APM webinar promoted by the South Wales and West of England branch on 24 February 2022. In this webinar, Barbara Roberts will highlight the basic differences between a traditional (linear) style project and an agile style. Barbara will explain how agile drives different behaviours, and therefore poses a different set of risks. Barbara will demonstrate an agile risk assessment, as well as sharing examples from her own experiences of some key agile project risks. https://youtu.be/b1OJAnr5KRQ https://www.apm.org.uk/news/agile-what-s-the-risk-webinar/

1. Agile, Where’s the Risk?
Barbara Roberts SW APM Presentation
24th February 2022
Email : barbara@roberts66.co.uk
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-roberts-6113a09/ 24th February 2022
Agile
Where’s the Risk?
Barbara Roberts
Barbara Roberts
Agile Transformation Coach
Barbara specialises in Agile in the complex corporate world and is well known
for her common-sense and pragmatic approach to Agile.
She is passionate about sharing her agile knowledge and is regularly invited
to speak at events around the world to share her experiences.
• Signatory of the Agile Agnostic Oath
• Certified Agile Business Consultant and Trainer-Coach
• Certified Scrum Professional and ABC Scrum Trainer
• Certified Professional Facilitator
• Fellow of the Agile Business Consortium
• Previously Director of Agile Business Consortium for 20+ years
https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-roberts-6113a09/
Email : barbara@roberts66.co.uk
• What is different about agile project delivery?
‒ Agile is not just for IT projects. It relates to all types of projects
• Does risk management need to be adapted for agile projects and why?
• How can risk be managed effectively in agile projects?
Agile risk – the burning questions
• Projects are definitely still relevant in an agile world
‒ Suggesting otherwise is naïve and demonstrates a lack of understanding
of the complex corporate world
• Good Project Management practices still apply to Agile!
Please don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!
‒ NB. The Scrum Master role does not equate to a Project Manager role
• Risk needs managing in every project, regardless of the approach used
Please don’t believe all the hype around agile
• Features fixed
• Big Design Up Front (BDUF)
‒ Full details fixed early
• Working to big horizons
‒ Thinking / planning all long term
• Work completed phase by phase
‒ Linear style
‒ Analysis, Design, Build, Test, Acceptance
Agile – Some basic differences
Agile (iterative) style
Traditional (linear) style
• Time, cost and quality fixed
• Enough Design Up Front (EDUF)
‒ Full details emerge later
• Working to horizons of all sizes
‒ Long term, medium term, short term, immediate
• Work completed story by story
‒ Iterative development, integrated testing
‒ Built in continuous feedback loops
• Business engagement limited
‒ During analysis and User Acceptance
• Planning often treated as a PM activity
‒ Ownership of plans sits with PM
• Subjective Reporting
‒ % completion of each phase
• Infrequent “real” feedback
‒ Minimal transparency
• Success measured by
completion of phases
Agile – Built around different behaviours
Agile (iterative) style
Traditional (linear) style
• Business engagement active and on-going
‒ Throughout the lifecycle
• Planning a collaborative activity
‒ Ownership of plans shared with team
• Objective Reporting
‒ via completion of stories & demos
• Frequent “real” feedback
‒ Short feedback loops, full transparency
• Success measured by
ongoing delivery of value

2. Agile, Where’s the Risk?
Barbara Roberts SW APM Presentation
24th February 2022
Email : barbara@roberts66.co.uk
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-roberts-6113a09/ 24th February 2022
• We now live in a VUCA world
• Agile views change as the norm (not the exception)
• Agile recognises and accepts 100% certainty is all but impossible
• Organisations and projects must be able to deal with uncertainty and unknowns
‒ because the real world is unpredictable
• No organisation is immune from the risk of failure
‒ Even household names have failed after failing to react to change
Volatile
Uncertain
Complex
Ambiguous
Agile – Attitude to change and uncertainty
2020 / 2021 - the ultimate example of a VUCA world
• What sort of journey are you expecting?
• Our plans must reflect our mode of travel
Close to
Agreement
Far from
Agreement
Close to
Certainty
Far from
Certainty
Requirements
The
“what”
Solution
The “How”
More predictable
“Traditional” style
“Agile” style
More uncertainty and
a high probability of
change
Agile Planning – a real life example
Linear
• Planning process “owned” by the PM
• Higher confidence in the plan is built on
the level of detail.
‒ This low level detail fosters a belief that the future
will be predictable
o This impression is often (usually?) misguided !!
o It implies change is not expected
Agile Planning – A different approach
Agile
• Uses a different style of planning
‐ Always done as a collaborative team activity
‐ Latest plan highly visible to anyone at all times
o Information can be “pulled”
‐ Plan is regularly updated to reflect reality
‐ Plan is constantly adjusted to show how we
get from here to the end-goal
Linear
• Has long periods where no proof is
available – a black hole
• This style drives how reporting is done
‒ Subjective “% complete” style
reporting - the only option available
‒ Often presented from an optimistic
perspective
‒ “Trust me, it’s going really well”
Agile Reporting – A different approach
Agile
• Approach is based on iterative development,
incremental delivery and an ethos of transparency
‒ Regular show and tells
‒ On-going business acceptance of requirements
‒ Progress is objective - based on fact
o Measured on completed work
o “Done” is binary. There is no concept of “half done”!
• Some risks remain the same, regardless of the approach taken
• Other risks are specific to the approach being taken
Some examples
❖ “Access to a limited specialist resource / single points of contact”
Treated as a risk for both linear AND agile
❖ “Changing requirements” “The users keep changing their minds”
Treated as a risk for linear
Business as usual for agile (BUT… within the boundaries of the agreed scope i.e. the breadth)
❖ “Maintaining on-going business engagement”
Irrelevant for linear, business engagement only expected at beginning and end
A risk for agile (the business provide the low-level detail as needed – the “Walking, talking spec”)
Different views on what poses a risk
• Empowerment of individuals is fundamental to agile
‒ Individuals are empowered within their personal competence
o This competence may need validating
• Effective empowerment relies on a “handshake”
‒ “Given” from above, “Accepted” by the individual
o Are management able and willing to empower others?
❖ A Command and Control culture is a huge risk to agile
o Is the individual willing and happy to take on this responsibility?
❖ This needs to be validated
❑ Sometimes individuals are simply unwilling to take ownership
Agile risks related to people

3. Agile, Where’s the Risk?
Barbara Roberts SW APM Presentation
24th February 2022
Email : barbara@roberts66.co.uk
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-roberts-6113a09/ 24th February 2022
Assessing Risk - Project Approach Questionnaire (PAQ)
• Agile Project Management (AgilePM® ) provides a questionnaire to assess project risk
‒ 17 questions based on the agile-style behaviours + key Instrumental Success Factors
• This is completed at least twice during the lifecycle
‒ Once at the end of Feasibility
o a lot is still unknown at this stage
‒ Once at the end of Foundations
o “Foundations” agrees the basics
(Enough analysis and design) – the breadth
ready for low level details to be explored
once Evolutionary Development starts (next step)
• It is completed collaboratively
‒ by the PM + a senior business representative
+ a representative from the Solution Team
(e.g. IT or process owner etc)
• Orange (Disagree) and Red (Strongly Disagree) responses create risks to be managed
Assessing Risk – One PAQ Example
• At Feasibility people may not (yet) understand AgilePM
and some may not yet be assigned to the project
√ Mitigation - organise AgilePM training for the whole team, before starting Foundations
• When PAQ is reassessed at end of Foundations,
this risk would now show as Green (Strongly agree)
‒ The risk has been dealt with
• Agile projects in a complex corporate environment need a “grown up” Agile process!!!!
‒ Scrum here is too lightweight. Making the wrong agile choice potentially introduces risks 
‒ Corporate agile will always be working within constraints
o A very different world to a start-up
‒ Some constraints will be negotiable, others definitely non-negotiable!
• Agile projects need a facilitative style of management
‒ Servant leadership, rather than command and control
‒ PM is responsible for clearing the way for the empowered team to work at optimum speed
o Micro management is not necessary (or helpful) when transparency is working properly
o “Go see for yourself”
❖ Daily Stand-ups, Scrums (PM attends as an Observer)
❖ Demos of the evolving solution (PM may attend as an Observer or watch a recording)
• Senior management and stakeholders need to understand how agile works and what is different
‒ Have the “What’s in this for me?” discussion
Agile Project Risks – From my experience Your questions
Email : barbara@roberts66.co.uk
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-roberts-6113a09/