MOOC – Agile Project Management

Topic 1 – Introduction & Definition

Subject Mentor: Brenton Burchmore

Session Contents
 Housekeeping
 Masters Program Overview
 Charles Sturt University
 MOOC Outline & Topics
 Topic 1
– Planning or Reacting?
– Appeasing Stereotypes
– Empirical Projects
– Agile Sub-methods
– Context & Content
– Software Development
– Running Agile
Housekeeping
 The questions box
 Online course portal
 Forums
 Webinar recording
 Study guide
 Pre-recorded lectures

http://learn.itmasters.edu.au
Agile Short Course

Part of subject
ITE518: Agile Project Management

Part of the
- Master of Project Management
- Master of Management (IT)
Master of Project Management
Core Subjects (7 Subjects):
MGI511 Project Management Fundamentals
MGI512 The Project Lifecycle
MGI513 Enterprise Project Management
MGI517 Project Management Communications
HRM571 Managing People in the Information Age
MGT571 Contemporary Management Practice
MGT589 Managing Risk
University Electives (choose 3):
FIN571 Managerial Finance
MGT572 Managing Organisational Change
MGT573 Strategic Practice
MKT571 Marketing for IT Managers
Industry Electives (choose 3):
MGI514 Project Management
Professional*
MGI518 Program Management
MGI522 Developing Solutions
ITE518 Agile software Development

• PMI PMP certification = credit for 2 subjects

• PRINCE2 certification = credit for 1 subject
• To find out additional credit, fill out Eligibility Form at www.itmasters.edu.au
• To contact Charles Sturt University Course Director: jhowarth@csu.edu.au
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Charles Sturt University of RMIT Monash QUT Swinburne Curtin
University Technology, University University of
Sydney Technology
Course Outline
• Foundation
1. Definition • Agile vs Chaos
• Relevance

• Value over Constraints

2. Principles • Teams over Tasks
• Adapting over Conforming

• Agile Mindset
3. Agile Model • Enterprise Framework
• Delivery Framework

• Agile Phases
4. Implementation • Agile Planning
• Agile Scaling
Plannists or Reactivists?
 What are plannists?
 Why do we want planning?
 Expectations, surprises and chaos
 Joining the dots avoids stress
 Acuity, alacrity, celerity
 What stresses you?
 Agility requires audacity

Fortune favours the audacious

Desiderius Erasmus circa 1500
Plannists or Reactivists?
 Who are the Reactivists?
 I don’t exactly remember the plan…
 Decisions come from foundations of
understanding, wisdom and context
 Planning and plans are not the same
 Agility requires preparedness

Fortune favours the prepared mind

Louis Pasteur (late 1800s)
Appeasing Stereotypes
To the
Plannists:
Our best decisions will be based
on the most current information
which we don’t yet have
Our most important objectives
are only as stable as the
predictive certainty of our
client/customer
The same important decisions
but in a different order
To the
Reactivists:
We need a strong source of
alignment for the team to
contextually contribute together
along the way
The journey may be flexible, but
the fundamental outcomes can
(and must) be defined,
understood and shared
The same important decisions
but in a different order
Empirical Project Challenges
1. The client doesn’t know what they want

2. The client thinks they know what they want but are wrong

3. We don’t understand what the client wants

4. We think we understand but we are wrong

5. We don’t know how to do it

6. We thought we knew how but we were wrong

7. Changes to external factors alter the objectives

8. The client has learned along the way that they now want something different

9. We have learned along the way that we can offer something different

10. The budget (and therefore scope) has changed

Strictly Agile
Sub-methods developed An artificial strictness to
to bring some process a fundamentally flexible
and even rigidity to Agile philosophy

Before we can pick and Before we can apply we

choose we need to know need to understand and
what they offer and why engage the team

How does any method How does any method

affect the decisions? affect the team?
Content & Context for Decisions

Content is Context is
King Queen

Alignment Alignment
is our is not
Castle agreement
A brief introduction

 Around 15 years experience as a software

development professional
 More than 20 software development projects, both
web based and desktop software in a range of
different organisations
 Currently working on an Agile project using the
scrum methodology and in the product owner role
 Working in the context of a small company which
has a larger non-Agile parent company
Software development is difficult!

 Software development is inherently difficult

– Software development projects do not have a high
success rate
– Evidence suggests that Agile software development
projects (change driven), fail less often than plan
driven projects and can offer reduced risk.
 Agile as a solution?
– Possibly, but not an easy one, for reasons which
may be surprising
So you want to run an Agile project

 Getting started
– Software governance structures
– PMO’s
 In Flight
– Organisational planning
– Reporting
– Software development practitioners
 Delivery
– Dev-Ops
– Maintenance
Summary

 Check out the online portal

 Tune in to the forums
 Listen to the recordings
 Drop in next week