Agile Project Management
Introducing Agile Project Management
Agile Project Management is the result of collaboration between APMG-International and The DSDM Consortium.
DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method) is the longest-established Agile method, launched in 1995, and is the only Agile method to focus on the management of Agile projects. The method has evolved over the years and DSDM Atern is the latest version. DSDM has always operated predominantly in the corporate environment and has consistently demonstrated its ability to successfully work with and complement existing corporate processes.
Until fairly recently, Agile was still viewed by some as “bleeding edge” or “inherently risky”, whereas the reality is that over many years of successful implementation Agile has become mainstream, and the drive to “go Agile” has been fuelled by the need to deliver timely and cost-effective projects, whilst at the same time embracing change and offering flexibility.
Agile Project Management is a new initiative that extracts the Project Management elements of DSDM Atern and makes them available as Agile Project Management – a certified approach in its own right. This enables experienced Project Managers to adopt a mature, scalable corporate-strength Agile approach within their organizations.
On a traditional project, the Project Manager may be actively involved in directing work and telling the team what needs to be done – a style often referred to as Command and Control. Agile PM follows a different style. In the early stages, the Agile PM creates a high-level plan, based on outline requirements and a high-level view of the solution to be created. From that point onwards the end project is created iteratively and incrementally, with each increment building on the output of increments preceding it. Unlike a traditional project, the detailed plans for each step are created by the team members themselves and not the Project Manager.
Within each stage of the project, the team works in an iterative and incremental style in close collaboration with a representative of the business/customer in order to understand the detail of the next step and to create and validate an evolving solution.
Agile Project Management comprises established and proven components that provide a holistic approach to the management and governance of projects. It has an overarching philosophy and guiding principles, together with a lifecycle (or process) and a set of deliverables to be created and maintained as the project progresses from a controlled start through to completion. It provides clearly defined roles with specific responsibilities designed to bring together all stakeholders involved in the project.
About the DSDM Consortium
The DSDM Consortium was founded in 1994 as a not-for-profit membership organization operating on a collegiate model. It was formed in response to a widely recognized need for an approach to software development that was both quicker than traditional (‘waterfall’) methods and also allowed for the development of scalable, maintainable applications that met current and changing business requirements. The DSDM approach was developed by capturing the experiences of a broad consortium of organizations; large corporate IT departments, business users, consultants, and vendors. These organizations recognized the need to build applications (responsive to change) quickly, and that to do so required business commitment and new techniques based on a documented repeatable lifecycle and iterative development.
DSDM v1 was published in February 1995 and the approach has constantly evolved to address the needs of business-driven development culture.
A radical review of the framework culminated in the launch of DSDM Atern in April 2007. Atern retains the fundamental focus on the delivery of early business benefits from IT projects and programs and has been enhanced to provide improved support for projects including those with no technology element at all. The framework is free to view at www.dsdm.org
Alongside the DSDM Atern framework, the Consortium publishes white papers and other supporting material and delivers public Seminars, Conferences and Training.
For more information about DSDM Atern and the Consortium please visit www.dsdm.org or call +44 (0)1233 611162.
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