Author: Dot Tudor
Date: 2008-07-01

Introducing Agile Methods into Project Management

Page 2 of 2

The Benefits of Agile

DSDM Atern's active involvement of customers in the whole development process brings a number of benefits. The risk of building the wrong solution is greatly reduced and the final solution is more likely to meet the users' real business requirements, since they are involved throughout and can adjust the results to their real, current needs. This participation leads to greater ownership of the solution and less resistance to its adoption. Furthermore, the users are ultimately better trained in the solution, having been involved throughout, and not only understand the features of the solution but have been actively involved in defining them.

Key Elements for the Successful Adoption of DSDM Atern

A number of changes may be needed within an organisation in order to adopt an Agile approach. Significant user resource will need to be committed to Agile projects. This will have a fundamental impact on the work patterns of the users involved. Management may, for example, have to arrange cover for parts of the day-to-day jobs of key users whilst they are on projects. Users will need to be trained in the project approach, since many user jobs are event-driven rather than project driven and the project discipline may be unfamiliar. User management will need to enable their staff to participate fully in projects. Management must become accustomed to empowering staff to make decisions over which the managers previously would have had full control.

DSDM Atern provides a Project Approach Questionnaire designed to uncover these essential issues. A set of carefully-crafted questions is provided, which should be asked at the outset of any Agile project, and kept under scrutiny during the project as areas of potential risk. The questions from a completed Project Approach Questionnaire are presented in the form of a Radar Chart in Figure 1. This highlights areas of potential risk in a visible way. The scale runs from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). From the chart, it would be evident that the project has a clear business driver (a positive indication) but that ownership is unclear, which is a risk.

Figure 1 - Results from a hypothetical Project Approach Questionnaire, presented as a Radar Chart

Steps for Introducing an Agile Approach

The approach to introducing DSDM Atern will depend on the maturity of the organisation and the project approach already in place. However, a few key steps to success are:

Identify a Senior Management Champion who will support the introduction and sustainment of the approach;
Arrange management briefings in the benefits and requirements of the approach;
Look at staff reward, performance management, targeting and bonus arrangements to ensure that business staff will not be disadvantaged by spending considerable time involved in projects;
Identify coaches, support and training for the Agile approach;
Ensure guidance, support, tools and in-house project templates are available;
Gather metrics from projects and celebrate successes.

Conclusion

Compared with "traditional" project approaches, Agile provides greater flexibility, a higher return on investment and a higher quality of delivered solutions, as perceived by customers of the project. In addition, greater visibility of progress during the development process leads to increased management confidence during the project.

Agile approaches fit well within the PRINCE2 framework already widely used in the public sector and real benefits can be achieved by using elements of each approach; DSDM Atern works particular well with PRINCE2®.

The Agile approach gives a more controllable project with on-time delivery and a focus on maintaining the quality of deliverables. However, management must accept the cultural changes it involves and acknowledge their responsibility in supporting the approach, if the organisation is to reap the significant benefits it can offer.

Page 2 of 2