Agile project management

Agile frameworks do not mention the role of the project manager because they were designed for product management, not project management. However, the PM role is required when the organization approves a project that must be completed within a certain period of time and below a certain budget. Professional PMs are responsible, among other things, for the agile project to end on time and on budget, meeting stakeholders’ requirements.

In predictive projects –those which follow a waterfall lifecycle– most requirements can be agreed beforehand. If requirements are set, we can set the scope to estimate cost, schedule, etc., and finally we can get a detailed project plan, which can be used as a baseline to compare actual performance so that we can take corrective actions to meet the project management goals.

PMBOK® Guide divide project management into 5 process groups, which can overlap in time, although for simplicity they are presented in a sequential order:

• Initiating Process Group: The organization debates whether the project must be done or not. If so, the sponsor approves it and signs a document called the project charter.
• Planning Process Group: A project management plan is developed by the project management team develops, with the help of experts. The project plan will serve as a reference to execute and control the project. Some predictive projects practice progressive elaboration planning, that is, the plan is being versioned as better information is known, but normally the project plan is quite stable, as is usually the case in engineering or construction projects.
• Executing and Controlling Process Groups: These two groups are connected. The executing group is designed to execute the plan. The controlling group aims to periodically monitor performance, taking corrective actions if needed to meet the project management goals.
• Closing Process Group: Once all the deliverables have been accepted by the client, formal closing is followed, and product, service or result is transitioned to the requesting organization.

PMPeople uses the above states initiating, planning, executing, and closing –executing includes controlling. In predictive projects, closing means that the final product is transitioned to the customer.

An agile project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result, in which requirements are not clear at the beginning and must be progressively elaborated from the continuous stakeholders’ feedback (=value) who attend project reviews to see working product increments regularly. Agile projects do not distinguish a separate planning phase. Since requirements are not clear, continuous iteration with stakeholders is needed to progressively discover value. The execution phase is divided into time boxes called releases, which usually last about 3 months. At the end of each release, a product that will be used by the stakeholders is transferred.

Features included in a release are progressively elaborated. Each release is broken down into other time boxes called iterations, usually taking 2 weeks. At the end of each iteration, in a face-to-face meeting, the development team demonstrates the features to stakeholders, who provide immediate feedback.

Agile projects follow an iterative-incremental lifecycle:

• Iterative means feedback is received at regular intervals.
• Incremental means that the product is elaborated “like the layers of an onion”: first the heart with the most important features and then the successive less important layers. The product grows with new features while refining the ones already built.
• In each demonstration, a potentially shippable product is shown. If the release is cancelled any time, a working product could be delivered.

Normally, a release has about 5 iterations. The last iteration, called iteration H—hardening—is not aimed to produce more features, it is aimed at formal closing procedures and technical deployment to production environments.

In agile projects, project planning is usually done the other way around than in a predictive project. In a predictive project, requirements are elaborated first, in order to set the project scope. Later on, we plan schedule and cost, etc., producing finally the project plan. A management model based on planning is followed.

On the contrary, in an agile project, we can set the timeframe the business can wait to have the product done, let’s say 18 months, for instance. We can easily calculate the cost for a stable agile team of 8 people, for example. On the other hand, we need to estimate scope progressively, with the continuous engagement of stakeholders. We follow a value driven project management model. The agile project will fail if the stakeholders do not get along—they do not attend to demonstrations or refinements meetings, they do not resolve impediments, etc.

The Agile PM must know in depth how you work on an agile project: roles, ceremonies, artifacts, etc. You must be a servant leader, promote value orientation, etc. Tools and techniques depend on the agile framework used. Scrum and XP (eXtreme Programming) agile teams have the following roles:

• Product Owner (PO) is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the DT. The PO is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog, which is a prioritized list of requirements (user stories, features, epics, etc).
• Development Team (DT) consists of professionals who do the work of delivering a potentially releasable Increment of “Done” product at the end of each iteration. DT shows a Product Increment at the iteration review. Only DT members create the Increment. DT members break features down into technical tasks and manage them in the Iteration Backlog. They self-organize to deliver value at the end of each iteration.
• Agile Coach (CO): is responsible for promoting and supporting agile methods as defined, helping everyone understand theory, practices, rules, and values. The CO is a servant-leader for the DT, helping everyone understand which of their interactions with the DT are helpful and which aren’t, and helping change these interactions to maximize the value created by the DT.
• Customers (CU): are the stakeholders that must provide directions to get the value. They are considered to be part of the agile team, but their level of commitment is lower.

SAFe agile teams have between 5-11 Team Members.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do agile frameworks include a project manager role?

Most agile frameworks like Scrum don’t define a project manager role, as they focus on product delivery. However, in time- and budget-constrained projects, a professional PM ensures on-time, on-budget delivery while supporting agile practices.

How is planning different in agile vs. predictive projects?

Predictive projects plan scope, schedule, and cost upfront. Agile projects fix time and cost early, then progressively elaborate scope through stakeholder feedback, following a value-driven model.

How does PMPeople support agile project management?

PMPeople enables agile PMs to manage iterations, releases, backlogs, and stakeholder feedback in real time—supporting servant leadership, decentralized control, and seamless collaboration across teams via web and mobile.