THE CHAMELEON: AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

MUSEUM PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
October 2, 2017

BY: EMILY WELSH

Class Learning:

Traditional project management mirrors the idea of a waterfall; the stages of the project cascade, one after another, down to the finished project. Gravity ensures water doesn't travel back up. You may even consider the project manager to be like gravity, ensuring the project stays on track.  However, depending on your project or group dynamics, this model may seem too rigid. Is this the only model for project management?

Traditional project management methodologies resembles a waterfall; one project phase flows into the next - down, down down, to the finished project (the pool). Source.

Today's class introduced the methodology called agile project management. For a quick 2 minute introduction to the topic and its characteristics, priorities, and origins, check out this video:

The key feature I drew from the model was it's ability to allow teams to easily respond to changes required in the project plan. Agile management allows for corrective courses of action; it is iterative and modular. Instead of a project phase being completed all at once and right after the last one, phases in agile management may occur simultaneously and repeatedly.

To begin, the project team gathers the features that might need to be completed for the project's completion. Some of these features will be accepted by the team and then they will be planned, designed, tested and implemented. At the same time as these features are being developed, the team can gather more features and repeat the same processes. In this fashion, if the team forgets a key feature, but remembers it later, they can easily throw it into the new run of features being considered and developed. In the waterfall, it is much harder to bring in a new feature such as a digital interactive for an exhibition, when you have already proceeded through all of the planning, designing, and testing for everything in your exhibition.     

I think of agile project management like a chameleon; the methodology allows you to adapt to your environment and easily respond to change. Source.

You can think of the process as a series of columns in a table. From left to right you would have columns such as features, development (to do and done), testing (to do and done), implemented and done. Team members and specific features of the project can be at different stages of the process. You can keep track of the tasks and their progress using sticky notes on a board or a digital software such as Trello.

Agile project management can be organized with simple sticky notes and a modular chart, or you can use digital platforms such as Trello. Source.

Within agile management there are many strategies, one of which is Scrum project management. Scrum consists of a series of "sprints" with a set duration of time. All of the features for the project (or everything that may be needed to completed) is listed in the Product Backlog. When a sprint is initiated, a series of features are selected from the Product Backlog to create the Sprint Backlog; this is the work that will be completed during the sprint. During the sprint, the development team members work in collaboration with daily Scrum meetings to complete the tasks of the sprint. At the end of the sprint, the team produces a deliverable in one form or another. For example, a sprint may be planned to review the institution's collection to obtain information required for understanding which exhibition narratives are possible. The deliverable may be a written report of their findings. The team then sits down with the Scrum Master (the project member overseeing the process) and Product Owner (the individual determining project requirements and priorities) for a sprint review and sprint retrospective; these meetings examine the work that was completed and lessons learned to be applied to the next sprint.

The most useful aspects of Scrum management in my opinion are the daily scrum meetings, the idea of sprints and the logistics of planning.

The daily scrum meetings asks members of the development team to state what they did yesterday to help achieve the project's goals, what they will do today to work on the tasks, and what barriers do they see that may prevent them from achieving the project goals. This meeting is very brief. I like this type of meeting structure because it allows everyone on the team to be on the same page as to the work already completed, work remaining to be done, and work being done by which members. The meeting also gets members to verbalize problems they may otherwise internalize; problems can't be fixed if you don't voice them. However, you would want to adapt this idea to your own needs; you may not need a meeting every day.

Secondly, the idea of breaking the tasks into chunks that are timed and have set deliverables at their conclusion helps to keep the project moving forward and feasible.

Finally, Scrum management plans for one sprint at a time; you do not plan for the entire project from the onset. This planning strategy is useful as some items you need to plan for will only become more clear farther down the line when constraints and assumptions have been clarified. However, you should still think about the full timeline and end stages; you need to know your end goals (such as date and budget) as well as a rough plan. For some projects it may be better to focus on agile planning (rather than sticking to a strict process) and aptly respond to change.


Reading Insight: 

Cobb's Chapter 6: "Agile Project Management", in Making Sense of Agile Project Management, provides further insight into agile management, Scrum management and its characteristics. He explains there is no dedicated project manager within the Scrum model although a team member, the Scrum Master, will have to complete some of the traditional duties one would expect for managing a project. Agile management is a collaborative process in which many decisions are made as a team and the team is self-managing. The Scrum Master acts more as a facilitator than a director and is likened to a sheepdog tending its herd:  "He/she keeps the sheep from straying too far out of the group and protects the flock from unwanted interference and obstacles" (Cobb, 2011, p. 102).

The reading used the metaphor that the team member exhibiting the project management tendencies in the agile method is comparable to a sheepdog! Source.

Cobb also highlights the collaborative nature of agile management and its relationship to verification and validation. The terms are defined as the following:

"Verification means that the product has been determined to meet all documented
requirements and specifications—“Is the product right?”

Validation means that the product meets the customer need that it was
intended to fill—“Is it the right product?”" (Cobb, 2011, p. 115)

Cobb explains that traditional models place emphasis on verification and only seek the validation of their projects in end stage testing practices. This can be bad news for the project if at this stage of the game the product is found not to meet the needs of the user. On the other hand, agile management, with its emphasis on collaborating closely with users in design and development phases, is more likely to verify and validate the user's needs.  

Although a strictly agile project management method may seem strange, risky, or unusual for your project or management style, there may be aspects of the method you can combine with a traditional model to improve your project planning and management! Never use a model exactly as it comes out of the box - adapt it to the unique needs of your project!

Happy Planning!   

Resources: 

Cobb, C. G. (2011). Agile project management. In Making Sense of Agile Project Management (pp. 101–30). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.