transform yourself into an agile project manager

PowerPoint Presentation

Transform Yourself into anAgile Project ManagerApril 29, 2016

Agile Project Management Academy

1In this presentation, I want to give you a brief overview of an online training curriculum that we offer through the Agile Project Management Academy that I think can have a huge impact on helping project managers learn how to develop a high impact Agile Project Management approach that blends Agile and traditional plan-driven project management principles and practices in the right proportions to fit any situation.

Charles G. CobbAuthor of five books on Agile Project Management and Business ExcellenceAdjunct Professor at Boston UniversityOver 20 years of project and program management experienceOnline training with over 14,000 students agileprojectmanagementacademy.com

My name is Chuck Cobb Im the author of the new book that is was published in early 2015 called The Project Managers Guide To Mastering Agile. That will be the third book Ive published to date on Agile Project Management and Ive also published two prior books on Business Excellence.Im also an Adjunct Professor at Boston University Where I will be teaching a new graduate-level course on Agile Project Management. However, I want to assure you that Im not just an academic book author. I have over 20 years of practical hands-on experience as a Project Manager and Program Manager in a broad range of industries and application areas and I have over 10 years of experience in a consulting role helping companies develop and implement improved business processes and project management methodologies. For the past two years, Ive been working on developing an online training program on Agile Project Management that has now grown to over 14,000 students.

2

Agile Adoption HasDoubled Since 2009A Forrester study from 2009 observed that 35% of organizations used agile. Actuation Consultings 2013 research shows that 73.68% have adopted agile to develop products

2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.

###

Theres no question that Agile has become the latest management trend of today and it is much more than just a fad it is really here to stay and the rate of adoption of Agile methodologies has increased significantly since 2009.A Forrester study from 2009 observed that 35% of organizations used AgileBy 2013, a study by Actuation Consulting showed that the adoption rate of Agile had grown to over 70% which was more than double what was observed in the 2009 survey.

3

Avoid the Program du Jour ApproachJust becoming Agile is not necessarily the most important goal in itself depending on the nature of the business that youre in. We need to take time to understand what problem Agile will potentially solve and how it will benefit your business

Why is This Training Important?

Agile is becoming a hot new buzz word and everyone wants to jump on the Agile bandwagon

#

Like many new things, Agile is becoming a hot new buzz word and everyone wants to jump on the Agile bandwagon without necessarily fully understanding why theyre getting into it and exactly what they expect to get out of it. It reminds me a lot of when Six Sigma was hot in the 1990s and early 2000s. In those days, Six Sigma was what we called the Program du Jour, there was a lot of hype about it and everyone wanted to jump on the Six Sigma bandwagon. Several patterns were apparent at that timethere was a lot of hoopla (like green belts and black belts) associated with Six Sigma, a lot of people got lost in the mechanics of doing Six Sigma, people tended to think that Six Sigma was a panacea for any possible problem that a business could have and they tended to regard all other previous process improvement methodologies as obsolete and pass. A similar thing is happening with Agile today - While Agile has huge potential advantages for a business, I think its important not to get lost in some of the hype that exists about Agile and objectively understand the differences between an Agile approach and a traditional project management approach and the benefits and limitations of each. Just becoming Agile is not necessarily the most important goal in itself depending on the nature of the business youre in. We need to take time to understand what problem Agile will potentially solve and how it will benefit your business.4

What Are the Benefits to Your Business?Adaptability - an alternative way for companies to manage projects that involve high levels of uncertaintyTime-to-market - the potential to significantly accelerate the startup phase of new projectsReduced costs - opportunities to reduce the costs and overhead associated with projectsCustomer satisfaction - produce higher value solutions that are more well-aligned with user needsOrganizational agility - build much higher levels of collaboration, trust, and shared responsibility within the organization

#

There are many potential benefits of adopting an Agile approach but the exact benefits might be somewhat different among different companies. Ive summarized here what I think are some of the most important general benefits of developing a more Agile approach:First is adaptability Many people make the mistake of using a one size fits all approach for all projects and that just doesnt work well in all situations. You need to be able to fit the methodology to the project and Agile offers an alternative approach that is particularly well-suited for projects that have high levels of uncertainty. The next one is time-to-market. An Agile approach can improve time-to-market by accelerating the startup phase of the project by deferring some of the upfront planning that might be done with a traditional project management approach. And, using an iterative approach to deliver at least a portion of the solution as quickly as possible can also have a significant impact accelerating time to market.Third, In many situations, Agile and Lean thinking in general offer the potential to reduce the costs and overhead associated with a project. By putting the emphasis on producing value as opposed to maximizing control, there is a lot of opportunity to reduce the costs of documentation and other overhead in a project. Thats not to say that documentation and other forms of project control and administration are all bad things to do, but it is definitely good to take a hard look at those items and see if they really produce value and who they produce value for.The biggest advantage in many situations, as Ive mentioned is higher customer satisfaction that results from producing solutions that are more well-aligned with customer needs by engaging customers more directly in the project to provide feedback and inputs as the project progresses rather than relying heavily on documenting requirements upfront prior to the start of the project.Finally, a major indirect result of an Agile approach is that it offers the opportunity to have a significant positive impact on the culture of the whole organization by building a spirit of collaboration, trust, and shared responsibility within the organization. That can be a difficult thing to achieve but the benefits are well worth it in terms of organizational synergy and productivity.

5

Challenge #1

Choosing the Right Approach to Fit Your Business

WaterfallAgile

However, even though the benefits of Agile can be very significant, Agile is not easy to implement and it can pose a difficult challenge for many businesses and project managers. It may require some level of business transformation, and it definitely requires well-trained people to do it successfully. The first challenge is that many businesses and project managers have an existing management system and project management approach that is based on a traditional, plan-driven approach (or what is sometimes called Waterfall) and are faced with a choice of:Either continuing to use a traditional, heavily control-oriented and plan-driven approach which has an emphasis on managing costs and schedules that may be constraining the business, orA more agile approach which can offer many benefits including faster time-to-market and higher business value; however, there is also a risk associated with losing control of projects with less focus on managing costs and schedulesMany people see this as a binary and mutually-exclusive choice between two extremes - I want to show you how to get the best of both of these two worlds

6

Many businesses and project managers see this as a binary and mutually-exclusive choice and attempt to force-fit their business and projects to one of these extremes

That often causes a lot of confusion and consternationThe Problem

WaterfallAgile

Projects

Business Environment

The fundamental problem is that because many people see this as a binary and mutually-exclusive choice, they make the mistake of attempting to force-fit their projects and business environment to one of these extremes and that can cause a lot of confusion and consternation because it often doesnt result in a good fit.

7

Fit the approach(or combination of approaches) to the project and to the business environmentThe Solution

BusinessEnvironmentProjectCharacteristicsOverall ProjectApproachDevelopmentApproachThat may require more skill but it definitely can be done!

A better solution is to go in the other direction and fit the approach (or combination of approaches) to the project and to the business environment.That may require more skill but it definitely can be done! My training courses are designed to help your company develop the right skills to create a well-integrated approach to fit your business.

8

Challenge #2

Agile May Require a Shift in Thinking for Project Managers

Agile may also require a significant shift in thinking for project managers its not just a matter of learning some new skills; it can be a totally new paradigm shift for many project managers. There are many project managers who see Agile and traditional plan-driven project management as competitive approaches; my training courses are designed to help people see these two approaches in a fresh new perspective as complementary to each other rather than competitive and to learn how to blend them together as needed to fit a given situation.

9

PMI Was Formed1969Challenges for Project ManagersManhattan Project1945Large Government Programs(e.g., Polaris) 1950 - 1960

CPM, PERT Invented1950 - 1960

The roots of how we do project management today go back to the 1950s and 1960s

#

I want to give you an idea of why this is such a significant change for so many project managers. Many project managers have been deeply-engrained in a plan-driven approach to project management that hasnt changed significantly since the 1950s and 1960s where the emphasis was on stabilizing and controlling very large, complex projects in a very different kind of environment. The role of a Project Manager is also very different in an Agile environment.This slide shows a very brief history of some of the early efforts to define the traditional plan-driven project management approach that is still in use today. The challenge in those days was primarily to organize and manage large, complex projects and programs.10

Challenges for Project Managers (cont.)The Pace of New Technology Has Increased Dramatically

2014-2015 Breakthrough Solutions, Inc.

#

Were in a different world today and there are some very strong forces that will force the project management profession to go through some significant changes.As I mentioned, the emphasis to date has been clearly on planning and organization of large, complex projects. That works fine in some environments where it is feasible to develop a detailed plan for a project upfront; however, were in a different world todaythe pace of adopting new technology has increased at an incredible rate. This slide only shows the increase in the adoption rate through the initial evolution of the internet, but you can bet that it hasnt slowed down since then. Think of all the advancements that have been made in Smartphones, for example.The rate of technology change is severely straining traditional, plan-driven project management approaches and calling for new and more adaptive approaches. Think of Apple and the iPhone and iPad development effort would that kind of radical technology breakthrough have been possible using a totally plan-driven project management approach? I think it probably would not have been possible.

11

What Problems Does Agile Solve and How Does it Solve Those Problems?How Does This Work?

As Ive mentioned, many people want to jump on the Agile bandwagon without necessarily fully understanding why theyre getting into it and exactly what they expect to get out of it. I want to give you a brief overview of how Agile works and what problems it solves.

12

What is Agile?

2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc. Agile Provides a More Flexible and adaptive Approach to Project Management

13

Some of you may not be familiar with Agile in very simple terms, Agile is basically a new approach to project management that is much more flexible and adaptive than a traditional, plan-driven approach to project management.13

What is Waterfall?

Define RequirementsDesign/DevelopSolutionTest/ImplementSolutionKey Characteristics:Attempts to define and stabilize detailed requirements upfront prior to the start of the project 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.ImplementChange Control

The goal is to try to achieve predictability and control over the project costs and schedule

14

The primary alternative to Agile is a traditional plan-driven approach which is often called a Waterfall approach. When people talk about a true Waterfall approach, theyre typically talking about an approach that looks something like this.It typically starts by defining all of the requirements for the entire project upfront, andSome form of change control is typically implemented to manage and limit changes to the requirements of the project once those requirements have been approved The general approach is based on defining and stabilizing the requirements upfront before the project starts to achieve a level of predictability and control over the project cost and schedule. Its called Waterfall because the phases happen sequentially and the results of one phase flow into the next phase like a Waterfall.

14

Problems with Original Waterfall Approach

Define RequirementsDesign/DevelopSolutionTest/ImplementSolution

Problems are many times not discovered until final testing 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Problems Many Times Not Discovered Until Final Testing

Process for Correcting Errors Could be Long and Expensive

15

There have been a number of serious problems inherent in the original Waterfall process. The first big problem was that any problem in the requirements or design of the solution are many times not discovered until final testing and the process for correcting errors found at that point could be very long and expensive.15

Problems with Original Waterfall Approach (cont.)


Control over requirements can create a very inflexible approach that is not responsive to changes 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Very Limited Customer Feedback Until FinalUser Acceptance TestingUser Acceptance Testing

ImplementChange Control

16

Another serious problem is that attempting to control requirements of the project in order to manage the scope to stay within budgeted cost and schedule estimates can create a very inflexible approach that isnt responsive to changes. That might work well if youre in a highly predictable environment with a low level of uncertainty but it doesnt work well in environments that are much more uncertain where it is difficult or impossible for users to fully define the requirements of what they need in detail prior to the start of the project. There are also very limited opportunities for customer feedback and input until final user acceptance testing at the very end of the project. In fact, in many cases, the customer doesnt even see what is being designed until the design and testing are already complete and by that time it is very difficult or impossible to make any significant changes.The impact of these problems is that there are many traditional, plan-driven projects that may have met their cost and schedule goals but failed to deliver the required business value.16

How Does Agile Overcome These Problems?Projects are broken up into short intervals to deliver quickly and incrementally 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)

Product OwnerReviews and AcceptsDeliverables

17

Lets talk about how an Agile approach addresses these problems First, an Agile approach is based on delivering functionality quickly in small increments and prioritizing the functionality based on business value rather than attempting to deliver the entire project all at once. The work to be done is broken up into short sprints of 2-4 weeks each and at the end of each sprint, the Product Owner who represents the business reviews and accepts the deliverables.That provides an opportunity for quick and frequent feedback to keep the project on the right track to maximize the business value that is delivered. It also accelerates time-to-market because some high value components of the solution might be delivered early rather than waiting for the entire solution to be complete.17

How Does Agile Overcome These Problems? (cont.)Testing is done concurrently with development 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)Short Sprint(2-4 weeks)

Product OwnerReviews and AcceptsDeliverables

Development

Testing

18

Another way Agile addresses these problems is that testing is integrated with development and the entire project team owns responsibility for the quality of the products that they produce rather than testing being done sequentially by an independent organization. Thats a very proactive approach to build quality into the product rather than a reactive approach to try to find and fix defects later.18

How Does Agile Overcome These Problems? (cont.)Agile is based on a close partnership with the business users to maximize business value 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.


TraditionalPlan-drivenApproach

AgileApproachContractualApproachPartnershipApproachHigh-levelRequirementsFurther ElaborateRequirements

19

Finally, theres a significant difference in the way an Agile approach manages requirements.A traditional, plan-driven project, is based on a contractual approach to deliver a project meeting well-defined requirements within a given cost and schedule. That works well in situations where the requirements can be defined upfront and stabilized to avoid too much change, but it doesnt work well in environments that are much more uncertain where it is much more difficult to define the requirements in detail upfront.Agile is based on more of a partnership relationship between the business users and the project team to work collaboratively to elaborate detailed requirements as the project progresses. That approach accelerates the startup time for projects and is much more likely to deliver projects that maximize the business value of the solutions.19

What are the results in typical companies?Case Studies

The way you would go about implementing an Agile approach might be very different depending on the nature of your business; and, as I mentioned earlier, its very important to tailor the approach to fit your business rather than force-fitting your business to some arbitrary approach. I want to show you two case studies that were written up in my latest book that illustrate the potential difference in approaches.

20

Results:Faster time-to-marketDelivering more frequent value to customersEmployee productivity and moraleTeams became self-managing,Projects required a lot less management focusManagers were able to focus on a much more strategic levelImproved software quality

Background:Best known for blue envelopes stuffed with marketing couponsHighly automated facility in Tampa, FLMajor top-to-bottom conversion to Agile using Scaled Agile Framework

The first company I want to talk about is Valpak. Valpak is best known for the blue envelopes containing discount coupons that many of you get in the mail. They have a highly automated plant in Tampa, Florida where paper comes in one end and millions of envelopes stuffed with coupons come out the other end virtually untouched by human hands. Valpak is a great example of a company that has successfully implemented an Agile transformation using the Scaled Agile Framework. Some of the key factors that made this successful were:

Strong senior management support coupled with a very aggressive and capable Agile leader (Stephanie Stewart) to make the effort successful

An independent coach was brought in to help define and implement the process and train and mentor the teams

Aside from the many other benefits of the Agile transformation, Chris Cate, the CIO of Valpak noted that once the Agile project methodology was running smoothly; the teams became self-managing, the projects required a lot less management focus, and managers were able to focus on a much more strategic level.

Valpak did a very complete, top-to-bottom implementation of Agile throughout the whole company which had a huge impact on improving their business; however, it required a very aggressive senior management commitment to a very significant business transformation to make it successful.21

Results:Created strong business operations and IT partnershipsDeveloped flexible business architecture to support changeIntroduced Agile approach and philosophy without disrupting business operationsRanked #1 for Nine Years in Member Satisfaction and Quality of Care Despite Massive Changes

Background:Full-service health benefits company serving members throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and beyondConsistently rated among the top plans in the countryOutdated IT Infrastructure required very large, complex effort with approximately 100 agile teams over a five year periodA large part of the development effort was outsourcedHybrid Agile/plan-driven approach

The next company I want to talk about is Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare.First, here is some background - Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC) is a full-service health benefits company serving members throughout Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and beyond. For over 40 years, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare has built a reputation for exceptional clinical quality, preventive care, disease management, and member satisfaction and has consistently rated among the top plans in the country. This was a very important factor because it meant that the implementation of this project could not be allowed to cause any problems that might impact Harvard Pilgrims excellent reputation and standing.The project was very large and complex and required the replacement of almost all of Harvard Pilgrims outdated IT infrastructure requiring approximately 100 Agile teams over a five year period. Its equivalent to changing the wheels on a high-speed train as it is moving down the tracks at over 90 miles an hour.Because of the scope and complexity of this effort, the number of moving parts was huge and required a lot of planning and coordination to minimize any operational business impact. As a result, it was essential to blend a traditional plan-driven project management approach with an Agile development processThe results of the effort were very significant over the period of this project, Harvard Pilgrim:Created strong business operations and IT partnershipsDeveloped flexible business architecture to support changeIntroduced Agile approach and philosophy without disrupting business operationsWas ranked #1 for Nine Years in Member Satisfaction and Quality of Care Despite Massive Changes

22

Why Not Waterfall? 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Business users wanted to see something delivered quickly for feedbackThe technical team wanted much greater business input all along the wayRisk of moving forward without frequent and continuing business feedback was very highThe Waterfall process was too slow to respond to changesNeeded more focus on business priorities

23

It should be obvious why a pure Agile approach without some level of project and program management wouldnt have worked at Harvard Pilgrim because of the scope and complexity of the effort; however it is interesting to note the reasons why Harvard Pilgrim chose to use a hybrid Agile approach instead of a more traditional Waterfall process. The key drivers for shifting to a more Agile process were:Business users didnt want to wait an extensive period of time between requirements and UAT to have something delivered.The technical team wanted much greater business input all along the way they didnt want to discover at the end of the project that they didnt get it right.The old Waterfall process was too risky without frequent and continuing business feedback given ten strategic programs spanning 14 functional areas across five years and a very significant financial investment.The old process was also too slow to respond to change in a dynamically changing environment.The old process was too focused on process steps when the need was to ensure delivery of the highest business priority capabilities.

23

Create a well-integrated Agile Project Management approach that is well-aligned with your business, andBlends traditional plan-driven project management and Agile

Training Overview

Make your business more nimble and adaptive in a dynamic, fast-paced business environmentwithout sacrificing control

Let me give you a brief overview of the online training curriculum Ive developed. The goals of the training are to: Create a well-integrated Agile Project Management approach that is well-aligned with your business, andHas the right blend of traditional plan-driven project management and AgileBasically, the key overall objective is to make your business more nimble and adaptive in a very dynamic and fast-paced business environment without sacrificing an acceptable level of control24

Whats Unique About this Training? 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.

Traditional Plan-drivenProject Management(Waterfall)AgileWe need to see these two approaches in a fresh new perspective as complementary to each other rather than competitive

25

The training curriculum and the three books Ive written in this area are all very unique. There are a lot of books and training on Agile as well as a lot of books and training on project management. Whats unique about my books and training is that they are designed to help close the gap between the project management community and the Agile community to help people see Agile and traditional plan-driven project management approaches in a fresh new perspective as complementary to each other rather than competitive and to help people see how to blend these two approaches together in the right proportions to fit a given situation to get the best of both worlds.25

Training Strategy and Approach 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Integrated Cross-functional Team Approach

Project ManagersBusiness ManagersProject Teams

26

The training curriculum Ive developed is primarily focused on project and program managers and I would expect them to take a major leadership role in this effort; however, a broader cross-functional approach is really needed to maximize the impact of this training and the success of the effort in your organization.In addition to project and program managers, the other audiences that are important are business managers and project teams. I want to talk about each of these different audiences in the next few slides.26

PMPGetting a PMP and PMI-ACP are going in the right directionbut much more needs to be done

ACP

Primary Audiences Project Managers

Learning how to integrate Agile and traditional Project Management principles and practices


#

The first audience I want to talk about is project managers. Agile is really raising the bar for the entire project management profession, in my opinion. At one time, all you had to do was get a PMP and you were a well-qualified project manager. Over the past few years, PMI has recognized the need for project managers to have some awareness of Agile and Lean and created the Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) certification. Thats definitely a step in the right direction, but it doesnt go far enough, in my opinion. The real challenge is learning how to blend Agile and traditional project management principles and practices in the right proportions to fit a given situation.Thats exactly the challenge my courses are designed to address. The courses Ive developed are not only excellent preparation for the PMI-ACP exam but they also go well beyond that and help project managers learn how to put that knowledge into practice in a real-world Agile Project Management situation.27

Additional Audiences Business Managers 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.

Fortunately, there are ways for a business to become much more agile without losing control but it takes some skill to do that

28

As I mentioned, I would expect project managers to take a major leadership role in helping your organization to define and implement a more agile project management approach; however, project managers are a product of the environment that they work in and it will be very difficult, if not impossible, for project managers to make a change in the way they do project management if its not consistent with what the organization expects of them.For that reason, implementing an Agile Project Management approach may require some changes in your business that are not limited to project management that will ultimately make your whole business more agile. In order to develop an Agile Project Management approach that is well-aligned with your business and has the right blend of predictability and control with agility, it is very important that business managers also play a role in this training.28

Additional Audiences Agile Teams 2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.Integrate an effective project management approach into their effortsUnderstand Agile at a deeper level to develop a more adaptive approach

Agile is based on a strong cross-functional team approach where everyone on the team participates actively in some aspect of overall project management

29

Another additional audience for the training is Agile teams. You might ask Why would an Agile team need to know how to integrate some level of project management into an Agile approach? The answer to that question may not be obvious but there are a number of good reasons for that.The key thing is that Agile is based on a strong cross-functional team approach where everyone on the team participates actively in some aspect of overall project management. In an Agile project at the team level, there is typically no one called a project manager and the project management functions that would normally be performed by a project manager are distributed across the other team roles.Everyone on the Agile team also has a need to understand Agile at a deeper level in order to develop a more adaptive approach to blend the right level of project management with Agile.

29

Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level

Online Training Course Summary

Learn the Truth About Agile versus Waterfall

Mastering Agile Project Management

Excellent Preparation forProfessional Scrum Master (PSM)Excellent Preparation forPMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)


#

This slide shows an overview of the training Ive developed to help project managers and businesses deal with this challenge:The first course is called Learn the Truth About Agile versus Waterfall and is designed to help people see past many of the stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions that exist about both Agile and Waterfall in order to see these two approaches in a fresh new perspective as complementary to each other rather than competitive.A direct follow-on to that course is the Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level course which goes into much more detail on how an Agile and Scrum process works and also goes much more into the principles and values behind Agile and Scum. That course is designed help develop a much more adaptive and high-performance Agile/Scrum approach that is adaptable to a broad range of different projects and business environments. The Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level course is intended for either project managers or Agile teams and is excellent preparation for someone who is interested in obtaining the Professional Scrum Master (PSM) certification.My Mastering Agile Project Management course is designed primarily for project managers and Agile professionals who want to learn how to blend Agile and traditional plan-driven project management principles and practices to develop an adaptive Agile project management approach and goes into a lot more detail on how to make Agile work from a project management perspective.It will help project managers develop a more adaptive approach to project management that should improve their project management skills for any project (agile or not) and it includes a number of case studies showing some real-world examples of successfully implementing an Agile Project Management approach.That course is also excellent preparation for someone who is interested in taking the PMI-ACP exam; however, it is much more than just an exam prep course. It goes beyond the requirements for simply passing the PMI-ACP exam and actually gives you the knowledge to put those skills into practice in the real world.

30

Online Training Course Summary (cont.)

Making Agile Work for Your Business

Advanced Agile Project Management

Mastering Agile Project Management

Enterprise-levelAgile ImplementationAll of my courses qualify for earning PDUs from PMI


#

Beyond that, Ive also developed some more advanced courses that are designed around implementing Agile at an enterprise level.The first of those courses is focused on Advanced Agile Project Management. That course is designed for senior-level project managers and program managers who have a responsibility for leading large enterprise-level projects and programs and/or leading enterprise-level Agile transformations. It is designed to help project and program managers understand how to align an Agile Project Management approach with a companys business.A direct companion to those courses is the Making Agile Work for Your Business course. This course is similar to the Advanced Agile Project Management course but is designed from a business perspective rather than a project management perspective and is intended primarily for business managers rather than project managers. It is intended to help business managers and business executives understand how to align an Agile development approach with a business and includes assessment tools, planning tools, and case studies to help develop a very effective Agile Project Management approach that is very well-aligned with a business.

31

Conclusion

I want to quickly recap some of the topics weve talked about32

Overall SummaryBecause Agile depends heavily on empowered teams to make decisions,training is critical to make it successfulDont fall into the Program du Jour trap by just jumping on the Agile bandwagon

Learn to see past the stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions that exist about both Agile and Waterfall

Dont force-fit your business or projects to some arbitrary approach

Take time to understand the benefits and limitations of Agile and what problems it will solve for your business

Develop a fresh new perspective to see these two different approaches as complementary rather than competitive

Go in the other direction and fit the approach to your business and projects

2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.33

#

Heres a quick summary of some of the key points:

Dont fall into the Program Du Jour trap by just jumping on the Agile bandwagon without understanding what you expect to get out of it and what it takes to be successfulTake time to understand the benefits and limitations of Agile and what problems it will solve for your business and craft and approach that is tailored to fit your business

Learn to see past the stereotypes, myths, and misconceptions that exist about both Agile and WaterfallDevelop a fresh new perspective to see these two different approaches as complementary rather than competitive and learn to blend them together as necessary to fit a given situation

Dont force-fit your business or projects to some arbitrary approachGo in the other direction and fit the approach to your business and projects

This may seem difficult and it isAgile requires a lot more skill and training to do it successfully because it requires very knowledgable people making intelligent decisions to fit a process to the situation rather than simply mechanically following a defined process, but it definitely can be done and these are exactly the challenges that my training is designed to address!33

Transform Yourself into an Agile Project Manager!

Learn how to blend Agile and plan-driven project management together in the right proportions to fit any situation!Check out free and discounted online training offers:Agile Project Management Academy

2014-2016 High Impact Project Management, Inc.34

#

I hope you will check out my online training curriculum at the Agile Project Management Academy to transform yourself into an Agile Project Manager in order to grow your career in this exciting new direction and use these skills to make your whole business a lot more agile. The link on this slide will take you to a web page that has all the latest offers for free and discounted training.Thank you very much for taking the time to view this presentation.34