When I first started in Project Management around 20 years ago, I was the team leader for a CRM system implementation within a national IFA firm for one of the largest such projects in the industry at the time. The new system existed, but we had the opportunity to build additional screens and fields using the ‘Rapid’ software methodology, literally working alongside the key developer to create the screen layouts in real time.
A few years later, I worked in a traditional ‘Waterfall’ environment as a Project Manager which involved working through the distinct Software Development phases of requirements, development, testing and user acceptance testing before deploying to live.
These days ‘Agile’ methodology in different variations (e.g. SAFe, DSDM) is increasingly used for software development. This is reflected in the Prince2 qualifications which includes a course combining the best of the traditional staging and Agile methodologies to breakdown large projects and help empower development teams.
Implementation of Agile as a software development methodology is no mean feat, it takes investment and ongoing support by Senior Management to implement at the start and then keep the Train moving once in place. A strong RTE and effective Scrum Masters are also essential for success and the market for these job roles has increased over the past couple of years. It is also a key change management piece for any firm and provides opportunities for people to explore new roles, for example, moving from traditional Business Analyst to Product development or from a Project Manager to Scrum Master.
Having all the Agile teams in one location definitely empowers creative thinking and builds the team environment and networking skills. In the space of 5 months, Mint Blue Consulting had facilitated the initial training sessions and delivery of the initial PI Planning sessions for one firm (please see the case study). The quarterly events were intensive but good fun and very rewarding. The Agile approach also enabled the business to scale the number of Agile teams to deliver and control the increased amount of software development.
Agile is great for pure software development projects or development workstreams within a wider project. Many projects are now ‘hybrids’ where software development is part of the wider project but traditional project management techniques are still required. As I always find, each project needs to be considered in it’s own right to establish the best methodology to use. Whatever the decision, the key is to ensure projects are delivered in the most cost-effective and dynamic way possible to meet the requirements of the business.