Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 1
Icons Used in This Book 2
Beyond the Book 2
Where to Go from Here 3
Part 1: Understanding Agile 5
Chapter 1: Modernizing Project Management 7
Project Management Needed a Makeover 7
The origins of modern project management 8
The problem with the status quo 10
Introducing Agile Project Management 11
How agile projects work 13
Why agile projects work better 14
Chapter 2: Applying the Agile Manifesto and Principles 17
Understanding the Agile Manifesto 17
Outlining the Four Values of the Agile Manifesto 20
Value 1: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 20
Value 2: Working software over comprehensive documentation 22
Value 3: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 24
Value 4: Responding to change over following a plan 25
Defining the 12 Agile Principles 26
Agile principles of customer satisfaction 27
Agile principles of quality 30
Agile principles of teamwork 31
Agile principles of project management 33
Adding the Platinum Principles 37
Resisting formality 37
Thinking and acting as a team 38
Visualizing rather than writing 38
Changes as a Result of Agile Values 41
The Agile Litmus Test 41
Chapter 3: Why Being Agile Works Better 43
Evaluating Agile Benefits 43
How Agile Approaches Beat Historical Approaches 48
Greater flexibility and stability 49
Reduced nonproductive tasks 51
Higher quality, delivered faster 53
Improved team performance 54
Tighter project control 56
Faster and less costly failure 57
Why People Like Being Agile 57
Executives 58
Product development and customers 59
Management 60
Development teams 61
Part 2: Being Agile 63
Chapter 4: Agile Approaches 65
Diving under the Umbrella of Agile Approaches 65
Reviewing the Big Three: Lean, Scrum, and Extreme Programming 69
An overview of lean 69
An overview of scrum 73
An overview of extreme programming 76
Putting It All Together 80
Chapter 5: Agile Environments in Action 81
Creating the Physical Environment 82
Collocating the team 82
Setting up a dedicated area 83
Removing distractions 84
Going mobile 85
Low-Tech Communicating 86
High-Tech Communicating 88
Choosing Tools 90
The purpose of the tool 90
Organizational and compatibility constraints 90
Chapter 6: Agile Behaviors in Action 93
Establishing Agile Roles 93
Product owner 94
Development team member 97
Scrum master 98
Stakeholders 100
Agile mentor 102
Establishing New Values 102
Commitment 103
Courage 103
Focus 104
Openness 105
Respect 106
Changing Team Philosophy 107
Dedicated team 107
Cross-functionality 108
Self-organization 110
Self-management 111
Size-limited teams 112
Ownership 113
Part 3: Agile Planning and Execution 115
Chapter 7: Defining the Product Vision and Product Roadmap 117
Agile Planning 118
Progressive elaboration 120
Inspect and adapt 120
Defining the Product Vision 121
Step 1: Developing the product objective 122
Step 2: Creating a draft vision statement 123
Step 3: Validating and revising the vision statement 125
Step 4: Finalizing the vision statement 126
Creating a Product Roadmap 126
Step 1: Identifying stakeholders 127
Step 2: Establishing product requirements 128
Step 3: Arranging product features 130
Step 4: Estimating efforts and ordering requirements 131
Step 5: Determining high-level time frames 135
Saving your work 135
Completing the Product Backlog 135
Chapter 8: Planning Releases and Sprints 139
Refining Requirements and Estimates 139
What is a user story? 140
Steps to create a user story 142
Breaking down requirements 146
Estimation poker 148
Affinity estimating 150
Release Planning 152
Sprint Planning 155
The sprint backlog 156
The sprint planning meeting 157
Chapter 9: Working throughout the Day 163
Planning Your Day: The Daily Scrum 163
Tracking Progress 166
The sprint backlog 166
The task board 170
Agile Roles in the Sprint 172
Creating Shippable Functionality 174
Elaborating 174
Developing 175
Verifying 176
Identifying roadblocks 178
The End of the Day 179
Chapter 10: Showcasing Work, Inspecting, and Adapting 181
The Sprint Review 181
Preparing to demonstrate 182
The sprint review meeting 183
Collecting feedback in the sprint review meeting 186
The Sprint Retrospective 187
Planning for sprint retrospectives 189
The sprint retrospective meeting 189
Inspecting and adapting 191
Chapter 11: Preparing for Release 193
Preparing the Product for Deployment: The Release Sprint 193
Preparing for Operational Support 197
Preparing the Organization for Product Deployment 199
Preparing the Marketplace for Product Deployment 200
Part 4: Agile Management 203
Chapter 12: Managing Scope and Procurement 205
What's Different about Agile Scope Management? 206
Managing Agile Scope 208
Understanding scope throughout the project 208
Introducing scope changes 211
Managing scope changes 211
Using agile artifacts for scope management 213
What's Different about Agile Procurement? 214
Managing Agile Procurement 216
Determining need and selecting a vendor 216
Understanding cost approaches and contracts for services 218
Organizational considerations for procurement 221
Working with a vendor 223
Closing a contract 224
Chapter 13: Managing Time and Cost 225
What's Different about Agile Time Management? 225
Managing Agile Schedules 227
Introducing velocity 228
Monitoring and adjusting velocity 229
Managing scope changes from a time perspective 234
Managing time by using multiple teams 235
Using agile artifacts for time management 236
What's Different about Agile Cost Management? 237
Managing Agile Budgets 238
Creating an initial budget 239
Creating a self-funding project 240
Using velocity to determine long-range costs 242
Using agile artifacts for cost management 244
Chapter 14: Managing Team Dynamics and Communication 245
What's Different about Agile Team Dynamics? 245
Managing Agile Team Dynamics 247
Becoming self-managing and self-organizing 248
Supporting the team: The servant-leader 252
Working with a dedicated team 254
Working with a cross-functional team 255
Reinforcing openness 257
Limiting development team size 258
Managing projects with dislocated teams 259
What's Different about Agile Communication? 262
Managing Agile Communication 263
Understanding agile communication methods 263
Status and progress reporting 266
Chapter 15: Managing Quality and Risk 269
What's Different about Agile Quality? 269
Managing Agile Quality 272
Quality and the sprint 273
Proactive quality 275
Quality through regular inspecting and adapting 280
Automated testing 281
What's Different about Agile Risk Management? 283
Managing Agile Risk 286
Reducing risk inherently 286
Identifying, prioritizing, and responding to risks early 291
Part 5: Ensuring Agile Success 295
Chapter 16: Building a Foundation 297
Organizational and Individual Commitment 297
Organizational commitment 298
Individual commitment 299
Getting commitment 299
Can you make the transition? 300
Timing the transition 302
Choosing the Right Pilot Team Members 302
The agile champion 302
The agile transition team 303
The product owner 304
The development team 305
The scrum master 305
The project stakeholders 306
The agile mentor 307
Creating an Environment That Enables Agility 307
Support Agility Initially and Over Time 310
Chapter 17: Scaling across Agile Teams 311
Multi-Team Agile Projects 312
Making Work Digestible through Vertical Slicing 314
Scrum of scrums 315
Aligning through Roles with Scrum at Scale 318
Scaling the scrum master 319
Scaling the product owner 320
Synchronizing in one hour a day 322
Multi-Team Coordination with LeSS 323
LeSS, the smaller framework 323
LeSS Huge framework 324
Sprint review bazaar 325
Observers at the daily scrum 326
Component communities and mentors 326
Multi-team meetings 327
Travelers 327
Reducing Dependencies with Nexus 327
Nexus role - Nexus integration team 328
Nexus artifacts 330
Nexus events 330
Joint Program Planning with SAFe 332
Understanding the four SAFe levels 333
Joint program increment planning 336
Clarity for managers 337
Modular Structures with Enterprise Scrum 337
ES scrum elements generalizations 337
ES key activities 338
Chapter 18: Being a Change Agent 343
Becoming Agile Requires Change 343
Why Change Doesn't Happen on Its Own 344
Strategic Approaches to Implementing and Managing Change 345
Lewin 345
ADKAR's five steps to change 346
Kotter's eight steps for leading change 348
Platinum Edge's Change Roadmap 349
Step 1: Conduct an implementation strategy with success metrics 349
Step 2: Build awareness and excitement 352
Step 3: Form a transformation team and identify a pilot project 353
Step 4: Build an environment for success 355
Step 5: Train sufficiently and recruit as needed 355
Step 6: Kick off the pilot with active coaching 356
Step 7: Execute the Roadmap to Value 357
Step 8: Gather feedback and improve 357
Step 9: Mature and solidify improvements 358
Step 10: Progressively expand within the organization 359
Avoiding Pitfalls 360
Signs Your Changes Are Slipping 363
Part 6: The Part of Tens 367
Chapter 19: Ten Key Benefits of Agile Project Management 369
Better Product Quality 369
Higher Customer Satisfaction 370
Reduced Risk 371
Increased Collaboration and Ownership 371
More Relevant Metrics 372
Improved Performance Visibility 373
Increased Project Control 374
Improved Project Predictability 374
Customized Team Structures 375
Higher Team Morale 376
Chapter 20: Ten Key Factors for Project Success 377
Dedicated Team Members 377
Collocation 378
Automated Testing 378
Enforced Definition of Done 378
Clear Product Vision and Roadmap 379
Product Owner Empowerment 380
Developer Versatility 380
Scrum Master Clout 380
Management Support for Learning 381
Transition Support 381
Chapter 21: Ten Metrics for Agile Organizations 383
Return on Investment 383
New requests in ROI budgets 386
Capital redeployment 386
Satisfaction Surveys 387
Defects in Production 388
Sprint Goal Success Rates 389
Time to Market 389
Lead and Cycle Times 390
Cost of Change 391
Team Member Turnover 391
Skill Versatility 392
Manager-to-Creator Ratio 392
Chapter 22: Ten Valuable Resources for Agile Professionals 395
Agile Project Management For Dummies Online Cheat Sheet 395
Scrum For Dummies 396
The Scrum Alliance 396
The Agile Alliance 396
The Project Management Institute Agile Community 397
International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) 397
InfoQ 397
Lean Enterprise Institute 398
Extreme Programming 398
Platinum Edge 398
Index 401
