Agile Project Management

March 28, 2003 · 2 min read

It was a delightful experience to hear Scott Ambler speak about Agile Methods and Techniques at the Xerox PARC in the heart of Sillicon Valley. And surely he popped different ideas of “the” traditional approach towards a more “agile” approach in management of the project. Does it means we do it fast and try to get rid of it? ASAP. Well surely there is still a long way to go. There is still a long debate about what goes in managing the project so perfectly.

Scott’s whole perspective came from an “agile” developer. But the project is not run by developers. Although developers play an important role in development of the project. The agility in the project management should come from the project manager. And it should come in the early stages of the project. The certain approaches of maintaining the starting the actual product development over documentation is another big debate. But what makes the project management agile?

The agility of the project depends on the entire team, right from the project manager, to the team and to various stakeholders. Although stakeholders are only interested in the end results, but it is their responsibility as well how well they want the project to go. The early adopters of the agile methods produce dramatic results of success with the project. Some of the agile methods already in practice include Daily Scrum and Open Source and Agility.

The conclusion here could not be simpler, but yah this debate is on, and will be on. But the basics are that the project management should balance the principles of ‘agility’ with the business imperatives.