Webinar on PRINCE2 + Agile - by Ashish Dhoke (projectingIT)

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello,Welcome to this APMG International webinar on Integrating PRINCE2 and Agile project management
• #3: In this webinar, we will discuss about APMG international, presenter and the topic of the webinar i.e. “Integrating Management and Delivery using PRINCE2 + Agile”You can ask or send your questions to us about the topic at the end of the presentation.
• #4: APMG international is a global examination and accreditation institute.APMG is the official accreditation body for cabinet office, formally Office of Government CommerceAPMG accredits Authorised training organisation and Authorised consulting organisationsWith head quarter in UK, APMG has offices in about 9 countriesOver 15,000 examinations are sat every monthYou can see more information on APMG at www.apmg-international.com
• #5: About me – Hello, I am Ashish Dhoke. I come from IT side with about 15 years of experience. I do trainings and consulting in PRINCE2 and Agile project management. I have used both in managing and delivering IT solutions to my customers.
• #6: PurposeThis presentation brings Agile to the PRINCE2 community. It shows how an agile approach embeds well within the current PRINCE2 philosophy to deliver greater value to the customers.There is a growing interest in agile movement. What originally started with the IT sector is now widely acknowledged and many organizations are now employing agile practices. This presentation discusses how an organization can achieve agile capability by combining the PRINCE2 project management method and APMG’s Agile project management framework.
• #7: In this presentation, we will discuss the structure of PRINCE2 and Agile, their respective strengths and than further talk about the rationale for combining PRINCE2 with Agile.We will briefly discuss how we can bring best of both together.Finally, we will look at the APMG qualifications on agile project management.
• #8: So let’s quickly look at the who’s who in this discussion.Prince2 is a widely used project management method to deliver projects. The guidance on what is required to run projects of any size and in any environment is described in the manual. Agile project management handbook represents the core guidance for managing agile projects, based on DSDM Atern. The handbook focuses on the management and delivery of agile projects, specifically from an Agile project manager’s point of view.Whilst we are familiar with the prince2 source...let’s see who is behind the Agile project management handbook.
• #9: Atern is a framework based on best practices and lessons learnt. It provides a flexible yet controlled process that can be used to deliver solutions, combining effective use of people’s knowledge together with techniques such as iterative development and modelling to achieve tight project delivery timescales.DSDM Atern is free to view, free to use for end users. The full method can be found at www.dsdm.org.APMG have collaborated with DSDM consortium in developing this handbook and producing the supporting training courses and qualification. This book is a definitive source for the agile project manager foundation and practitioner exams. The book covers the basics of agile, guiding principles, life cycle processes, products and people along with a set of best practice techniques to enable product delivery.
• #10: In this presentation, we will discuss the structure of PRINCE2 and Agile, their respective strengths and than further talk about the rationale for combining PRINCE2 with Agile.We will briefly discuss how we can bring best of both together.Finally, we will look at the APMG qualifications on agile project management.
• #11: A quick tour of what is covered in the prince2 manual. prince2 is a structured method owned by the cabinet office. The method consists of - principles - the set of good practices that must be consistently applied on every projectthemes – covers guidance, knowledge about a specific project management area such business case, riskprocesses - are set of activities and outputs and provide a chronological sequence of eventsroles - roles and responsibilities required on every project that must be assigned to someonetailoring – guidelines for customizing prince2 to suit the project needs
• #12: Prince2 is principles based. Principles are set of good practices that must be applied to every project...small or large, simple or complex, internal or external. There are seven prince2 principles.Every project must have a justifiable reason to start it and the justification should remain valid throughout the life of the project. If for whatever reason, the project can no longer be justified, the project should be stopped. Prince2 provides business case to document justification and benefits review plan to confirm project benefits.Prince2 identifies three primary interests in projects. Business, users and suppliers and represent them effectively on the project management team. The team structure provides answer to the question, “what is expected of me?”The projects are planned, delegated, monitored and controlled on a stage by stage basis. At the end of each stage, projects are assessed, business case and plans are reviewed to ensure that the project remains viable and decision is made whether to proceed.Manage by exception provides for very efficient use of senior management time and only refer to them when a decision is required due to a forecast exceed in tolerance.The product focus supports almost every aspect of prince2: planning, reporting, quality, scope, change control...The method is tailored to suit the project’s environment, size, complexity, importance, capability and risk. Prince2 support implementation of these principles by providing set of processes, themes, roles and templates. The strength of prince2 lies in the project governance and project management.
• #13: Directing – The project board sets direction and makes key decisions throughout the life of project. The project board activities are covered by Directing a project process.Managing – The project manager is responsible for day-to-day management of project. The activities for managing projects such as planning, delegating, monitoring, controlling, reviewing are described in the starting up a project, initiating a project, controlling a stage, managing a stage boundary and closing a project process.Delivering – The specialist teams deliver the project’s products. The activities of the team manager are covered in the managing product deliveryPrince2 is a process based approach for project management. Each process is a set of activities that takes an input and turns it into an output. There are seven processes to direct, manage and deliver a project successfully.At each control point the project board using the directing a project process reviews the project and authorizes the project to proceed.
• #14: During the execution of a stage, the managing and delivering levels work together to deliver the stage. The project manager’s work for managing and controlling a stage is described in the controlling a stage process. The team manager’s work for accepting the work and delivering the work back to the project manager is described in the managing product delivery process.Managing product delivery controls the link between project management and delivery management. Project manager uses work package to delegate work to the team manager. The work package serves as a contract or terms of reference between the project manager and the team manager.Managing product delivery covers the work done by the external suppliers who may not be using prince2. The use of work packages enables prince2 to allow work at the delivery level of the project to become self contained, empowered and self-organising. Prince2 describes the interface between project management and delivery management. The manuals covers how to assign work to the team, what plans and reports should be produced by the team manager, escalation and obtaining approvals for completed products.The strengths of prince2 lie in its structures for project governance and project management. However it does not provide any structures or guidance at all for delivering products. prince2 does not cover the various roles, products, processes and interaction the team will have within themselves to create the solution. This is deliberately not included in the manual as prince2 is a generic method for managing projects and approach for the development of solution is left to the users.If your organization already has sound governance structure in place and wants to adopt agile approach for delivery than APMG agile project management can be used to understand what is required to deliver the solution. The DSDM / APMG agile framework is designed to work alongside prince2.
• #18: On Traditional Projects – Functionality is fixed early on in spec. PM manages Resources and Time to deliver agreed Features i.e.. The full solutionDSDM Atern project – Timeframe absolutely fixed by the end of Foundations, once “enough” analysis and design has been done to give a reasonable level of confidence in what is needed. Requirements must be variable – Example : Newspaper – if news story arises – they don’t delay printing and delivery of the paper – they drop a lower priority story. Sometimes a critical new item is included early as a News Flash (with details in next edition).
• #19: Traditional projects are planned in predictive way. Progress is measured by completion of work such as requirements signed off, design signed off. Stages are often organized by particular type of work like analysis, design. Project manager uses a command and control style to direct teams. Some of the issues due to this are, business benefits may be delayed, since the solution is seen very late in the process the solution may not be what was actually required resulting into last minute changes that affects timelines and quality.Prince2 supports manage by stages to overcome these challenges. However the specifics of how works, what techniques to use to make it work are not included in the manual.
• #21: The atern framework details a set of eight working principles. These guide practitioners in the adoption of the philosophy. They are supported by a project life cycle (process) with defined products, roles and responsibilities (people) and recommended techniques (practices). If a team doesn’t follow all the principles they don’t get the full benefit.
• #23: Atern focuses on understanding the true business priorities and guarantee the minimum usable subset.Atern supports this principles by engaging business through business visionary and ambassador roles and offering techniques such as Timeboxing and MoSCoW prioritization
• #24: When market opportunities are involved, timing is the single most success factorTimeboxing and prioritization enables timely deliveries
• #25: Business is actively involved and represented by business visionary, business ambassador and business advisor roles.Facilitated workshops enables collaborate effectively and build a one team culture
• #26: A solution has to be good enough. To fulfil this principle, Atern will set the level fo quality at the outset. Build in quality by constant review. Test early and continuously. Test driven techniques result in a test being written before the deliverable is actually produced.
• #27: The Enough design upfront approach is used to understand the problem and build the solution incrementally. Atern life cycle involves feasibility and foundation phases to develop incrementally.
• #28: Atern uses iteration and constant review to make sure that what is being developed is what the business really needs.The concept of iteration is embedded throughout Atern’s lifecycle down to the lowest level of timeboxing.
• #29: Atern emphasizes the value of human interaction through stand-ups, facilitated workshops, clearly defined roles and user involvement. Modelling and prototyping make early instances of the solution available for scrutiny.
• #30: The use of well defined timeboxes, with constant review points and the preparation of the management foundations and Timebox plans are designed to assist the project manager and the atern team to follow this principle.The eight principles of atern help direct and shape the attitude and mindset of an atern team
• #31: Aternlifecyle is both iterative and incremental. The solution is delivered in a series of increments. The urgent business needs can be addressed early while less important features are delivered later. The iterative nature of atern enables business representatives to see work under construction, comment on it and request changes during the development of an increment of the solution. The products are created and evolve through to project completion.Atern integrates project management lifecycle and a product development lifecycle into a single framework. Although prince2 does not prevent projects from delivering in an iterative way it does not offer guidance on how to implement it. Integrating Atern lifecycle into prince2 allows this to happen.Working iteratively and delivering incrementally can easily be plugged into prince2 at the stage plan level and at the work package level i.e. the team plans
• #32: Atern roles goes lower down the project management team in prince2. The atern provides several customer and supplier roles which operate at the project delivery level.12 roles are defined within atern and each one has a set of responsibilities. These covers the governance and management roles, delivery roles and other supporting roles.Orange roles are taken by business, blue roles are Atern project management and green one’s for solution development.The business visionary and technical coordinator acts as project assurance. At the work package level there may be teams working in an agile way and some in the traditional way.
• #33: Atern provides set of practices, techniques that enables a timely delivery of a fit for purpose product. These are:Facilitated workshops enables team to communicate and collaborate effectively. Atern describes the workshop roles and activities and how to conduct one. They can be used for capturing requirements, preparing plans and throughout the lifecycle. MoSCoW means Must have, should have, could have and won’t have this time. This technique is used to prioritize requirements, defects, testing, user stories, tasks etc. Atern provides guidance on how to use this technique during solution development.Iterative development is one of atern’s key practices. The cycles of identify, plan, evolve and review enables the growing understanding of the requirement and solution.Atern advocates the use of Modelling and prototyping to improve communication and visibility of developing productsTimeboxing is a key technique in Atern. By managing on time delivery at the lowest level, on time delivery a the higher levels can be assured. MoSCoW prioritisation and continual re-assessment helps in finishing on time. Atern provides the mechanism of using timeboxing. Prince2 does offer manage by stages and tolerances that supports this. However the Atern practices can help to implement it at the delivery level.Atern offers many other practices such as Project Approach questionnaire, Testing, Prioritized requirements, Measurements amongst others that supports a better approach for solution development.
• #35: So in the integrated model....prince2 takes care of governance, direction and overall management and control of project and lets agile to take care of the delivery of solution