The Project Management Mindset for Agile Organisations
As agile processes and methodologies around the globe evolve, the concept of “done” is taking a backseat, fading into oblivion. Today we live and work in the era of CI /CD. Things are more continuous than fixed. In an era where large projects tend to be continuous, determining any system as “done” may push it to become a part of the past that is no longer continuous in nature.
We should move towards a model of small teams that work in short cycles and learn continuously while maintaining crisp, clear, and transparent communication between them. A key element to remember here is that outcomes are more important than the outputs and we must make real-time prioritization and decisions for the next steps.
To make these small adjustments in our sail to reach the goal, we must have a very clear understanding as to “why did we adopt agile methodology in the first place?”, “what are the advantages that we are looking that if we get to implement agile the right and the intended way?”
It is imperative to focus on metrics such as cycle time to monitor success. Cycle time could be a direct reflection of things like the velocity at which the team can learn and adjust its course or the time it will take a feature to go live.
In addition, the percentage of decisions being made must be based on objective evidence such as customer input or feedback. The success of any project in the agile world is based on continuously trying out innovative ideas, evaluating the impact of the idea, and adjusting the next course of action accordingly.