The secret is in choosing the right tool.
If you didn’t catch the last post, it may be worth looking at Understanding Agile’s Strengths and Weaknesses.
That’s because understanding the tools helps us go back to the original question:
If Agile should be iterative, why is mixing the two considered the fastest way to fail?
Every Agile transformation is unique, and why it succeeds or fails depends on a number of different factors. Some common factors I’ve seen are:
- Agile is implemented for the wrong reason. Agile being the new best thing that everyone is doing is not a good reason to implement it. Leadership needs to understand what they are trying to accomplish, and then choose the right tool to fix it.
- Taking the wrong approach to implementing Agile. Every Agile implementation should look a little different. The tool should be adjusted to fit the organization. That means taking an iterative approach to rolling it out and then learning as you go.
- Leadership not getting the new mindset. There is a new movement in leadership that is focused on moving authority and decisions down to front line employees with leadership taking a strategic view and coaching on direction. That type of an environment is perfect for Agile, and even a company trying to move in that direction can work well. But if a company has a leadership team that needs to tell everyone what to do, a tool focused on empowerment isn’t going to get very far.
Even though the Agile Manifesto just turned 20, Agile is still a new idea for a lot of people. Even a lot of software development departments, who are the first to use it, still don’t leverage the tool, much less rolling it out to the overall business environment. In that environment, it can be hard to find good people with years of experience in the tool.
If it’s something you are thinking about leveraging in your own environment, or something you’ve rolled out, but are still tuning, the best advice is to take a step back and:
- Understand what it is you want to change
- Look at your environment and what tool is going to fit best
- Find the best mix of methodologies that are going to help you the most
Looking at tools:
- If you are working with a simple straightforward problem, doing more planning at the beginning may make sense and give you a better picture of needed time and materials. If there are a lot of unknowns, you may want to focus on a goal, test as quickly as possible, and adjust to find the right solution. In the middle, a pilot often makes sense to let you learn details and make mistakes early.
- If your project involves change management, whichever methodology makes sense, getting people involved with the change and connected to what’s coming early will make implementing it later much easier.
- If your project is mostly people working individually on items without a lot of integration, less collaboration will make sense. If parts and pieces need to work together, getting the team to work more closely will help them understand each other’s work and find better ways to integrate.
- If you are using Agile, it’s a good idea to get familiar with some of the Traditional concepts of project management, such as quality, procurement, integration, resource planning, risks, and stakeholders. They will help anytime you’re dealing with change.
- If you using Traditional methodologies, understanding Agile uses retros, assumptions, timeboxes, and leverages teams to find innovative solutions will help your projects be more successful. It will give you a different perspective so you better understand your own tools, their strengths, and weaknesses.
I’ve had project managers ask if they should get a PMP or a CSM. As you can probably guess by this point, my answer is that there is value in having both. (The 80-100 hours of studying for the PMP may be overkill, you can get familiar with the concepts without sitting for the exam.)
Project management shouldn’t turn into a religious fight with people sitting on either extreme, preaching why their solution is the only one. The truth is that Agile was built on the shoulders of Traditional and has brought new ideas with it. Rather than getting trapped with a limited number of tools at your disposal, take the time to learn both sides.
You’ll be far more successful in the process.