PREFACE xiii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix
1 Introduction to Agile Project Management 1
The Chasm in Project Management Philosophies 2
The Evolution of Agile and Waterfall 3
Definition of waterfall 4
Definition of agile 4
Comparison of plan-driven and adaptive approaches 5
The Evolution of the Project Management Profession 7
The early history of project management 7
Transformation of the project management profession 8
What’s driving this change, and why now? 9
Agile Project Management Benefits 11
Summary of Key Points 13
Discussion Topics 14
Part 1 Fundamentals of Agile
2 Agile History and the Agile Manifesto 17
Agile Early History 17
Dr. Winston Royce and the Waterfall model (1970) 18
Early iterative and incremental development methods (early 1970s) 19
Further evolution of iterative and incremental development (mid- to late 1970s) 20
Early agile development methods (1980s and 1990s) 20
Agile Manifesto (2001) 21
Agile Manifesto values 22
Agile Manifesto principles 24
Summary of Key Points 30
Discussion Topics 31
3 Scrum Overview 33
Scrum Roles 34
Product owner role 35
Scrum Master role 36
Team role 38
Scrum framework 39
Sprint planning 41
Daily standup 42
Sprint review 42
Sprint retrospective 43
General Scrum/Agile Principles 44
Variability and uncertainty 44
Prediction and adaptation 45
Validated learning 46
Work in progress 47
Progress 48
Performance 49
Scrum Values 51
Commitment and focus 51
Openness 52
Respect 53
Courage 54
Summary of Key Points 55
Discussion Topics 55
4 Agile Planning, Requirements, and Product Backlog 57
Agile Planning Practices 57
Rolling-wave planning 57
Planning strategies 58
Spikes 59
Progressive elaboration 60
Value-based functional decomposition 61
Agile Requirements Practices 61
The role of a business analyst in an agile project 61
“Just barely good enough” 63
Differentiating wants from needs and the “five whys” 63
MoSCoW technique 64
User Personas and Stories 64
User personas 64
User stories 65
Epics 67
Product Backlog 68
What is a product backlog? 68
Product backlog grooming 68
Summary of Key Points 70
Discussion Topics 71
5 Agile Development, Quality, and Testing Practices 73
Agile Software Development Practices 73
Code refactoring 74
Continuous integration 75
Pair programming 75
Test-driven development 76
Extreme programming (XP) 77
Agile Quality Management Practices 78
Key differences in agile quality management practices 78
Definition of “done” 78
The role of QA testing in an agile project 79
Agile Testing Practices 80
Concurrent testing 80
Acceptance test driven development 80
Repeatable tests and automated regression testing 81
Value-driven and risk-based testing 81
Summary of Key Points 81
Discussion Topics 83
Part 2 Agile Project Management
6 Time-Boxing, Kanban, and Theory of Constraints 87
The Importance of Flow 89
Time-Boxing 90
Time-boxing advantages 90
Additional time-boxing productivity advantages 90
Kanban Process 91
Push and pull processes 91
What is a Kanban process? 92
Differences between Scrum and Kanban 93
Work-in-process limits in Kanban 94
Kanban boards 95
Theory of Constraints 96
Summary of Key Points 98
Discussion Topics 99
7 Agile Estimation 101
Agile Estimation Overview 101
What’s different about agile estimation? 101
Developing an estimation strategy 103
Management of uncertainty 103
Agile Estimation Practices 104
Levels of estimation 104
What is a story point? 106
How are story points used? 107
What is planning poker? 108
Velocity and Burn-Down/Burn-Up Charts 109
Velocity 109
Burn-down charts 110
Burn-up charts 111
Summary of Key Points 112
Discussion Topics 113
8 Agile Project Management Role 115
Agile Project Management Shifts in Thinking 117
Emphasis on maximizing value versus control 117
Emphasis on empowerment and self-organization 119
Limited emphasis on documentation 120
Managing flow instead of structure 121
Potential Agile Project Management Roles 121
Making agile work at a team level 121
Hybrid agile project role 123
Enterprise-level implementation 124
Using agile concepts in non–agile projects 127
Agile and PMBOK® 127
The difference between explicit and tacit knowledge 127
Relationship to traditional project management functions 129
Summary of Key Points 137
Discussion Topics 138
9 Agile Communications and Tools 139
Agile Communications Practices 139
Information radiators 139
Face-to-face communications 141
Daily standups 142
Distributed teams 142
Agile Project Management Tools 143
Benefits of agile project management tools 144
Characteristics of enterprise level agile project management tools 145
Summary of Key Points 148
Discussion Topics 149
10 Version One Tool Overview 151
Product/Project Planning 151
Product backlog management 153
Manage business initiatives with epics 155
Group your work items by feature groups or themes 155
Deliver according to business goals 156
Release and Sprint Planning 157
Release planning/sprint planning capabilities 158
Sprint detail planning 158
Sprint Tracking 160
Kanban boards 161
Burn-down charts 162
Summary of Key Points 163
Discussion Topics 163
11 Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level 165
Systems Thinking 165
Influence of Total Quality Management (TQM) 167
Cease dependence on inspection 168
Emphasis on the human aspect of quality 170
The need for cross-functional collaboration and transformation 171
Importance of leadership 173
Ongoing continuous improvement 173
Influence of Lean Manufacturing 174
Customer value 177
Map the value stream 177
Pull 178
Flow 182
Respect for people 186
Perfection 187
Principles of Product Development Flow 187
Summary of Key Points 189
Discussion Topics 191
Part 3 Making Agile Work for a Business
12 Scaling Agile to an Enterprise Level 195
Enterprise-Level Agile Challenges 196
Differences in practices 196
Reinterpreting agile manifesto values and principles 197
Enterprise-Level Obstacles to Overcome 199
Collaborative and cross-functional approach 199
Organizational commitment 199
Risk and regulatory constraints 200
Enterprise-Level Implementation Considerations 200
Architectural planning and direction 200
Enterprise-level requirements definition and management 201
Release to production 203
Enterprise-Level Management Practices 204
Scrum-of-scrums approach 204
Project/program management approach 207
The role of a project management office (PMO) 207
Project/product portfolio management 209
Summary of Key Points 210
Discussion Topics 211
13 Adapting an Agile Approach to Fit a Business 213
The Impact of Different Business Environments on Agile 213
Product-oriented companies 214
Technology-enabled businesses 215
Project-oriented businesses 215
Hybrid business model 216
Adapting an agile approach to a business 217
Typical Levels of Management 218
Overall business management level 218
Enterprise product/project portfolio management level 221
Product management level 223
Project management level 223
Corporate Culture and Values 224
The importance of corporate culture and values 224
Value disciplines 226
Summary of Key Points 230
Discussion Topics 231
14 Enterprise-Level Agile Transformations 233
Planning an Agile Transformation 233
Define the goals you want to achieve 233
Becoming agile is a journey, not a destination 234
Develop a culture that is conducive to agile 235
Manage change 237
Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater 240
Tools can be very important 241
Adaptive Project Governance Model 242
Executive steering group 244
Project governance group 244
Working group forums 244
Project teams 245
Summary of Key Points 245
Discussion Topics 246
Part 4 Enterprise-Level Agile Frameworks
15 Scaled Agile Framework 251
Team Level 253
Program Level 253
Portfolio Level 253
Program Portfolio Management 254
16 Managed Agile Development Framework 259
Managed Agile Development Overview 260
Macro-level 261
Micro-level 261
Objectives of Managed Agile Development 261
Plan-driven benefits 261
Agile benefits 262
Key differences from a typical waterfall approach 262
Framework Description 264
Project organization and work streams 264
High-level process overview 265
Requirements management approach 270
Project Scheduling Approach 272
Project management approach 273
Communications approach 274
Roles and Responsibilities 275
17 Disciplined Agile Delivery Framework 279
Summary of Enterprise-Level Frameworks 286
Part 5 Case Studies
18 “Not-So-Successful” Case Studies 289
Company A 290
Background 290
The approach 290
What went wrong 290
Overall conclusions 290
Company B 292
Background 292
The approach 293
What went wrong 293
Overall conclusions 294
Company C 297
Background 297
The approach 297
What went wrong 297
Overall conclusions 297
19 Case Study—Valpak 303
Background 303
Overview 305
Architectural Kanban 306
Portfolio Kanban 309
Project Management Approach 311
Tools, communication, and reporting 312
Challenges 313
Cultural and organizational challenges 313
Technical challenges 316
Other challenges 316
Key Success Factors 320
Top-down support coupled with bottom-up drive 320
Hiring an independent coach 320
Continued support each and every day 321
Senior management engagement/business ownership 321
Results and Conclusions 322
Lessons Learned 324
Forming projects around teams 324
Planning team capacity and developing a sustainable pace 324
Using sprint reviews and “science fairs” 325
20 Case Study—Harvard Pilgrim Health Care 327
Background 327
Overview 328
Impact of outsourcing and vendor partnering 330
Role of the PMO 331
Project governance 332
Role of tools 334
Project methodology mix 335
Project portfolio management 335
Project Management Approach 336
Project methodology 336
Implementation package development 337
Implementation package refinement 338
Project reporting 338
Contractual relationship with Dell Services 340
Challenges 340
Cultural and organizational challenges 340
Contractual challenges 340
Technical challenges 341
Other challenges 341
Key Success Factors 341
Conclusions 349
Lessons Learned 350
Enormous culture shift 350
Adapting the methodology to fit the business 350
Release management 350
Assigning projects to teams 351
Architectural Design Planning 351
Estimating project schedules 351
QA testing 351
CIO retrospective 352
21 Case Study—General Dynamics UK 355
Background 355
Overview 356
Requirements prioritization and management approach 356
Contract negotiation and payment terms 358
Planning approach 358
Personnel management 359
Communication 359
Management and leadership approach 360
Project Management Approach 360
DSDM overview 361
DSDM principles 362
Challenges 363
Cultural and organizational challenges 363
Contractual challenges 363
Technical challenges 363
Key Success Factors 365
Conclusions 366
Lessons Learned 367
22 Overall Summary 369
Appendices
Appendix A Additional Reading 375
Appendix B Glossary of Terms 377
Appendix C Example Project/Program Charter Template 387
Appendix D Suggested Course Outline 393
Index 399
CHARLES G. COBB is President of Breakthrough Solutions,Inc., a consulting company that specializes in helping companiesdevelop more effective enterprise-level Agile implementations. Heis passionate about helping to close the gap between the Agile andtraditional project management communities. He has published twoprior books on Agile Project Management, written over 50 articles,and has been a guest speaker at numerous PMI(R) and Agileevents. He is an Adjunct Professor at Boston University where heteaches a graduate-level Agile Project Management course and he isa practicing project/program manager with numerous projectmanagement and agile certifications over 30 years ofexperience.
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