This presentation is aimed at traditionally trained software project managers who are new to agile. Presented by Michele Sliger.

1. Agile Project Management
for PMPs
Mapping from the PMBOK® Guide to
Agile Practices
Michele Sliger
michele@sligerconsulting.com

2. 2© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.
Michele Sliger
Sliger Consulting, Inc.
www.sligerconsulting.com
 Over 20 years of software
development experience, with the
last 8 in Agile
 Certified Scrum Trainer
 BS-MIS, MBA, PMP
 Co-author of The Software
Project Manager’s Bridge to
Agility, part of Addison-Wesley’s
Agile Software Development
series

3. 3© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.
What we’ll cover….
• Brief Overview of Agile
• Acceptance of Agile by the PMI
• Traditional vs. Agile
• Mapping to Agile Practices:
– Integration Project Management
– Scope Project Management
– Quality Project Management
• How Your Role Will Change
• Where to Find More Information

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Agile Principles—The Agile Manifesto
– Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
– Working software over comprehensive documentation
– Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
– Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.”
“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by
doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we
have come to value:
-- http://www.agilemanifesto.org/

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How is Agile Different from Traditional
Approaches? The Paradigm Shift
Fixed
Estimated
Requirements
TimeResources
Time
Features
Plan
Driven
Value
Driven
The Plan creates cost/schedule
estimates
Release themes & feature intent
drive estimates
Waterfall Agile
Resources
Source: www.dsdm.org

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Agile Frameworks
• Scrum (Ken Schwaber)
• XP (Kent Beck)
• Lean Software Development (Mary
Poppendieck)
• Crystal (Alistair Cockburn)
• Dynamic System Development
Method (Dane Faulkner)
• Adaptive Software Development
(Jim Highsmith)
• Feature Driven Development (Jeff
DeLuca)

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A Generic Agile Process
Release A
Feature 1, Feature 2, Feature 3a
Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Feature 1a
Feature 1b
Feature 1c
Feature 1d
Feature 2a
Feature 2b
Feature 3a
Product
Backlog
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 3
Feature 4
Feature 5
Feature 6
Feature …
Release
Backlog
Feature 1a
Feature 1b
Feature 1c
Feature 1d
Feature 2a
Feature 2b
Feature 3a
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.
Product
Backlog
Feature 3b
Feature 3c
Feature 3d
Feature 4
Feature 5
Feature 6
Feature …
Release to
Production

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PMBOK Project Phases vs. Agile Project Life Cycle
The Agile Fractal
At the Release level: And at the Iteration level:

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PMI’s View of Agile
• “There is no single best way to
define an ideal project life
cycle.” – PMBOK, p. 20
• “The project manager, in
collaboration with the project
team, is always responsible for
determining what processes
are appropriate, and the
appropriate degree of rigor for
each process, for any given
project.” – PMBOK, p. 37

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PMI Agile Forum
• SIGs now Virtual Community Programs
• http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/
pmiagile/
• http://agile-pm.pbworks.com/FrontPage
• In the midst of a soft launch
• Steering Committee: Jesse Fewell, David Prior,
Michele Sliger, Sellers Smith, George Schlitz,
Mike Griffiths, Ainsley Nies, Rodney Bodamer,
Katie Playfair, Patricia Reed
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

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Traditional vs. Agile Project Management
Traditional:
• Plan what you expect to
happen
• Enforce that what
happens is the same as
what is planned
– Directive management
– Control, control, control
• Use change control to
manage change
– Change Control Board
– Defect Management
Agile:
Plan what you expect to
happen with detail
appropriate to the horizon
“Control” is through inspection
and adaptation
– Reviews and Retrospectives
– Self-Organizing Teams
Use Agile practices to manage
change:
– Continuous feedback loops
– Iterative and incremental
development
– Prioritized backlogs

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Integration Management
Traditional
Project Plan
Development
Project Plan Execution
Direct, Manage,
Monitor, Control
Integrated Change
Control
Agile
Release and Iteration
Planning
Iteration Work
Facilitate, Serve,
Lead, Collaborate
Constant Feedback
and a Ranked Backlog≈
≈
≈
≈

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Start with a
prioritized
(ranked)
product
backlog

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Virtual Backlog

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Scope Management
Traditional
Scope Definition
Create WBS
Scope Verification
Scope Change Control
Agile
Backlog and Planning
Meetings
Release and Iteration
Plans (FBS)
Feature Acceptance
Constant Feedback and
the Ranked Backlog≈
≈
≈
≈

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WBSFBS
Release Plan Iteration Plan

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Using Gantt Charts
• Feature breakdown structure – does not show tasks
• Duration = full length of the iteration
• No resource allocation (unless assigning teams)
Graphic © Mountain Goat Software, All rights reserved

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Acceptance
criteria for the
feature is written
on the back of the
card. This is the
basis for the test
cases.
Passing test cases
aren’t enough to
indicate
acceptance – the
Product Owner
must accept each
story.

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Burndown Charts
Iteration/Time
Estimated
Scope

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Quality Management
Traditional
Quality Planning
Quality Assurance
Quality Control
Agile
Definition of “Done”
QA involved from the
beginning, and…
Reviews and
Retrospectives
Test early and often;
feature acceptance≈
≈
≈

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Defining “Done”
Photos courtesy of Agile Evolution Inc.
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

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Photo courtesy of a2gemma at http://
www.flickr.com/photos/a2gemma/552208117/

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Risk Management
Traditional
Risk Identification,
Qualitative Analysis,
Response Planning
Monitoring
Controlling
Agile
Iteration Planning, Daily
Stand-ups, and
Retrospectives
Daily Stand-ups and
Highly Visible
Information Radiators
≈
≈

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The Agile Framework Addresses Core Risks
• Intrinsic schedule flaw (estimates that are wrong and undoable from
day one, often based on wishful thinking)
 Detailed estimation is done at the beginning of each iteration
• Specification breakdown (failure to achieve stakeholder consensus
on what to build)
 Assignment of a product owner who owns the backlog of work
• Scope creep (additional requirements that inflate the initially accepted
set)
 Change is expected and welcome, at the beginning of each iteration
• Personnel loss
 Self-organizing teams experience greater job satisfaction
• Productivity variation (difference between assumed and actual
performance)
 Demos of working code every iteration
Core risks from Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister: “Risk Management During Requirements” IEEE Software

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Let’s Review
• Project planning is broken out into multiple
levels of planning: we looked at quarterly/
release planning, iteration planning, and daily
planning
• Facilitating and coaching a team helps them
to make the best decisions—and frees you to
focus on strategic and organizational issues
• The ranked backlog, owned by the business,
is the primary means of change control
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

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Let’s Review
• Scope is defined at a granularity that is
appropriate for the time horizon
• Scope is verified by the acceptance of
each feature by the product owner
• Work Breakdown Structures become
Feature Breakdown Structures
• Gantt charts are not typically used; instead
burndown charts help us to track progress
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

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Let’s Review
• Test-driven development and cross-
functional teams help to bring quality
assurance and planning activities up to the
beginning of the project, and continue
throughout the project
• Bugs are found and fixed in the iteration;
features are then accepted by the product
owner
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

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Let’s Review
• The very nature of the agile framework
allows core risks to be addressed by the
team throughout the project
• Highly visible information radiators and
constant feedback cycles help teams to
identify and monitor potential risks, and
respond effectively once the risk event
occurs
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

35. Your New Role as a
Servant Leader

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Your Responsibilities
Safeguard the Process:
• Facilitate meetings
• Remove roadblocks
• Protect the team from distractions
• Help people communicate
• Act as the team’s memory
– Remind the team of the overall vision
– Remind the team of the purpose of the process
– Remind the team of decisions they agreed to
• Be the voice of reality
– Ask the team to explain things to you if it doesn’t look like what
they’re doing makes any sense
– Keep velocity estimates in check
– Bring the probability of unfinished features to their attention
– Keep metrics

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Your Responsibilities
Communications:
• Mediate team disputes
• Be the first rung in the escalation ladder
• Negotiate with those outside the team
• Provide highly visible information radiators
– And formally report on progress
• Manage external dependencies
• Coordinate with others on releases

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Your Responsibilities
Build a community:
• Create a safe environment that fosters collaborative
decision-making and encourages experimentation
• Maintain an environment that supports high productivity
• Serve as a liaison and ambassador and advocate
• Participate in organizational change
• Share your experiences with others

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You Do NOT…
• Own the product backlog—the product owner
does
• Own the estimates—the delivery team does
• Make delivery decisions—you facilitate this
activity for the team, and instead make decisions
regarding project administration and strategic
and organizational issue resolution
• Make product decisions—the customer or
product owner does, or his/her proxy
• Have to have all the answers—ask the team!

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Where to Find More Information

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Upcoming Related Events
• May 29 Agilepalooza in San Francisco, CA
http://www.agilepalooza.com/
• June 8-12 Better Software Conference in
Las Vegas, NV
http://www.sqe.com/BetterSoftwareConf/
• July 22-24 CSM for Professional Project
Managers in Boston, MA
Watch for it here:
http://www.scrumalliance.org/courses
• August 23-28 Agile2009 Conference
http://www.agile2009.org
© 2009 Sliger Consulting, Inc.

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Free Online Resources
• www.agilealliance.org
• www.apln.org
• www.scrumalliance.org
• www.sligerconsulting.com
• http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/pmiagile/
• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scrumdevelopment/
• http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/
agileprojectmanagement/

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Additional Resources
• “Stretching Agile to Fit CMMI Level 3,” an experience report by
David J. Anderson:
http://www.agilemanagement.net/Articles/Papers/
StretchingAgiletoFitCMMIL.html
Books:
• The Software Project Manager’s Bridge to Agility by Michele Sliger
and Stacia Broderick
• Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
• Implementing Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom
Poppendieck
• Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber
• Scaling Software Agility by Dean Leffingwell
• Behind Closed Doors by Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman
• Collaboration Explained by Jean Tabaka
• Agile Estimating and Planning and User Stories Applied by Mike
Cohn

44. Thank you!
michele@sligerconsulting.com
Visit www.sligerconsulting.com for more information on
this and other agile training and coaching offerings