This document discusses a shift towards a more agile project delivery mindset. It advocates for an iterative, incremental framework like Scrum to deliver working products more quickly. This allows companies to get feedback sooner, reduce risks, and adapt to changes instead of attempting to plan all requirements upfront. The document compares the agile philosophy which values collaboration, working software, and responding to change, to a more traditional waterfall approach of sequential planning and control.

1. A shift in the Project Delivery Mindset
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2. “Insanity: doing the
same thing over and
over again and
expecting different
results.”
– Albert Einstein
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3. All requirements are not known from the
“get-go”
Uncertainties and changes are a fact of life
Working products aren’t available until after
the final stages of the development cycle
The project triangle’s flexibility isn’t so
flexible
Most projects attempt to “boil the ocean”
“Information is not knowledge. The only
source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein
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4. get more for every dollar on development spend?
have customer accountability and deliver products
that meets their needs?
get a competitive advantage by releasing products
to market sooner? ROI sooner rather than later?
reduce schedule, budget, technical and market
risks?
maintain a predictable and stable project cash flow?
identify problems sooner rather than later?
improve employee retention and recruiting?
Companies must be adaptable to survive and
prosper during these economic times
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5. An iterative, incremental framework, one of the
methods of Agile development
Framework:
◦ 3 roles – Product Owner, SCRUM Master, team
◦ 4 artifacts – Product Backlog, Release burn down,
Sprint backlog and Sprint burn down
◦ 5 meetings – Release & Sprint planning, Daily SCRUM,
Sprint review & retrospective
Rules bind the framework
Controls - Transparency, Inspection and
Adaption
“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then
you have to play better than anyone else.” – Albert Einstein
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6. Speed is the new competitive advantage
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7. Agile (SCRUM) Waterfall
Philosophy The agile philosophy holds that the best way to meet customer Process driven, command and control
needs is through the collaboration of a committed group of Evaluate it – is it worth doing, who will be involved what will be the impact?
people, who focus on achieving results quickly, with as little Plan it – what is involved, what are the risks, what are the costs?
process overhead as possible. Do it – according to the plan and guided by key behaviors…
Close it – review what have we learnt.
Paradigm Empowerment Control
Collaboration Contracts
Code Documentation
Project Vision The vision creates the features estimates The plan creates cost/schedule estimates
Values Individuals and interactions Processes and tools
Working Software Comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration Contract negotiation
Responding to change Following the plan
Success Defined by responsiveness to customer requests Achieved by the planned scope
Working software / product On‐time and on‐budget
Assumption Requirements change frequently, even month to month Requirements are well understood and will not change
Focus Working product incrementally Product delivery at end
Process Empowerment Sequential, linear ‐ upfront planning and scheduling activities, then execution
No steps involve long lead time or lots of specialized resources All steps are known and can be estimated with reasonable accuracy
Control – defined (every piece of work be completely understood)
Control ‐ empirical (frequent inspect & adapt) Start with requirements, leads to results, stops
Incremental results
Requirements Collaboration through direct dialogue Documentation and specifications upfront
It is not enough to just trim budgets and
postpone strategic initiatives
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8. Leads to “cowboy” programming
Lack of planning
No documentation
Rework is needed and costly
Only for small simple projects
The most effective way to create value
is to deliver, get feedback and adapt
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12. Source: The Standish Group
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