesar", 1899, by Lionel Noel Royer

They were Agile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Royer

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We were Agile Management created our Landscape

Co-located team including customers

Change reflected developing new business processes

Sustainability: already looking ahead to other services sustainable

Collaborative behaviours based on Trust

Keep it simple – requirements groups for “sprints”

Weekly reviews / learnings

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Pace of Change and Agile

The rate of change is not going to slow

down anytime soon. If anything, competition in

most industries will probably speed up even more

in the next few decades – John P. Kotter

Faster development and Change

• Constant focus on the goal

• Collaborative working

• Flexibility

• Delegated decision making

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The Value of Being Agile

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$95,000 per second

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

0.5%

http://www.whereprojectsthrive.uk/



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Organisational Agile Project Management

Being Agile: two levels

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Within projects and programmes

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Projects are viruses

Agile Organisational Project

Management



Management A challenging landscape for Agile

I want to run an Agile project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5N00ApR_k

For video see link:



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Management Organisation Culture

Vision

Strategy

Technology

Process Policies

Values Organisation

Rules

Behaviours

Symbols

Relationships

Perceptions

Beliefs

Assumptions

Unwritten rules

Common practice

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Management What needs to be overcome

Non-agile organisation culture

– Lack of flexibility

– Non-release of operational resources

– Lengthy decision making, e.g. change

– Resistance to Matrix working

– Top down governance

– Lack of Trust and empowerment

– Very risk averse – loathing of uncertainty

Gathering organisational anti-bodies to anything new in the culture

And some people simply get it wrong……


Organisational agility normally stated in terms of changing markets

But what IS organisation agility?

– Trusted organisation

– Adaptive operating model – i.e. not too centralised

– Devolved governance

– P3 embedded in business operations

– Continuous learning is embedded

– Self-organising teams and people

– Collaborative culture

– Leadership tolerant of ambiguity


Management What an agile culture and environment looks like


Programme: Agile culture

IT project: Agile culture & Sprints

Other projects: Serial approach


Management What an agile culture and environment looks like

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Being agile in projects The wreckage of agile projects

But we’re agile…….

Silver bullet or poisoned apple?

Agile as the wrong tool

Agile head, but not heart – no agile mindset

Self-organisation leads to constant escalation

Fear / lack of confidence / lack of delegation

Taking the eye of the ball

Embracing Change without a design authority

17


Being agile at two- levels: projects What an agile project looks like

An Agile Project Manager stands back…hands off


Timeboxing Collaboration

Engagement

Purpose

Being agile at two- levels: projects What an agile project looks like


Being agile in projects What an agile project looks like

An agile friendly landscape

An adaptive and flexible project manager

Collaboration

High level requirements – you have to be able to start somewhere

Prioritised requirements (Workstack / Product Backlog)

Lean decision making, e.g. for Changes

Document…..just enough

Constantly watches the bow wave

Constantly planning

Constantly learning

Constantly watching the sky ahead

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Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

Re-combine and re-use

Avoiding the pitfalls:

Eric Abrahamson - Creative Recombination

people

networks (social not IT)

culture

processes

structure

Eric Abrahamson: Change Without Pain

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Kotter’s 8 Step change model

2. Build guiding teams

3. Get the vision right

4. Communication for buy-in

5. Enable action

6. Create short-term wins

7. Don’t let up

8.Make it stick

Create a

Climate for

change

Engaging and

enabling the

organisation

Implementing and

sustaining change

Open Minds,

Make the Change,

Embed the Change


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Leadership must GET agile

Leadership to establish an agile friendly organisation

Persuade stakeholders so that they GET agile working

Define your goals for agile working

Determine how far agile needs to penetrate

Define who needs to be agile, and help them be so

Define how business processes need to change

Define what technology can help, and/or needs to change

Be an agile leader

People

ToolsProcess

Building an organisation fit for agile projects

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We were Agile

The pace of change and the value of being Agile

Being Agile at two levels

Agile Organisational Project management

Being Agile in projects and programmes


Content

24

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Thank you

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[email protected]

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1. Lead through inspiration, care and Trust

2. Open Minds, Make the Change, Embed the Change

3. Work with your environment

4. Understand what can stop you being successful

5. Know and communicate the purpose of the Change

6. Recombine and re-use

7. Prepare for delivery AND for operations.

8. Be flexible and adapt, e.g. plan, measure and adjust

9. Ensure people know what they are to do, where they fit and how they can work

10. Build a confident and professional team

Adrian’s Tactics for Change

26

Links

http://www.apm.org.uk/blog/agile-thinking-projects-thinking-out-process-box

http://www.apm.org.uk/news/transformational-change-what-do-and-yellow-brick-road

I want to run an agile project parts 1 and 2:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAf3q13uUpE

Brian Wernham

http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Project-Management-Government-Wernham/dp/0957223404































http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAf3q13uUpE









