Millennials Perspective on Agile PM

Contemporary Project Management: A
Millennials Perspective
Prof Ernest Mnkandla 20 March 2013

This talk will cover:

• Introduction
• The Millenials
• Contemporary Project Management
• Agile project management
• Agile Adoption
• conclusion

PMSA Gauteng Event 20 March 2013

Introduction

• How many of you have worked as Project Managers?
• How many of you have worked in project teams?
• What is project management?
– Definition of PM: application of knowledge and skills, tools
and techniques to the management of a set of processes in
a project environment in order to achieve the desired goal
(Schwalbe 2010:25).


Introduction

• If you were given a number of various SD tasks
and potential projects how would you
determine which ones qualify as projects?
– Project complexity determines the difference
between a project and some ‘difficult’ task.


Introduction…

• Changes in technology and project complexity
• Reducing complexity through iterative
development
• So how do we continue to improve our
effectiveness?
– By increasing our rate of adoption of new
technologies and using them, we improve our
effectiveness. So you cannot avoid it if you want to
survive.


The Millenials

• Who are they?
– Generation Y,
• There are no precise dates when this
generation starts and ends but they follow
generation X
• They were born anywhere from 1979 to the
early 2000s.


Generations


Generations Traits


Generations Traits…


The Millenials’ PM Challenge
• All these generations work in one place
• They may be in one project that you are
managing.
• Hence you need a revolutionary approach to
project management


The Millenials’ PM Challenge…
• Training across multigenerational workplace:
– We learn:
• 10% through formal training.
• 20% through materials and access to IT systems such as
books, manuals, procedures and systems.
• 70% of learning occurs on the job.


Contemporary Project
Management
• Commonly used guides & standards:
– PMBOK
– APMBOK
– PMAJ
• Methodologies are developed based on
existing standards:
– A lot of research has been done to show that there is no
meaningful conflict between most methodologies and
standards.


Contemporary Project
Management
• Examples of contemporary methodologies:
– Prince 2
– RUP
– Agile


Agile project management

• Definition:
– The application of agile principles to the management of
application development projects.
• Phases of Agile PM:
– Initiate (justify project, define requirements, document
requirements)
– Construct(Model project, create prototype, test)
– Deliver(Release, test, rework)
– Support (find defects , manage change)


Agile project management…
• Principles of Agile PM:
– Increase ROI (focus on flow of value)
– Deliver reliable results (engage customers)
– Expect uncertainty and manage it iteratively
– Unleash creativity and innovation: individuals are
the ultimate source of value
– Boost performance: group accountability ,&
shared responsibility
– Improve effectiveness and reliability

Agile adoption

• Adoption depends on significant changes in
three key areas:
• (1) The people:
– Must be empowered through training in agile
practices such as collaborative work.
– Collaborative work implies informing your project
teams about project changes as they happen.
– Use of tools for collaboration in cases where your
project teams are distributed.

Agile adoption…
– Adopting agility implies change in culture, and
people may initially resist the change for various
reasons, this can be solved by hiring an agile
practitioner.
– Remember to introduce the agile culture change
to the executives as well.
– Executives need to understand that agile will
change the process and deliverables but the
release rates and product quality either stay
unchanged or improve.

Agile adoption…
– Use of agile tools may change the roles for project
managers, e.g. instead of canvasing for progress
reports from individuals, tools track progress.
– Create teams, according to the types of
capabilities you are looking for.
• (2) The adopted processes:
– Apply agile to your entire production process not
just development.


Agile adoption…
– Tune your agile methodology into consumable
practices that can be adopted easily.
– Work with stakeholders every iteration for timely
and effective feedback.
– Each activity, (e.g. going on vacation or writing
code or testing), must be a work item that’s
estimated and prioritized.


Agile adoption…
• (3) The implemented tools for success:
– Provide tools for teams to exchange information
and stay on the same page (especially if your
organisation is large).


Conclusion

• According to the Millenials:
– A PM is a colleague, titles don’t matter
– Work is a social phenomenon
– Projects are a nice place to meet colleagues, show
kindness and still deliver quality products
– Clocking is pathetic
– Performance appraisal contracts are a violation of their
rights.
– Set goals, give me resources, free me, receive a quality
product.


Conclusion

• So what must PM do?
– Sharpen your social skills
– Acquire soft skills
– Learn at least one tool from each of the most
commonly used communication technologies.
– Always remember to trust these guys to deliver
and therefore give them space.


Questions


References
• UN. (2009). Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y
(and Generation Z) Working Together. From http://tinyurl.com/cgbz7zl
• Cockburn, A. 2008. The declaration of interdependence for modern
management. Available from http://tinyurl.com/38f69he accessed 24
January 2013.
• Ambler, S.W. 2002. Agile Modelling. John Wiley.
• Tryon, C. A. (n.d). Modern Project Management. Tryon and Associates.
From http://www.tryonassoc.com/pdffiles/Paper%20‐
%20Modern%20Project%20Management.pdf
• This talk was presented at the Project Management South Africa (Gauteng
Chapter) Event on 20 March 2013, see:
http://www.projectmanagement.org.za/events/event_details.asp?id=307
578


Millennials Perspective on Agile PM

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