Flex your project management muscle Agile project management is a fast and flexible approach to managing all projects, not just software development. By learning the principles and techniques in this book, you'll be able to create a product roadmap, schedule projects, and prepare for product launches with the ease of Agile software developers. You'll discover how to manage scope, time, and cost, as well as team dynamics, quality, and risk of every project. As mobile and web technologies continue to evolve rapidly, there is added pressure to develop and implement software projects in weeks instead of months—and Agile Project Management For Dummies can help you do just that. Providing a simple, step-by-step guide to Agile project management approaches, tools, and techniques, it shows product and project managers how to complete and implement projects more quickly than ever. Complete projects in weeks instead of months Reduce risk and leverage core benefits for projects Turn Agile theory into practice for all industries Effectively create an Agile environment Get ready to grasp and apply Agile principles for faster, more accurate development.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 1 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 2 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Understanding Agile 5 Chapter 1: Modernizing Project Management 7 Project Management Needed a Makeover 7 The origins of modern project management 8 The problem with the status quo 10 Introducing Agile Project Management 11 How agile projects work 13 Why agile projects work better 14 Chapter 2: Applying the Agile Manifesto and Principles 17 Understanding the Agile Manifesto 17 Outlining the Four Values of the Agile Manifesto 20 Value 1: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 20 Value 2: Working software over comprehensive documentation 22 Value 3: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 24 Value 4: Responding to change over following a plan 25 Defining the 12 Agile Principles 26 Agile principles of customer satisfaction 27 Agile principles of quality 30 Agile principles of teamwork 31 Agile principles of project management 33 Adding the Platinum Principles 37 Resisting formality 37 Thinking and acting as a team 38 Visualizing rather than writing 38 Changes as a Result of Agile Values 41 The Agile Litmus Test 41 Chapter 3: Why Being Agile Works Better 43 Evaluating Agile Benefits 43 How Agile Approaches Beat Historical Approaches 48 Greater flexibility and stability 49 Reduced nonproductive tasks 51 Higher quality, delivered faster 53 Improved team performance 54 Tighter project control 56 Faster and less costly failure 57 Why People Like Being Agile 57 Executives 58 Product development and customers 59 Management 60 Development teams 61 Part 2: Being Agile 63 Chapter 4: Agile Approaches 65 Diving under the Umbrella of Agile Approaches 65 Reviewing the Big Three: Lean, Scrum, and Extreme Programming 69 An overview of lean 69 An overview of scrum 73 An overview of extreme programming 76 Putting It All Together 80 Chapter 5: Agile Environments in Action 81 Creating the Physical Environment 82 Collocating the team 82 Setting up a dedicated area 83 Removing distractions 84 Going mobile 85 Low-Tech Communicating 86 High-Tech Communicating 88 Choosing Tools 90 The purpose of the tool 90 Organizational and compatibility constraints 90 Chapter 6: Agile Behaviors in Action 93 Establishing Agile Roles 93 Product owner 94 Development team member 97 Scrum master 98 Stakeholders 100 Agile mentor 102 Establishing New Values 102 Commitment 103 Courage 103 Focus 104 Openness 105 Respect 106 Changing Team Philosophy 107 Dedicated team 107 Cross-functionality 108 Self-organization 110 Self-management 111 Size-limited teams 112 Ownership 113 Part 3: Agile Planning and Execution 115 Chapter 7: Defining the Product Vision and Product Roadmap 117 Agile Planning 118 Progressive elaboration 120 Inspect and adapt 120 Defining the Product Vision 121 Step 1: Developing the product objective 122 Step 2: Creating a draft vision statement 123 Step 3: Validating and revising the vision statement 125 Step 4: Finalizing the vision statement 126 Creating a Product Roadmap 126 Step 1: Identifying stakeholders 127 Step 2: Establishing product requirements 128 Step 3: Arranging product features 130 Step 4: Estimating efforts and ordering requirements 131 Step 5: Determining high-level time frames 135 Saving your work 135 Completing the Product Backlog 135 Chapter 8: Planning Releases and Sprints 139 Refining Requirements and Estimates 139 What is a user story? 140 Steps to create a user story 142 Breaking down requirements 146 Estimation poker 148 Affinity estimating 150 Release Planning 152 Sprint Planning 155 The sprint backlog 156 The sprint planning meeting 157 Chapter 9: Working throughout the Day 163 Planning Your Day: The Daily Scrum 163 Tracking Progress 166 The sprint backlog 166 The task board 170 Agile Roles in the Sprint 172 Creating Shippable Functionality 174 Elaborating 174 Developing 175 Verifying 176 Identifying roadblocks 178 The End of the Day 179 Chapter 10: Showcasing Work, Inspecting, and Adapting 181 The Sprint Review 181 Preparing to demonstrate 182 The sprint review meeting 183 Collecting feedback in the sprint review meeting 186 The Sprint Retrospective 187 Planning for sprint retrospectives 189 The sprint retrospective meeting 189 Inspecting and adapting 191 Chapter 11: Preparing for Release 193 Preparing the Product for Deployment: The Release Sprint 193 Preparing for Operational Support 197 Preparing the Organization for Product Deployment 199 Preparing the Marketplace for Product Deployment 200 Part 4: Agile Management 203 Chapter 12: Managing Scope and Procurement 205 What’s Different about Agile Scope Management? 206 Managing Agile Scope 208 Understanding scope throughout the project 208 Introducing scope changes 211 Managing scope changes 211 Using agile artifacts for scope management 213 What’s Different about Agile Procurement? 214 Managing Agile Procurement 216 Determining need and selecting a vendor 216 Understanding cost approaches and contracts for services 218 Organizational considerations for procurement 221 Working with a vendor 223 Closing a contract 224 Chapter 13: Managing Time and Cost 225 What’s Different about Agile Time Management? 225 Managing Agile Schedules 227 Introducing velocity 228 Monitoring and adjusting velocity 229 Managing scope changes from a time perspective 234 Managing time by using multiple teams 235 Using agile artifacts for time management 236 What’s Different about Agile Cost Management? 237 Managing Agile Budgets 238 Creating an initial budget 239 Creating a self-funding project 240 Using velocity to determine long-range costs 242 Using agile artifacts for cost management 244 Chapter 14: Managing Team Dynamics and Communication 245 What’s Different about Agile Team Dynamics? 245 Managing Agile Team Dynamics 247 Becoming self-managing and self-organizing 248 Supporting the team: The servant-leader 252 Working with a dedicated team 254 Working with a cross-functional team 255 Reinforcing openness 257 Limiting development team size 258 Managing projects with dislocated teams 259 What’s Different about Agile Communication? 262 Managing Agile Communication 263 Understanding agile communication methods 263 Status and progress reporting 266 Chapter 15: Managing Quality and Risk 269 What’s Different about Agile Quality? 269 Managing Agile Quality 272 Quality and the sprint 273 Proactive quality 275 Quality through regular inspecting and adapting 280 Automated testing 281 What’s Different about Agile Risk Management? 283 Managing Agile Risk 286 Reducing risk inherently 286 Identifying, prioritizing, and responding to risks early 291 Part 5: Ensuring Agile Success 295 Chapter 16: Building a Foundation 297 Organizational and Individual Commitment 297 Organizational commitment 298 Individual commitment 299 Getting commitment 299 Can you make the transition? 300 Timing the transition 302 Choosing the Right Pilot Team Members 302 The agile champion 302 The agile transition team 303 The product owner 304 The development team 305 The scrum master 305 The project stakeholders 306 The agile mentor 307 Creating an Environment That Enables Agility 307 Support Agility Initially and Over Time 310 Chapter 17: Scaling across Agile Teams 311 Multi-Team Agile Projects 312 Making Work Digestible through Vertical Slicing 314 Scrum of scrums 315 Aligning through Roles with Scrum at Scale 318 Scaling the scrum master 319 Scaling the product owner 320 Synchronizing in one hour a day 322 Multi-Team Coordination with LeSS 323 LeSS, the smaller framework 323 LeSS Huge framework 324 Sprint review bazaar 325 Observers at the daily scrum 326 Component communities and mentors 326 Multi-team meetings 327 Travelers 327 Reducing Dependencies with Nexus 327 Nexus role — Nexus integration team 328 Nexus artifacts 330 Nexus events 330 Joint Program Planning with SAFe 332 Understanding the four SAFe levels 333 Joint program increment planning 336 Clarity for managers 337 Modular Structures with Enterprise Scrum 337 ES scrum elements generalizations 337 ES key activities 338 Chapter 18: Being a Change Agent 343 Becoming Agile Requires Change 343 Why Change Doesn’t Happen on Its Own 344 Strategic Approaches to Implementing and Managing Change 345 Lewin 345 ADKAR’s five steps to change 346 Kotter’s eight steps for leading change 348 Platinum Edge’s Change Roadmap 349 Step 1: Conduct an implementation strategy with success metrics 349 Step 2: Build awareness and excitement 352 Step 3: Form a transformation team and identify a pilot project 353 Step 4: Build an environment for success 355 Step 5: Train sufficiently and recruit as needed 355 Step 6: Kick off the pilot with active coaching 356 Step 7: Execute the Roadmap to Value 357 Step 8: Gather feedback and improve 357 Step 9: Mature and solidify improvements 358 Step 10: Progressively expand within the organization 359 Avoiding Pitfalls 360 Signs Your Changes Are Slipping 363 Part 6: The Part of Tens 367 Chapter 19: Ten Key Benefits of Agile Project Management 369 Better Product Quality 369 Higher Customer Satisfaction 370 Reduced Risk 371 Increased Collaboration and Ownership 371 More Relevant Metrics 372 Improved Performance Visibility 373 Increased Project Control 374 Improved Project Predictability 374 Customized Team Structures 375 Higher Team Morale 376 Chapter 20: Ten Key Factors for Project Success 377 Dedicated Team Members 377 Collocation 378 Automated Testing 378 Enforced Definition of Done 378 Clear Product Vision and Roadmap 379 Product Owner Empowerment 380 Developer Versatility 380 Scrum Master Clout 380 Management Support for Learning 381 Transition Support 381 Chapter 21: Ten Metrics for Agile Organizations 383 Return on Investment 383 New requests in ROI budgets 386 Capital redeployment 386 Satisfaction Surveys 387 Defects in Production 388 Sprint Goal Success Rates 389 Time to Market 389 Lead and Cycle Times 390 Cost of Change 391 Team Member Turnover 391 Skill Versatility 392 Manager-to-Creator Ratio 392 Chapter 22: Ten Valuable Resources for Agile Professionals 395 Agile Project Management For Dummies Online Cheat Sheet 395 Scrum For Dummies 396 The Scrum Alliance 396 The Agile Alliance 396 The Project Management Institute Agile Community 397 International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) 397 InfoQ 397 Lean Enterprise Institute 398 Extreme Programming 398 Platinum Edge 398 Index 401