The Agile Software Development Series Cockburn Highsmith Series Editors - Creating Innovative Products Software Development/Agile Best practices for managing projects in agile environments-now updated with new techniques for larger projects. Today, the pace of project management moves faster. Project management needs to become more flexible and far more responsive to customers. Using Agile Project Management (APM), project managers can achieve all these goals without compromising value, quality, or business discipline. In Agile Project Management, Second Edition, renowned agile pioneer Jim Highsmith thoroughly updates his classic guide to APM, extending and refining it to support even the largest projects and organizations. Writing for project leaders, managers, and executives at all levels, Highsmith integrates the best project management, product management, and software development practices into an overall framework designed to support unprecedented speed and mobility. The many topics added in this new edition include incorporating agile values, scaling agile projects, release planning, portfolio governance, and enhancing organizational agility. Project and business leaders will especially appreciate Highsmith's new coverage of promoting agility through performance measurements based on value, quality, and constraints. This edition's coverage includes: Understanding the agile revolution's impact on product development · Recognizing when agile methods will work in project management, and when they won't · Setting realistic business objectives for Agile Project Management · Promoting agile values and principles across the organization · Utilizing a proven Agile Enterprise Framework that encompasses governance, project and iteration management, and technical practices · Optimizing all five stages of the agile project: Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close Organizational and product-related processes for scaling agile to the largest projects and teams · Agile project governance solutions for executives and management · The "Agile Triangle": measuring performance in ways that encourage agility instead of discouraging it · The changing role of the agile project leader. Jim Highsmith is a founding member of the AgileAlliance, co-author of the Agile Manifesto, and director of the Agile Project Management Advisory Service for the Cutter Consortium. He consults with development organizations throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Japan, India, and New Zealand on accelerating development in today's increasingly complex, uncertain environments. Highsmith is author of Adaptive Software Development, winner of the 2000 Jolt Award, and (with Alistair Cockburn) co-editor of The Agile Software Development Series. He has more than 25 years' experience as an IT manager, product manager, project manager, consultant, and software developer.
Jim Highsmith directs Cutter Consortium’s agile consulting practice. He has over 30 years experience as an IT manager, product manager, project manager, consultant, and software developer. Jim is the author of Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products, Addison Wesley 2004; Adaptive Software Development: A Collaborative Approach to Managing Complex Systems, Dorset House 2000 and winner of the prestigious Jolt Award, and Agile Software Development Ecosystems, Addison Wesley 2002. Jim is the recipient of the 2005 international Stevens Award for outstanding contributions to systems development.
He is also co-editor, with Alistair Cockburn, of the Agile Software Development Series of books from Addison Wesley. Jim is a coauthor of the Agile Manifesto, a founding member of The Agile Alliance, coauthor of the Declaration Interdependence for project leaders, and cofounder and first president of the Agile Project Leadership Network. A frequent speaker at conferences worldwide, Jim has published dozens of articles in major industry publications.
Jim has consulted with IT and product development organizations and software companies in the U.S., Europe, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Japan, India, and New Zealand to help them adapt to the accelerated pace of development in increasingly complex, uncertain environments. Jim’s areas of consulting include the areas of Agile Software Development, Project Management, and Collaboration. He has held technical and management positions with software, computer hardware, banking, and energy companies. Jim holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. in management.
Introduction 1
Conventions 2
The Agile Software Development Series 2
Chapter 1: The Agile Revolution 5
Agile Business Objectives 10
Continuous Innovation 10
Product Adaptability 10
Improved Time-to-Market 11
People and Process Adaptability 11
Reliable Results 12
Agility Defined 12
Agile Leadership Values 14
Agile Performance Measurement 19
The APM Framework 21
Performance Possibilities 22
Final Thoughts 25
Chapter 2: Value over Constraints 27
Continuous Flow of Customer Value 28
Innovation 30
Execution 32
Lean Thinking 33
Iterative, Feature-Based Delivery 34
Technical Excellence 37
Simplicity 40
Generative Rules 40
Barely Sufficient Methodology 42
Delivery versus Compliance 43
Final Thoughts 45
Chapter 3: Teams over Tasks 47
Leading Teams 47
Building Self-Organizing (Self-Disciplined) Teams 51
Get the Right People 52
Insist on Accountability 53
Foster Self-Discipline 54
Encourage Collaboration 55
Participatory Decision Making 56
Shared Space 58
Customer Collaboration 59
No More Self-Organizing Teams? 60
Final Thoughts 61
Chapter 4: Adapting over Conforming 63
The Science of Adaptation 65
Exploring 68
Responding to Change 70
Product, Process, People 71
Barriers or Opportunities 72
Reliable, Not Repeatable 73
Reflection and Retrospective 75
Principles to Practices 75
Final Thoughts 76
Chapter 5: An Agile Project Management Model 77
An Agile Enterprise Framework 78
Portfolio Governance Layer 78
Project Management Layer 79
Iteration Management Layer 80
Technical Practices Layer 80
An Agile Delivery Framework 80
Phase: Envision 83
Phase: Speculate 83
Phase: Explore 84
Phase: Adapt 84
Phase: Close 85
Not a Complete Product Lifecycle 85
Selecting and Integrating Practices 86
Judgment Required 87
Project Size 88
An Expanded Agile Delivery Framework 88
Final Thoughts 89
Chapter 6: The Envision Phase 91
A Releasable Product 93
Envisioning Practices 94
Product Vision 96
Product Architecture 101
Guiding Principles 104
Project Objectives and Constraints 105
Project Data Sheet 105
Tradeoff Matrix 108
Exploration Factor 109
Project Community 112
Participant Identification 115
Product Team—Development Team Interaction 118
Delivery Approach 122
Self-Organization Strategy 123
Process Framework Tailoring 124
Practice Selection and Tailoring 125
Final Thoughts 127
Chapter 7: The Speculate Phase 129
Speculating on Product and Project 130
Product Backlog 133
What Is a Feature, a Story? 134
The Focus of Stories 135
Story Cards 137
Creating a Backlog 140
Release Planning 142
Scope Evolution 144
Iteration 0 147
Iterations 1-N 148
First Feasible Deployment 152
Estimating 153
Other Card Types 155
Final Thoughts 156
Chapter 8: Advanced Release Planning 157
Release (Project) Planning 157
Wish-based Planning (Balancing Capacity and Demand) 159
Multi-Level Planning 161
A Complete Product Planning Structure 163
Capabilities 166
Capability Cases 167
Creating a Product Backlog and Roadmap 168
An Optimum Planning Structure 169
Value Point Analysis 171
Value Point Determination: Roles and Timing 173
Calculating Relative Value Points 174
Calculating Monetary Value Points 176
Non-Customer-Facing Stories 177
Value and Priority 177
Release Planning Topics 178
Planning Themes and Priorities 179
Increasing Productivity 181
Risk Analysis and Mitigation 182
Planning and Scanning 186
Timeboxed Sizing 188
Other Story Types 190
Work-in-Process versus Throughput 194
Emerging Practices 197
Kanban 197
Consolidated Development 198
Hyper-development and Release 200
Final Thoughts 201
Chapter 9: The Explore Phase 203
Agile Project Leadership 205
Iteration Planning and Monitoring 206
Iteration Planning 206
Workload Management 212
Monitoring Iteration Progress 213
Technical Practices 215
Technical Debt 216
Simple Design 218
Continuous Integration 220
Ruthless Automated Testing 222
Opportunistic Refactoring 223
Coaching and Team Development 225
Focusing the Team 227
Molding a Group of Individuals into a Team 228
Developing the Individual’s Capabilities 232
Moving Rocks, Hauling Water 233
Coaching the Customers 233
Orchestrating Team Rhythm 235
Participatory Decision Making 236
Decision Framing 238
Decision Making 240
Decision Retrospection 244
Leadership and Decision Making 245
Set- and Delay-Based Decision Making 246
Collaboration and Coordination 248
Daily Stand-Up Meetings 248
Daily Interaction with the Product Team 250
Stakeholder Coordination 251
Final Thoughts 251
Chapter 10: The Adapt and Close Phases 253
Adapt 254
Product, Project, and Team Review and Adaptive Action 256
Customer Focus Groups 256
Technical Reviews 259
Team Performance Evaluations 259
Project Status Reports 261
Adaptive Action 268
Close 268
Final Thoughts 270
Chapter 11: Scaling Agile Projects 271
The Scaling Challenge 272
Scaling Factors 273
Up and Out 275
Uncertainty and Complexity 276
An Agile Scaling Model 276
Building Large Agile Teams 278
Organizational Design 279
Collaboration/Coordination Design 281
Decision-Making Design 284
Knowledge Sharing and Documentation 287
Self-Organizing Teams of Teams 291
Team Self-Discipline 293
Process Discipline 294
Scaling Up–Agile Practices 294
Product Architecture 295
Roadmaps and Backlogs 296
Multi-level Release Plans 297
Maintaining Releasable Products 298
Inter-team Commitment Stories 299
Tools 302
Scaling Out–Distributed Projects 302
Final Thoughts 304
Chapter 12: Governing Agile Projects 307
Portfolio Governance 308
Investment and Risk 309
Executive-Level Information Requirements 311
Engineering-Level Information Generation 313
An Enterprise-Level Governance Model 316
Using the Agile Governance Model 320
Portfolio Management Topics 321
Designing an Agile Portfolio 321
Agile Methodology “Fit” 323
Final Thoughts 325
Chapter 13: Beyond Scope, Schedule, and Cost: Measuring Agile Performance 327
What Is Quality? 329
Planning and Measuring 333
Adaptive Performance–Outcomes and Outputs 335
Measurement Issues 336
Measurement Concepts 339
Beyond Budgeting 339
Measuring Performance in Organizations 342
Outcome Performance Metrics 346
Constraints 347
Community Responsibility 348
Improving Decision Making 349
Planning as a Guide 350
Output Performance Metrics 351
Five Core Metrics 351
Outcomes and Outputs 354
Shortening the Tail 355
Final Thoughts 357
Chapter 14: Reliable Innovation 359
The Changing Face of New Product Development 360
Agile People and Processes Deliver Agile Products 362
Reliable Innovation 364
The Value-Adding Project Leader 366
Final Thoughts 367
Bibliography 369
Index 379
TOC, 9780321658395, 6/18/09
Preface PrefaceWhen the Manifesto for Agile Software Development ( http://www.agilealliance.org ) was written in spring 2001, it launched a movementa movement that raced through the software development community; generated controversy and debate; connected with related movements in manufacturing, construction, and aerospace; and extended into project management.The impetus for this second edition of Agile Project Management comes from three sourcesthe maturing of the agile movement over the last five years, the trend to large agile projects, and the formation of a project management organization for agile leaders (the Agile Project Leadership Network).The essence of this agile movement, whether in new product development, new service offerings, software applications, or project management, rests on two foundational goals: delivering valuable products to customers and creating working environments in which people look forward to coming to work each day.Innovation continues to drive economic success for countries, industries, and individual companies. While the rates of innovation in information technology in the last decade might have declined from prodigious to merely lofty, innovation in areas such as biotechnology and nanotechnology are picking up any slack.New technologies such as combinatorial chemistry and sophisticated computer simulation are fundamentally altering the innovation process itself. When these technologies are applied, the cost of iteration can be driven down dramatically, enabling exploratory and experimental processes to be both more effective and less costly than serial, specification-based processes. This dynamic is at work in the automotive, integrated circuit, software, and pharmaceutical industries. It will soon be at work in your industry.But taking advantage of these new innovation technologies has proved tricky. When exploration processes replace prescriptive processes, people have to change. For the chemist who now manages the experimental compounding process rather than designing compounds himself, and the manager who has to deal with hundreds of experiments rather than a detailed, prescriptive plan, new project management processes are required. Even when these technologies and processes are lower cost and higher performance than their predecessors, the transformation often proves difficult.Project management needs to be transformed to move faster, be more flexible, and be aggressively customer responsive. Agile Project Management (APM) answers this transformational need. It brings together a set of principles and practices that enable project managers to catch up with the realities of modern product development.The target audience for this book is leaders, those hearty individuals who shepherd teams through the exciting but often messy process of turning visions into productsbe they software, cell phones, or medical instruments. Leaders arise at many levelsproject, team, executive, managementand APM addresses each of these, although the target audience continues to be project leaders. APM rejects the view of project leaders as functionaries who merely comply with the bureaucratic demands of schedules and budgets and replaces it with one in which they are intimately involved in helping teams deliver products.There are four broad
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