Agile Project Management

Mapping the PMBOK® Guide

to Agile Practices

Michele Sliger
michele@sligerconsulting.com
Twitter: @michelesliger
Michele Sliger
Sliger Consulting, Inc.
www.sligerconsulting.com

  Over 20 years of software

development experience, with the last
12 in Agile
  Steering committee member for the
PMI-ACP initiative
  Former Scrum Alliance board
member
  Certified Scrum Trainer (CST)
  Co-author of The Software Project
Manager’s Bridge to Agility

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 2

 What we’ll cover….
•  Brief Overview of Agile
•  Acceptance of Agile by the PMI
•  Traditional vs. Agile
•  Mapping to Agile Practices:
–  Integration Project Management
–  Scope Project Management
–  Quality Project Management
•  How Your Role Will Change
•  Where to Find More Information

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 3

 Agile Principles—The 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/

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 4

 How is Agile Different from Traditional
Approaches? The Paradigm Shift
Waterfall Agile
Fixed Requirements Resources Time

Value
Driven
Plan
Driven

Estimated Resources Time Features

The Plan creates cost/schedule Release themes & feature intent
estimates drive estimates
Source: www.dsdm.org

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Agile Frameworks
•  Scrum (Ken Schwaber)
•  XP (Kent Beck)
•  Lean Software Development (Mary
Poppendieck)
•  Kanban (David Anderson)
•  Crystal (Alistair Cockburn)
•  Dynamic System Development
Method (Dane Faulkner)
•  Adaptive Software Development
(Jim Highsmith)
•  Feature Driven Development (Jeff
DeLuca)

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 A Generic Agile Process
Product Release A
Backlog Feature 1, Feature 2, Feature 3a Release to
Feature 1 Production
Feature 2 Release Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Feature 3 Backlog Feature 1a Feature 1c Feature 2b
Feature 4 Feature 1b Feature 1d Feature 3a
Feature 1a
Feature 5 Feature 1b Feature 2a
Feature 6 Feature 1c Product
Feature …
Feature 1d Backlog
Feature 2a Feature 3b
Feature 2b Feature 3c
Feature 3a Feature 3d
Feature 4
Feature 5
Feature 6
Feature …

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Planning:
Vision, Release Release Release Project Agile
Product or or or Retro- Project
Roadmap Quarter Quarter Quarter spective

Release
Agile
Release Iteration Iteration Iteration Release
Retro-
Planning spective or Quarter

Iteration
Iteration Daily Daily Daily Demo, Agile
Planning Work Work Work Review, Iteration
Retro-
spective

Task Task Task Daily

Daily Update
Comple- Comple- Comple- Work
Stand-up Progress
tion tion tion
8
© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc.
Traditional vs. Agile Project Management
Traditional:
•  Plan what you expect to
happen
•  Enforce that what
happens is the same as
what is planned
–  Directive management
–  Control, control, control
•  Use change control to
manage change
–  Change Control Board
–  Defect Management
© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc.
Agile:
Plan what you expect to
happen with detail
appropriate to the horizon
“Control” is through inspection
and adaptation
–  Reviews and Retrospectives
–  Self-Organizing Teams
Use Agile practices to manage
change:
–  Continuous feedback loops
–  Iterative and incremental
development
–  Prioritized backlogs
9
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Integration Management
Traditional Agile
Project Plan Release and Iteration
Development ≈ Planning

Project Plan Execution ≈ Iteration Work

Direct, Manage, Facilitate, Serve,

Monitor, Control ≈ Lead, Collaborate

Integrated Change Constant Feedback

Control ≈ and a Ranked Backlog

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 Start with a
prioritized
(ranked)
product
backlog

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Virtual Backlog

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 Burndown Charts

Estimated
Scope

Iteration/Time

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Image Courtesy of Paul Klipp Images paulklipp.com
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 Scope Management
Traditional Agile
Backlog and Planning
Scope Definition ≈ Meetings

Create WBS ≈ Release and Iteration

Plans (FBS)

Scope Verification
≈ Feature Acceptance

Constant Feedback and

Scope Change Control
≈ the Ranked Backlog

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Scope Definition

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 Create WBSFBS
Release Plan Iteration Plan

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

Passing test cases

aren’t enough to
indicate
acceptance – the
Product Owner
must accept each
story.

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Scope Change Control

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 23

Quality Management
Traditional Agile
Quality Planning ≈ Definition of “Done”

QA involved from the

Quality Assurance ≈ beginning, and…

Reviews and
Retrospectives

Test early and often;

Quality Control
≈ feature acceptance

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 Defining “Done”

Photos courtesy of Agile Evolution Inc.

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Quality Assurance:
Pairing

Photo courtesy of a2gemma at http://

www.flickr.com/photos/a2gemma/552208117/
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 Quality Assurance:
Retrospectives (Continuous
Improvement)

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Quality Control:
Testing Starts Early

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 Feature Acceptance

Customer views and/or

interacts with the product
in the demo meeting and
can either accept the
feature or decline it.

Image courtesy of thedailystandup.com

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 Risk Management

Traditional Agile
Risk Identification,
Qualitative & Iteration Planning, Daily
Quantitative
Analysis, Response ≈ Stand-ups, Metrics, and
Retrospectives
Planning

Daily Stand-ups and

Monitoring &
Controlling ≈ Highly Visible
Information Radiators

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 30

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

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 31

 Let’s Review
•  Project planning is broken out into multiple
levels of planning: we looked at quarterly/
release planning, iteration planning, and daily
planning
•  Facilitating and coaching a team helps them
to make the best decisions—and frees you to
focus on strategic and organizational issues
•  The ranked backlog, owned by the customer,
is the primary means of change control
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 Let’s Review
•  Scope is defined at a granularity that is
appropriate for the time horizon
•  Scope is verified by the acceptance of
each feature by the customer
•  Work Breakdown Structures become
Feature Breakdown Structures
•  Gantt charts are not typically used; instead
progress charts help us to track progress

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 Let’s Review
•  Test-driven development and cross-
functional teams help to bring quality
assurance and planning activities forward
to the beginning of the project, and
continue throughout the project
•  Bugs are found and fixed in the iteration;
features are then accepted by the
customer

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 34

 Let’s Review
•  The very nature of the agile framework
allows core risks to be addressed by the
team throughout the project
•  Highly visible information radiators and
constant feedback cycles help teams to
identify and monitor potential risks, and
respond effectively once the risk event
occurs

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 35

Your New Role as a
Servant Leader
 Your Responsibilities
Safeguard the Process:
•  Facilitate meetings
•  Remove roadblocks
•  Protect the team from distractions
•  Help people communicate
•  Act as the team’s memory
–  Remind the team of the overall vision
–  Remind the team of the purpose of the process
–  Remind the team of decisions they agreed to
•  Be the voice of reality
–  Ask the team to explain things to you if it doesn’t look like what
they’re doing makes any sense
–  Keep velocity estimates in check
–  Bring the probability of unfinished features to their attention
–  Keep metrics

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 Your Responsibilities
Communications:
•  Mediate team disputes
•  Be the first rung in the escalation ladder
•  Negotiate with those outside the team
•  Provide highly visible information radiators
–  And formally report on progress
•  Manage external dependencies
•  Coordinate with others on releases

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 38

 Your Responsibilities
Build a community:
•  Create a safe environment that fosters collaborative
decision-making and encourages experimentation
•  Maintain an environment that supports high productivity
•  Serve as a liaison and ambassador and advocate
•  Participate in organizational change
•  Share your experiences with others

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 You Do NOT…
•  Own the product backlog—the product owner
does
•  Own the estimates—the delivery team does
•  Make delivery decisions—you facilitate this
activity for the team, and instead make decisions
regarding project administration and strategic
and organizational issue resolution
•  Make product decisions—the customer or
product owner does, or his/her proxy
•  Have to have all the answers—ask the team!

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 40

Where to Find More Information

© 2005 Rally SDC

Share Your Light Bulb Moment!
•  Got a story to share
about how the light bulb
went on for you? Go to:
http://www.sligerconsulting.com
and click on “Light Bulb
Moments”

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 42

 Free Online Resources
•  www.pmi.org/agile
•  www.scrumalliance.org
•  www.agilealliance.org
•  www.sligerconsulting.com

•  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/
•  http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/
agileprojectmanagement/
•  LinkedIn agile groups
•  PMI Agile Community of Practice

© 2012 Sliger Consulting, Inc. 43

 Additional Resources
Books:
•  The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility by Michele Sliger
and Stacia Broderick
•  Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
•  Implementing Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom
Poppendieck
•  Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
•  Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell
•  Behind Closed Doors by Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman
•  Collaboration Explained by Jean Tabaka
•  Agile Estimating and Planning and Succeeding with Agile by Mike
Cohn

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 Some Agile Project Management
Tools
•  ScrumWorks
–  www.scrumworks.com (CollabNet)
•  Rally
–  www.rallydev.com
•  VersionOne
–  www.versionone.com
•  Target Process
–  www.targetprocess.com
•  Mingle
–  www.thoughtworks.com
•  TinyPM
–  www.tinypm.com

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Some Agile Project Management Tools

•  Xplanner (free project tracking tool)

–  www.xplanner.org

•  Greenhopper and JIRA (project tracking)

–  http://www.atlassian.com/software/greenhopper/
–  http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/

•  See Now Do (free task board)

–  http://www.seenowdo.com/
•  Agile Earned Value Management
–  http://www.agileevm.com/ click on Getting Started for a video
•  Agile Assessment tool
–  http://www.dragile.com/

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 More Tools – Various, Free
•  CardMeeting (brainstorming and planning)
–  www.cardmeeting.com
•  Planning Poker (gross estimating backlog items)
–  www.planningpoker.com
•  FIT and FitNesse (testing)
–  www.fitnesse.org
•  Watir (testing)
–  www.watir.com
•  Selenium (testing)
–  www.openqa.org/selenium/

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 Thank you!
michele@sligerconsulting.com

Visit www.sligerconsulting.com for more information on

this and other agile training and coaching offerings