How-To

Instead of measuring quality, Agile enterprises commit to it by investing in integration and testing, developing a common language around quality, and nurturing motivated, disciplined teams. Ultimately, quality reigns when organizations value it as much as profitability and protect the agile processes that support it.

Disaster recovery plans focus on getting the day-to-day business running smoothly again, but they often fail to address the equally important need to preserve mission critical initiatives within the project portfolio. Here are five steps for applying crisis management at the project level.

At the release level, we approach the meaning of “done” more strategically by aligning User Stories with Epics and Vision Statements — all of which should be shared across the Scrum Team and all stakeholders so that they can see the building and not just the bricks. Here are some examples of what that looks like.

A concerted effort to manage and document the realization of business benefits is an indispensible key to the success of any program. It requires a well-defined business case and a structured approach to measuring and tracking the planned benefits throughout the program lifecycle.

Product development requires a unified, collaborative team effort. A social project management framework, combined with the right social tools, helps to connect team activities to the product development process and stakeholders. The benefits include increased visibility, more accurate estimates, responsive, real-time analysis and streamlined workflows.

Globally dispersed teams and stakeholders present daunting challenges to project, program and portfolio leaders. It is imperative that organizations develop a formal communication strategy that addresses distance, language, culture and access to information. In this undertaking, “the cloud” is a friend.

Executives need projects so they can deliver on commitments, and projects need executives, who control the resources and networks essential to success. This co-dependent relationship is itself a project that can be cultivated within a PMO for an organization's strategic long-term benefit.

Many risk management guides describe a mitigation strategy that allocates funding and schedule margin for when a risk “comes true.” A better approach is to “buy down” the risk before it turns into an issue. Here is an example based on the U.S. Department of Defense’s approach.

When it comes to program-level decisions, consensus-by-committee can be slow and produce ineffective outcomes. To improve and accelerate the process, organizations should consider restructuring their project steering committees. By appointing the right person to play the role of the Project President, delivery of projects and programs can be vastly improved.

The PMBOK Guide and other best-practice frameworks provide considerable detail on schedule, budget and risk management techniques, but much less guidance on how to manage the people-related challenges that threaten the execution of these plans, and are the most commonly cited reasons for the failure of complex change initiatives.