The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach

The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach

by Charles G. Cobb
Released January 2015
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118991046

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Book description

Streamline project workflow with expert agile implementation

The Project Management Profession is beginning to go through rapid and profound transformation due to the widespread adoption of agile methodologies. Those changes are likely to dramatically change the role of project managers in many environments as we have known them and raise the bar for the entire project management profession; however, we are in the early stages of that transformation and there is a lot of confusion about the impact it has on project managers:

  • There are many stereotypes and misconceptions that exist about both Agile and traditional plan-driven project management,

  • Agile and traditional project management principles and practices are treated as separate and independent domains of knowledge with little or no integration between the two and sometimes seen as in conflict with each other

  • Agile and "Waterfall" are thought of as two binary, mutually-exclusive choices and companies sometimes try to force-fit their business and projects to one of those extremes when the right solution is to fit the approach to the project

    • It's no wonder that many Project Managers might be confused by all of this! This book will help project managers unravel a lot of the confusion that exists; develop a totally new perspective to see Agile and traditional plan-driven project management principles and practices in a new light as complementary to each other rather than competitive; and learn to develop an adaptive approach to blend those principles and practices together in the right proportions to fit any situation.

    There are many books on Agile and many books on traditional project management but what's very unique about this book is that it takes an objective approach to help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of both of those areas to see how they can work synergistically to improve project outcomes in any project. The book includes discussion topics, real world case studies, and sample enterprise-level agile frameworks that facilitate hands-on learning as well as an in-depth discussion of the principles behind both Agile and traditional plan-driven project management practices to provide a more thorough level of understanding.

    Table of contents

    1. Cover Page
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright
    4. CONTENTS
    5. PREFACE
    6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    7. Chapter 1: Introduction to Agile Project Management
      1. THE CHASM IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHIES
      2. THE EVOLUTION OF AGILE AND WATERFALL
      3. THE EVOLUTION OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSION
      4. AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT BENEFITS
      5. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
      6. DISCUSSION TOPICS
    8. PART 1: Fundamentals of Agile
      1. Chapter 2: Agile History and the Agile Manifesto
        1. AGILE EARLY HISTORY
        2. AGILE MANIFESTO (2001)
        3. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        4. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      2. Chapter 3: Scrum Overview
        1. SCRUM ROLES
        2. GENERAL SCRUM/AGILE PRINCIPLES
        3. SCRUM VALUES
        4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        5. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      3. Chapter 4: Agile Planning, Requirements, and Product Backlog
        1. AGILE PLANNING PRACTICES
        2. AGILE REQUIREMENTS PRACTICES
        3. USER PERSONAS AND STORIES
        4. PRODUCT BACKLOG
        5. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        6. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      4. Chapter 5: Agile Development, Quality, and Testing Practices
        1. AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PRACTICES
        2. AGILE QUALITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
        3. AGILE TESTING PRACTICES
        4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        5. DISCUSSION TOPICS
    9. PART 2: Agile Project Management
      1. Chapter 6: Time-Boxing, Kanban, and Theory of Constraints
        1. THE IMPORTANCE OF FLOW
        2. TIME-BOXING
        3. KANBAN PROCESS
        4. THEORY OF CONSTRAINTS
        5. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        6. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      2. Chapter 7: Agile Estimation
        1. AGILE ESTIMATION OVERVIEW
        2. AGILE ESTIMATION PRACTICES
        3. VELOCITY AND BURN-DOWN/BURN-UP CHARTS
        4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        5. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      3. Chapter 8: Agile Project Management Role
        1. AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SHIFTS IN THINKING
        2. POTENTIAL AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT ROLES
        3. AGILE AND PMBOK ®
        4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        5. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      4. Chapter 9: Agile Communications and Tools
        1. AGILE COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES
        2. AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS
        3. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        4. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      5. Chapter 10: VersionOne Tool Overview
        1. PRODUCT/PROJECT PLANNING
        2. RELEASE AND SPRINT PLANNING
        3. SPRINT TRACKING
        4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        5. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      6. Chapter 11: Understanding Agile at a Deeper Level
        1. SYSTEMS THINKING
        2. INFLUENCE OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)
        3. INFLUENCE OF LEAN MANUFACTURING
        4. PRINCIPLES OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FLOW
        5. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        6. DISCUSSION TOPICS
    10. PART 3: Making Agile Work for a Business
      1. Chapter 12: Scaling Agile to an Enterprise Level
        1. ENTERPRISE-LEVEL AGILE CHALLENGES
        2. ENTERPRISE-LEVEL OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME
        3. ENTERPRISE-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION CONSIDERATIONS
        4. ENTERPRISE-LEVEL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
        5. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        6. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      2. Chapter 13: Adapting an Agile Approach to Fit a Business
        1. THE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS ON AGILE
        2. TYPICAL LEVELS OF MANAGEMENT
        3. CORPORATE CULTURE AND VALUES
        4. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        5. DISCUSSION TOPICS
      3. Chapter 14: Enterprise-Level Agile Transformations
        1. PLANNING AN AGILE TRANSFORMATION
        2. ADAPTIVE PROJECT GOVERNANCE MODEL
        3. SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS
        4. DISCUSSION TOPICS
    11. PART 4: Enterprise-Level Agile Frameworks
      1. Chapter 15: Scaled Agile Framework
        1. TEAM LEVEL
        2. PROGRAM LEVEL
        3. PORTFOLIO LEVEL
        4. PROGRAM PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
      2. Chapter 16: Managed Agile Development Framework
        1. MANAGED AGILE DEVELOPMENT OVERVIEW
        2. OBJECTIVES OF MANAGED AGILE DEVELOPMENT
        3. FRAMEWORK DESCRIPTION
        4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
      3. Chapter 17: Disciplined Agile Delivery Framework
        1. SUMMARY OF ENTERPRISE-LEVEL FRAMEWORKS
    12. PART 5: Case Studies
      1. Chapter 18: “Not-So-Successful” Case Studies
        1. COMPANY A
        2. COMPANY B
        3. COMPANY C
      2. Chapter 19: Case Study—Valpak
        1. BACKGROUND
        2. OVERVIEW
        3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACH
        4. CHALLENGES
        5. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
        6. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
        7. LESSONS LEARNED
      3. Chapter 20: Case Study—Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
        1. BACKGROUND
        2. OVERVIEW
        3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACH
        4. CHALLENGES
        5. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
        6. CONCLUSIONS
        7. LESSONS LEARNED
      4. Chapter 21: Case Study—General Dynamics UK 1
        1. BACKGROUND
        2. OVERVIEW
        3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACH
        4. CHALLENGES
        5. KEY SUCCESS FACTORS
        6. CONCLUSIONS
        7. LESSONS LEARNED
      5. Chapter 22: Overall Summary
    13. Appendices
      1. Appendix A: Additional Reading
      2. Appendix B: Glossary of Terms
      3. Appendix C: Example Project/Program Charter Template
      4. Appendix D: Suggested Course Outline
    14. INDEX

    Product information

    • Title: The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach
    • Author(s): Charles G. Cobb
    • Release date: January 2015
    • Publisher(s): Wiley
    • ISBN: 9781118991046