Agile project management: Everything you wanted to know but were too afraid to ask, by Adrian Pyne, 12th March 2015

1. Agile project management
Everything you wanted to
know but were too afraid to
ask
Adrian Pyne

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About Adrian......
• Organisation culture development
• Coaching and mentoring
• Collaboration
• Professional Services build and management
• Business Transformation programme delivery and rescue
• Portfolio, programme and project management capability development
• Enterprise PMO design/build/operate
• Intelligent Client model development
• Member of APM approx. 20 years
• APM Audit Committee
• Frequent speaker , conference chair and blogger
• Cabinet Office White Paper
• OGC: MSP, P3M3 & Portfolio Mngt review panels
• APM – Intro to Programme Mngt & Portfolio Mngt
• The Gower Handbook of Programme Management
• APM Registered Project Professional and Assessor
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3. Pyne Consulting l Applied Impact Technology 3

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 We were Agile
 The pace of change and the value of being Agile
 Being Agile at two levels
 Agile Organisational Project management
 Being Agile in projects and programmes
 Avoiding the pitfalls
Content
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We were Agile – principles
 Satisfy the customer, produce outcomes that result in benefits
 Embrace changing requirements
 Provide an environment for success that is sustainable
 Collaborative behaviours based on Trust
 Keep it simple
 At regular intervals – reflect, learn and adjust
Steve Messenger
Chair: DSDM Consortium

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"Vercingetorix Throws Down His Arms at the Feet of Julius Caesar", 1899, by Lionel Noel Royer
They were Agile

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We were Agile
 Management created our Landscape
 Co-located team including customers
 Change reflected developing new business processes
 Sustainability: already looking ahead to other services sustainable
 Collaborative behaviours based on Trust
 Keep it simple – requirements groups for “sprints”
 Weekly reviews / learnings

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Pace of Change and Agile
The rate of change is not going to slow
down anytime soon. If anything, competition in
most industries will probably speed up even more
in the next few decades – John P. Kotter
Faster development and Change
• Constant focus on the goal
• Collaborative working
• Flexibility
• Delegated decision making

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The Value of Being Agile
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$95,000 per second
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
0.5%
http://www.whereprojectsthrive.uk/

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 Organisational Agile Project Management
Being Agile: two levels
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 Within projects and programmes

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Projects are viruses
Agile Organisational Project
Management

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Agile Organisational Project
Management
A challenging landscape for Agile
I want to run an Agile project
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5N00ApR_k
For video see link:

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Agile Organisational Project
Management
Organisation Culture
Vision
Strategy
Technology
ProcessPolicies
Values
Organisation
Rules
Behaviours
Symbols
Relationships
Perceptions
Beliefs
Assumptions
Unwritten
rules
Common practice
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Agile Organisational Project
Management
What needs to be overcome
 Non-agile organisation culture
– Lack of flexibility
– Non-release of operational resources
– Lengthy decision making, e.g. change
– Resistance to Matrix working
– Top down governance
– Lack of Trust and empowerment
– Very risk averse – loathing of uncertainty
 Gathering organisational anti-bodies to anything new in the culture
And some people simply get it wrong……

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 Organisational agility normally stated in terms of changing markets
 But what IS organisation agility?
– Trusted organisation
– Adaptive operating model – i.e. not too centralised
– Devolved governance
– P3 embedded in business operations
– Continuous learning is embedded
– Self-organising teams and people
– Collaborative culture
– Leadership tolerant of ambiguity
Agile Organisational Project
Management
What an agile culture and environment looks like

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Programme: Agile culture
IT project: Agile culture & Sprints
Other projects: Serial approach
Agile Organisational Project
Management
What an agile culture and environment looks like

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Being agile in projects
The wreckage of agile projects
 But we’re agile…….
 Silver bullet or poisoned apple?
 Agile as the wrong tool
 Agile head, but not heart – no agile mindset
 Self-organisation leads to constant escalation
 Fear / lack of confidence / lack of delegation
 Taking the eye of the ball
 Embracing Change without a design authority
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Being agile at two- levels: projects
What an agile project looks like
An Agile Project Manager stands back…hands off

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Timeboxing
Collaboration
Engagement
Purpose
Being agile at two- levels: projects
What an agile project looks like

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Being agile in projects
What an agile project looks like
 An agile friendly landscape
 An adaptive and flexible project manager
 Collaboration
 High level requirements – you have to be able to start somewhere
 Prioritised requirements (Workstack / Product Backlog)
 Lean decision making, e.g. for Changes
 Document…..just enough
 Constantly watches the bow wave
 Constantly planning
 Constantly learning
 Constantly watching the sky ahead

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Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
Re-combine and re-use
Avoiding the pitfalls:
Eric Abrahamson - Creative Recombination
 people
 networks (social not IT)
 culture
 processes
 structure
Eric Abrahamson: Change Without Pain
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1. Increase urgency
Kotter’s 8 Step change model
2. Build guiding teams
3. Get the vision right
4. Communication for buy-in
5. Enable action
6. Create short-term wins
7. Don’t let up
8.Make it stick
Create a
Climate for
change
Engaging and
enabling the
organisation
Implementing and
sustaining change
Open Minds,
Make the Change,
Embed the Change
Avoiding the pitfalls
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Avoiding the pitfalls
 Leadership must GET agile
 Leadership to establish an agile friendly organisation
 Persuade stakeholders so that they GET agile working
 Define your goals for agile working
 Determine how far agile needs to penetrate
 Define who needs to be agile, and help them be so
 Define how business processes need to change
 Define what technology can help, and/or needs to change
 Be an agile leader
People
ToolsProcess
Building an organisation fit for agile projects

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 We were Agile
 The pace of change and the value of being Agile
 Being Agile at two levels
 Agile Organisational Project management
 Being Agile in projects and programmes
 Avoiding the pitfalls
Content
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Thank you
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Pyne Consulting l
a.pyne@btconnect.com

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1. Lead through inspiration, care and Trust
2. Open Minds, Make the Change, Embed the Change
3. Work with your environment
4. Understand what can stop you being successful
5. Know and communicate the purpose of the Change
6. Recombine and re-use
7. Prepare for delivery AND for operations.
8. Be flexible and adapt, e.g. plan, measure and adjust
9. Ensure people know what they are to do, where they fit and how
they can work
10. Build a confident and professional team
Adrian’s Tactics for Change
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27. Links
http://www.apm.org.uk/blog/agile-thinking-projects-thinking-out-process-box
http://www.apm.org.uk/news/transformational-change-what-do-and-yellow-brick-road
I want to run an agile project parts 1 and 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u5N00ApR_k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAf3q13uUpE
Brian Wernham
http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Project-Management-Government-Wernham/dp/0957223404