Posted on

Agile Approaches Can’t Save Impossible Projects: Fixed Cost, Scope, Date

You’ve got an impossible project. You have no flexibility. The project is a fixed-price, fixed-scope, fixed-date project. And, you have a specific team to do the work. (There are other impossible projects. Such as when you have a collection of people who multitask among several projects.) Can an agile approach save these projects? No. An agile …

Continue reading “Agile Approaches Can’t Save Impossible Projects: Fixed Cost, Scope, Date”

Posted on

Projects, Products, and the Project Portfolio: Part 2, Assess & Rank the Work

Part 1 was about seeing the value in the various projects. I called the value stream a product so that people would think about who would use it and why. I suggested that we stop work on specific products when you have more products than teams. That would allow you to work on other projects …

Continue reading “Projects, Products, and the Project Portfolio: Part 2, Assess & Rank the Work”

Posted on

Tactical Ideas for Agile Budgeting, Part 1

Too often, organizations want to budget for an entire year. The managers run around for two or three months in advance of that fiscal year, attempting to predict a ton of things: Estimates for not-well-defined projects or features, Capital equipment or tool needs, “Headcount” aka, people needed. Then, the organization doesn’t finalize the budget until …

Continue reading “Tactical Ideas for Agile Budgeting, Part 1”

Posted on

Defining “Scaling” Agile, Part 3: Creating Agile Product Development Capabilities

In the “Scaling” Agile: Part 1, I wrote about cross-functional collaborative teams. The cross-functional collaborative feature team is the basis for “scaling” agile. In “Scaling” Agile, Part 2, I wrote about programs. I realized I need another part before my original part 3 :-). This new part 3 is about creating agile product development capabilities. …

Continue reading “Defining “Scaling” Agile, Part 3: Creating Agile Product Development Capabilities”

Posted on

Manage Your Project Portfolio is Featured in Colombia’s Largest Business Newspaper

Andy Hunt, the Pragmatic Bookshelf publisher, just sent me an email telling me that Manage Your Project Portfolio is featured in La República, Columbia’s “first and most important business newspaper.” That’s because getabstract liked it!   Okay, my book is below the fold. It’s in smaller print. And, I have to say, I’m still pretty excited. If …

Continue reading “Manage Your Project Portfolio is Featured in Colombia’s Largest Business Newspaper”

Posted on

Why Cost is the Wrong Question for Evaluating Projects in Your Project Portfolio

I read Sayonara Sony: How Industrial, MBA-Style Leadership Killed a Once Great Company, and was struck by how the company appeared to make decisions—what will make us the most money now? If you make your project portfolio decisions based on money, estimated cost, you too will have Sony’s problems. This is why cost is the …

Continue reading “Why Cost is the Wrong Question for Evaluating Projects in Your Project Portfolio”