Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products(Agile Software Development Series)

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        

Table of Contents:
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  

About the Author :
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.