Mapping the PMBOK Knowledge

Areas to Agile Practices

Michele Sliger
April 20, 2007
michele@sligerconsulting.com

Michele Sliger
Sliger Consulting Inc.
www.sligerconsulting.com
Over 20 years of software development
experience, with the last 7 in Agile
Certified ScrumMaster Trainer
BS-MIS, MBA, PMP
Co-author along with Stacia Broderick of the
forthcoming book from Addison-Wesley:
Help us make this a better book by sharing your
feedback with us! Download chapters from The
Software Project Managers Bridge to Agility at:
www.sligerconsulting.com/book.htm

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

What well cover.

Brief overview of Agile
Acceptance of Agile by the PMI
Mapping of the following knowledge areas
to Agile practices:
Integration Project Management
Scope Project Management
Quality Project Management
Risk Project Management

Where to find more information

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

Agile PrinciplesThe Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by
doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we
have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on

the right, we value the items on the left more.
-- http://www.agilemanifesto.org/
2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

How is Agile Different from Traditional

Approaches? The Paradigm Shift
Waterfall
Fixed

Agile

Requirements

Resources

Value
Driven

Plan
Driven

Estimated

Resources

Time

Features

Time

The Plan creates cost/schedule

estimates

Release themes & feature intent

drive estimates

Source: www.dsdm.org

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

The Scrum Framework

Daily Scrum Meeting
Done since last meeting
Plan for today
Obstacles?

24 hours
Sprint Planning Meeting
Review Product Backlog
Estimate Sprint Backlog
Commit to 30 days

Backlog tasks

30 days

expanded
by team

Sprint Backlog
Features assigned to Sprint
Estimated by team

Sprint Review Meeting

Demo features to all
Retrospective on the Sprint

Potentially Shippable
Product Increment
Product Backlog
Prioritized product features
Desired by Customer
2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

PMIs View of Agile

There is no single best way to
define an ideal project life
cycle. PMBOK, p. 20
The project manager, in
collaboration with the project
team, is always responsible for
determining what processes
are appropriate, and the
appropriate degree of rigor for
each process, for any given
project. PMBOK, p. 37
2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

More Agile Acceptance

April 2005 PM Network article
titled Reconciling Differences
by Peter Fretty
In 2003, Shine Technologies
found:
93% of its clients reported
improved productivity as a result
of using Agile methods
88% found the quality of the
products to be better
83% experienced better
business satisfaction

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

And More Agile Acceptance

August 2006 PM Network
article titled Social Network
by Lois Mentrup
Forget email. Blogs and wikis
are taking over as the way for
team members to communicate
and collaborate.
Often, the official project record
was a ring binder that was out of
date 10 minutes after the most
recent document was added.

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

And More Agile Acceptance

In Virtual Reality Marcia Jedd
shared the following principles
and practices in use by Kenneth
Fong, PMP, at the Southern
Alberta Institute of Technology:
collaboration, team
empowerment, team norms,
project manager as leader and not
dictator
Mike Griffiths is teaching Agile in
PMI Seminars World, a PMIsponsored event
2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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PMBOK Project Phases vs. Agile Project Life Cycle

The Agile Fractal
At the Release level:

And at the Iteration level:

Final

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Initial

Final

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Intermediate

Initial

PMBOK Project Phases

PMBOK Project Phases

Release Review

Iteration

Iteration

Iteration

Iteration

Iteration

Release Planning

An Agile Release
(2-6 months)

An Agile Iteration
(1-4 weeks)

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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Integration Management
Traditional
Project Plan
Development
Project Plan Execution
Direct, Manage,
Monitor, Control
Integrated Change
Control

Agile
Release and Iteration
Planning
Iteration work
Facilitate, Serve, Lead,
Collaborate
Constant feedback:
During the iteration
At the end (demo,
review, retrospective)

Ranked Backlog
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Start with a
prioritized
(ranked)
product
backlog

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Scope Management
Traditional
Scope Definition
Create WBS
Scope Verification
Scope Change
Control

Agile
Planning Meetings
Release and Iteration
Plans
Feature Acceptance
Constant feedback:
During the iteration
At the end (demo,
review, retrospective)

Ranked backlog
2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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WBS
Release Plan

Iteration Plan

Software
Product
Release

Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Order
Entry

Customer
Billing

Customer
Profile

Inventory
Report

Security
Options

Iteration 1

Iteration 3

Inventory
Updates

Iteration 4

Trend
Reporting

Order
Entry

Place order
using credit
card

Tasks:
Estimate (points):
Confirm available inventory
5
Capture Cust Info
13
Capture Shipping options
8
Validate credit card
2
Provide status to user (pass, fail)
2

Who:
Sue
Sue
Rob
Stu
Stu

Place order
using
PayPal
Access/Edit
Shopping
Cart

Etc.

Cancel
Order

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Acceptance
criteria for the
feature is written
on the back of the
card. This is the
basis for the test
cases.

Passing test cases

arent enough to
indicate
acceptance the
Product Owner
must accept each
story.
2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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Quality Management
Traditional
Quality Planning
Quality Assurance

Quality Control

Agile
Test-Driven Development
Committed QA resources
involved from the
beginning
Reviews & Retrospectives
Test early & often
Feature Acceptance

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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Risk Management
Traditional
Risk Identification
Qualitative Analysis
Response Planning

Agile
Iteration Planning and
Daily Stand-ups and
Retrospectives

Monitoring and
Controlling

Daily Stand-ups and

Highly Visible
Information Radiators

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In Planning Meetings -

In Daily Stand-ups -

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The Agile Framework Addresses Core Risks

Intrinsic schedule flaw (estimates that are wrong and undoable from
day one, often based on wishful thinking)
Detailed estimation is done at the beginning of each iteration

Specification breakdown (failure to achieve stakeholder consensus

on what to build)
Assignment of a product owner who owns the backlog of work

Scope creep (additional requirements that inflate the initially accepted

set)
Change is expected and welcome, at the beginning of each iteration

Personnel loss
Self-organizing teams experience greater job satisfaction

Productivity variation (difference between assumed and actual

performance)
Demos of working code every iteration
Core risks from Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister: Risk Management During Requirements IEEE Software

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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Download chapters from The Software

Project Managers Bridge to Agility at:
www.sligerconsulting.com/book.htm

See something you dont understand?

Wish wed covered something in more
detail? Do you have your own success
story or nightmare that youd like to
share? Post your comments on the
discussion forum and help us make this a
better book:
http://www.sligerconsulting.com/feedback/

2007 Sliger Consulting Inc.

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Thank you!
michele@sligerconsulting.com
Visit www.sligerconsulting.com for
more information on Agile training and
coaching