Table Of ContentFUNDAMENTALS OF AGILE
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
An Overview
Marcus Goncalves and Raj Heda
The Technical Manager’s Survival Guides
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gon(cid:2)alves, Marcus.
Fundamentals of agile project management : an overview / Marcus Goncalves and Raj Heda.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7918-0296-0 (alk. paper)
1. Project management. 2. Production management. 3. Flexible manufacturing systems. 4.
System design. I. Heda, Raj. II. Title.
T56.8.G645 2010
658.4'04--dc22
2009048509
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgement...................................................................8
Dedication...............................................................................9
Chapter 1..............................................................................10
A Case for Agile....................................................................10
Changing Landscape of Project Management..................10
Why Projects Fail..............................................................11
Case Example...................................................................12
Is “Work the Plan and Plan the Work” Obsolete?..............13
Assembling a Jigsaw Puzzle.............................................14
Do We Still Need Project Managers?................................16
Agile Benefits....................................................................17
Chapter 2..............................................................................20
Agile Methods.......................................................................20
Overview...........................................................................20
Principles of Agile Development........................................20
Extreme Programming (XP)..............................................21
Whole Team..................................................................22
Planning Game..............................................................23
Small Releases..............................................................23
Customer Tests.............................................................23
Test-Driven Development (TDD)...................................24
Metaphor........................................................................24
Pair Programming..........................................................24
Collective Ownership.....................................................25
Simple Design................................................................25
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Continuous Integration...................................................25
Refactoring....................................................................26
Coding Standard............................................................26
Sustainable Pace...........................................................26
Scrum................................................................................26
Open UP............................................................................27
Lean Programming............................................................29
Eliminate Waste.............................................................30
Amplify Learning............................................................30
Decide as Late as Possible...........................................30
Deliver as Fast as Possible...........................................31
Empower the team.........................................................31
Build integrity.................................................................31
See the whole................................................................32
Feature-Driven Development (FDD)..................................32
Domain Object Modeling...............................................34
Developing by Feature...................................................34
Individual Class (Code) Ownership...............................34
Feature Teams..............................................................35
Inspections.....................................................................35
Regular Builds...............................................................36
Configuration Management...........................................36
Reporting/Visibility of Results........................................36
Dynamic System Development Method............................37
Pre-project.....................................................................37
Project Life-cycle...........................................................38
Post-project....................................................................39
Crystal Clear......................................................................39
Frequent Delivery..........................................................40
Reflective Improvement.................................................40
Osmotic Communication................................................40
Personal Safety.............................................................41
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Focus.............................................................................41
Easy Access to Expert Users........................................41
Technical Environment..................................................41
Chapter 3..............................................................................42
Scrum Demystified................................................................42
What is Scrum...................................................................42
The Scrum Process.......................................................42
Key Artifacts of the Scrum Process...............................44
Product Backlog.........................................................44
Release......................................................................45
Sprint..........................................................................45
Story Cards................................................................45
Sprint Backlog............................................................45
Daily Scrum................................................................46
Burndown Chart.........................................................46
The Roles on Scrum Teams..........................................48
The Product Owner....................................................48
The Team...................................................................48
The Scrum Master......................................................49
Scrum in Non-IT context................................................49
Chapter 4..............................................................................51
Conventional versus Agile Project Management..................51
Overview...........................................................................51
Is Agile Enough?...............................................................53
The APM Planning Framework..........................................55
The Conventional Way: Optimization versus Adaptation..57
Project Life Cycle Comprises of Seven Phases.............58
Built for Known Functionality.........................................61
Focus on Optimization Rather than Adaptation.............62
Change is More an Exception than the Norm................63
Tendency for a Predictable Future (lifetime)..................64
Matured Technologies...................................................65
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The APM Way: Adaptation versus Optimization................66
No Time for “Ready,” It Is Always on “Fire...”.................67
Projects are “Research-like” But Yet “Mission-critical”...68
Not Sure of Lifetime.......................................................68
Risk-driven.....................................................................68
Breakthrough and Evolving Technologies.....................70
Chapter 5..............................................................................72
A Business Case for Agile Project Management..................72
Overview...........................................................................72
A Word about VPM and ePM............................................73
The Globalization of Markets and Projects........................74
The Rise of Third World and Closed Economies...........75
Corporate Downsizing...................................................76
Effects of Corporate Downsizing in Agile PM................78
APM Can Mitigate Project Downsizing.......................79
APM Mitigates Scope Changes..................................79
Agile PM Framework for Reallocation of Resources..83
Chapter 6..............................................................................87
Trends, Camps and Collisions..............................................87
Overview...........................................................................87
The Project Management Bodies of Knowledge...............88
What is a BoK?..............................................................88
Why is a BoK Important for APM?.................................89
BoKs and Body of Competencies..................................90
How Many BoKs are there?...........................................91
Issues in Creating a Valid (Global) BoK.........................92
The Future.....................................................................93
Trend: How Much Your Time is Worth..............................94
Improving Time Management with APM........................95
The 80:20 Rule..............................................................95
To Clone or Not to Clone?.................................................97
Agile PMs as Visionary Leaders........................................98
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Trend: The APM Vision...................................................100
References..........................................................................102
About the Authors...............................................................103
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Acknowledgement
Many thanks (again!) to Mary Grace Stefanchik, the editor at
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), for not only
publishing yet another one of my titles for ASME’s collection, but
especially for her patience during the production phase. Many thanks
to my co-author and friend Raj Heda, for finding time in his schedule
at IBM and lecturing at Nichols College, to write land his expertise on
Agile and write this book with me.
I would also like to express my appreciation to many
corporate leaders that shared their views and experiences with us
about Agile.
Many thanks also go to my spiritual partners at the Boston
Church of Christ, Steve Major and Matt Paradise, for their continuous
spiritual support and friendship. Last but not least, my deepest
gratitude to my wife Carla, sons Samir and Josh (in memory), and my
princess Andrea (also in memory), the true joy of my life.
Raj Heda: I wish to record my debt to some of the people
who have made an indelible mark in my life.
A special note of thanks to my dear professor and now friend
and colleague, Marcus, for his generous helpfulness, trust, support
and above all, for offering me the opportunity to co-author this book.
To my mother for being ever loving and encouraging.
To my brother Ravi for all the love and the fun days we spent.
To my aunt, Meenu for always lending me a patient ear and
giving me genuine advice in all my endeavors.
To my friend and colleague in business, Dorothy, for her
sincere look-out for my well-being and for her beautiful heart.
To my dear friends Anand, Shrikant, Prajay, Prashant and
Amit for always being there for me in good times and bad.
To my good friend, Matt, for help with graphics in the book. To
my wife, Anu, for being such a caring and loving life partner, for her
synergistic help in all my activities and for her invaluable editing of
this book. To my beautiful princesses Radhika and Vrinda, who are
my true loves and who make it all worth the while!
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Dedication
To my forever beautiful wife Carla, my son Samir living here
on earth, and my children Andrea and Joshua living in Heaven. To
God be the glory!
Marcus Goncalves, Spring 2009
To my ever beautiful and loving Lord. To my spiritual
grandfather, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada and my
spiritual guide, Niranjana Swami, for being a constant ray of light in
my life. To the memory of my father, my dearest friend and my best
guide.
Raj Heda, Spring 2009
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Chapter 1
A Case for Agile
The process of evolution can only be described as the
gradual insertion of more and more freedom into matter1.
Changing Landscape of Project Management
Project management (or PM) has been around for almost as
long as projects have been around; in other words, since time
immemorial. Of course, formalization of project management
terminologies and techniques is not quite as dated and is also
evolving as we speak. Project management has not achieved the
same level of maturity and acceptance in all geographies and
industries, neither is there one silver-bullet PM method that will work
in all situations. The methods, principles and practices used to
manage projects depend on various factors including the criticality,
complexity, and length of the project, as well as team size and
location, organizational culture, etc.
There is no PM practice that is universal. Besides, even for
the same domains, practices evolve with time and also in response to
unsuccessful attempts in the past. The Project Management Institute
estimates that the world spends nearly one-fifth of its GDP (US $12
trillion in 2008) on projects. Given the huge amounts of funds
involved, it is essential to gain better understanding of PM methods
and be able to apply them in the best possible manner.
In this book, we make an attempt to introduce the readers to
agile methods to managing projects. Agile methods have been
around for a while now. However, they are gaining more and more
acceptance as a result of the success trail that they leave behind in
organizations that apply them, and also as organizations that have
been burned by unsuccessful projects look for alternatives so that
1 T.E. Hulme, “ The Philosophy of Intensive Manifolds,” Speculations:
Essays on Humanism and the Philosophy of Art, 1924
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