I recently wrote an article on “Reinventing Project Management” which advocates developing a more integrated Agile Project Management approach that embraces both Agile and traditional plan-driven project management in the right proportions to fit any given project. Some people will want more information on how a hybrid Agile Project Management approach would work and what impact that would have on project managers for implementing that kind of approach. The purpose of this article is to elaborate more on exactly that.
What is a Hybrid Agile Project Management Approach?
First, let’s talk about what a hybrid Agile Project Management approach is. Some years ago, I was responsible for managing a fairly large US government project:
- The project was so large that it required congressional oversight over the project cost and schedule; however,
- The US government agency that was the customer insisted on having some level of flexibility for further defining and elaborating on project requirements as the project was in progress.
That required blending some level of traditional plan-driven project management to manage the overall project cost and schedule with a more flexible and adaptive Agile development approach. In response to that challenge, I developed the Managed Agile Development framework which is described in more detail in this article:
That is a general approach that provides a blend of planning and control with some amount of flexibility and adaptivity to fit a given project situation. And the approach can be adjusted as necessary to provide more or less emphasis on planning and control or more or less emphasis on flexibility and adaptivity.
The Managed Agile Development framework is a general approach, and it is not intended to be a “cookbook” solution. It is a general framework that is intended to be tailored as necessary to fit the situation and it can require considerable judgement and skill to implement. That is one of the ways that a hybrid Agile Project Management approach “raises the bar” for project managers.
What’s the Impact on Project Managers?
An Agile Project Management approach requires a higher level of judgement and skill that will raise the bar” for project managers in several ways:
- Less reliance on “cookbook” Project Management
- More business acumen and business decision making
- Emphasis on producing value
1. Less Reliance on “Cookbook” Project Management
Too many project managers are used to a “cookbook” approach to project management:
- There is a well-defined methodology to be followed
- There may be detailed checklists of what needs to be done at the completion of each phase of the methodology
- There may even be fill-in-the-blanks document templates to be completed at the end of each phase
That kind of approach just won’t work, in my opinion in a number of different situations. A “cookbook” approach does not provide a sufficient level of flexibility and adaptivity in many project situations that have a high level of uncertainty and/or require some level of creativity and innovation to maximize the business value of the solution. It will require considerable judgement and skill from the project manager to select and implement an approach that blends an appropriate level of planning and control with some level of flexibility and adaptivity. In my books I’ve used the analogy of a Project Manager as a “cook” versus a Project Manager as a “chef”:
- “A good “cook” may have the ability to create some very good meals, but those dishes may be limited to a repertoire of standard dishes, and his/her knowledge of how to prepare those meals may be primarily based on following some predefined recipes out of a cookbook.”
- “A “chef,” on the other hand, typically has a far greater ability to prepare a much broader range of more sophisticated dishes using much more exotic ingredients in some cases. His/her knowledge of how to prepare those meals is not limited to predefined recipes, and in many cases, a chef will create entirely new and innovative recipes for a given situation. The best chefs are not limited to a single cuisine and are capable of combining dishes from entirely different kinds of cuisine.”
We need more project managers who can be “chefs” rather than “cooks”.
2. More Business Acumen and Decision-making
Another major impact of a hybrid Agile Project Management approach is that the project manager needs to go beyond the typical administratively oriented project management role and take on some level of responsibility for making business decisions on behalf of the Business Sponsor. There are two possible models of what this might look like depending on the nature of the project:
a. It could be similar to the role of an Agile Product Owner, or
b. It could be similar to the role of a Program Manager in a large, complex business initiative.
Here’s what each of those roles look like:
a. Agile Product Owner Role
An Agile Project Manager role may be somewhat similar to an Agile Product Owner role. In an Agile project, the Product Owner is considered to be “the CEO of the project”. He/she is the one who is ultimately responsible for the success or failure of the project from a business perspective. To fulfill that role, he/she has to make some level of business decision to include at least:
- Prioritizing requirements,
- Making decisions and providing general direction to the team,
- Interpreting requirements, and
- Approving deliverables
All of that is done, of course, on behalf of the Business Sponsor who has delegated that responsibility to the Product Owner; however, it is done in close collaboration with the Business Sponsor and other business stakeholders. The Product Owner knows the limits of his/her authority and doesn’t make those decisions in a vacuum without any contact with the Business Sponsor and other business stakeholders.
Here’s a summary of the differences between the Agile Product Owner role and the typical Project Manager role:
- A good Product Owner knows what the Business Sponsor and other business stakeholders expect and is able to interpret their intent to guide the project team as necessary as the project is in progress. In addition, the development team is expected to work directly with business users to further define and elaborate specific requirements as necessary.
- A typical Project Manager does not have that kind of business decision-making ability, and the project team is not expected to interact directly with business users as the project is in progress. He/she typically has well-defined requirements prior to the start of the project that may not require a significant amount of collaboration and interpretation from the business side once the project is in progress.
You would typically find the need for a project manager with these business skills in a hybrid Agile Project Management role such as an Agile contract that requires a blend of planning and control with some level of flexibility and adaptivity.
b. Program Manager Role
An Agile Project Manager role may also be similar to the role of a Program Manager. A Program Manager is often given some very broad-based business direction to accomplish some kind of major business goal, and he/she is expected to take complete responsibility for figuring out what needs to be done to accomplish that goal and driving the effort to accomplish it. You would often find this role in conjunction with a large enterprise-level initiative, and it might also involve implementation of an enterprise-level framework such as SAFe or Disciplined Agile.
Summary
Either of these two roles call for a Project Manager to take on some additional level of business decision-making responsibility for guiding a project in the right direction similar to the role that (1) an Agile Product Owner plays in an Agile environment or (2) a Program Manager of a large complex business program plays in a more traditional project environment. Obviously, a Project Manager would have difficulty taking on that responsibility without some level of business acumen and that’s another very important way that an Agile Project Management role will “raise the bar” considerably for a Project Manager.
3. Emphasis on Producing Value
There is a very important mindset shift from a typical project management approach which emphasizes planning and control to a broader approach that emphasizes producing value. A hybrid Agile Project Management effort should be based on a “Value-driven Project Management” approach. A “Value-driven project management approach is focused on maximizing the business value that a project produces for a customer. However, “value” can be an elusive term, and it doesn’t exclude the possibility of a traditional plan-driven approach if that’s the kind of value the customer wants:
- If the requirements are well-defined with a fairly low level of uncertainty and the customer is primarily concerned with the schedule and costs for delivering those well-defined requirements, then a traditional plan-driven project management approach would probably be an appropriate choice for delivering that kind of value.
- If the requirements are not well-defined and the customer is more concerned about maximizing the business value of the solution over hitting arbitrary cost and schedule goals, a more flexible and adaptive approach is probably needed to provide that kind of value.
And, of course, this is not a binary and mutually exclusive choice between two extremes. Many times, it will require a blend of those two approaches to provide an appropriate level of value. This is another very important area that will require skill and judgement from the Project Manager to select and appropriate approach. It’s a lot more difficult to do that, but it can be done – it requires:
- Knowledge of a broader range of methodologies and frameworks,
- Ability to see the strengths and weaknesses of those methodologies objectively, and
- A deeper understanding of the principles behind those methodologies to know how they might be combined to fit a given situation
I’ve written an article with more detail on Value-driven Project Management here:
Overall Summary
Migration of the project management profession to a more integrated Agile Project Management approach will raise the bar considerably for project managers:
- Less Reliance on a “Cookbook” approach – It requires a very different mindset, and it will take additional judgement and skill to select and implement an appropriate project management approach that blends some level of planning and control with an appropriate level of flexibility and adaptivity rather than simply following a well-defined “cookbook” methodology.
- Higher level of Business Acumen and Business Decision-Making – It probably requires some level of business acumen and business decision-making skills that go beyond a typical project management role. This role might be similar to an Agile Product Manager role in an Agile environment or a Program Manager role in a more traditional environment.
- Emphasis on Producing Value – There is an important mindset shift to an emphasis on producing value. A Value-driven Project Management approach will require considerable judgement and skill for a project manager to select and implement an appropriate project management approach to fit a project rather than force-fitting a project to a standardized project management approach that emphasizes planning and control.