FALL 2018 / ISSUE X
PM
magazine
FALL 2018 | PM magazine A PUBLICATION BY MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY’S GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
AGILE VS. WATERFALL:
Walking the tight rope to project success
Agile vs. Waterfall: Past, Present and Future PAGE 11
Agile in Construction: Been There, Done That PAGE 2
The Life of an Agile Coach PAGE 5
PM Magazine
PM magazine | FALL 2018
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL MESSAGE
Sanjay Bapna, MBA, PhD
Message from the Editor
Welcome to the tenth issue of Morgan’s PM Magazine, a magazine designed by the Masters in Science in Project Management students as part of their capstone course requirement. Due to the strong presence of federal agencies in our region, the Waterfall project management tools and techniques have taken strong root. However, the Agile project management framework has also been catching on. In this celebratory tenth issue, project management experts who have worked with both of these approaches provide great insights on the nuances of these approaches.
The team for this Fall 2018 issue is comprised of eight students, the instructor Dr. Monica Kay and the editor. The eight students: Sunday Aina, Toluwase Ayanleke, Oluwafemi Ebilakun, Olutayo Ojo, Olen Oliver, Oluremi Omosebi, Leena Mathew, and Cortney Williams put in several hours during the twelve-week period to produce this quality magazine. All project management principles such as planning, requirements gathering, resource allocations, cost controls, risk assessment, and execution were carried out to publish the PM Magazine. Two practitioners, Taiwo Adenuga from Maryland Department of Transportation and Donna Senfaute, offer an introduction to agile based projects along with successful implementation cases. Vernon Carter of Pearson Online and Blended Learning, during his interview provided insights on the life of an agile coach assisting teams transitioning to the ‘SAFe’ Agile framework. Four consultants in both the waterfall and agile space: Arlen Bankston of LitheSpeed, Abe Meer of VeeZari Inc, Mike Hannan of Fortezza Consulting, and Folu Awotoye of Ofidy, discuss their experiences with both agile and waterfall and provide their consulting insights into effective strategies to manage both approaches. Michael Pearse of Software Quality Consultants LLC discusses potential quality gaps in the agile approach. Sammie Johnson of Accenture makes a strong case for maintaining proper cybersecurity practices in agile projects. Gavin Austin, Principal Technical Writer at Salesforce, provides best practices for technical writing, an activity that is often not given the prominence in the Agile framework. Agile approaches are also relevant in the construction industry as discussed in an interesting interview with Nicole Travis of City of Lakeland, Florida. Moyo Fakeye of Early Morning Software writes about four key principles in managing an effective agile team. Monica Kay, Adjunct Professor at Morgan State University writes about how she became a convert to the Agile framework, thinking initially that this framework was “a new-fangled concept.”
Sanjay Bapna
Message from Contributing Authors
Toluwase Ayanleke, Sunday Aina, Oluwafemi Ebilakun, Olutayo Ojo, Oluremi Omosebi, Olen Oliver, Leena Mathew, Cortney Williams
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Why Can’t We Be Friends? Agile and Waterfall Abe Meer
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Approaching Agile as A Mindset and not just as a Framework: Confessions of an Agile Convert Dr. Monica Kay
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Agile in Construction: Been There, Done That Nicole Travis
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Coping with Content in Agile Software Development Gavin Austin
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Four Key Principles Used in Managing an Effective Agile team Moyo Fakeye
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The Life of an Agile Coach Vernon Carter
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Our “Agility” is your Pleasure: Agile methodology and Client Satisfaction Taiwo Adenuga
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The Importance of Maintaining Proper Cybersecurity Practices in Agile Sammie Johnson
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Agile Vs Waterfall: Which One to Choose? Donna Senfaunte
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Beyond the Agile Vs. Waterfall Debate—A More Holistic, Common-Sense Approach Michael Hannan
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How To Manage Agile And Waterfall Together Folu Awotoye
We hope that you will enjoy reading through the articles, interviews and come to appreciate the role of agile and waterfall project management approaches to manage projects. Sanjay Bapna, MBA, PhD Professor and Chair of Information Science and Systems Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management
MESSAGE FROM CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS responsiveness, timeliness and capacity to deliver project cycles faster. Is this true? Through team work, rigorous effort and project management techniques, the Master of Science in Project Management (MSPM) graduating class of Fall 2018 presents the 10th edition of this magazine. This edition addresses the differences, issues and arguments surrounding the major shift from the Waterfall methodology to the Agile methodology .
The fast-evolving, aggressive and competitive nature of business industries means there is a constant need for continuous learning and change in project management practices. To ensure that optimum value is derived from projects, methodologies will continue to be questioned and redefined. Waterfall, which is a sequential and linear method of project software development is gradually being challenged by the Agile methodology. Proponents of the Agile methodology boast its
In tune with the theme of this edition, we have enlisted the contribution of industry professionals. Their article contributions offer insight, strategies, trends, approaches, pros and cons, workable similarities and best practices relating to both agile and waterfall. Our passion for excellent project management spurred us towards delivering this magazine edition. We anticipate that the discussions on project management methodologies in this edition will offer valuable views, thoughts, processes and perspectives. We hope you enjoy your reading.
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Software Quality Gaps Inherent in the Agile methodology Michael Pearse
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Agile vs. Waterfall in the Past, Present and Future Arlen Bankston
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AGILE AND WATERFALL–WHY CAN’T WE BE FRIENDS? Let’s give Credit where it’s due There is no argument…, the waterfall approach Abe Meer, PgMP, PMP, ACP, RMP has certainly helped the Agile Coach & Program profession by providing a Management Consultant structured and an organized method to the madness of VeeZari, Inc project management. Logical progression of phases — from concept, project initiation, planning, analysis, design, development, testing and implementation— really made sense. Many organizations around the world, such as the Project Management Institute, have created standards that include structured processes, templates and checklists. This has immensely helped project managers by providing a set of processes to successfully manage large and complex projects around the world for many decades.
The Downfall of the Waterfall The very essence of what made waterfall successful in the first place has actually led to its downfall. Overly structured processes, usage of rigid tools, templates and checklists started coming in the way rather than helping. Too much importance was being given to following the process as opposed to the product and the real essence of what needs to be delivered. In following the process, the product and customer were getting overlooked.
Getting past people’s natural tendency to resist change; lack of agile expertise in the market; difficulty in getting executive buy-in; lack of agilebased project management tools; and skepticism have slowed down the agile bandwagon. Reports from failed agile projects continued to fuel the raging agile vs. waterfall debate.
Why not Agile and Waterfall? This got me thinking! Rather than indulge in this debate, I started looking for ways to use some of the agile concepts in the traditional waterfall projects I was managing. I started asking myself: Why not use the best of both worlds? While it is important to use the right process, what is more important is the outcome we are trying to achieve: the Product! Focusing too much on the process seemed unwarranted to me. I started to bring Agile principles into my waterfall projects and I was sold when I started seeing positive results in my projects! Some of the simple and yet very powerful ideas I was able to implement in my Waterfall projects are described below. The ideas themselves came straight out of the famous Agile Manifesto!
Here Comes Agile Involving the customer right from the beginning; allowing him to adjust or even totally changing the product requirements throughout the project; delivering smaller pieces of the product more rapidly to the market; and increased emphasis on incremental progress as opposed to a big-bang delivery, are some of the key Agile principles that accelerated speed of the agile bandwagon. Arrival of the Agile Manifesto on the scene seemed like what the doctor has just ordered! Agile Implementations were Not Agile enough Agile concepts sounded great and early successes were promising. However, difficulties faced by some were fuelling the agile vs. waterfall debate.
In another project, my teams loved it when we collectively agreed to spend more time to configure the software to our needs than spending enormous amount of time and energy in design discussions and documentation. Agile practices advocate demonstrating smaller chunks of working software over voluminous design and process documents. 3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Requirements documents, traceability and verification matrix, and contracts are essential within the overall context of today’s business world filled with lawyers and procurement specialists. However, frequent and short interactions in my projects have helped teams, consisting of developers, configurators, and users working together to agree on scope, to determine what the outcome should be and seeing small chunks of working software functionality in action, and to approve it. This has helped in delivering what the customer really wanted, which is different from what the customer stated that he wanted. While doing this, we were cognizant of cost and schedule boundaries set by the contract and followed waterfall’s change order processes to manage the scope, cost and schedule changes. Teams were able to resolve issues quickly through the ‘Give and Take’ approach, which essentially is an ultimate collaboration tool. As long as key project parameters are not violated, teams had a good amount of freedom to manage themselves and the immediate aspects of their work. Everybody was happy! The idea discussed here is implemented through agile practices, through sprint planning sessions and daily scrums.
Overly structured and rigid processes were not helping in addressing what the customer wanted from the product. Customers never really care about the processes we use—a customer is primarily concerned about the product: How well we deliver it, how fast, at what price, and how responsive we are to the changing customer requirements. Waterfall based approaches were not supporting some of these customer demands, especially the necessity for the product developers to stay open and flexible to changing requirements in the middle of a project. Customers also wanted to see the product while it is being developed and to provide input while it is being built. Other market realities, such as, faster response time demanded by the market, global market competition, new technological innovations, and ever-increasing need to produce more with less, all were placing additional pressures on product developers in waterfall environments.
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
“Following a plan is good only as long as it makes sense and makes users happy in the end, else it is ineffective.” Agile Manifesto: Core values and how I have implemented them 1. I ndividuals and interactions over processes and tools When all is said and done, processes and tools are not going to get things done in our projects— it is the individuals and the way we bring them together to work as a cohesive group that gets things done. For one of my projects, successfully co-locating my teams under one roof makes it easier for them to freely interact. Easier, shorter, face-to-face, more frequent and personal interactions have improved the overall project productivity. Agile practices advocate the exact same thing: bringing in developers, testers, and business analysts together to interact more frequently through several iteration events.
4. Responding to change over following a plan Following a plan is good only as long as it makes sense and makes users happy in the end, else it is ineffective. It is ineffective because the expectations of a customer are paramount in achieving project success. When we allow businesses to make changes in scope as the product is being built in front of their eyes, the end-product is bound to be good. The idea discussed here is achieved in the agile world of today through agile practices, such as program increment planning, iteration planning, iteration execution, iteration review, and retrospectives.
Conclusion The examples given above are only a small sample of Agile core values being blended into traditional ways of working in my past waterfall projects. The key idea behind developing this hybrid approach was to take advantage of both methodologies and it is my strong belief that any process is just a process; it is just a means to an end—not an end in itself! Reference: Agile Alliance. (2017, November 15). Agile Manifesto for Software Development. Retrieved from https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/the-agile-man festo/
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APPROACHING AGILE AS A MINDSET AND NOT JUST AS A FRAMEWORK: CONFESSIONS OF AN AGILE CONVERT I did not want to hear about it. Avoided it like the plague. I was used to my traditional Adjunct Professor project plans, my schedules, Morgan State University my reports. They all gave me comfort. I liked the structure and formality of it all as I have been using them for years. Then along comes agile. I likened myself to those of previous generations, thinking that this framework was “a new-fangled concept” and surely would not last. Remember Total Quality Management (TQM) anyone? To hear words such as user stories, epics, what is that? velocity? sprints? No thank you. Pass me my waterfall documents, my good old requirements traceability matrices (RTMs), my design and development reviews please, and thank you. Dr. Monica Kay, PMP
Then came the turning point: It stemmed from a grassroots effort from my staff. They were working on a project serving as a mini project management office. During our group meetings they were talking excitedly about the training they had taken in agile and how they were using it on this project. They noted the kanban boards, the sprints, the backlogs and how it made the process of project management and milestone management with the teams easier. What?! Easier? You mean I may lose my beloved waterfall and my
“In experiencing agile, teams must shift their focus to be more nimbleoriented...” processes? I had to find out more. Efficiencies made via communicating and process improvement are always on the top of my list, so I investigated. After a couple of false starts–again, I was truly tied to traditional PM processes–a slow but steady change began to ensue. Instead of detailed reports, I began to utilize issue management being tracked in JIRA, which is an automated tool used for project management and issue tracking for software development projects. This was an easier transition and not so far off from our usual issue tracking in SharePoint. Then came the scrums, which introduced me to another way of managing a project’s workload. This was truly a turning point as it turned typically longer project meetings (sometimes 1 to 5 hours) on the status, to a quick 30-minute or in some cases, a 15-minute
conversation regarding what was in progress, what was done and what was in backlog. For stakeholders that may have been verbose, we were able to get to the core areas of deliverables for project implementation. We even employed the use of a tool called TRELLO, which enabled the use of an electronic Kanban board that we could use with team members who were distributed across multiple locations. The paradigm shift that occurred was essential for project management processes, development of detailed plans, structure and formality. In experiencing agile, teams must shift their focus to be more nimble-oriented with the ability to see and assess impediments as they occur, then communicate and solve issues with a coordinated team approach. This is not too far away from the overall goal of waterfall in project management with an end-product as the goal. With agile as a growing process, project teams must first obtain the education needed to correctly implement agile. There must also be a mindset shift to be receptive to a different way of implementing projects, and to find the commonalities in the traditional project management process for implementation and status reporting. With those mindset and tools in place, I have converted and I am ready for my scrum now.
AGILE IN CONSTRUCTION: BEEN THERE, DONE THAT Nicole Travis
This article discusses how the construction industry has always used the agile approach to project management, via value engineering and the change order process.
Director of Community & Economic Development
Q: You have managed projects
City of Lakeland, FL
in construction and community development; do you prefer traditional project management or agile? Why?
A: In my line of work and my personality, agile is preferred
because there are early deliverables. People need to see results early and often. Project managers have a better sense of ownership of the project because the client is consistently engaged, as a client and also as a member of the team. Project managers are able to see early wins and evidence of their work, and their daily accomplishments can be evaluated. This type of project is best for the construction industry.
Q: Do you consider project management in construction to be agile or waterfall?
A: A hybrid. The traditional side of project management is the
layering and sequencing of construction; which consists of the design and planning phase. However, during execution, Agile methodologies emerge. The execution phase is the physical construction of the project. You cannot physically construct a building using only the traditional waterfall method because field conditions change, products change and value engineering occurs. Value engineering is a less costly way of doing the same
work. In construction this might mean changing a piece of building material or choosing another contractor to do work, as long as it meets quality standards. The design and planning phases are a linear process; however, construction is not. Things happen, and when following your critical path, you have things going on simultaneously, such as, the installation of both the plumbing and mechanical systems and landscaping while interior painting is being done.
Q: The four core values of agile development as stated
by the Agile Manifesto are: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation; and responding to change over following a plan. How can the values of the Agile Manifesto be translated to construction?
A: Through change orders. A change order is work that is
added to or deleted from the original scope of work. It alters the original contract amount and/or completion date and forces a new project to handle changes to the current project. This built in process allows for change during construction and makes the customer an integral and active part of the design team. A customer is able to see a design and make changes if preferred. This autonomy creates stronger collaborations, where both groups are working towards the successful completion of the project.
Q: It is argued that Agile methodology cannot apply to
construction projects because, a key principle of agile is a workable product delivered to the customer at the
conclusion of each sprint. However, in construction work is to be delivered to the customer at the end of the project. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
A: I disagree. In every project, there is a customer and a product.
A construction project is no different. The result is a usable, functional product being delivered to a client. An example of that product may be a house, commercial building, road, or a bridge. Either way, it is the useable end product the client is expecting. Although the work is turned over to the customer at the end of the project, each deliverable and milestone achieved adds value to the project. If a construction project is to adopt an Agile methodology, then that Agile methodology must conform to the construction industry if it is not already accepted.
Q: Agile welcomes changing requirements, even late in
development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. How does the field of construction accommodate change?
A: If the client wants to make a change to the contract, a
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change order is issued. This change order, given to the buyer, acknowledges the change and the cost of the change. Once signed by the buyer, the change becomes part of the contractual obligation. Value engineering is the redesign of the initial design based on cost. If the initial design’s cost was too much and the client wants it cheaper, a redesign with cheaper materials can be done or the same design intent can remain but with a different “look”. Value engineering happens in design and construction. Value engineering or change orders can occur at any point in a project. While costly, the customer still has the option of change. Change orders, request for information and the process of value engineering always accommodate changes in the construction field. Agile can be implemented when there is a change order and when one phase of the project can be started at the same time as another. An example of this concept is doing landscaping while the finishes are being done inside the building.
Q: A key component of agile is the shared
philosophy of the team becoming more adaptable and effective with the objective and/or business case in mind. How do you build an effective project team that spans across different trades within construction? How do you promote teamwork and
“The traditional side of project management is the layering and sequencing of construction; which consists of the design and planning phase. However, during execution, Agile methodologies emerge. The execution phase is the physical construction of the project.” collaboration among project members, working to ensure all are informed?
A: My experience with fostering collaboration and teamwork on
construction projects starts with my pre-construction meeting. I generally set the tone and expectations in that meeting. During this meeting, we discuss the desired outcome, the timeline and how we will resolve conflict throughout the project. A team that includes multiple trades is only effective if there is a clear goal and open communication. Everyone must be willing to share, learn and engage to reach the goal.
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In the field, the superintendent oversees physical operations. He is the extension of the project manager in the field and ensures the collaboration between construction trades. For example, drywall installers and painters are two separate trades. However, in certain situations they must work together on a project to get to a finished product. During painting, the painters may find that there is a huge hole in the drywall. As a result, the hole must be fixed. The superintendent collaborates efforts so that the hole is fixed and painting can continue. The superintendent is the on-site coordinator and problem solver. The Agile methodology has always been evident in the practice of construction because in creating a physical environment, where one has to work with clients and subcontractors, a catalyst for change is always present. This dynamic field, has built within it, contingencies that allow changes to take place even on short notice. The initiation and planning stages encompases the waterfall method of project management, while the physical construction is influenced by the Agile methodology. Reference: Agile Alliance. (2017, November 15). Agile Manifesto for Software Development. Retrieved from https://www. agilealliance.org/agile101/the-agile-manifesto/
COPING WITH CONTENT IN AGILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT Many writers are trying to figure out how to meet deadlines, write quality content, and stay sane as their Gavin Austin software companies switch from the traditional “waterfall” Principal Technical method of development to Writer the increasingly popular Agile Salesforce, Inc. methodology. Salesforce’s documentation team found few resources to help us work with agile, even though our executives, managers, and agile coaches were determined to help us succeed. From our experience, we created strategies and best practices that help us thrive in (and enjoy) writing in an agile environment. Are You Really Agile? If your company implements agile methodologies in a haphazard manner, you may not really be agile. And if you aren’t really agile, you may not find a lot of benefit. The rest of this article may help you in small ways, but it can be tough to cope with sort-of-agile or mostly-agile implementations. The following are minimum criteria for being able to get full value out of an agile environment:
• Executive support. It may scare executives to imagine
a company full of self-organizing groups in charge of the product development process, but, agile does not work unless those executives take the risk and respect rules around scrum team organization.
• Whole teams. Development, documentation, quality
assurance, and product management should be represented at all agile meetings.
Organizations should invest in training and coaches to really make it work. The good news is that any of the following techniques can be used to improve the documentation process in a not entirely agile environment. Implementation Solutions We recommend the following strategies for implementing agile for writers to make the transition easier.
• Encourage patience. Executives understood that all
development team members, including writers, would experience an adjustment period transitioning to agile. No one expected a perfect transition. Managers communicate the need for patience across the organization.
• Provide training. Every product team member — in-
cluding writers — should attend a class that explains agile. Every new employee in product development should be required to attend agile training.
• Build templates. Writing, updating, and organizing “Agile relies on face-to-face interaction, frequent updates, and team members confident enough to volunteer input, whether good or bad.” documentation plans became easier for writers after management provided templates. The templates help writers think about documentation requirements for products developed in agile, and allows writers to change aspects of their plans as products evolve.
• Training and coaching. Organizations may latch • Standardize tracking tools. Working in an agile enon to a few elements of agile methods, like just-intime development or light organizational structure, but it really takes all the parts to make it work well.
vironment is easier if all product development teams use the same tracking tool. Ours was internally developed, but there are many commercially available.
• Pad estimates. Give your team estimates that are lon-
ger than what you think is necessary to complete a task.
• Provide clear definitions. Concepts such as “getting to
done” became clear to writers after management provided definitions with examples on an internal wiki page and on slide decks used at sprint reviews.
• Hire more writers. Switching to agile immediately exposed the need to hire more writers to ensure quality documentation. When developer headcount increases, writer headcount should increase too.
• Learn to adapt. It is easier to adapt to an agile environ-
ment when writers focus on its benefits instead of its challenges. We have learned to expect more changes and to spend more time out of our cube talking to team members.
• Extend documentation deadlines. Writing in an agile environment is less stressful when documentation deadlines extend slightly beyond the product development deadline. Providing writers with at least an extra week allows for higher quality. However, this also opens the door to accumulating more debt from others. Anything more than a week seemed to increase debt.
Daily Best Practices for Writers We recommend that writers in an agile environment use the following best practices daily to reduce stress, set expectations, and ensure consistent communication with their teams. 1. Ask questions. Ask your team to clarify anything that is unclear to you at the daily scrum meetings. That is why the meeting is held. 2. Email your team. Email any product or process suggestions to everyone on your scrum team. Agile means working together as a team instead of seeking direction from management alone.
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3. Write fiction. Learn to feel comfortable writing documentation for products you can not test yet. You are more likely to meet deadlines by writing fiction than by waiting to write nonfiction for a finished product.
attendees from having to attend the meeting. If you produce the questions, there’s almost always someone on the team willing to provide the answers. Also, be willing to do more digging and playing. You would be surprised at how little you may need to get started.
4. Revise fiction. Learn to revise any fiction before it ships to customers. Insert revision reminders in documents and add revision reminders to your calendar. 5. Skip meetings. Skip meetings that do not add value to the documentation. For example, it might not be necessary for writers to attend code review meetings between developers and quality engineers. 6. Schedule office hours. Schedule a few hours on your calendar each week to answer documentation related questions for your scrum team (or for scrum teams who are not assigned a writer). Agile is a proactive environment: let developers and product managers come to you. 7. Organize documentation “blitzes”. Organize weekly or monthly documentation blitzes — a time when your team works together to review and find flaws in each other’s documentation. Blitzes help ensure accuracy and introduce writers to products they might not be familiar with. 8. Write bottom-up as well as top-down. Agile emphasizes flexibility over processes; it is okay to write a plan after you start writing topics. Do what you think is best for you, the team, and the product. 9. Learn what to ignore. Take what you can from agile and ignore the rest. Agile focuses on software development, not writing. For example, attending daily scrums only twice a week may be enough. Agile means self-organizing; it is okay if different teams work in slightly different ways.
Troubleshooting The short answer to every question is: speak up! Agile relies on face-to-face interaction, frequent updates, and team members confident enough to volunteer input, whether good or bad. What do I do if I’m not invited to meetings, such as daily “stand ups”? Find the person who runs the meetings, ask to be added to the meetings, and be prepared to explain why. You may need to reassure the person that you will not slow down the meeting, and remind her that the more you learn, the less time you need from subject matter experts (SME). Escalate if needed. If you can not attend scrum meetings, sprint reviews, and similar meetings, the organization probably has bigger problems that need addressing, and you are not really writing in an agile environment. What do I do if product managers or developers think agile is a license not to write functional specifications? If you have agile coaches or anyone monitoring the health of the agile implementation, ask for help. If you do not, we have found out that the following produce results: holding meetings, and suggesting in the invite that answering pre-screened questions will save
How do I cope with last-minute code check-ins? Some organizations insist that documentation should not be held to the same cycle as development and quality assurance, but of course this just leads to more debt being accumulated. Some organizations define “done” in such a way as to leave a little wiggle room for those Friday afternoon check-ins. The best way to cope with this is to help manage the process so that late check-ins do not occur. Bring up in sprint review meetings that any user interface affecting work should be done early, not late. Or, remind folks that their work may not get translated, or will stick out as possibly of lower quality without adequate time to review online text and other steps. If someone really does check in a hunk of code at the last minute, with a lot of documentation ramifications, remind the team that the whole team is not done until all the work is done, and ask for help. You may not get help the first time, but the wonderful thing about scrum is that team members get the chance to learn from their mistakes and improve every month. Writing in an agile environment poses new difficulties for writers, but so did the typewriter and computer when they were first introduced. With widespread support, patience, and best practices from our managers and executives, we learned how to use agile and discovered that the benefits it provides writers outweighs the struggles we encountered when learning how to use it.
FOUR KEY PRINCIPLES USED IN MANAGING AN EFFECTIVE AGILE TEAM Moyo Fakeye Project Manager Early Morning Software (EMS) Inc.
In today’s world, agile management has really caught on with big and smaller organiz ations across all sectors of the economy. There are so many discussions and writings about the Agile framework and its benefits by numerous renowned practitioners.
It is important that a project manager takes a deep look at these principles and the cultural makeup of project teams.
4. Choosing the right principles and concepts
1. One of the principles that would allow for effective
“...the makeup of project teams is one of the most important factors to consider when implementing the Agile methodology.”
management is creating an environment that encourages a constant feedback cycle as well as an allowance for failure. This is very important because, in order to be agile, a team needs to be nimble. This ensures that the occurrence of change can easily be incorporated into the ongoing team activities.
ability to follow defined processes. There are numerous software tools in the marketplace that are built with an agile team in mind, so it is important for a manager to do research on the different features available in the marketplace and choose the right one for the team.
2. Another way to manage agile teams more
3. Another mistake in managing an agile team
One thing that is usually omitted when the Agile framework is adopted by an organization is how to manage agile teams throughout the organization effectively.
effectively is to ensure that the right project management tool is chosen. With a lot of employees working remotely these days, project management tools that allows for virtual teams to collaborate in an efficient manner is important. These project management tools must have the
is not understanding the team culture. To be an effective manager, you have to examine what aspects of the Agile framework would be used in your organization. Agile management comes with numerous how-to’s and managing principles, but these concepts are very generic and generalized.
to implement should be done with the makeup of project team members in mind. In my agile practitioning experience which spans over a decade, the makeup of project teams is one of the most important factors to consider when implementing the Agile methodology. Organizations must ensure that the adoption of the Agile methodology involves careful customization with the cultural makeup of the company in mind In conclusion, the paradigm shift of Agile management is here to stay. Companies need to invest in management training and technology to help their managers succeed. Most business schools are now teaching Agile management methodologies in their coursework so graduates and junior level staff are going into the workplace expecting to be competent Agile managers. To effectively manage a team with the Agile framework, it is important that managers understand the uniqueness of their organization. Managers must also seek to understand how agile management can play a role in improving organizational efficiency.
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THE LIFE OF AN AGILE COACH Vernon Carter Jr. Scrum Master and Agile Coach Pearson Online & Blended Learning
The following interview is a conversation between Cortney Williams (PMP), a new Product Owner at Pearson Online & Blended Learning and her agile coach Vernon Carter Jr. Roles and responsibilities of an agile coach as well as day-to-day challenges observable when assisting companies and teams transitioning from a waterfall to an agile work environment are discussed.
are transitioning from a waterfall to an agile work environment? A: The journey from waterfall to agile is a cultural shift. When you are talking about changing the culture of an organization,
Q: As an agile coach currently assisting teams transitioning to the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), can you explain how you came into this role and give some insight into what exactly is the SAFe Agile methodology? A: Coming from a waterfall project management background and having no prior knowledge of agile, I often observed the low morale in my previous company due to consistently late deliverables and dissatisfied clients. I took on the role of scrum master, which is a coach of the development team and process owner in the scrum framework. The responsibility of the scrum master is to remove impediments, facilitate productive events and coach the development team and others on the scrum framework. I immediately gained an interest in the scrum environment and began research efforts to learn more about the history and ideology of agile. Scrum is an Agile framework for developing and sustaining complex products, with specific roles, events, and artifacts. With over five years of scrum experience, in addition to completing various trainings and workshops, my observation is that traditional project management is more “command and control” in nature versus agile; which takes on a more empirical approach. I truly believe we are going to see a growing trend of companies adapting to agile in order to handle complex issues. If you picture agile as a large umbrella, there are many different frameworks that fall underneath. SAFe is a widely popular framework used by larger organizations such as Amazon, Pearson, and Microsoft, just to name a few. It stands for Scaled Agile Framework and is a knowledge base of integrated patterns for enterprise-scale lean-agile development. It combines lean and agile principles and applies them to larger-scaled projects which improves the way organizations define employees roles. It also brings together large departments and teams to work towards the same strategic objectives. Agile coaches in the SAFe model are considered lean change agents and we are tasked with transitioning teams and people to work incrementally while implementing a Lean-Agile mindset throughout. Q: What kind of industries have you worked in as an agile coach? A: The beneficial thing about agile is that it can be applied to almost any industry and type of work. I have been able to apply my professional experience in the education, retail, and travel industries and even used agile processes to build project management software. Most agile principles and practices work really well with companies that utilize cross-functional teams of people that do different types of work and have various skill-sets. These teams include specialists from different departments, fields and levels. Working within an agile team requires them to selforganize and collaborate to work towards a common goal. Q: Can you explain some day to day challenges you face when coaching teams and departments that
a good understanding of the framework and are able to function efficiently in an agile environment. In order to do that, you need to find out where the individual currently is in their career journey and what they want to know and do not know. Knowing this information about the team members will help guide them in the appropriate direction. In order to effectively coach and teach agile, it is good to prepare content in advance that will give insights into ceremonies, techniques, and history. It is important to prepare for remote or co-located teams in an agile environment. In addition to training others, coaches need to think about the system as a whole. Coaches need to look at the entire organization holistically while overseeing projects and identifying opportunities to reduce waste. Q: What would you consider to be some satisfying experiences and moments of being a SAFe agile coach?
“ The days of people working in silos and sweeping issues under the rug or kicking it down the road are over. All issues should be bubbled upward and solved to continually progress in this day and age.” the employees are the ones directly impacted. When you have departments and teams that have been operating the same way for many years, it can be difficult to inform/guide everyone into adapting a new way of working. Within any working environment, there is always a human element that must be catered to. An agile principle to keep in the forefront is individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Although we may have a method that can help an organization do work faster, or a new tool that can decrease operational costs by 1000%, we can never put a framework above the interactions we have with the people that do the work day in and day out. I must be able to tackle issues each and every day with empathy and a certain degree of influence to ensure we are moving in the right direction. In my opinion, this is every scrum master’s or agile coach’s toughest challenge. Another challenging piece is establishing a baseline and understanding where we want to go as an organization. Many people assume that agile is a silver bullet to solve all the organizations issues internally and externally with clients. It is not. Agile is what makes all those issues transparent so the smart people that work within the organization can provide creative solutions to solve them. Of course, anytime you change the way you work, there will be some resistance as well as a new set of issues that will appear which will have to be addressed. The days of people working in silos and sweeping issues under the rug or kicking it down the road are over. All issues should be bubbled upward and solved to continually progress in this day and age. Q: What are your core duties and responsibilities as an agile coach working with Pearson Online Blended Learning? A: As an agile coach, my main responsibilities are to coach, train and teach. My role can also be considered as a day-to-day mentor who consistently guides teams of new employees, product owners and scrum masters. My mentoring ensures that they have
A: The enjoyment of watching teams present their demo presentations at the end of a sprint and seeing how proud they are of their work is really satisfying. Also, when people start to gain a better understanding of how to work in an agile environment and begin to ask the right questions, it lets me know that they are headed in the right direction. I just might be doing my job right. Lastly, it is really satisfying to see others become passionate about agile! No matter the challenges or difficulties, I really enjoy it and have to take the small wins where I can! Q: Can you provide any tips for others that may want to get involved in Agile coaching? A: My advice would be to do your research, and search and apply for positions as a scrum master. This will allow you the opportunity to get your foot in the door of an Agile environment and start gaining knowledge and skills right away. It will also provide practical experience. Next, you should work towards getting some sort of agile certification. Not only will it help you expand your knowledge and skills, it will also give you the baseline for everything you will need to learn as an agile coach. Obtaining certifications are an important factor in furthering your progression for working and coaching in an agile environment and industry. Another tip is to get involved in your community. Research local agile meetup groups, summits and volunteer at conferences such as Scrum Alliance Global Gathering & SAFe summits that are held several times a year in various cities around the world. A really cool benefit of volunteering is that you are able to attend most of these events for free, and network. Get into the habit of listening to agile webinars online when available. Lastly, find a mentor that you can collaborate and brainstorm ideas with. This could be someone you work with or met at an event. I used to come to work at 6-7 am daily to meet with my mentor just to whiteboard ideas and concepts so I could learn more about the industry. He gave great advice and helped me get to my current level of understanding. Trust me, I have much more learning to do as I grow in this space. If I had to give one lasting piece of advice to anyone wanting to get into the agile space, it would be to not rush your growth. Stop to learn something new every day because learning is a wonderful never-ending journey filled with challenges and brilliant ‘ah ha’ moments. Reference: Project Management Institute. Agile Alliance. (2017). Agile Practice Guide. Newtown Square, PA. Agile Alliance. (2017, November 15). Agile Manifesto for Software Development. Retrieved from https://www. agilealliance.org/agile101/the-agile-manifesto/
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OUR “AGILITY” IS YOUR PLEASURE: AGILE METHODOLOGY AND CLIENT SATISFACTION Bitter or sweet experience...the aftermath of implementing Agile Taiwo Adenuga, MSPM, methodology in organizations and PMP, ITIL its impact on client satisfaction? Senior I.T. Project When we talk about agile, the first Manager thing that comes to mind is ease and Maryland Department flexibility. Agile is an all-inclusive of Transportation methodology that encompasses flexibility, continuous improvement, team input and the successful delivery of project outcomes with topmost quality. Today, many organizations are transitioning from using the waterfall “traditional” method of managing projects to using the agile method of project management because of the level of satisfaction and benefit to both the project team and the customers. Having been privileged to work on both waterfall projects and agile projects, I clearly envision the waterfall model gradually fading out of use in most organizations. Agile is what I like to consider as, “deliver as you go” right from the beginning of the project until the end. The whole cycle of the Agile methodology encourages user involvement, provides transparency, visibility and delivers project values to its customers by revealing the actual progress of projects. The iterative feature imbedded in agile makes it very easy to adapt when project requirements change which happens often on projects. The Agile methodology encourages continuous planning and feedback throughout a project. This implies that business value gets delivered early in the process which makes it easier to reduce risks associated with development of a project. As an example, I was recently assigned to a project which was initiated months prior to me getting a position in the organization. As the project transitioned to me, the business requirements documentation took about six months to be completed due to the complexity of the project. Three other project managers (who had to leave the organization for different reasons) started out on this project before I was onboard. There was confusion from stakeholders’ perceptions about what the deliverables should be for the project. The project business owner, project sponsor and other signatories on the project charter refused to sign-off on the document because they were not comfortable with the business requirements. Since this project originated as a waterfall project, it had to go through the sequential phase of gathering and analyzing requirements, design phase, implementation phase, testing, training and the maintenance phase. The business requirements gathering alone took a bulk of the project timeline which was already impacting the overall project schedule. When I took over this project and had my initial kickoff meeting with all the stakeholders, I suggested managing this project using the agile approach which they have never had to work with before. Based on their experiences and dissatisfaction with previous project managers, the stakeholders were hesitant to move forward with the project. The business owner and project sponsor considered pulling the plug. I persisted and gave them an overview of how the agile approach worked. I made the intention of using the Scrum framework of agile to manage the project, which is basically used to manage projects with complex requirements and aggressive deadlines. I explained the three roles in scrum which includes: product owner, scrum master and the development team. The product owner (customer or customer representative) is charged with the authority to decide what goes into the final product, makes and maintains the product backlog which is a list of prioritized tasks and requirements needed for the final product. The development team is responsible for
ways to improve our work in order to be more efficient for the next sprint. After the first sprint, the project charter was approved which was a great milestone achievement. The stakeholders were impressed at the pace the project was moving. They could see the feasibility of successfully delivering the project using the agile approach and a degree of satisfaction became more apparent. From my experience, the Agile methodology based on the scrum framework provides the following customer-centric advantages:
• Benefits Realization: Scrum supports new features of the product
“Scrum supports new features of the product to be developed incrementally in sprints (iteration rounds).This allows for some project benefits to be available far before the project is completed. This is beneficial to the customer because they can have a foretaste of what is being created.” the delivery of the product, gives the estimates, details what needs to be done, and provide status reports at daily scrum meetings. The scrum master serves as an advocate for the team, handles team communication, manages team discussions, and ensures that the team is progressing using scrum principles.
to be developed incrementally in sprints (iteration rounds). This allows for some project benefits to be available far before the project is completed. This is beneficial to the customer because they can have a foretaste of what is being created. It allows a project to earn incentives as the project progresses because the customer has realized some benefits early. They are happy to release funding because they have something tangible coming out of the whole project.
• Quality Management: With scrum, testing occurs in every sprint
which ensures continuous assessment of the product as it is being developed. If there are any quality issues on the product, it immediately draws the attention of the scrum team to the issues and allows the team to make necessary adjustments/corrections if required. This avoids a lengthy “bug” correction timeline at the end of the project which most customers dislike with a passion. Agile helps my projects to get it right as we progress through various requirements.
• Transparency: This is another added advantage for using the
scrum approach. Active involvement of stakeholders is encouraged throughout the products development. Knowledge of how the project progresses and the product development is known to the clients which helps to ensure that their expectations are managed effectively. The fact that the product owner is always in tune with what is happening gives a sense of belonging that brings satisfaction to customers.
In scrum, projects are managed through a series of iterative sprints. This sprint is a time boxed event of one month or less (typically, two weeks) during which specific tasks from the backlog will be completed and made ready for review. The length of time will be decided by the scrum team. All future sprints will be based on the criteria for the first sprint. The scrum team will have a daily scrum meeting to give progress updates on the tasks, and brainstorm solutions to challenges. Each sprint will end with a review, where the scrum team will review their work and examine ways to improve the next sprint. Once the sprintplanning meeting is completed and a commitment has been made by the scrum team, the tracking process begins. The progress is tracked using burn down charts and a task board. The task board will be utilized to track the progress of the tasks for each feature and will be used to move items across the board when analyzing what was accomplished the previous day, what the team plans to do presently, and challenges faced. The agile approach piqued the stakeholders interest and they agreed to give the project another chance. By the end of the meeting, the stakeholders identified resources, roles on the scrum team and committed to the agile approach with me being the scrum master. I was certain to add that the principles of the Scrum framework will have to be adhered to in order to successfully manage the project.
• Flexibility and Agility: Unlike the traditional approach that poorly
We started out with the first sprint. The scrum team worked on their assigned tasks and checked in with each other on the progress of our work at the daily scrum meeting which lasted no more than 15 minutes. We reviewed the work accomplished and presented the completed tasks at the end of the sprint. During the retrospective meeting, we reviewed how the actual work process went and examined
Kneafsey, S. (2016). Benefits of Scrum and Agile. Retrieved on September 20, 2018 from https://www.thescrummaster. co.uk/scrum/benefits-scrum-agile/.
assumes we can know 100% of the projects requirements upfront, in agile, change is accepted and expected as better requirements come to light and are properly scoped. Agile is a good facilitator of progressive elaboration. Although too much change is bad for projects, the benefit here is the flexibility of the Agile framework. The continuous iterations are an enabler for situations where the requirements of a project are not initially clear.
Agile is an effective approach that enables scrum teams to respond swiftly and efficiently to change. This enables teams to continually evaluate what is working and what is not working on the project. It also encourages the client’s active involvement in the entire process since it relies heavily on collaboration between team members and the customer. The constant evolution of requirements and the ability to accept change as needed, helps ensure that the scrum team builds the right product that delivers the desired value to the clients and create a much better business engagement and client satisfaction. References:
Sliger, M. (2011). Agile project management with Scrum. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2011-North America, Dallas, TX. Newtown Square, P.A: Project Management Institute
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THE IMPORTANCE OF MAINTAINING PROPER CYBERSECURITY PRACTICES IN AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT A project is defined as, “a planned undertaking such as Sammie Johnson, MS, a definitely formulated piece MBA of research, a large, usually Senior Cyber g o ve r n m e n t - s u p p o r t e d Security Analyst undertaking, or a task or Accenture, Inc. problem engaged in usually by a group of students to supplement and apply classroom studies.” Projects are nothing new as they are implemented in various areas such as technology, business, education, healthcare, science, and the arts to name a few. Any project, regardless of specialized focus, contains a project charter - a document that formally recognizes a project’s existence and provides authority for the project manager to use organizational resources to complete said project. Similarly, the scope statement serves as a document that gives a detailed analysis of the work that is required for the project. “The main tools and techniques used in defining scope include expert judgment, product analysis, alternatives identification, and facilitated workshops.” Of those tools and techniques listed, expert judgment may need to be more accurately assessed. Why is Cybersecurity Important? Consider this: a successful project is one that is under time and under budget, but, most importantly, is one that achieves its objective(s). But at what cost? “In 2013, a survey from cloud portfolio management provider; Innotas, revealed that 50 percent of businesses surveyed had experienced an IT project failure within the previous 12 months.” Three years later, in 2016, the rate had increased. “According to the most recent Innotas annual Project and Portfolio Management Survey, in fact, the numbers have increased: 55 percent of the 126 IT professionals surveyed between January and March 2015 reported they had a project fail, up from 32 percent in 2014.” What is causing these projects to fail? Lack of resources? Poor leadership? Possibly. However, there is an emerging threat that is gaining strength by the minute: cybercrime. As long as there is integration in a project, that project is going to contain data, and how that data is protected is sometimes overlooked due to stringent timelines of iterations and pressure to reach milestones. This ideology must immediately change. When considering a Systems Development Life Cycle methodology (SDLC) for project management, both waterfall and agile are popular choices among many institutions. This is the case as they are both reliable methods that have proven results. However, when it comes to bolstering the security within a project, agile may have the advantage over waterfall and should be viewed as the preferred choice for several reasons. First, within agile, there are smaller teams who rely on consistent communication to create deliverables quickly. Waterfall does not operate in this manner as many crucial people are often siloed off from each other. Second, because there is constant communication, there is also an end-to-end
“when it comes to
bolstering the security within a project, agile may have the advantage over waterfall...” threat detection from project inception to project closing. Renee Robinson Stromberg, Head of Tail-f Marketing, believes the following: “Service providers that adopt an agile approach understand potential security threats as they develop services for their customers. A joined-up strategy means your business is aware of any security concern as it hits the pipes, while it is in the pipes and even afterwards.” Also, having all your teams work closely together minimizes the probability of security issues going undetected. All of these are paramount reasons to consider agile over waterfall methodology for better security. Additionally, project manager Brad Egeland, is noted for sharing his own issues with project management and a lack of security by stating the following: “hacking and cybercrime is on the rise. It’s changing technology, it’s changing the landscape of the data and sensitive information on the projects we are leading, and it should definitely be changing the way we plan for and approach these projects we are managing.” Egeland further embellishes on the topic by stating, “Getting hacked isn’t just something that happens to someone else anymore. It has happened to more than 40% of my project and consulting clients to some degree over the past 2-3 years and that number will only go up.” So, with the few statistics that have been covered thus far, the conclusion can be made that project failure can also be attributed to the vector of cybercrime and the lack of preparedness towards it. Again, you may ask: “Why?” Take for instance any major data breach that has occurred within the past few years such as the PlayStation Network hack, Target, Equifax, Yahoo. All
were disastrous in nature and wreaked havoc on the infrastructure of many internal projects. Of these, Yahoo’s breach in September 2016 was undoubtedly the most devastating by sheer volume alone as it affected 3 billion user accounts. Personally Identifiable Information (PII) such as government names, phone numbers, and dates of birth of those impacted were all made available to nefarious individuals with malicious purposes. During this time, Yahoo was in negotiations to sell itself to telecommunications conglomerate Verizon. Due to this data breach, Yahoo’s value saw a massive decrease and plummeted $350 million in sale price to Verizon. From this example, one can see how a lack of cyber preparedness can be a major disruptor to projects and ultimately cause failure. What if Yahoo could not contain the breach? What if Verizon had decided to back out of the acquisition? These scenarios would have resulted in a project failure. Therefore, there must be a more proactive attitude and overall higher cyber aptitude towards defending against impending attacks; there is no iteration schedule or milestone objective that should take precedence over such. Therefore, it is imperative that the Agile methodology be highly prioritized to not only achieve optimal success in all project endeavors but also be monumental in securing increased revenues and eventual profits from such an undertaking. References: Armerding, Taylor. (2018.) “The 17 Biggest Data Breaches of the 21st Century.” https://www.csoonline.com/ article/2130877/data-breach/the-biggest-data-breaches-ofthe-21st-century.html Definition of project https://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/project Egeland, Brad. (2018.) “Four Critical Cyber Security Trends for Projects and Organizations in 2018.” https://www. projecttimes.com/articles/4-critical-cyber-security-trendsfor-projects-and-organizations-in-2018.htm Florentine, Sharon. (2016.) “More Than Half of IT Projects Still Failing.” https://www.cio.com/article/3068502/projectmanagement/more-than-half-of-it-projects-still-failing.html Ismail, Nick. (2017.) “What Project Managers Need to Know About Cyber Security.” https://www.information-age.com/ project-managers-need-know-cyber-security-123465431/ Schwalbe, Kathy. (2011.) Information Technology Project Management. Boston, MA: Course Technology. Stromberg, Renee S. n.d. “What the Shift to Agile Means for Your Security Team.” https://www.cisco.com/c/m/ en_us/network-intelligence/service-provider/digitaltransformation/shift-agile-security-team.html
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AGILE VS. WATERFALL: WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE? WHAT IS WATERFALL? Waterfall is a rigid, linear, sof tware development methodology that places Donna Senfaute emphasis on a structured Senior Project Manager and planned approach. Quality assurance is key in Tailored Technical Solutions this methodology. The project moves in one direction; from conception, initiation, planning, analysis, design, development, testing, and then implementation. There are quality gates between each phase, typically requiring sign off from the customer and project management team. The scope and requirements are developed upfront and changes to the requirements and/or scope are typically, not embraced. Detailed schedules are developed based on the upfront scope and requirements definition, which are then baselined to determine how well the project is being managed, comparing estimated completion dates to actual completion dates.
“Higher customer
satisfaction and decreased project risk are earmarks of most agile projects” WHAT IS AGILE? Agile is a lean methodology for software development, created to solve the problems encountered with the waterfall methodology. It is based on the Agile Manifesto, which defines twelve Agile principles, summarized by the following four core preferred values: Individual interactions over process and tools Working software over documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiations Responding to change over following a plan Agile is a very flexible methodology and advocates adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, continual improvement, and it encourages rapid and flexible response to change. It emphasizes early delivery of the product and supports adaptive and flexible changes that can be made at any point in the project’s life cycle. There are many Agile frameworks, but Scrum and Kanban are the most popular.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES Agile has become a popular project management method, with the majority of US organizations using either an agile or a hybrid agile method, while the number of pure waterfall projects is declining. Waterfall often receives massive negative criticism, however, both agile and waterfall have their advantages and disadvantages. Agile projects, in general, have a higher success rate and the time to market tends to be quicker. Agile projects often have higher product quality, as testing is part of each development increment. Higher customer satisfaction and decreased project risk are earmarks of most agile projects, as customers are involved throughout each product increment, providing feedback as the product is developed. The emphasis on communication and collaboration increases transparency, resulting in better project control. Finally, because of the incremental development approach, features are delivered early and frequently, hence resulting in a quicker return on investment. While the Agile method has many advantages, it does have some disadvantages. First, documentation is often sidetracked. Many believe that being agile means no documentation, but that’s not true. It means producing only the necessary documentation and doing so when it is needed. The emphasis on communication and collaboration requires more time from both the development team and the customer. The project cost and progress are more difficult to measure on agile projects than waterfall projects. The Waterfall method can provide more predictable budget, timeline, and scope. Waterfall projects commit to a goal, scope, deliverables, and end product at the beginning and avoiding deviation from this commitment is a key practice. Waterfall’s approach is highly methodical, so it should come as no surprise that the methodology emphasizes a clean transfer of information at each step. Waterfall projects, however, have a higher risk that the customer will not be satisfied with the product, as customer feedback occurs after the product is developed. For example, it is difficult for a development team to make significant changes to code once the entire system is developed. Also, change is not embraced in waterfall projects, which also lead to decreased customer satisfaction. SO, WHICH DO I USE? Well, it depends on the project. Waterfall works well for projects where the scope and requirements are clear and not expected to change much. It is also a good approach for projects where the tasks need to be sequential, such as installing a firewall. Some would argue that Waterfall is also better for backend code development as the requirements are typically straight forward. For the most part this is true, but I would argue that this depends on the nature of the backend code. I have managed projects involving complex rules and calculations, based on intricate requirements involving multiple business areas. One example is an IRS project I managed which involved the development of a custom, scripted call center application, with a backend rules
engine. The United States bankruptcy laws, state and local bankruptcy laws, IRS policy, as well as the evolving policy of the new call center were all inputs to the rules or requirements. Throughout the project lifecycle, the requirements naturally evolved as the call center’s policy evolved. Also because of the complexity of integrating national, state, and local bankruptcy laws, it was impossible to define all the requirements upfront. We had to be agile! In general, agile is better for user interface development. Eliciting and incorporating customer feedback throughout the lifecycle typically results in better usability and therefore customer satisfaction and agile is also better when the requirements are not clear, as in the example above. Below are some questions to ask that are helpful to determine which method to use.
Question
Waterfall Agile
Is the project scope clearly defined?
Yes
No
Is the approach to developing the product known/ straight forward?
Yes
No
Does the product require constant customer feedback?
No
Yes
Are customers available to participate throughout the entire project life cycle?
No
Yes
Is rapid product delivery extremely important?
No
Yes
Is the development team able and willing to work in an evolving environment?
No
Yes
Is the development team willing and able to communicate and stay synchronized throughout the entire life cycle?
No
Yes
The technology is understood and mature.
Yes
No
VERDICT Determining which method to use in managing a project is not straightforward, so it is important to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using both methods, as well as the type of project and characteristics of the team and organization. It is difficult to successfully plan everything upfront, as most projects deal with some level of change, but change comes with additional cost, effort and time. Customer involvement throughout the project life cycle usually results in higher customer satisfaction, but doing so involves more communication and collaboration which has a cost. Agile Alliance. (2017, November 15). Agile Manifesto for Software Development. Retrieved from https://www. agilealliance.org/agile101/the-agile-manifesto/
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BEYOND THE AGILE VS. WATERFALL DEBATE—A MORE HOLISTIC, COMMON-SENSE APPROACH The agile vs. waterfall debate is helpful in the sense that it encourages Michael Hannan, PMP intelligent, diligent practitioners to challenge many key assumptions that Founder & Principal Consultant may not always be true. Here are two quick examples of such goodness— Fortezza Consulting, LLC one from the waterfall or “Predictive” Project Management (PM) world, and the other from the agile world: Waterfall or “Predictive” Assumption: We can develop a sound, stable understanding of a project’s high-level scope and schedule before we kick it off. This is of course not always true—we may only have a sound, stable understanding of the problem we are trying to solve, or the opportunity we are trying to exploit, and may need many iterations of trial-and-error before developing a clear sense of scope. Agile Assumption: Time-boxing work into sprints is a great way to instill a sense of urgency, set and follow a stable cadence of execution, deliver regular increments of value, and obtain feedback frequently. This is also not always true, as sprint end dates often interrupt focused execution, sprint commitments can encourage “pacing” instead of acceleration, value-delivery increments do not always fit nicely into fixed time boxes, and feedback might sometimes be needed more frequently, and sometimes less. While healthy and useful, such assumption-challenging and ensuing point-counterpoint debates can confuse those of us who are just trying to keep things simple and do the right thing. To clear some of this confusion, the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Guide to the PM Body of Knowledge – 6th Edition (PMBOK v6) does an admirable job of trying to help the average practitioner decide when to apply which approach. What is still solely needed, however, is a sound, holistic, and universally applicable set of guiding principles and techniques that would genuinely help the PM world “move the needle” on its
most persistent and intractable problems underlying subpar value delivery. After all, according to PMI’s annual Pulse of the Profession survey of global project performance, the PM world has been stuck with 60-70% project success rates for more than a decade even though rates of agile adoption have gone way up over that span. GUIDING PRINCIPLE
This article offers a foundation of universally applicable principles and corresponding techniques that have been proved out in dozens of real-world project environments.
FOUNDATIONAL TECHNIQUE
Projects are investments, so any technique that helps deliver more bang for the buck sooner, or with less risk, is welcome.
Continuous Value Delivery. Organize project work into a continuous flow of focused single-task execution, with every increment of value delivered calling for rapid feedback.
Project portfolios can only complete as many projects as their biggest resource (skill) constraints allow for, so any technique that helps the people with these key skills expand the number of projects they can help complete quickly is welcome.
Staggering. Synchronize project starts according to when the focused availability of those with the most critical skills can be best orchestrated.
Value is often derived from the ability to deliver by specific due dates, reliably, so any technique that helps improve such reliability is welcome.
Buffering. Maintain a project buffer of either schedule, scope, budget, or some mix of these, that can be used to absorb negative impacts. Also, eliminate any lower-level buffers that do not protect project-level due dates, and aggregate these to the project level.
Maximum value can be engineered by trading off cost, schedule, and scope throughout the project life cycle, so any technique that helps us perform such tradeoffs intelligently is welcome.
ROI Engineering. Regularly revisit value-enhancing tradeoff options, including ones that may push projects over budget or behind schedule.
As an example of these guiding principles and foundational techniques in practice, one client—a large telecommunications firm with approximately 5,000 IT staff members, applied the four shown above and also a few more. They recorded a doubling of their throughput of project completions, a jump in due-date performance from 50 percent to 90 percent, and a quadrupling in ROI of their project portfolio investment overall—all in less than one year. There are certainly other guiding principles worth incorporating, such as those related to prioritizing and selecting the highest-
value portfolio of project investments. However, focusing on the four factors discussed above seems to help move the needle the most. So, for those looking for a simple way to deliver lots of impact quickly, these four techniques are often more than enough; in fact, some of my clients have doubled the number of projects they complete using just a single technique. As great as this specific example may be, I strongly encourage practitioners to experiment with their own techniques which may add one or more guiding principles in practice.
HOW TO MANAGE AGILE AND WATERFALL TOGETHER 1. Agile focuses more on the process required to gather requirements and develop the code and less on the design of the product.
Overview of Agile Development The agile project management methodology is a methodology that splits the entire project management Folu Awotoye, MBA, PMP process into phases/sprints for the purpose of task execution and Founder and supervision. Regional Manager The primary benefit of a sprint is that it helps execution teams focus on the rapid delivery of the specified tasks while reducing the risks associated with general software development. Each sprint is planned separately and during the planning, the outcomes of previous sprints and changes in environmental variables are taken into consideration. By focusing on the tasks associated with a sprint at a time, and by constantly reviewing client requirements, the project team members are able to optimize their efforts in value creation during the sprint. This will not only help the entire project optimize value creation during its lifetime, but will also help in measuring and accurately valuing the progress and impact of each phase of the project execution.
2. Due to the focus on small sprints at a time, agile is not very suited for large organizations or very large projects where decisions made in one stage have long term implications for the larger projects. In such projects, a long-term plan with a bird’s eye view of the entire project will be required.
Ofidy, LLC
With all the associated benefits also comes limitations associated with the Agile methodology. These include the fact that:
“ By focusing on the tasks associated with a sprint at a time, and by constantly reviewing client requirements, the project team members are able to optimize their efforts in value creation during the sprint. ”
Overview of the Waterfall Methodology The waterfall methodology is a more rigid and traditional method of development that specifies stages of the development and implementation process. The development stages cascade into each other. The main stages defined by the waterfall methodology are as follows:
1. Requirements gathering – the phase where the requirements of the solution are collated. 2. Analysis – the requirements are analyzed with the intention of coming up with business models and application processes that will be used to implement the solution. 3. Design – the design of the new solution will be done using the output from the analysis.
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4. Coding – the design will be translated into working codes for implementation of the design. 5. Testing – the codes developed will be tested in this phase. In most cases, there will be more than one round of testing. This is because issues discovered will be resolved at the coding stage and the output from the coding stage will be retested. 6. Deployment – this is the phase where the application will be deployed and maintained. Due to the fact that the entire project will be planned out from the onset, this methodology is suitable for very large projects that will
have little or no design changes over the period of the project. Such large projects usually have several teams whose work is dependent on the output or progress of other teams. As such, planning out the entire project and creating master designs will put each team in a position to build solutions that can easily be woven together to form a single larger solution. The most significant downside of this methodology is the rigidity associated with the implementation. The effect(s) of this rigidity, has been minimized in the recent past through the use of project change management processes. This makes the waterfall methodology accommodate changes. These change management processes allow
for knowledge streams to feed the project with information that leads to changes. Since agile is more suited for smaller projects and will not work well for very large projects, waterfall can be used for the larger bird’s eye view stages of requirements gathering, analysis, design and planning, while agile will be used to execute the coding and testing phases. Finally, another consideration is to adopt the waterfall methodology while managing each phase with the agile methodologies, which focuses more on execution.
SOFTWARE QUALITY GAPS INHERENT IN THE AGILE METHODOLOGY Michael Pearse, MBA, MSc. Software Quality Assurance / Project Manager Software Quality Consultants LLC
Satisfying the customer’s need on time, is paramount and necessary. That necessity has led to the importance of using some iterative methods in software development with the aim of building a minimal value product (MVP) to fit, on time, while also making sure that the product is ‘fit for use’. Such an iterative framework is the Agile methodology. This article examines and proposes recommendation to narrow the gaps inherent with agile methodologies in software development.
The Agile Approach We are made to understand that teams get things done faster using the Agile methodology compared to the traditional software development process, also known as the waterfall model. Tied to that is the belief that the model also makes customers happier – a factor of quick product delivery. At its core, the Agile methodology is an approach. It is used to describe the approaches to software development that emphasizes on incremental delivery, collaboration within teams, continual planning, and continual learning. The term itself was coined in 2001 by the Agile Alliance. It established the principles to guide a ‘better’ way to implement software development. ‘Better’, in my experience, appears to preclude some quality, as compared to the waterfall model. It perhaps makes sense to say that ‘better’, where agile is concerned, is with respect to speed and managing change, but not with respect to quality. This is why I think so.
The Argument for Quality The Agile methodology uses what is known as sprints. A ‘sprint’ is typically a time-box of one month or less during which a “done”, useable, and potentially releasable product increment is created. Sprints have consistent durations throughout a development effort, as such new sprint starts immediately after the conclusion of the previous sprint. The problem here is that this usually leaves very limited room for the quality team. In these sprints, they can only test against direct use cases, ignoring most negative test cases designed to ensure that applications can gracefully handle invalid input or unexpected user behavior. The fact is that unlike the waterfall model, testing is not a phase of the agile method. Everyone tests with the Agile methodology , potentially creating room for gaps. Thus teams, developers and other stakeholders, compared to the traditional waterfall methodology, get to test the product. This makes it difficult to leverage the skills of the typical tester who knows to look beyond the functional scope of the project to accurately define what a pass or a fail is.
“ Rome was not built in a day and often, your resolution will not be solved in one day either. ” llustration I have been involved in a project where the consensus was to use two weeks as the lifecycle of our sprints. The project will eventually boast about 8,000 lines of codes, which we considered as significant with respect to the four months scope of the project. This was the reason we employed the Agile methodology in the first place; to derive the value of the approach (i.e. speed and good control of changes). It was not until the third sprint that we started experiencing the problem associated with the methodology, especially where quality is concerned. These problems are outlined as follows:
1. At the third sprint, on a Thursday (a day before the end of the third sprint) the quality team quickly raised a risk awareness on the backlog of issues that are still being fixed and past their due dates. There were a number of them. 2. The next week, a meeting was summoned to address a legacy code that the new build is now affecting. This prompted the issue of “unscheduled-for” changes, which in turn constrained the testing lifecycle. 3. Another issue we had was around the requirements. The Agile methodology does not require a lot of documentation, as such making it hard for the quality assurance team to better validate against a ‘Pass/Fail’ criteria. The project did come to a successful completion, however, this was after extending it for another 10 months. This success was a result of the changes (modifications) we had to inject in the process. For one, we extended the sprint by an extra week. This ensured that the Quality Assurance team had enough time to not just test, but to also retest failed test cases and perform regression on the previous codes. We also agreed to maintain a tight control on the project. While our stakeholders still made changes, we were able to better accommodate the changes to fit our new schedule, keeping in mind the effect of changes on legacy codes. We resolved the documentation issue by leveraging on a collaboration tool that is useful in helping teams collaborate and share knowledge efficiently. That consistent knowledge share, which is constantly documented, helped to serve as a reference for validation of the test cases. As such, even statements made by the
stakeholders were agreed upon as a source to validate. This experience appears to align with the observation that agile projects face a set of challenges and problems that are usually related to applying a different approach to managing projects.
Recommendation From experience working on many projects using the agile approach, recommendations include: 1. Customizing the Agile methodology to fit the nature of the project, especially where the quality expectation is very high. 2. Obtaining a diligent understanding by the agile team (especially when consulted) to get a better understanding of the requirement as it relates to the broader organization. 3. Setting expectations with respect to the master test strategy plan and the sprint cycle. Some organization test more than the functional aspect, thus the need for more testing time. 4. Considering the use of test-driven development in the agile approach. This gives the QA team the upper hand, thus the simplicity of design that results from its use. This in turn ensures the quality in question. Conclusion In conclusion, the Agile methodology works where the expectations are clearly established. For example, where the impact on quality if the project is only delivering on a minimal viable product (MVP).
References Bjork, A. (2017, October 02). What is agile? Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/learn/agile/ what-is-agile Miller, G. J. (2013). agile problems, challenges, & failures. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2013—North America, New Orleans, LA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Negative Testing. (2018). Retrieved from https://smartbear.com/learn/ automated-testing/negative-testing/ Rigby, D. K., Sutherland, J., & Takeuchi, H. (2016, April 20). The Secret History of agile Innovation. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/04/the-secret-history-of-agile-innovation Agile Alliance. (2017, November 15). Agile Manifesto for Software Development. Retrieved from https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/ the-agile-manifesto/ What is a sprint in Scrum? (2018). Retrieved from https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-sprint-in-scrum
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AGILE VS. WATERFALL IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE Tools must fit the job, so to compare agile and waterfall approaches, we must assess how well each fits the times Arlen Bankston in which we live. The past Executive Partner and several decades have seen Managing Vice President truly historic changes in how LitheSpeed work and value flow through organizations. More changes are sure to come, so let us consider what was true in the past, what makes the most sense today and what is likely to prepare us for the future. The Way Things Used to Be What made for a good project delivery approach in the times between World War II and World of Warcraft? In the past, things did not change as quickly. Consumers were more patient and less picky. Employees were less demanding and more loyal. Roles were more defined and less fluid. All of this means that a method like waterfall that demands longevity, facilitates large batch handoffs between dependent functions and delivers once to hopeful customers with limited expectations, was more viable then, when the world was more attuned to waterfall. Successful products of any complexity could expect to hold market share for years before others caught up. Many companies lasted for decades, their employees were faithful all along for much of that “ride” at the promise of a pension. Communication happened in an office rather than over a Slack channel or smartphone. Computing technology was moving from infancy to adolescence and programming languages were largely linear for much of this time, making rapid refactoring difficult. Jobs were often rigidly defined things with career ladders forged from iron. Programming was a deeply specialized skill, and cross-functional teams weaving in other disciplines, such as user experience, and the customer themselves, were the exception to the rule. While companies look vastly different today, one thing that has not changed is that the ability to adapt is a virtue. The Right Way for Today Despite having more information, communication ability, computing power and resources at our fingertips than ever before, it is tougher than ever to keep pace with today’s mercurial reality. Volatility and uncertainty roil markets, roles, geopolitics and consumer preferences. Complex experiences blend products, services and technologies in novel new ways, with decisions often driven by hidden algorithms we do not understand. Ambiguity and continuing diversification of tastes and preferences is evident. The world today is a place of change. Can the waterfall still work today? Absolutely. With a clearly defined audience and a solid understanding of the market, a single targeted plan can lead to good solutions. However, it is likely that the target will change, the needs of the audience will shift, and you will likely be seeking to make changes faster than possible with linear discovery and delivery.
will be the minority way to get work done. Agile methods model the end-to-end teams needed to allow activities like analysis, development and testing happen in parallel rather than in a serialized fashion.
“The world today is a place of change..” Simply put, why not try to incorporate at least some agile into a waterfall environment? Some experimentation upfront helps generate rich information more quickly, and a rapidly responsive process helps keep the product evolving once it’s in the wild. Neither of these approaches negates whatever planning or documentation is seen to be appropriate; a frequent misconception about agile ideas. It is a time for agility. Of course, there are plenty of issues in fulfilling this promise. Among the most signicant is aligning corporate interests outside of the technology group such as marketing, sales and talent development. Without everyone adopting an experimental mindset together, you will only get a fraction of the potential benefits of end-toend business agility. Some companies are even finding that their planning processes actually take longer than the delivery cycles following an agile adoption, and “shifting left” to deal with this bottleneck. The best argument here is simply existential; with all of the challenges we now face, adaptation is a necessity for any business. Where to start? Building some effective crossfunctional teams and modeling an experimental delivery cycle involving all of the requisite business functions from strategy through to operations is a good objective. Groups like human resources can help to promote and support the cultural changes necessary while technology groups practice iterative and incremental delivery and drive the adoption of technical capabilities such as DevOpsstyle automation and integration. Preparing for the Future Any agilist would tell you that guessing the future is a fool’s game, but a bit of scenario planning never hurts anyone. Some interesting trends have begun, and are worth considering on how they play into the competition of methods for those who like to prepare for what’s coming. The days of the project are limited Continuous delivery is the watchword of tomorrow; rather than starting up discrete projects, companies are creating stable teams based upon the core value streams of their organizations, then flowing different workstreams through them as needs dictate. Projects will still exist, but they
Jobs are becoming more nebulous and transient The career with a pension plan is already a rarity, the gig economy and contracting in general are on the rise, and newer generations spend two years or less on average at a job. Ability to learn on the fly has become more important in many endeavors than prior experience. Agile methods help prepare people for lifelong learning and give them the tools to collaborate; critical when you can not count on the same gig forever. Purpose matters more The newer generations want to do meaningful work and they will not compromise elsewhere to achieve that. Agile methods connect workers more directly to the fruits of their labors by encouraging more robust feedback loops, and seeing real-world impacts can make a huge difference to the workers. Workplaces are changing. Many jobs can be accomplished virtually today, at least in part, and spaces like WeWork have made ad hoc collaborations easier and cheaper than ever. Selfmanagement and discipline are especially critical when people must trust over a distance, and those arts are at the heart of lean and agile philosophies. Agility is eating the organization. “Business agility” has very rapidly become a common phrase, and it refers to the expansion of agile ideas and techniques throughout the functional areas of a company. This means finding ways of making everything from finance to operations more adaptive, creative and efficient. The Upshot for Project Managers What does all of this mean for the enterprising project manager? Good leadership never goes out of style and project managers with enabling and collaborative mindsets have already found themselves at the helm of agile teams as scrum masters, product owners and other pivotal positions. Larger projects involving multiple teams still require extensive coordination and the complex problem solving, communication and alignment skills that great project managers excel at providing. With teams managing the low-level tasks themselves, project managers can turn their attention to the bigger and more entertaining work of improving the delivery process of the company as a whole.
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STUDENT TEAM BIOGRAPHIES Toluwase Ayanleke MSPM c/o 2018 Toluwase Ayanleke works at the Maryland Department of Transportation headquarters as a Business IT Analyst at the Office of Transportation Technology Services. He is directly involved in gathering, documenting and analyzing IT business needs and requirements for multi-million dollar projects for the organization. Born and raised in Nigeria, he earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Nigeria in 2010. He then furthered his studies in the United Kingdom where he secured a Master’s degree in Management of Business Information Technology in 2014 at the University of Greenwich, London, England. Toluwase is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI). He is currently enrolled at Morgan State University (MSU), obtaining his Master’s in Project Management (MSPM) with the hope of venturing into leadership roles in his career. Additionally, he has worked at various high performing organizations such as Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Oando Plc Nigeria, Microfix IT in the UK and worked with the IT Support department at Morgan State University. Toluwase emphasizes the importance of giving back and has been involved in numerous voluntary programs both in Africa & England. Toluwase’s ultimate goal is to continue to make the lives of the less-privileged in poorer communities easier and more convenient with the help and advancement of technology.
Olutayo Ojo, PMP MSPM c/o 2018
Sunday Aina, PMP MSPM c/o 2018 Sunday obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom in 2016 and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Babcock University, Nigeria in 2010. Sunday is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). Sunday has nine years of experience in management consulting, financial management and project management. Sunday has worked as a lecturer, trainer and facilitator at different learning faculties where he taught topics in E-business, Finance, Accounting, Strategic Management, Human Resource Management and Business Process Management. Sunday has a passion for learning & development and how it can enhance individual & organizational performance. Sunday currently works as a project controller at Knorr Brake Company, a manufacturer of Braking, Doors and Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems for the Mass Transit Industry. He currently has his professional core in project control and financial management. Upon graduating from the MSPM program, Sunday’s vision is to deepen his experience in project finance management and to continue offering project and business advisory services. Oluremi Omosebi MSPM c/o 2018
Outayo Ojo obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Construction Management with emphasis in Quantity Surveying from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria in 2012. He has been involved in a wide range of successful projects in the Nigerian construction industry. He has significant experience in construction project cost management for commercial, residential and industrial projects. This includes the construction of the 156 guard’s brigades base of the Nigerian army. He was also involved in the mechanical, electrical and telecommunications services installation project for the Owelinkso office complex and the modification of the Meteorological Building, Air Force base, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
Oluremi Omosebi is the Director of Operations at Primedew Investments, a facility maintenance and project management firm with headquarters in Nigeria. She is involved in management, collaboration, planning, execution and improvement of business processes.
His quest for further professional development led him to the Master’s Program in Project Management at Morgan State University. Olutayo is interested in information technology as a tool for effective construction project sustainability. As Master’s graduate in project management, Olutayo intends to build on his experiences by taking on more challenging projects. He also plans on acquiring other IT and construction based professional certifications that would broaden his knowledge base and professional horizon.
Oluremi’s career started with Fortress Savings Buildings and Loans as a marketing officer and she rose to become the Head of Treasury. She also worked briefly with JSP Corporate Communications, where she gained hands-on experience in media relations and marketing communication. Her passion for business management, leadership and mentoring led her to set up working relationships with some Non-Governmental Organizations where she mentored adolescent girls (youths) in character building, self-respect and giving higher priority to scholastic endeavors.
Olutayo is currently seeking opportunities in organizations that can make use of his technical abilities while he contributes to their goals and objectives. Olutayo is a member of the Project Management Institute. He obtained his PMP certification in August 2018.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from University of Ibadan in 1992 and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Mass Communications from University of Lagos in 1998 both in Nigeria. She also studied at Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris) where she obtained a certificate in leadership and management.
She firmly believes that the Master of Science in Project Management degree will enhance and increase her skill set for cutting edge business advancement and life enrichment.
Oluwafemi Ebilakun MSPM c/o 2018 Oluwafemi Ebilakun is a strong program and project management professional with a Bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance from Bowen University, Nigeria in 2012. He is currently pursuing his Master’s Degree in Project Management from Morgan State University. As an experienced Data Analyst, he has a demonstrated history of working in the Information Technology industry with skills in Structural Query Language (SQL), Systems Applications and Products, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Microsoft DYNAMICS Customer Relations Management and Tableau. Oluwafemi currently works at the Maryland Transit Administration as a Data Analyst. Femi (as he is fondly called) loves to work in computer related environments and plans to establish an information technology company in the near future to provide services that would make Business-To-Business (B2B) and BusinessTo-Customer (B2C) exchange easier and more affordable.
Olen Oliver MSPM c/o 2018 Olen Oliver, an architectural designer, is currently a superintendent at C.L. McCoy Framing, a fast-growing minority owned construction firm located within the city of Baltimore. At C.L. McCoy Framing, Olen manages, organizes and coordinates daily operations on construction projects. He works and communicates directly with project managers, building trade foremen and specialized subcontractors to complete construction projects. Prior to his tenure with C.L. McCoy Framing, Olen was a high school professor at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute where he taught architecture and concept design. He began his career working for architectural firms, such as, Canon Design, Total Site Solutions and JV Lee Architects. Olen received his Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Hampton University in 2004. He will earn his Master’s in Project Management from Morgan State University in 2018. He is seeking to build upon his knowledge of architecture and construction, with the communication and leadership skills gained as a teacher at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute where he graduated in 1999.
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Our Program & Links to PMI Leena Mathew MSPM c/o 2018
100% ONLINE GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Leena is a project specialist at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and is pursuing the Master of Science in Project Management Program (MSPM) at Morgan State University (MSU). She graduated from Towson University with a B.S. degree in Bioinformatics, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in 2007. At JHU, Leena has been a project specialist which led to the effective management of the administrative, operational and functional components of complex clinical trials for the Pulmonary and Critical Care division. Additionally, she has customized the clinical trial database and utilized specialized skills to enable proficient clinical trial management and coordination. Having worked as a project specialist there for many years, she has gained expertise in a wide variety of indications across many therapeutic areas in the division. Leena desires to utilize her education and project experience in a managerial role, where she will be working on critical projects. Upon graduation, she plans to attain the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification before the end of the year and further her career as a project manager in the pharmaceutical field.
Cortney Williams, PMP MSPM c/o 2018 Cortney is currently enrolled in the Masters of Science in Project Management (MSPM) program at Morgan State University and will graduate in December 2018. Born in Philadelphia and raised in the Baltimore area, she earned her undergraduate degree in Communication Studies from Morgan State in 2005. She recently earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in March of 2018 and is an active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Baltimore chapter. Cortney currently works for Pearson Education, as a Project Manager II on the Course Product Development team. She has recently phased into the role of Product Owner of a smaller product development team as the company is transitioning from a waterfall to SAFe agile work environment. Cortney intends to obtain her second professional certification in SAFe Product Owner/ Product Manager (SAFe POPM) later this year.
Project Integration and Scope Management Building and Leading Successful Project Teams Project Time and Cost Management Managing Project Procurement, Quality, and Risk Students choose three courses from a list of over 40 courses to integrate project management skills in a specific subject area from Architecture; The Arts; Business; City and Regional Planning; Civil Engineering; Industrial Engineering; Information Technology; Science; and Transportation. Morgan State University’s graduate programs in Project Management are offered by the department of Information Science and Systems in the Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management. The MSPM program is suitable for professionals that want to develop their knowledge and skills to move up to senior planning, consulting, and project management positions. Applicants are required to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited university, at least two years professional level work experience, and meet the MSU Graduate School admission requirements. The program requires 30 credits and a comprehensive examination. Program participants complete courses as a cohort. The interdisciplinary feature of the MSPM allows students to take three supporting courses that form the focus areas in a wide range of fields.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) offers membership to full time students in degreegranting programs at a college or university that has U.S. accreditation or the global equivalent. A PMI student membership also offers discounts on certifications such as the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) and the Project Management Professional (PMP). Additionally, PMI in collaboration with MSU has held CAPM, PMP, PMI-RMP, Agile, and ITIL exam prep workshops on the campus of Morgan State and continues to offer the workshops every spring and fall.
Please visit us at www.morgan.edu, then proceed to Academic Programs.
Samples of courses offered include: Foundations in Project, Program, and Portfolio Management
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