WATERFALL TO AGILE - Mighty Guides
WATERFALLTO AGILEMaking the Transition to Agile ora Mixed Methodology Approach20 TOP EXPERTS SHARE THEIR SECRETSSponsored by:
TABLE OF CONTENTSForeword.3Introduction.4Easing Your Transition to Agile.25Thinking Agile: Transforming YourOrganization’s Mindset.27Waterfall to AgileGoing Agile.29Agile State of Mind.5Building Better Teams Through Scrum.31Agile Adoption for the Rest of Us.7Good Project Management:Build–Measure–Learn: Employing Agile withAlways Appropriate, Always in Style.33Lean Startup.9Top 5 Trainers’ Tips for “Selling” Agile to Waterfall PMs.35Hiking the Agile Trail.11Transitioning to Agile Without Fear.37Is Agile Right for You? Choosing the Right MethodLittle and Often for Effective Communications .39for Project Success.13More Agile Than Yesterday: The Journey to Agile.15Embracing Agile: Ensuring Cohesion with Teamsand Stakeholders.17Smooth Team Transitions to Agile Processes.19Growing Confidence in Agile ThroughCommunication.41Does Agile Mean We Don’t Have to Decide?.43About Workfront.45Facilitating a Smooth Transition to Agile.21Build the Framework and Let Them Go:Empower Your Agile Teams to Succeed.23Sponsored by:2
FOREWORDThe days of the solitary Gantt chart are gone.Today, most project leaders are asked to collaborate with stakeholders and executives across the business. That meansmanaging multiple work methodologies and, in particular, combining traditional Waterfall project management with newAgile approaches. And that trend isn’t slowing down: an internal survey of Workfront customers revealed that 44 percentprimarily manage projects that require a mixture of Agile and Waterfall.Although embracing an Agile approach for some projects can bring dramatic efficiency gains and a tighter focus onbusiness performance goals, the transition to a mixed-methodology enterprise can be fraught with complicationsrelated to culture, metrics, and tools. Your team or business may be resistant to change or reluctant to embrace newjargon and practices associated with a new methodology. Translating metrics among more than one methodology canbe chaotic, and signing into multiple tools—one for Waterfall and another for Agile—isn’t efficient and simply wastesvaluable time for your team and project stakeholders.At Workfront, we’ve seen these challenges time and time again. It’s why we created an Enterprise Work Managementsolution that allows both methodologies to work in harmony, without a lot of redundant, manual effort. Workfront offersproject leaders and stakeholders a complete view of work from both Agile and Waterfall—true visibility into all types ofwork and all methodologies.The expert advice captured in this eBook provides wisdom and suggestions for best practices you need to embraceAgile.Eric MorganWorkfront CEOSponsored by:3
INTRODUCTIONOne reality we all face in a world of accelerating business cycles is the need to respondmore quickly to business demands. This has placed greater pressure on projects todeliver faster and more accurately than ever before. Many businesses are adoptingmore Agile project management strategies that tackle complex projects incrementally.Although there are compelling arguments for approaching complex projects in this way,many companies’ experiences with Agile have ranged from difficult to disastrous.With the generous support of Workfront, we have undertaken to learn more about thechallenges of transitioning to Agile by posing the following question to 20 top projectmanagement and Agile experts:What are some tips and secrets you can provide to projectleaders and teams making the transition to Agile or transitioningto a mix of Agile and Waterfall? Please share a personal story.This excellent collection of essays reveals traps some managers fall into that derailtheir attempts at transitioning from Waterfall to Agile. The experts also highlight keysto success, an important one being the need for good communication within andacross teams. One big take-away from these project management professionals is thatbecoming more Agile is a huge cultural transition that requires commitment at all levelswithin the business.I believe that the insights that these experts provide will be of great interest and valueto anyone trying to improve their project management processes.All the best,David RogelbergEditorMighty Guides make you stronger.These authoritative and diverse guidesprovide a full view of a topic. They helpyou explore, compare, and contrast avariety of viewpoints so that you candetermine what will work best for you.Reading a Mighty Guide is kind oflike having your own team of experts.Each heartfelt and sincere piece ofadvice in this guide sits right next tothe contributor’s name, biography, andlinks so that you can learn more abouttheir work. This background informationgives you the proper context for eachexpert’s independent perspective.Credible advice from top experts helpsyou make strong decisions. Strongdecisions make you mighty. 2014 Studio B Productions, Inc. I 62 Nassau Drive I Great Neck, NY 11021 I 516 360 2622 I www.studiob.comSponsored by:4
AGILE STATE OF MINDAre you wondering how to choose which project managementmethod to use when delivering a successful project?Organizations today have to be more competitive in themarketplace, so choosing the best practices and methods foryour organization and projects is important.KEY LESSONS1CHOOSE THE METHODOLOGY–AGILE, WATERFALL, ORHYBRID—FOR YOUR PROJECTBASED ON THE TYPE OFPROJECT AND ORGANIZATION.2SUCCESSFUL PROJECTSREQUIRE GREAT SPONSORS.Here are four criteria for choosing the best fit of methodologiesat the right time for the right customer:NAOMI CAIETTI,PMPProject Manager/Consultant,State of CaliforniaNaomi Caietti is founder, CEO,and managing editor of The GlassBreakers.net. She has been aconsultant, published author, andrecognized expert on personalgrowth and leadership developmentfor project, program, and portfoliomanagers for more than 10 years.With more than 27 years of publicand private IT project leadershipexpertise, Naomi is a credentialedPMP and speaker on topics suchas leadership, project management,and women in project management;one of the top influential PMPson Twitter; and featured SME onProjectManagement.com.bTwitter I Website I Blog Time-to-Market Projects. Agile adoption has replacedWaterfall in many organizations for the delivery of small butfrequent pieces of functionality for which requirements areexpected to evolve, change is embraced, and competition inthe marketplace is a key concern and critical to delivery ofthe latest technology. Status Quo. Waterfall is a better choice for organizationsthat are not flexible, have clearly defined requirements, frequent interactions with end usersand other stakeholders is a constraint, or when there is risk of key developers quitting theproject midway. Success Criteria. The success of a project defined by delivering business value will benefitfrom an Agile methodology. The success of a project measured by key performanceindicators of the IT organization would be better suited to a Waterfall methodology.Agile adoption has replaced Waterfall for the deliveryof small but frequent pieces of functionality for whichrequirements are expected to evolve and change isembraced.Sponsored by:5
AGILE STATE OF MINDNAOMI CAIETTI,PMPProject Manager/Consultant,State of CaliforniaNaomi Caietti is founder, CEO,and managing editor of The GlassBreakers.net. She has been aconsultant, published author, andrecognized expert on personalgrowth and leadership developmentfor project, program, and portfoliomanagers for more than 10 years.With more than 27 years of publicand private IT project leadershipexpertise, Naomi is a credentialedPMP and speaker on topics suchas leadership, project management,and women in project management;one of the top influential PMPson Twitter; and featured SME onProjectManagement.com. Organizational Project Portfolio. Organizations thathave a diverse portfolio must be risk adverse butinnovative, taking some risks to stay competitive.Choosing a hybrid approach to use a blend ofmethodologies facilitates the development of highperforming teams. Planning, requirements, and teamcommunication are areas in which organizations aredesigning custom best practices and methodologiesthat fit their culture.Here are three action items to help you get started:Make sure thatyour project teamcan adapt to thechange. Leadership Support. All projects need great sponsors;buy-in from the business for implementing IT standardsand methods; and support for product service delivery using a big bang approach tosmaller, iterative delivery cycles. Choose Your Methodology Wisely. Make sure that your project team can adapt to thechange, and lead using the right best-practices methodology or a hybrid approach. Focus on Team Member Selection. Resources on an Agile team can thrive by co-locatingin common areas, or resources can struggle because of intense and constant interactionsthat may create stressful team dynamics.Ultimately, a hybrid approach of traditional Waterfall and Agile practices may be your key tosuccess. A hybrid approach can help an organization leverage talent and deliver businessvalue early and often for your software development projects.bTwitter I Website I BlogSponsored by:6
AGILE ADOPTION FOR THE REST OF USAdopting Agile practices need not be an all-or-nothingproposition. Agile believes in delivering small, incrementalimprovements frequently. I propose that, just as we do withWaterfall practices and tools, we can pick, mix, and match theright Agile tool to solve our project management problems.Introducing new practices incrementally allows us to improveour project performance with less disruption and more success.MAX WALKERMBA, PMP, CSMMax Walker leads and coachessmall project teams in a less formalproject environment. He workson the assumption that he hashired the right people who cometo work to do the right thing, so ifsomething goes awry, it is probablybecause of the project structureor process. Refining the processor adopting a better processleaves room for the project team’screativity and passion to emerge.They usually know best!bWhen my team faced the problem of requirements that shiftedfrequently during the project, we realized that our stakeholderswere actually doing Agile—figuring out the right answers as theywent along. Instead of resisting those changes as in Waterfall,we needed to embrace them as in Agile. To do that, here aresome of the Agile principles and practices that we adopted.KEY LESSONS1ENGAGE IN UP-FRONTPLANNING THAT INCLUDES THEDEVELOPERS WHO WILL BUILDTHE SOLUTION.2MEET REGULARLY WITH THETEAM AND STAKEHOLDERS.First, we still do up-front planning. We found that our leadership teams do not tolerate theScrum approach of planning primarily at the sprint level. Luckily, the Project ManagementInstitute’s Agile-Certified Practitioner approach offers an up-front planning process that isin line with Agile principles. We set a directional road map, but we all acknowledge that itshould, must, and will change during the project. This road map has been well received in ourorganization.Just as we do with Waterfall practices and tools, wecan pick, mix, and match the right Agile tool to solveour project management problems.Twitter I BlogSponsored by:7
AGILE ADOPTION FOR THE REST OF USSecond, our developers participate in the up-frontplanning. In this way, the people doing the planning arethose who will build the solution. They hear requirements,clarify them, and offer alternatives and suggestions. OurWaterfall project manager scribes and asks for her ownclarifications. Requirements and estimates have beenmuch better with this approach.MAX WALKERMBA, PMP, CSMMax Walker leads and coachessmall project teams in a less formalproject environment. He workson the assumption that he hashired the right people who cometo work to do the right thing, so ifsomething goes awry, it is probablybecause of the project structureor process. Refining the processor adopting a better processleaves room for the project team’screativity and passion to emerge.They usually know best!Third, we meet regularly (usually weekly) with ourstakeholders. We discuss status, but we also demonstratenew deliverables, refine our understanding of the nexttasks we’ll work on, and ask for new input from thestakeholders. We get constant affirmation or correctionon product direction; stakeholders get the reassuranceof progress. There are certainly more refined approachesto doing this, but this process seems to fit the “bearingcapacity” for change in our team at the moment.Going Agileis not anall-or-nothingproposition.The goal isbetter projectperformance.Going Agile is not an all-or-nothing proposition. The goalis better project performance. Your route to “better” maybe different than ours, so mix and match the project management tools that will increase yoursuccess.bTwitter I BlogSponsored by:8
BUILD–MEASURE–LEARN: EMPLOYING AGILE WITH LEAN STARTUPIt’s no secret that a transition to Agile requires a deep senior executivesupport to be successful. A transition to a mix of Agile and Waterfallmethods is even more complex and requires an even deeper level ofexecutive support, understanding, and tolerance.How do you get there? How do you, as a project leader, helpcreate the culture and environment required for a successfultransition to Agile?HALA SALEHFounder, 27SprintsHala Saleh is founder of27Sprints, an Agile and productmanagement consulting firmthat uses Agile, Lean Startup,and data-driven approaches tobuild successful products andteams. Hala is passionate aboutbuilding great products andemploying empirical, data-driven,and systematic approachesto product development anddecision making. She is even morepassionate about the processof experimentation involved indeveloping products that enablecustomer success.bTwitter I Website I BlogLet’s be real: cultural change doesn’t happen overnight. Inreality, it can take months, even years to take hold, especially inlarger organizations. In the absence of a quick fix to the culturalchallenges that make an Agile transition challenging, I propose astrategy that borrows from a framework we’ve all heard of.KEY LESSONS1WHEN BUILDING A PROOF OFCONCEPT, BE CAREFUL NOT TOCHOOSE A PROJECT THAT IS SOSMALL THAT NO REAL VALUECAN BE DEMONSTRATED. YOUWANT YOUR CUSTOMER(SENIOR-LEVEL EXECUTIVES) TOCARE ABOUT THE SUCCESS OFYOUR PROJECT AND PAYATTENTION TO YOUR RESULTS.2BY TRACKING ANDANALYZING THESE METRICS,YOU’RE MORE LIKELY TOFOLLOW THROUGH WITHIMPROVEMENTS NEEDED TOMAKE YOUR NEXT ITERATIONOF IMPLEMENTING AN AGILEMETHOD MORESUCCESSFUL.Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the past decadehas at least heard of Lean Startup, a business and productdevelopment method proposed by Eric Ries. One of my hobbies isexperimenting with applying Lean Startup principles to other areasof my life, including work: What if you applied the Lean Startup method to your Agiletransition? What if you figured out a way to define the minimum implementation of Agile within yourorganization that will show real value to your stakeholders?A transition to a mix of Agile and Waterfall methods iseven more complex and requires an even deeper level ofexecutive support, understanding, and tolerance.Sponsored by:9
BUILD–MEASURE–LEARN: EMPLOYING AGILE WITH LEAN STARTUP What if you were able to run a small but impactfulimplementation of Agile with a team, measure the areas ofsuccess and failure, and then figure out how to improve andbe even more successful the next time around?HALA SALEHFounder, 27SprintsHala Saleh is founder of27Sprints, an Agile and productmanagement consulting firmthat uses Agile, Lean Startup,and data-driven approaches tobuild successful products andteams. Hala is passionate aboutbuilding great products andemploying empirical, data-driven,and systematic approachesto product development anddecision making. She is even morepassionate about the processof experimentation involved indeveloping products that enablecustomer success.bTwitter I Website I BlogTrack metricsthat not onlydemonstratesuccess buthighlight areasof improvement.Learning directly from the Lean Startup method, you canincrease the chances of an Agile implementation’s success byfocusing on a few key concepts: Minimum Viable Product. In this case, the product is theproject or initiative on which you choose to do a proof ofconcept with your Agile implementation. In this context, theconcept of minimum viable should guide you to select a projectthat is only large enough to show success. Tips include: Be careful not to choose a project that is so small that noreal value can be demonstrated. You want your customer(senior-level executives) to care about the success of yourproject and pay attention to your results. Be careful not to choose a project that is missioncritical, is mired in a lot of organizational politics, or has too many interdepartmental orinterteam dependencies. Build–Measure–Learn. The concept of build–measure–learn is the Lean Startup’s counterpartto Agile’s “inspect and adapt.” Agile frameworks encourage a continuous inspect and adaptmindset, and this comes in the form of continuous feedback cycles, retrospectives, andcontinuous collaboration. The Lean Startup’s build–measure–learn cycle provides a formalizedstructure for measuring an Agile implementation’s success. In addition to using tools such ascontinuous feedback and retrospectives, you can measure metrics that can be used to showthe success of this new method.Track metrics that not only demonstrate success but highlight areas of improvement. By trackingand analyzing these metrics, you’re more likely to follow through with improvements needed tomake your next iteration of implementing an Agile method more successful.Sponsored by:10
HIKING THE AGILE TRAILMake the Case for ChangeTRES ROEDERPresident, Roeder ConsultingTres Roeder, PMP, is arecognized global expert onproject management andorganizational change. He isthe author of two Amazon bestsellers, A Sixth Sense for ProjectManagement and ManagingProject Stakeholders. Tres hasbeen quoted by The New YorkTimes, The Wall Street Journal,MSN Money, and others. He holdsa bachelor of arts in economicsfrom the University of Illinoisand an MBA from the KelloggGraduate School of Managementat Northwestern University.Twitter I WebsitePeople want to know why change is necessary and howit affects them. Many different project managementmethodologies exist—Agile, Waterfall, Prince2—each withunique benefits and detractors. Show the organization why thenew methodology is best and how it will help them. Put the newmethodology into context to make the change less daunting.Explain that although the project methodology is changing,the approach to managing interpersonal project relationshipsencompassed in A Sixth Sense for Project Management isnot changing because it remains consistent across all projectmethodologies.Some
It’s why we created an Enterprise Work Management solution that allows both methodologies to work in harmony, without a lot of redundant, manual efort. Workfront ofers project leaders and stakeholders a complete view of work from both Agile and Waterfall—true visibility into all types of work and all methodologies.
Lessons in Estimating Agile vs. Waterfall Agile and Waterfall Jerry Richardson, PMP Sohail Thaker, PMP
1. The need for an agile way of working 6 2. The need for an agile way of working 9 3. Agile Core Values - Agile Project Management Vs. 10 Agile Event Management 4. Agile principles 12 _Agile Principles of Agile Project Management 13 _Agile Principles of VOK DAMS Agile Event Management 14 5. Agile Methods 16 _Scrum in Short 16 _Kanban in Short 18
An Agile Approach . . . Step 1: Paradigm shift: let’s suspend our knowledge of the differences between Agile and Waterfall .and take a new look at the “waterfall centric” project stage framework through an Agile lens Step 2: Adopt an Agile Project Stage Framework Step 3:
Waterfall vs. Agile Methodology P a g e 4 Now let's look at the agile software development method. Compared to the 'set-in-stone' approach of waterfall development models, the agile breed of models, focus on
1.1 Purpose of the Agile Extension to the BABOK Guide1 1.2 What is Agile Business Analysis?2 1.3 Structure6 Chapter 2:The Agile Mindset 2.1 What is an Agile Mindset?7 2.2 The Agile Mindset, Methodologies, and Frameworks8 2.3 Applying the Agile Mindset9 2.4 Agile Extension and the Agile Ma
Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn Agile Game Development with Scrum by Clinton Keith Agile Product Ownership by Roman Pichler Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber Agile Retrospectives by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams by Lisa Crispin and .
Agile World View "Agility" has manydimensions other than IT It ranges from leadership to technological agility Today's focus is on organizational & enterprise agility Agile Leaders Agile Organization Change Agile Acquisition & Contracting Agile Strategic Planning Agile Capability Analysis Agile Program Management Agile Tech.
experience revenue growth and profits increase after using an Agile approach. Standish Group Chaos Study reports that Agile success rate is 42% , as compared to Waterfall success rate of 26%. This means Agile is 1.5x more successful than Waterfall model. AGILE TRANSFORMATION
