Adaptive and Agile Approaches

Quick reference

• 00:01 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
• 00:05 There's been a recent shift in project management thinking, and
• 00:09 it's based upon Adaptive and Agile project management approaches.
• 00:13 Let's look at these.
• 00:15 Let me first describe Adaptive and Agile.
• 00:18 I will start with adaptive, which is the broader and more inclusive term.
• 00:22 The adaptive lifecycle is incremental or iterative.
• 00:25 That means that it occurs in waves or phases.
• 00:28 That also means it can easily accommodate changes,
• 00:31 because it stops at the end of each wave or phase, so
• 00:34 an update can be incorporated at that time with minimal impact.
• 00:38 Another way of putting this is that the adaptive lifecycle
• 00:41 relies on progressive elaboration.
• 00:44 That means details for
• 00:45 a phase are not planned until the previous phase completes.
• 00:48 So insights and changes from the previous phase can be incorporated
• 00:52 incrementally at the start of the next phase, when the details are developed.
• 00:56 While this provides great flexibility and opportunity for
• 01:00 continuous improvement, it also means that there's a need for
• 01:03 a lot of project management integration activity.
• 01:06 Essentially, each phase of the project is its own mini project.
• 01:10 Agile is a special case of adaptive projects,
• 01:13 particularly the variety Agile known as Agile Scrum, which is the most popular.
• 01:18 Since it is adaptive, it is iterative and incremental.
• 01:21 But Agile will create a release at the end of one or more phases or sprints, and
• 01:26 that capability and features of that release are expanded with each new sprint.
• 01:31 The deliverable is not a one and
• 01:33 done, instead it continually grows in features in performance.
• 01:38 This is becoming the most common method for implementing the adaptive approach,
• 01:43 with standard methodology and tools becoming commercially available.
• 01:47 A critical success factor for Agile that is different from traditional project
• 01:51 management and other adaptive approaches is that the Agile team is 100% dedicated
• 01:56 to the project for the short duration of the sprint, usually only several weeks.
• 02:02 At that time the sprint ends the deliverables are evaluated and
• 02:05 the remaining work required to fully complete the deliverable is identified.
• 02:09 This becomes the outline of the scope for the next sprint.
• 02:14 In case you are still a little confused about what adaptive is and
• 02:17 why it's different, let's look at this chart from the PMBOK,
• 02:21 which compares predictive and adaptive.
• 02:24 The left side is the predictive or traditional project management,
• 02:27 the right side is the Agile or Adaptive project management.
• 02:31 Iterative, which is mid left, implies phases, and incremental, which is mid
• 02:35 right on the continuum, implies the progressive elaboration of those phases.
• 02:40 On the predictive side,
• 02:42 the requirements are fully specified before the project starts.
• 02:45 On the Agile side the requirements are frequently elaborated or
• 02:49 changed after each sprint.
• 02:51 And that change is not a change order type of change, it's just the elaboration or
• 02:55 clarification of the requirements.
• 02:58 In the middle the requirements are elaborated at major change points,
• 03:02 such as the end of a phase.
• 03:04 Next, a predictive approach creates plans for
• 03:06 deliverables to be completed by the end of the project.
• 03:09 On the Agile side, the deliverables are delivered
• 03:12 incrementally throughout the lifecycle of the project.
• 03:15 First in a preliminary or minimal form,
• 03:17 and then with more features and attributes, and improved performance.
• 03:21 In the middle, the deliverable is broken up into major subsets
• 03:25 that are completed at different times in the project.
• 03:28 In a predictive project, changes in the project plan is bad,
• 03:32 and is avoided if possible.
• 03:34 In an Agile project, change is being implemented daily at scrum meetings and
• 03:38 is part of the sprint planning process.
• 03:40 In the middle, changes are expected but
• 03:43 are normally only occurring at major gates or phases.
• 03:46 In predictive projects key stakeholders are engaged for
• 03:50 a prescribed task or a defined point in the project.
• 03:54 An Agile project, key stakeholders are also engaged, but
• 03:57 they're conducting regular reviews and their input is sought after.
• 04:01 In the middle, the stakeholders are involved periodically,
• 04:04 usually at the end of each phase.
• 04:06 Finally, in predictive projects risk and cost are controlled by detailed plans and
• 04:11 estimates for known or expected problems and issues.
• 04:15 In Agile projects risk and cost are established upfront as requirements and
• 04:20 the project is changed to stay within the constraints.
• 04:24 In the middle, it's a bit of a hybrid, risk and
• 04:27 cost are controlled by the way the tasks are progressively elaborated, and
• 04:31 that occurs when new information is available.
• 04:34 Let's look at how an Agile Scrum project works.
• 04:37 We start by setting a time box schedule for the sprints and the scrums.
• 04:42 Now, time boxes represent the total time for the project or
• 04:47 a piece of the work to be done.
• 04:48 We set the time box and we let the work expand or
• 04:51 contract to fit within that time box.
• 04:55 Let me illustrate by setting a total project time box duration
• 04:59 that is equal to the length of this bar.
• 05:01 Since this is an Agile project,
• 05:03 we'll divide it into several releases, which will have a project deliverable that
• 05:07 we will expose to a select group of customers in order to get their feedback.
• 05:11 The contents of that first deliverable is known as the minimally viable product,
• 05:15 and may only be a mock up, but it can be used to get feedback from customers.
• 05:20 Each release is divided into one or
• 05:22 more sprints, that usually are several weeks in duration.
• 05:26 I prefer two weeks, but I've seen them as long as four weeks.
• 05:30 A sprint will organize the work from a list of tasks or
• 05:33 deliverables known as the sprint backlog.
• 05:36 The sprint is comprised of a number of scrums.
• 05:39 Usually each day represents one scrum.
• 05:42 And the team has a daily scrum meeting to track progress, identify issues, and
• 05:47 assign tasks to team members for the next day.
• 05:50 The work is done in the scrum.
• 05:52 The scrums combine to create a sprint and results of several sprints is a release
• 05:57 with a minimally viable product to be evaluated by external customers.
• 06:01 If you want to more about how to run an Agile Scrum project,
• 06:04 let me suggest the GoSkills course on that topic.
• 06:08 Let's wrap this up with a quick review of how risk is managed in an adaptive or
• 06:13 Agile project.
• 06:14 First, when there are many risks and unknowns,
• 06:17 an adaptive approach is preferred over the predictive approach.
• 06:21 With many risks, I don't know which ones to predict will occur.
• 06:25 And I can go crazy trying to come up with all the possible contingency plans
• 06:30 at the beginning of the project.
• 06:32 In fact, trying to compensate for all those risk and possibilities and
• 06:35 implement all those plans could increase the overall project risk.
• 06:39 Instead, an adaptive project focuses on the risks
• 06:42 that are present at the upcoming phase or spread of the project.
• 06:46 Once these are resolved, some of the possible risks for
• 06:49 the rest of the project will have been eliminated.
• 06:52 And you may be able to identify some new risks that you had
• 06:55 never even contemplated, as they become much clearer.
• 06:59 Adaptive an Agile projects hold regular reviews with stakeholders,
• 07:03 which will help to identify new or emerging risks.
• 07:07 Adaptive projects practice some of the project initiation processes at
• 07:10 the beginning of each phase or
• 07:12 sprint, which helps to identify risks to deliverables that
• 07:16 may have been overlooked at the time that the project was originally started.
• 07:20 Since the project plans are only for a phase or
• 07:23 a sprint, the impact of a planning error is reduced.
• 07:26 That error can be identified, and a correction implemented in the next phase
• 07:30 or sprint, so the impact does continue all the way till the end of the project.
• 07:35 Generally, adaptive projects will have more team interaction,
• 07:39 such as daily scrum meetings.
• 07:41 So misunderstandings and miscommunication is resolved quickly,
• 07:44 which reduces the impact of that type of risk.
• 07:48 And most adaptive projects work from a prioritized backlog list of tasks and
• 07:53 deliverables that is updated after each phase or sprint.
• 07:58 That way the highest priority task for that phase or sprint are always clear.
• 08:02 In fact, the list is often shown on a project dashboard, providing for
• 08:06 visual control of the project.
• 08:08 There is less likelihood that the team will waste time on unimportant tasks and
• 08:14 miss a critical task that must be accomplished.
• 08:17 When projects have high uncertainty or high risk, the adaptive and
• 08:23 Agile approaches are usually the best methodology for project management.

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