In a current project it is interesting to hear the comments people make to defend their current practices. I have been involved in running out a project framework. The aim of which was to put some strucutre to the way people work to delivery the project.
Common statements I hear are, "This won't work with our business", "we are different to normal business", "This won't work with large project", "This won't work with small project" and the best to date is "We do adgile methodology".
Like always it was'nt until I thought more about it I was able to come back with a statement to squaure things off. But unfortunately 2 days had past and the meeting had well and truley finished.
Over the last 10-15 years I have come across many different way to manage projects. PMBOK and Prince2 just to name two. As a former software developer and software develpment manager Agile is a Methodology that I was aware of, but it is as far as I am aware a Software Development methodology based around iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboratiion between self-organising corss functional teams. The Agile approach generally promotes a project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosopy that encourages teamwork, self-organsiation and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software and a business approach that aligns development with custoemr needs and company goals.
This is all great if you can hit those goals, the trouble is Adgile in this situation was being used as a defence. Don't get me wrong I have used Scrum and xpress in the past and when all things are going your way it works well. But in many situations I have rarely found anyone who is a true exponent of the process and it being used more as a defence so they don't have to move out of their comfort zone.
As far as I am concerned a project framework is a checks and balance to see that what has been requested has been delivered. It is designed for the business user and to start to move IT to a better alignment to business.
A project consist of a number of items:
1. We have a problem that requires a possible technology solutions
2. We have some inputs
3. We have some business rules to apply to those inputs
4. We need some outputs
The framework is designed to define, measure and check for delivery. The meeting the other day just showed more of what it is that IT is missing. Business Drives Business and IT provides the technology to give a return either as improvement in process or Return On Investment anything else is a waste of money and time. IT the clock is ticking and we need to rethink how we engage with buisness.
