Project Management

Introduction

Definitions of “Project Failure”

Over budget
Over time
Doesn’t work

Effective project management minimises the risk of failure
by addressing the primary causes of those failures.

Reasons why projects fail

Bad Planning
Bad Communication
Scope Creep

Through project management processes we can work
on minimising interference from these factors.

Assembly Lines

Assembly Line

Traditionally, products have been created in a linear fashion,
with each phase being completed before the next begins.

This project management style is known as “Waterfall”.

In 1970, Dr. Winston Royce presented a paper entitled “Managing the Development of Large Software Systems,” which criticized sequential development. He asserted that software should not be developed like an automobile on an assembly line, in which each piece is added in sequential phases.

In such sequential phases, every phase of the project must be completed before the next phase can begin. Dr. Royce recommended against the phase based approach in which developers first gather all of a project’s requirements, then complete all of its architecture and design, then write all of the code, and so on.

Royce specifically objected to this approach due to the lack of communication between the specialized groups that complete each phase of work.

Credit: agilemthodology.org

Image Credit: SpunkySix on Deviantart

The “Waterfall” Approach

The Waterfall Development Process

The downside of Waterfall is that there is very little room
to adapt to changing circumstances or requirements.

The “Agile” Approach

The Agile Development Process

The team repeats a shorter cycle of plan, build, test
until the customer is happy with the product.

Agile Development

Henrik Kniberg's MVP

In Agile we only make a little bit of progress at a time, and show the customer our progress regularly. This process requires thoughtfulness and planning, as demonstrated in this comic!

The top row illustrates a common misconception about iterative, incremental product development. With each delivery the product gets closer to done, but the customer is still angry because he can’t actually use the product. It’s still just a partial car.

In the second row, we focus on the underlying need the customer wants fulfilled. Turns out that his underlying need is “I need to get from A to B faster”, and a car is just one possible solution to that. At each step the customer doesn’t yet have what they want, but in the meantime they are actually using this product, and giving us feedback.

Our goal is to have a testable product at each step. Even if the product isn’t great, it should solve the problem to some degree and allow for the customer to provide feedback to guide future development.

Credit Henrik Kniberg: Read full blog post

Agile is a movement

in which people work to uphold the values
and principles defined in the Agile Manifesto.

Being “Agile” means being customer-focused, adapting to change,
delivering iterative improvement and valuing communication.

Scrum is a methodology

which can help us be Agile

The Scrum Cycle

Scrum defines the process we use to develop our project,
through cycles of planning, implementation and testing.

What we covered

Waterfall
Is the traditional linear approach to project delivery.
Agile
Is a movement which is an alternative to Waterfall.
Scrum
Is a methodology which provides processes we can use to be Agile.