Taking Small Steps Towards Big Goals

A medium-sized company forced new project management methods on itself. After the summer break, teams were expected to be agile. Self-organised teams have to work particularly close with customers and advance projects step by step. This requires ultra flexible methods to meet customers’ needs more efficiently, to work at a higher pace and to master complex tasks. After one year of trying, the company’s managing director pulled the brakes. The teams had never learned to run through the agile world, they were merely stalling. “We headed off too fast into the agile world”, admitted the managing director. After thorough and careful preparations, the company started into the second round with a well-prepared pilot project. The managing director reported that “this way, we were able to gain experience and to cautiously approach agile management.”

Greater flexibility in projects, faster developments of products and solutions, handling complexities, and meeting customers’ needs – this is what many companies expect from agile project management. However, the more companies rush into agile project management, the more stumble right at the beginning. Heidi Seidl, project management expert, observes two major mistakes.

Firstly, companies try to implement agile methods in all project management areas at once. But Heidi Seidl highlights that “agile project management is more than its methods. It is built on posture whose foundation is made of values like respect, openness, bravery, commitment, and focus.” This statement signals that entering the world of agile management is strictly bound to a change of culture. Secondly, companies immediately shift the majority of their projects to being agile. This radical course of action overwhelms the entire organisation. Heidi Seidl recommends to “first gain experience with a pilot project. This way, companies can find their own ‘agile context’ and familiarise their employees with agile values.” She proposes a basic strategy for starting into the agile world:

Step 1: Find a suitable project sponsor and a team of volunteers
Chose a project and assign it to a sponsor, i.e. to someone who takes the initiative and boosts the projects from an external point of view. The sponsor provides access to resources. Heidi Seidl explains that their central task is to “have representatives for the required competences within the team.” Most importantly, the sponsor builds a cross-functional team, which consists of members from different disciplines and with distinct fields of expertise. This variety of know-how renders the team dynamic. What is more, the team members should ideally volunteer to take the new, agile way with the company.

Step 2: Assign roles within the team
Agile teams work autonomously on their tasks. However, regarding their working practice, they firmly agree on specific methods and clearly defined work stages. Defining roles within the team forms part of this framework. The sponsor’s task is to appoint the so-called product owner and the scrum master. The sponsor is responsible for the product owner representing the customer as well as external stakeholders within the team. The sponsor also maintains a close dialogue with all stakeholders. He prioritises and makes sure the customers and stakeholders’ objectives are reached. His role differs considerably from that of the scrum master, who keeps an eye on methods and work processes. The scrum master checks whether his team operates within the set framework and organises, for instance, daily meetings, the so-called “daily stand-ups”. Heidi Seidl recommends “to diligently qualify employees for this particular role, as hardly anyone can take it ad hoc.”

Step 3: Fill the backlog
To fill the product backlog basically means to determine enough requirements to get the project going. One major aspect of agile project management is to ensure the customer’s needs, which requires regular checks of the project’s purpose for the customer. The leading question is: “Which customer needs what and why?” The reasons for the customer’s needs are essential, because they clarify the customer’s requirements. Real professionals are looking for user stories. A user story is a brief, non-technical description of the requirements and their purpose from the customer’s point of view. Here is an advice for the project start: At least one or two weeks prior the first sprint, the product backlog should be filled with enough user stories to smoothly take off the project.

Step 4: Plan the sprints
In classic project management, all tasks are planned, executed and then presented to the customer. In agile project management, on the contrary, the team demonstrates intermediate results at the end of each sprint to the customer. These iterations, during which backlog items are transformed into deliverables, are called “sprints”. Here is an example: A team is asked to set up a homepage for employee trainings. The customer requires to integrate a knowledge store and a globally operating chat, which employees can use to get in touch with experts in case there are any questions. The product owner choses these two desired features and requirements from the product backlog, with which the team enters into the first sprint. This means, the team firstly develops the list function and the chat window for the customer.

Step 5: Give feedback & hold retrospectives
The deliverable of the sprint is expected to be more than just a provisional arrangement. Heidi Seidl clarifies that “each sprint is supposed to end with potentially shippable deliverables. In other words, the team should feel confident presenting the deliverable to the customer.” The customer then tests the preliminary product and comments on it. Based on the customer’s feedback, the team adapts the preliminary product and starts with a new sprint, which also ends with the customer’s feedback. This process ensures a step by step accomplishment of the project.
Feedback is an essential element to agile management. However, beside the customer’s feedback, the team’s retrospective is as indispensable. Heidi Seidl briefly explains the principle of this team inspection and recommends “scrum masters pay attention to regular team meetings to reflect on the approach and process.” During such team meetings, the team examines whether they have chosen the right tasks, whether there was sufficient expertise within the team or whether the social interaction in the team is generally acceptable. Heidi Seidl finally underlines that “not only do teams learn from success and failure, but also the companies, with regard to their future path in the agile project management world.

Please direct queries to Raphaela Bel, T + 49 228 289260, raphaela.bel@nextlevelconsulting.com
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