This category contains topics associated with the Agile Planning. A lot of people seem to think that Agile Planning is very difficult and some think it is a waste of time because even very well-thought-out plans often don’t work out as expected. This issue is important because it is at the crux of selecting a methodology and planning approach for a project. Do I use Agile or plan-driven (aka Waterfall)?
One of the biggest factors that effects the planning approach is the level of uncertainty in the project. In a traditional plan-driven environment, many people make the mistake of trying to make the level of uncertainty go away by developing a lot of assumptions. The problem with that approach is that many times those assumptions will turn out to be wrong and might require extensive re-planning and re-work.
Agile uses a very different planning approach that recognizes the level of uncertainty in the project. Instead of attempting to develop a highly-detailed upfront plan, it is many times better to use a rolling-wave planning approach where the details of the plan are further elaborated as the project is in progress.
Many people seem to think of planning as an “all-or-nothing” proposition – either you develop a highly-detailed plan or you do no planning at all. I don’t believe that to be the case. There seems to be two major problems associated with why people have this difficulty with planning:
Many people have difficulty dealing with an uncertain environment – they want things to be crystal-clear, black-and-white and, in an uncertain environment, they think that it is a waste of time to do any planning at all.
A related factor is that many people develop unrealistic expectations about planning.
Please check the articles associated with this category for more detail:
Overview The “Lean Startup” approach is based on a book by Eric Ries of the same name. The fundamental problem that the book addresses is that many companies: Think that they know what the market and their customers want, Make a lot of assumptions based on that thinking Launch a long and expensive product development […]
What is the Lean Startup Approach? How Does It Relate to Agile? Read More »
Why is planning difficult? A lot of people seem to think that planning is very difficult and some think it is a waste of time because even very well-thought-out plans often don’t work out as expected. This issue is important because it is at the crux of selecting a methodology and planning approach for a
Why Is Planning Difficult? Is It a Waste of Time? Read More »
I recently participated in an online discussion in response to a question that was asked on “What are the most practical ways to do project planning?” It’s a critical issue and it comes up a lot so I thought I would share some thoughts on this subject. Ways to do Project Planning – Factors to
What are the Most Practical Ways to Do Project Planning? Read More »
One of the biggest inherent advantages of an Agile approach is the management of uncertainty in Agile projects. To understand this better, we need to first understand the difference between: An Empirical Process Control Model and A Defined Process Control Model Empirical and Defined Process Models A key thing to understand in this context is
Management of Uncertainty in Agile Projects Read More »
I participated in a discussion recently on the subject of Agile estimation practices: The individual who started the discussion indicated that his team was not very good at estimating. He asked whether it was important for them to become more proficient in estimating the level of effort required Overview Estimation can be very important and
Agile Estimation Practices – What Is the Role of Estimation In Agile? Read More »