A Hammerhead Shark versus James Bond in Speedos
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I’ve often found that most of the questioning about the worth of agile tends to come from the Project Management community. That’s not a criticism on PM’s but an acknowledgement that for them it’s probably more difficult to see how this agile concept can work.
Traditionally PM’s have tended to need their eyes pointing in different directions – one on the day to day development activities of the team, the detailed planning and daily progress, and one on the bigger picture, the long term roadmap and strategic planning side of a project. And, unless you’re a Hammerhead Shark – this is always going to be a tricky feat.
The trouble with agile, or more accurately, the trouble with some people’s interpretation of agile, is that it can be seen as an excuse to just focus on the tactical side of planning which leaves PM’s wondering what happens to all the stuff their other eye is usually pointing at.
So does being agile really mean ignoring the high level strategic side of managing and planning a project? Will the scent of burning Prince2 manuals soon pervade?
Fortunately this is not what agile means at all – in fact Scrum, which we all know and love, is pretty keen to remind us that we should still do release planning, risk management, and all those important things, it just doesn’t presume to tell us how to do them (in much the same way as it doesn’t tell us how to breathe, eat, sleep or do any other number of bodily functions we should still be doing whilst we’re Scrumming). What we are left to figure out for ourselves, as fully capable agile dudes, is how to ensure that we can stay agile for the long haul, which means having a sustainable and scalable approach to agility.
So how does that work? Is it really possible to add the governance, compliance, risk management and high level planning elements of managing a project to an agile approach without losing the agility? (Let’s hope so, for agile’s sake, because it is clearly and undeniably necessary).
Well, yes, of course, it is possible – otherwise agile just wouldn’t work. But it has to be done in a certain way. Let’s face it – you wouldn’t send James Bond out in full suit of armour, a wetsuit, padded ski suit and a parachute every time he went on a mission. Not only would it be a tad cumbersome, it would also be unnecessary (given that sometimes he gets away with just a small pair of Speedos). What you would do is give him exactly the right amount of kit required for a given situation. The same applies to agile. What’s needed is exactly the right amount of governance, planning and compliance for a given project – no more, no less.
So hang on – what have we got so far? James Bond in Speedos and a hammerhead shark. Which one is the PM? Well in a way it’s both, and neither. Confused? Good. Me too.
And I guess that is the point. A PM’s job is not easy and while they would love to be 007 in speedos (figuratively) – agile, unencumbered, able to work quickly and focus on getting the job done, they still need that hammerhead with one eye on all the ‘other stuff’.
I don’t think we can ever get rid of all that ‘other stuff’. It’s necessary and important. But we can minimise it so that only the right amount of ‘other stuff’ is put in place and we do what NEEDS TO BE DONE, building up from a minimal set (should I mention speedos again?) rather than starting out with everything, including the wetsuit and the parachute. This then, in essence, is the key to disciplined agile.
The PM still needs and will always need to be able to look at both the strategic and tactical side of a project, but with this approach maybe they need be less of a hammerhead. With agile self-organising teams the tactical planning side of a project is very much a team effort and, along with release and sprint burn-downs, daily stand-ups and sprint retrospectives, the tactical management is much less of an overhead.
So maybe, now, a normal shaped head will do, with just two eyes and some kind of innovative mechanism that will turn that head, allowing the PM to focus on the strategic but throw a glance towards the tactical when necessary.
Or maybe I’m just sticking my neck out.
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