Category Archives: Agile

The Agile 12 Clarifying Principles

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The Agile 12 Clarifying Principles

These are the principles that dig deeper into the Agile Manifesto and mindset. Check out the video and article below to see if your team truly follows the Agile concepts in the way that is right for you.

We’ve already had a look at the Agile manifesto and mindset where we value the items on the left:

  • Individuals and interactions
  • Working software
  • Customer collaboration
  • Responding to change

…more than the items on the right, which are your typical linear methods or waterfall approach. Now we’re delving into it in a little bit more detail using the Agile 12 clarifying principles. When we’re delivering in an Agile way of course you know we’re using iterations where we’ve got time boxed work of between two to four weeks and we’re often delivering an increment to the customer, which is a “feature” that they can see, feel and touch, just to make sure that everything is on track, that they understand what’s being delivered and that the requirements are fit for purpose. So number one is:

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customers through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

And that’s done through that iterative and incremental approach that we will be looking at in this series. You’ve got iterations of between two to four weeks where we’re putting all that feedback back into the product and we’re getting that feedback from the customer. And increments, where we’re delivering a feature so that the customer can just tell for themselves whether the requirements are fit for purpose.

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The Agile Manifesto and Mindset

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The Agile Manifesto and Mindset

Do you know where Agile all began?  The manifesto behind one of the fastest growing project management and product development methodologies of the new millennium?

Check out the video and article below as we go through the Agile manifesto and mindset.

Where it all began.

In 2001 a group of individuals representing the most widely used lightweight software development methodologies agreed on a common set of values and principles which later became known as the Agile Manifesto.

The Agile Manifesto contains four statements of values, and this is where it all began. You’ll see that there’s many methodologies or many Agile practices that come out of Agile that you’ll learn about soon, but they all stem from these core principles and these core values that came about in 2001. The four Agile Values are:

We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

So while processes and tools are important we value individuals and interactions more than processes and tools, and you’ll see that in the practices of agile where we have daily stand-ups and we’re really interacting to remove blockers on a daily basis rather than letting them simmer. So this is where we’re interacting and we’ve got the whole team approach where everyone who’s needed to be in a project is actually within that team – you don’t have to go externally or find them in other departments, they’re all within the one team. You can talk to them quite quickly and immediately. Next we prefer:

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What is Servant Leadership in Agile Project Management?

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Do you know what it means to be a Servant Leader in Agile Project Management? Whether you’re a Scrum Master, Project Manager, facilitator or coordinator, understanding Servant Leadership will help you.

Check out the video below, now!

Servant Leadership – Agile practices

From the Agile Practice Guide, by the Project Management Institute and Agile Alliance. Agile approaches emphasise servant leadership as a way to empower their teams. Servant leadership is the practice of leading through service to the team – so in other words you’re the leader, you’re the boss, but your customers are actually your team members.  As a servant leader you’re here to serve them as well and help them get what they need so that they can do the best job that they possibly can.

That means understanding and addressing the needs and development of the team members to enable that highest possible performance.  Servant leaders approach project work in this order – first of all we start with the “why”.  That’s a classic book from Simon Sinek, and many people have written about it.  We don’t start with what we’re doing we actually start why we’re doing it.

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When to Use Agile, Waterfall, Iterative or Incremental Project Life Cycles

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Project Development Lifecycles

Project Life Cycle Deep Dive!

Do you know when to use Agile, and when to use Waterfall?  Do you know the difference and benefit of using iterations versus increments, or both?  From the Agile Practice Guide from the Project Management Institute (PMI) and Agile Alliance, we look at the four types of Project Lifecycles and the best times to use them.

Check out the video below now!

We’re looking at the characteristics of project life cycles from the Agile Practice Guide from the Project Management Institute and Agile Alliance.

Previously we’ve looked at the different types of life cycles.  We’ve got the predictive life cycle which is your traditional waterfall approach – very step-by-step.

We’ve got an iterative approach where we’re iterating, and we’re not necessarily releasing something but we’re getting feedback on a regular basis, usually every two to four weeks.

Then we’ve got the incremental life cycle and that is where we’re actually delivering an increment to something usable that a customer can can use see feel and touch and getting that feedback as well using that approach.

Lastly the Agile approach which is both incremental and iterative so we’ve combined those two things or we’re iterating towards success building that feedback back into the product but also releasing that product on a regular basis to refine that work and to deliver frequently.

So let’s delve into the characteristics of these life cycles a little more deeply.

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Different Project Lifecycles and When to Use Them – Agile and Waterfall

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Project Development Lifecycles

Project Lifecycles: The Agile Practice Guide

Do you know the different types of project lifecycles you can use to manage your project, develop a product, or bring a change about in a company?

The Agile Practice Guide goes into four main project lifecycles: Waterfall, Incremental, Iterative, and Agile.  There is also “Hybrid” – a combination, which many companies end up using.

Check out the video for details on them now!

There are Many Different Project Environments

In the video, we’re looking at the different types of project life cycles and when we might need to use them.  The reason we’re doing this is because there are many different types of projects, different environments they operate in, and projects are often very different.

We might have different organizational structures – for example it might be PMO controlled or it might be functional manager controlled, it might be just within one team or within many departments.  There are different life cycles involved in how to manage those projects, there are different  management styles, different sizes, different customer needs and requirements, different products or outputs, and the list really does go on.

You might also have co-located teams or dispersed teams you might be governed by a supportive, controlling or directive project management office, or the functional manager of a team.  Your sponsor or customer might want daily reports, weekly reports, or they may just have a completely hands-off approach and want you to do the work and report in once it’s done.  You may have more than one customer group receiving the benefit of the project which can really complicate things, and of course the project may be technically simple simple or technically complex.

Now all of these things combine into what we look at as the project having easily definable work or high uncertainty work and that’s the difference where the different life cycles and the ways of managing a project comes into it.

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