Agile methods often appear to clash with traditional views on software project management, while some members of the project management community believe that agile techniques are based more on speculation and an aversion to process than established best practices. In a similar vein, many advocates of agile methods dismiss aspects of traditional project management approaches as fatally flawed and not workable on today’s modern software projects.

This tutorial will guide attendees through practical steps to understand the common ground, and bridge the opposing views. By doing so, the traditional benefits of planning can be combined with the more dynamic execution and control mechanisms offered by agile techniques that focus on business value. The combination of these approaches provides an effective strategy for handling the mid-project changes and development complexity associated with today’s software projects. It also offers a familiar structure that stakeholders understand, and a client focus towards business value that sponsors welcome.

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) areas covered: Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, Project Communications Management, Project Risk Management, and Project Human Resource Management.

Who should attend?
Managers, Project Managers, Sponsors, PMO Staff.

How you will benefit
Develop and enhance the contributions you make to your organization by being able to:

  - Implement agile project management best practices 

  - Explain the strengths/weaknesses and application areas for agile and traditional methods

  - Understand gap analysis between agile and traditional project management approaches

  - Recognizing project characteristics that can benefit from a combined approach

  - Leverage the strengths of a combined approach

  - Apply a unified framework for reducing project risk and maximizing delivered value

Your seminar experience will cover:
  1. Overview of agile and traditional project management

  2. Agile Fundamentals

  3. Panacea or Hype?

  4. The Agile Lifecycle Overview

  5. Production Theory Links

  6. Project Management Impacts of Agile Development

  7. Agile PM Steps – Detailed Lifecycle Coverage

  8. Introducing Agile

  9. Alignment with existing practices

  10. Integrating Agile in the Enterprise

Instructional Methods
Include: explanations and visual learning techniques, interactive discussions, case study analysis, adult learning best practices, group exercises and tools demonstration.