The Agile Infrastructure

It's no wonder that in the more classically designed project management offices (PMOs), there is more emphasis on tools and processes associated with the planning phase than the execution phase. These companies fully expect that they will be able to develop a robust upfront plan and then follow it closely for the duration of the project. Agile projects are quite the opposite (see Figure 10-3). Project managers expect their initial plan to change at some point, so they spend less effort on detailed planning at the start of the project and more effort on managing the inevitable changes. Obviously, there still has to be a reasonable planning element in the agile environment, just not as detailed as in the classic environment. This partially explains why it can be frustrating to use some of the common project management software tools on the market today—they are designed for detailed upfront planning, but do not help much with managing the many "unplanned" action items that pop up during project execution.

Figure 10-3: The focus of PM tools in an agile versus classic environment.

Agile Strategy

When selecting project management tools, pick those that facilitate tasks associated with executing the project. You want the ability to easily integrate elements such as action items and issue management into the project timeline to assess their effect on the overall project.

Perils of On-the-Fly Process Development

When no standard operational infrastructure is available, project managers usually create their own tools and processes "on the fly" to manage the project at hand. They probably have some minimal level of discussion and/or training for their team members to acclimate them to the tools and to avoid confusion. Once the project is completed, the team disbands and people go on to other projects and the process repeats. Best practices may travel with individuals but are generally not pervasive. Furthermore, the ad hoc tools and processes created are usually incomplete and nearly always inconsistent from project manager to project manager. This, in turn, can lead to inefficiencies and frustration on project teams.

Infrastructure may include a wide range of processes, practices, software tools, templates, and forms. These elements are critical to effective and agile project management, so skilled resources need to be allocated to develop and support them. Agile organizations tend to have a culture of continual learning. With each new project, you probably learn something that will strengthen a particular piece of the infrastructure. Without resources committed to maintaining the infrastructure, these potential improvement ideas will be lost. The paradox is that "process development" resources are much less likely to be available to the agile organization, since we are usually talking about a smaller and leaner organization. Yet this is exactly where these resources can add enormous value.

Forcing the project team, rather than dedicated process development resources, to invent the infrastructure will likely have a negative effect on the project execution. It can also produce a suboptimal infrastructure. First, the team would usually have to do this work concurrently with executing the project, which takes time away from actual project tasks, in turn slowing the project. Second, the project manager and team are not necessarily process development experts. They may design processes that are inefficient, only work for specific situations, or are not cleanly integrated, which can lead to any number of problems down the road, thus reducing agility in terms of speed and making decisions correctly. Third, the project manager and team may not view these activities as part of their job, so they may decide to omit certain tools and processes completely and just "wing" it. When this happens, the implications are the same as mentioned previously: inconsistencies, inefficiencies, and possibly frustration.

Agile Strategy

Allocate specialized resources/expertise to develop and maintain your project management infrastructure and you will accelerate your progress toward PM agility.

The overall goal is that the organization have the basic operational infrastructure in place, then the team can build on or modify it as necessary for specific situations. By employing dedicated expertise to facilitate these improvements, the project-specific modifications will, over time, become fewer and fewer. At that point, you will have developed a consistent and effective operational infrastructure, tuned to your unique business environment, and truly gained ground in your quest for agility.