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In my review of the chapter 2 of Introduction to Agile of the Agile Practice Guide, I am constantly surprised by the insights I’ve gained into the world of agile.   Of course I was expecting to learn about the history of agile which I got with the history of the Agile Manifesto and the 12 agile principles that are the underpinning of the agile mindset.

However, I didn’t expect that the Agile Alliance would consider that agile, coming out of a software application area, would consider itself a descendant of lean thinking, which comes out of a manufacturing system.   But as it explains on p. 12 of the Guide,, this shared heritage is similar because it focuses on

• delivering value (and eliminating that which does not add value)\
• respect for people
• being transparent
• adapting to change
• continuously improving
• focusing on the best outcome regardless of the approach used

The Kanban method is inspired by the lean-manufacturing system and emerged in the mid-2000s as an alternative to the more formal agile methods that were prevalent at the time.  I had the pleasure of coaching a speaker at the PMI Global Project Management Conference held in Chicago at 2017 who spoke on Kanban methods.   I coached her not because I was an expert on Kanban but because I was a member of the PMI Chicagoland Toastmasters club and as a Distinguished Toastmaster, I offered to help those speakers at the conference who were delivering a talk for the first time and wanted some pointers about how to present their talk in such a way to get their content across in a way that would project confidence and engage the audience in their material.

What I got out of the experience was how much fun the Kanban method was for people who participated in it.   I’ve heard project management called a lot of things, but fun was rarely an adjective used to describe it.  But it was because it was transparent, and people got to react to people, and not to processes, that it became so much more a human endeavor.   That’s why I took out of her talk, and that’s what increased my interest in its relationship to agile project management.

On p. 13 of the Agile Practice Guide, it says that the Kanban Method is the original “start-where-you-are” approach that can be applied with relative ease, and that project teams can progress towards other agile approaches as they deem necessary or appropriate.

Although it was conceived in and around lean manufacturing, it is now widely used in agile settings.

Annex A3 of the Agile Practice Guide goes through more details of the Kanban Method, and I will cover that in a later post.

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I am doing a project where I  going through all the points in the Agile Practice Guide in a similar way that I went through the contents of the 6th Edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) last year.

In my last post, I discussed the point about agile approaches vs. agile methods, where the former focuses on the internal approach or framework, and the latter focuses on the external practice or method.   The Agile Practice Guide tends to settle on the term “approach”, but the term “method”, “practice”, “technique”, or “framework.”

This post takes the focus one step back, so to speak, and shows the relationship between lean and agile.   Agile comes from the world of software development and lean comes originally from the world of manufacturing.   If you look at Figure 2-4 on p. 11 of the Agile Practice Guide, you will see that the Agile Alliance actually puts lean as a wider category that encompasses both the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto and methods such as Kanban.

Why?  Because they share lean concepts such as:

• focus on value
• small batch sizes
• elimination of waste (i.e., that which does not add value)

The Agile Alliance says there are two strategies for fulling the agile values and principles outlined on pp. 8-9 of the Agile Practice Guide.

1. Adopt a Formal Agile Approach

This is an approach intentionally designed and proven to achieve desired results.   Take time to learn and understand the agile approach before changing or tailoring it.   Premature and haphazard tailoring can minimize the effects of the approach and thus limit benefits.

2. Achieve Progress on a Core Value or Principle

Implement gradual changes to project practices in a manner that fits the project context to achieve progress on a core value or principle.  Use timeboxes to create features, or specific techniques to refine features in an iterative manner.   For example, divide one large project into several releases.   The end goal need to be agile for its own sake, but rather to deliver a continuous flow of value to customers and achieve better business outcomes.

So you can head towards agile gradually or by adopting a more formal approach, but it needs to be done in a mindful way in any case.

The Kanban method is one which is used in manufacturing and software environments and therefore it merits a special discussion about its relationship to lean thinking.  Therefore it merits a separate post, which will come next.

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This is a semantic question that is being asked on p. 11 of the Agile Practice Guide.    

One way of making sense of this question is to use the heuristic device from Integral Theory of dividing the approach to any question into the four quadrants listed above.   If you look at a problem from the exterior, in terms of what types of exterior steps you take to the problem, then you are looking at it from the standpoint of a method.

If you are looking at a problem from the standpoint of the interior, in terms of what sort of interior mindset you take when looking at a problem, you are looking at an approach.

Figure 2.4 on p. 11 of the Agile Practice Guide shows several approaches, with “lean” being the largest category, and agile and the Kanban method being subsets of lean because they share some lean concepts such as “focus on value”, “small batch sizes”, and “elimination of waste.”

In studying agile, it is important to study not just the methods, but the mindset that produces them.   I remember asking one of the agile experts at a PM Symposium put on by PMI Chicagoland what he thought was one of the biggest misconceptions people had about agile who were coming from the traditional project management world.

He said, they take a look at the lack of documentation and they think that agile project management is undisciplined.   He said they don’t realize that it is disciplined, but that discipline is internalized, meaning that it exists within the minds of the people who are practicing the methods of agile, and is not always apparent to the casual observer.   Now in some methods, such as Kanban, the formality is more readily apparent because a lot of the action items and even the relationships are made visible, but it is still more informal than traditional project management because it is written on sticky notes that can be shifted around a lot more quickly than items on a spreadsheet.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that the lack of formality means lack of importance.   It is precisely because the relationships are not as formal, i.e., not as rigid, that they are more capable of responding to change, and THAT is one of the “superpowers” of the agile approach.

In the next post, I will discuss in a little more detail the way that the Agile Alliance describes the relationship between lean, agile and the Kanban Method.

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In my last post, on the Agile Manifesto and Integral Theory, I showed how the four values of the Agile Manifesto:

Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

could be explained through Integral Theory as a shift from traditional project management, which favored values of the collective exterior (SYSTEMS shown on the left right such as processes, tools, plans, etc.) over the values of the other three quadrants.   Agile shifts some of the values towards the other quadrants, especially those that deal with relationships between individuals (the CULTURAL values shown on the lower left).

These shifts to the values of the other quadrants are even more important if you look at the twelve principles behind the agile manifesto, as stated in Figure 2-2 on p. 9 of the Agile Practice Guide.   I have listed the values that seem to be most closely aligned to each principle, although in some cases there may be more than one.

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.   WORKING SOFTWARE, CUSTOMER COLLABORATION
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.  Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.   RESPONDING TO CHANGE
3. Deliver working software frequently from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.  WORKING SOFTWARE, CUSTOMER COLLABORATION
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.  INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS
5. Build projects around motivated individuals.  Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.   INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.  INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress.  WORKING SOFTWARE
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development.  The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.   INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.   WORKING SOFTWARE
10. Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.   WORKING SOFTWARE
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.  INDIVIDUALS AND INTERACTIONS
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.  RESPONDING TO CHANGE

On p. 10, it states that “although originating in the software industry, these principles have since spread to many other industries.

Let me give an example.   Look at principle no. 12, “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.”   In the fifth edition of the PMBOK Guide, there was a process called Lessons Learned which captured the lessons learned on a project at the END of a project, where the team reflects on how to become more effective on FUTURE projects.   Because of agile, the team did that reflection at several intervals DURING The course of the project, to the point that, in the sixth edition of the PMBOK Guide, that same Lessons Learned process is done DURING the project at regular intervals.   So this is an example of how agile practices have spread to how projects are done even in traditional settings.

These agile practices now include several agile approaches and agile methods which I will describe in the next post.

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I just came from completing a course at the end of 2018 that showcased a revolutionary new method for learning a foreign language, and I wanted to report on my experience, encourage those who want to learn a foreign language to sign up for her webinar on January 10th, and to show how it has influenced my plan to learn foreign languages in the upcoming year of 2019.

1.  Language Master program–Description

Lýdia Machová is a polyglot who knows 9 different languages and has created a company called Language Mentoring which helps people around the world learn foreign languages in a way that is more efficient, more effective, and incidentally, more fun.

Here are the four principles of her Language Master course taken from her website https://www.languagementoring.com/  :

• We must enjoy learning a language (if it’s not the case, the methods must be changed)
• Mastering any language requires a huge amount of contact with the language.  (There is no shortcut; the work simply must be done.)
• A great amount of contact is of no help if it’s just once a week.   You need [methods which will allow you] to learn often and in smaller amounts–ideally every day (ideally an hour a day, but this can be adapted.)
• Language learning is only sustainable if you find a system–when you know your destination and the way to get there.

I have the passion for learning foreign languages–I remember being fascinated at the age of 6 by my American uncle’s ability to speak Spanish and switch effortlessly from one language to the other.   I ended up learning Spanish in high school, French and German in college, and Chinese and Japanese in graduate school.

But since I have been working full time as a professional, I found that I had little “free time” to pursue my passion of learning a foreign language.   I found that the traditional pursuit of learning a foreign language, having a class and learning from a textbook under the direction of a teacher, took more hours in the week than I had available.

When I discovered Lydia’s course, I was intrigued because it was not based on traditional methods, but on a unique combination of high-tech (apps, websites including YouTube) and some old-school methods involving writing in journals.   The most important thing about the method was not just that it was modular, but it was adaptable–if you had only 15 minutes a day to devote to language learning, you could still do something that day to keep learning the language.   If this approach seems intriguing to you, go to her website and catch her webinar which gives you a sneak peek at her Language Master Course.

2. Language Master program–my experience

The reason why I liked the system she showed in her course was because was adaptable to my busy schedule (one full-time job working 40 hours a week, 10 days a day for 4 days, alternating with three days off), and perhaps most importantly because it created a system very similar to a project plan your progress was steady and stable–if you skipped a day, your system would allow you to return to it without a fuss.   This is like the process of meditation, where if your attention wanders, you learn to bring it back to the focal point of the meditation without any judgment or any other form of mental drama.   To paraphrase a marketing slogan from Nike, you just do it.   Again and again and again.

In my case, I wanted to take my Chinese from its current level of Intermediate to Upper Intermediate–which in practical terms meant taking it from the level of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) or Chinese Proficiency Test Level 3, which I passed two years ago, to the next level or Level 4.   I haven’t taken the test yet, but in the 8 weeks in which the course took place, I know that my listening comprehension at the least has gone up.

3.  Adapting my Language Master program experience to my Language goals of 2019

Lydia recommends for the duration of the Language Master program that you focus on one target language primarily.   In my case, it was Chinese, but you can choose any language you like.   For me, my current levels are the following based on the six-level language proficiency scale called CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) for languages, where A1 and A2 are Beginning, B1 and B2 are Intermediate, and C1 and C2 are advanced

Spanish–B1, French–B2, German–B1, Chinese–B1 and Japanese B2

My targets for the year are to move Chinese and Japanese up one level, to maintain my European languages at least at their current level, and to add one language Arabic, which means bringing that to the A1 level by the end of 2019.

To do this means creating a rotation where I study Japanese and Chinese once a day, one European language at least once every other day, and Arabic at least once every other day.   So every day I am learning Japanese, Chinese, plus one other language (alternating a European language) or Arabic.

I use Rosetta Stone (for speaking and reading), YouTube videos (for listening), Skritter (for writing Chinese/Japanese characters), Duolingo (for vocabulary), and Foreign Service Institute course lessons (for grammar) (see livelingua.com for free access to these).

The best way to start your language journey is the following:

1. Are you learning a new language?  Try Benny Lewis’ Add1 Challenge–for details, see his website https://www.fluentin3months.com/plus-1/
2. Are you increasing the proficiency of your current language?  Try Lydia Machova’s Language Master course–for details, see her website https://www.languagementoring.com/webinar-2019/
3. If you have completed one of the above courses, and want to continue your progress, just keep an accountability sheet, which shows your a) focus areas for the language, b) the amounts of time per week you want to achieve as a goal for each area, and c) the apps you plan to use to achieve that learning goal for each focus area.
4. Join a language-learning community–Benny Lewis’ Fluent in 3 Months blog shows you how!

I will see how far I get in 2019 with my language plan, but I have more confidence I will be able to achieve it because I have been through Lydia Machova’s course, and know that it works!   If I was able to achieve more progress in 8 weeks last year that I did for all the other weeks of the year, then think of how much I’ll learn if I use those same methods for all of the weeks of 2019!

In reality, there’s no “quick” way to learn a language–it requires work.  But the work doesn’t have to be dull, and Lydia’s methods make sure that you enjoy yourself on the way.   Yes, you can be a mountaineer and climb up the face of the mountain as a solo experience, but I would rather go with a group, and have fun with each other as we listen to the tour guide.   So let’s start climbing those language mountains together in 2019!

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In the past couple years, I have gone through the 4th and 5th edition of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), both for my own certification and to lead a study group at the Project Management Institute.    This year I am taking the Project Management Professional Exam, which has at its core both the 6th edition of the PMBOK guide AND the Agile Practice Guide, a collaboration between PMI and the Agile Alliance.  Last year I went through every section of the 6th Edition, and this year I plan to go through every section of the Agile Practice Guide.   It will probably also go through several revisions in the future, and I plan to cover those well.

I am not trying to give the definitive analysis on Agile because I am in fact learning it, and am not yet an experienced practitioner.   I am giving my thoughts and notes on the Agile Practice Guide to help me in my studies towards passing the PMP exam, and so I can have a point of reference for future study groups for the Project Management Institute.

For now, let’s go to Section 2, an Introduction to Agile.

What are the origins of Agile project management?   For a complete history, see the post on the Agile manifesto at the following site.

https://agilemanifesto.org/history.html

This one sentence for summarizes the motivation behind the Agile Manifesto:  “In order to succeed in the new economy, to move aggressively into the era of e-business, e-commerce, and the web, companies have to rid themselves of their Dilbert manifestations of make-work and arcane policies.”   Dilbert is a cartoon by Scott Adams famous for making fun of the micromanagement style found in  corporate offices in the United States.   In my opinion, Agile can be seen as returning the power of decision-making closer to the people who are actually doing the work and who are contact with the customers.

Here are the contents of the Agile Manifesto

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it.   Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan”

Here is what leaps out at me when I read these four statements together.   Notice that the common word that states the distinction between Agile and traditional project management is “over”, NOT “instead of.”   This means that the Agile methodology does not totally repudiate the use of, for example, processes and tools, but rather FAVORS individuals and interactions.

What do all of these shifts in emphasis have in common?   To dig a little deeper, let us bring in the system of quadrants from Integral Theory.   It views any event, like a project, from four different possible points of view.

• The interior individual, which relates to a person’s values, their motivations, etc.
• The interior collective, which relates to an organization’s values, its purpose, and its priorities.
• The exterior individual, which relates to the observed behaviors and performance outcomes we would like for members of the team.
• The exterior collective, which relates to the systems (organizational structure, processes, tools) that an organization uses to accomplish its goals.

Here is a diagram that puts these four quadrants together.

Here are the items on the right-hand side of the Agile manifesto:

• processes
• tools
• documentation
• contracts
• a plan

Where are these items in the Integral Theory quadrants?   They are part of the Exterior Collective quadrant, under SYSTEMS.

Now take a look at the items on the left-hand side of the Agile manifesto:

• interactions
• working software
• customer collaboration
• responding to change

Now, “software” could be considered as part of SYSTEMS, but “interactions and customer collaboration” are part of the interior collective quadrant under CULTURE (the exchange of artifacts between people), and “responding to change” is part of BEHAVIOR.   So it is really a shift in consciousness about what has more emphasis.

NOTE, however, that the word “over” means that the other quadrants are in play.   Yes, an individual’s motivations are very important, but many people I have talked to who have used agile tools such as Kanban report a higher level of engagement and satisfaction among the team members who use them.   This means that their motivation is stronger because they feel a stronger “connection” to the project.   And, of course, working software is part of a system, but it is a system which constantly changes due to interactions with other elements of the quadrant, rather than being something which dominates the other quadrants like a rigid project plan.

The emphasis is not just on the wider sweep of Agile in terms of what quadrants it engages, but also on their interaction, which accelerates the evolution of the team using it, and hopefully, the organization which is carrying it out.

And not to neglect the upper left quadrant of INTENTION, the Agile manifesto is about the values and priorities that individuals on the team should reflect if they are to succeed.

In the next post, on the Twelve Principles Behind the Agile Manifesto, we will discuss in more depth what those values are.

Let me end by saying, therefore, that the changing nature of projects required that the lenses through which people look at them change as well.   That was my point in bringing Integral Theory into this discussion, but I hope you will see from the above discussion exactly HOW this new mindset changes the traditional mindset behind projects.

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I wrote yesterday about the book Living Forward by Michael Hyatt, where he shows you how to write a Life Plan for the coming year.

When creating a Life Plan for 2019, I realized that, looking back at my Life Plan for 2018, I was most successful in those areas where I had good habits, such as doing language study on a daily basis.   For those areas where I lacked both passion and progress, like dealing with personal finances, I realized I had no daily infrastructure, also known as a habit, to keep me inspired towards my goal (the passion part) and/or keep giving me incremental wins that would help me reach it (the progress part).   Of course, these two relate to each other:   it’s hard to make progress in an area if your heart just isn’t it, or you have fear holding you back (one of the psychological sources of procrastination).   Likewise, it’s hard to feel excited about an area where you have so little to show for it.

So how to build both passion and process in the areas of life you want to focus on in the New Year?

I came across some journals at a site called HabitNest.com–in the areas that I wanted to focus on in the New Year:

• The Fat Loss and Nutrition Sidekick Journal
• The Meditation Sidekick Journal
• The Morning Routine Sidekick Journal

Each of these journal focuses on one area (as you can see from the title), and gives you a 66-day program to jump start and maintain a habit in the area of your choice.   I decided to order them all, and I can tell I like their approach right from the start.

Of course, the progress part comes from you actually doing the work of filling in the journal.   But the passion part comes supplied from them, in the form of

• information (like about nutrition in the “Fat Loss and Nutrition Sidekick Journal”)
• daily challenges to focus on one specific goal or task
• daily inspirational quotes
• strategies for successfully creating and implementing activities that establish your habit
• accountability through tracking your progress–even days when you “fall off the wagon” and don’t accomplish what you set out to do

This last one is important–many people set up a rigid, perfectionist ideal of what they should do and the first moment their unrealistic plan runs into “reality”, they head for the hills in defeat.   No, these journals make the “getting back on the wagon” part an essential part of the experience.    Also, they teach you the wisdom of choosing small steps towards achieving your big dreams, and not loading too much on yourself at any one time–especially the first week!

I can’t give a testimonial yet on their effectiveness, because I just got them yesterday.   But I wanted to pass on this recommendation to visit habitnest.com and check out their journals.   If you want to make progress towards your goals in 2019, start by building habits that reinforce and inspire that progress–it’s the approach they take at Habit Nest and one that I really appreciate–especially at the beginning of the year.

Don’t just make a list of New Year’s Resolutions–make only a few, but stick to them!   Do this by hiring a sidekick, namely the Sidekick Journal series.   I’ll let you know at the end of 66 days what my experience was, so stay tuned!

Have a happy and prosperous New Year!    Guarantee it for yourself by bringing new habits to bear in your life that will be the “wind beneath your wings” as you fly towards goals in 2019!

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Happy New Year to everyone on this New Year’s Day in 2019!   I wanted to share with you all the experience I had with the Life Plan system put forward in Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy’s book Living Forward:  A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life you Want.   I used the system last year in 2018, and decided that since I had such a positive experience with it that I would try it again this year in 2019.

So if you are looking to increase the passion and progress that you are making in all areas of your life, then I recommend this book.

Here’s how it works.

Understand your Needs

One of the reasons why the holiday movies Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life are such perennial favorites is because they are ultimately very hopeful movies that speak of redemption.   Despite how much you have messed up in your life in the past, you can still redeem yourself and gain a positive future if you change your behavior in the present.

That essentially is the worldview behind Living Forward.   The first step is imagining your own funeral, and what eulogies will be said on your behalf by all the people that attend them.   What would you like them to say about the legacy you left behind?   This is a very emotional exercise, and I can tell you it is the most difficult because it requires you to be vulnerable and look at your faults in the most honest way imaginable.

However, just like in the movies I mentioned it, it always enables you to feel the sense of hope of a positive future.  Then once you have pictured this envisioned future in as much detail as possible, you can go on to the next step.

Create Your Plan

Okay, you have an envisioned future and your current reality, you can now work on a plan to get from here to there.

Once the reasons why I like the Life Plan process is because it is a full-spectrum plan, meaning that it covers every aspect of your life.   You first determine your various life accounts, or the various aspects of your life.   Here are some suggestions, but of course you can tailor them to your particular situation:

Circle of Being (focuses on you):  Physical, Spiritual, Intellectual

Circle of Relating (focuses on relationships to others):  Social, Parental, Marital

Circle of Doing (focuses on your work):  Financial, Vocational, Avocational (hobbies)

For each account, you give an account of how it went in the previous year:   were you experiencing passion and/or progress in each of those areas?   Rank them in terms of your priority of what you would like to work on.   Normally it is best to focus on those priorities in your Circle of Being, and then to focus on those areas that you are lacking in both passion and progress.   It’s easier to raise your passion for an area first, because that passion will be the “wind in your sails” that inspires you to have greater progress.

You then figure out, for each account, those five or six specific accomplishments you would like to achieve by the end of the year in each account.   And that, my friends, is the essence of the work you have to do in the following year!

Implement Your Plan

You create space in your calendar for many of the activities you will need to do in order to accomplish your goals, after you account for the various fixed activities that you would have to do in any case (birthdays, holidays, work-related activities, etc.).

What I do is I take those yearly goals I figured out in the last section, then I break them out into quarterly goals/tasks.   Then I take those quarterly goals/tasks, break them down into monthly ones, and then the monthly ones into those I am going to during the first week.

Voila!   I have taken the macro plan and broken it down, like a true project manager would, into a series of tasks that can be done within a week.

Even though Michael Hyatt says you need a day to do the entire process, I find that it can be physically and mentally exhausting to try to do it in a day.   I used the time on my vacation to my cousins in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day to do a bit each day.

You should avoid being a perfectionist and try to do the best you can on your plan–believe me, you will be reviewing it on a regular basis so if some new situation comes up, you will be able to adjust your plan accordingly.

So I recommend you get the Living Forward book to help you create a Life Plan for the upcoming year!   As a bonus tip, I recommend you get Michael Hyatt’s Full-Focus Planner that helps you do the breakdown mentioned above.   Otherwise, you can just get a journal-like notebook and use that to do the exercises mentioned in the book.

Why I am recommending it, especially to project managers?   Because it treats your life as a project, and a lot of the approaches you already take towards your projects at work, are perfectly adapted in Living Forward to the biggest project you will tackle in the coming year!

Leave comments if you have any questions about the approach–either in terms of logistics or how it might be able to help you personally.   I did so much last year, so I can attest to its power as a tool for moving forward.   And that’s why I am doing it again, because I want to continue my progress I did last year!

And for those who are dreading creating an endless list of “to-do’s”, one of the reasons why I appreciate this approach is that, on the micro level, it has you build in to your schedule those activities which will help you recharge your batteries.   One of the insights that Michael Hyatt gives you in the Full-Focus Planner is that sometimes being (taking time off for your enrichment) is as important as doing things either for others or for your job.

It is therefore truly a full-spectrum plan that covers every conceivable area of your life!  Try it this coming year and see!

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The second chapter of the Agile Practice Guide, a publication put forth as a collaboration between the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Agile Alliance, introduces agile by showing how it originated.

The first concept, discussed on p. 7, is “definable work vs. high-uncertainty work.”

Definable work projects are characterized by “clear procedures that have proved successful on similar projects in the past.”   The processes involved in the production, let’s say, of a new car, are pretty well understood.   So the level of uncertainty and risk in the execution of a project are relatively low.

New types of design that have not been done before require a lot of problem solvers coordinating their approaches and coordinating their work towards solving those problems in order to create a solution.   An example of this in the history of the space program is the creation of  the Apollo Lunar Module by Grunman Aircraft.    Thomas Kelly, the chief engineer of the spacecraft, related in his book Moon Lander:  How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module how designing a vehicle that could explore unknown territory in space that his company had to navigate through a lot of unknown territory in terms of engineering and the politics of contracting with NASA.

It is a quintessential example of a high-uncertainty project, that had high rates of:

• change
• complexity
• risk

The traditional approach to project management is predictive, in that it attempts to determine the bulk of the requirements up front and to control changes through an orderly change request process.

Such a traditional approach is not well-suited to high-uncertainty projects, and it is this need for a new approach that would be more suited to the more volatile nature of such a high-uncertainty project that led to approaches that would explore feasibility on shorter time cycles and be able to adapt quickly based on evaluation and feedback from the customers or stakeholders.   These approaches have been come to be called agile, and in the next post, I will relate the first movement towards agile methods, which was the publication of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development created in 2001 by thought leaders in the software industry.

The Manifesto for Agile Software Development will be the subject of my new post.

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I’m starting a project of going through the Agile Practice Guide, which was created by the Project Management Institute (PMI) in conjunction with the Agile Alliance to provide an understanding of the various agile approaches now available to project managers.

The first chapter is a general introduction, and gives the justification for PMI coming out with the Agile Practice Guide as a companion to their flagship publication, the 6th Edition of “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” or the “PMBOK® Guide” for short.

The title of this post is based on a term paper assignment I received many years ago from my high school history teacher.   The question he asked was “How Revolutionary was the Revolutionary War?”   The idea of the assignment was that you were to consider how much was changed by the Revolutionary War vs. how much stayed the same as before the war.    Was it a totally break from the previous cultural and political situation (which would make it “revolutionary”) or was there some degree of continuity between the pre-war and post-war situation (which would make it more “evolutionary”).    Were the changes incremental or exponential?

I remember that assignment to this day because when I was reading the primary and secondary sources in order to prepare the paper, I had to view them with the lens of both of those paradigms.    The Declaration of Independence was a revolutionary document in the sense that it based the case for independence not solely on grievances about a set of historical circumstances (although Jefferson did in fact list these grievances in the document), but more fundamentally on universal principles of human rights that were derived not from a particular political compact but from the very nature of the condition of being human (so-called “natural law” theory).

But after independence was won, the government of the new United States took shape incrementally, based on elements that were already existent in the political life of Britain (such as the separation of powers into legislative, executive, and judicial branches).   So I concluded that some aspects of the Revolutionary War were indeed revolutionary (i.e., they replaced what came before), and some aspects were evolutionary (i.e., they were extensions or rearrangements of what came before in new and novel patterns).

I think the same could be said of agile, that is at once both revolutionary and evolutionary.   It was born out of the forces behind the fourth industrial revolution, which according to Klaus Schwab, the chairman of the World Economic Forum, are “a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres, collectively referred to as cyber-physical systems.”  They are based on the effects of digitization and artificial intelligence enabled by the transition to cloud computing.

As it states on p.3 of the Agile Practice Guide, “updated applications, infrastructure and platforms are released into the cloud in an iterative and incremental fashion, keeping pace with improvements to technology and evolving customer demand.

What is revolutionary about the fourth industrial revolution is that is transforms the entire systems of production, management, and governance.    What is evolutionary is that it takes it those already existing elements that are products of the first three industrial revolutions and links them up in new and novel ways.

Because of the faster and faster development cycle based on changing customer demands and advances in technology, the traditional or “predictive” model of project management was seen as inadequate to cope with this new environment which has a lot more high-uncertainty work as opposed to definable work projects.  So agile is revolutionary in that it was a response to revolutionary forces in technology and in society unleashed by social media and the Internet.

However, when you look at the Agile Manifesto, created by thought leaders in the software industry in 2001, you will see that the new values of agile do not totally eclipse the old values of traditional project management, but rather shift the values towards the new ones.   So in that sense it is evolutionary, because it extends, but does not totally replace, the system that existed before it.

To understand this, let’s take a look in the next post at the four values of the Agile Manifesto and how they explain the “agile mindset.”

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