Is your project suitable for agile practices?

Not every project is suited to agile techniques. Sound criteria can help you identify whether your projects are good agile candidates. Here are questions you can use to develop your agile qualification criteria:   

• Can you get the right staff? Appropriate technical and business team members must be dedicated to the project. That means that you must manage the challenging tradeoffs between project work and operational considerations.

Agile projects produce results quickly, so they are time-intensive for participants. Plus, agile approaches require critical business and technical team members who are vital to your business operations. It’s important to prioritize their time on the project so they can contribute effectively. 

• Do resources have appropriate breadth of knowledge? In-depth knowledge of the business and technical areas related to the project is crucial. The agile approach relies on business experts working closely with expert technical team members. What makes agile methodologies agile is responsiveness to evolving needs. Knowledgeable technical and businesspeople need to consistently reassess the project’s product, the business’s needs at a macro and micro-level, and the priority of the functions needed by the end customer.
• Does the sponsor have an agile mindset? The sponsor must be willing to participate in frequent reviews of the evolving product, which are fundamental to the agile approach. Agile responsiveness to changing business conditions and its learning environment are very different from traditional project methods. If a sponsor wants a linear, methodical set of objectives delivered to a pre-conceived schedule, they will struggle with agile project deliverables. Sponsors who are uncomfortable with the evolutionary nature of agile create difficulties that can sink a project.
• Can the team be co-located (physically or virtually)? Agile involves deep, interactive, and sometimes challenging dialog. Getting the most from that dialog requires the richest environment you can create. Co-locate your project team members if possible. If you can’t, simulate co-location with the best video and audio tools you can obtain. Trying to facilitate agile dialog with sub-par communication tools is like trying to tow a camper trailer with a lawn tractor. 
• Is there synergy between business and technical team members?  An agile team has to get along well to be successful. Agile methodologies require dedication from business and technical experts who are open to supporting new ideas and each other as individuals. You need an agile coach who understands and can manage human dynamics, and who can foster an environment where team members readily share their ideas and concerns. 
• Can the product be built iteratively? Agile’s best qualities come from delivering solutions in pieces while learning from each iteration. In addition to software products, other products can be produced this way as well. With a bit of creativity, facility moves, new process implementations, and even some construction projects can utilize agile methods.

Do you use other criteria to determine whether a project is a candidate for an agile approach? If so, share with us in the comments section.

For more about agile methodologies, check out the courses in the Become an Agile Project Manager learning path.

Coming Up

Next LinkedIn Office Hours will be on Wednesday, June, 1 2022-

Project Management Entrepreneurship Part 2: Skills and Tools

Have you thought about going out on your own as a project manager, instead of being an employee? Seyi Kukoyi, PMP, and Bonnie Biafore, PMP, provide guidance for that journey in the course Become a Project Management Entrepreneur (http://linkedin-learning.pxf.io/PMentrepreneur-li). In this follow-on LinkedIn Office Hours event, Seyi, Bonnie, John Riopel and Oliver Yarbrough discuss the skills and tools you need to be a PM entrepreneur.