While I have reviewed some practices to consider when changing methodologies from traditional waterfall approaches to agile ones in The attendee indicated that his organization had embraced agile methods on a specific technology project but the issues and cost overruns they experienced stymied further attempts to adopt agile practices.
Further discussion of the specifics of this case study yielded some more lessons.
- Start simple and expand complexity progressively (also known as "success begets success") - in most organizations where agile methods have "stuck". A pilot was done using a small (though highly visible) project that satisfied the 3 C's of agile - collocation, collaboration & (open) communication.
- Leverage coaching assistance - It is very hard to manage your first agile project while simultaneously coaching the overall project organization (customer, stakeholders & team) through this process and philosophy change. If you happen to be the sole agile evangelist within your company, it may be worth justifying the costs of an outside coach to focus on the change aspects.
- Trust is mandatory - As with any other strategic change, commitment to the change means more than just focusing on the expected benefits while giving lip service to the costs. As I previously wrote in Trust - a critical success factor for successful agile projects, a lack of trust between key roles on agile projects can sometimes result in worse outcomes than on traditionally managed ones.
- Identify "appropriate usage" criteria for agile methods - Not all projects lend themselves to the use of agile approaches (just as not all projects can be successfully managed using waterfall approaches). Developing checklists or similar tools to help project managers decide whether a purely agile, a purely waterfall or a hybrid approach is best suited to their specific projects will help to reduce "square peg in round hole" situations.
- Don't get hung up on specific methodologies - unless the nature of your projects exactly fits a particular agile methodology, it is better to focus on adopting (and adapting) principles rather than to blindly follow an off-the-shelf set of implementation practices. Fanaticism towards any specific agile "religion" is hardly likely to reward you with converts.
Through committed executive sponsorship, appropriate staffing and a "walk before you run" implementation approach, you can reduce the likelihood that an agile initiative will go over the waterfall!
Don't forget to leave your comments below.
Kiron D. Bondale, PMP is the Manager, Client Services for Solution Q Inc. (http://www.solutionq.com/) which produces and implements Eclipse Project Portfolio Management software and professional services. Kiron has worked for over twelve years in the project management domain with a focus on technology and change management. He has setup and managed Project Management Offices (PMO) and has provided PPM consulting services to clients across multiple industries. Kiron served as a volunteer director on the Board of the Lakeshore Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI) for six years and remains an active member of PMI. Kiron has published articles on PPM and project management in multiple industry journals and has delivered presentations within the PPM/PM domain at multiple conferences and through regular webinars for Solution Q and the PMI Healthcare SIG.
For more of Kiron's views on change management, please visit his blog at http://kbondale.wordpress.com/ or contact him directly at
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