Agile vs. Plan-driven Development

Tomado de A Project Manager’s Survival Guide to Going Agile. Michele Sliger, Agile Coach, CSM-T, PMP


Both agile and plan-driven development recognize the triple constraint: cost, schedule, and scope. But whereas plan-driven development advocates locking down the requirements so that schedule and cost can be estimated, the agile approach says that scope is always changing and therefore schedule and cost should be fixed. This way projects don’t become death marches, and the product is developed in a fashion where it’s in a perpetual releasable state.

This basic shift in focus has a cascading effect on each subsequent practice in both approaches. Planning, executing, and controlling disciplines move from more directive, command-and-control tactics to facilitative, collaborative support. The idea being that if you give the team the tools they need, help them to understand the business problems they’ll be solving, and give them the space and time to complete the job, that they can then be self-directed and self-organizing, and become a fully engaged and motivated team that produces high-quality products at a faster clip. Clearly, for many organizations, this change in tactics also leads to a shift in the culture and in the ways success is measured.

Project managers will find themselves learning how to guide their team in responding reliably to change instead of conforming to plan, and learning how to do this in a completely new environment where the team makes decisions instead of being told what to do. It means more individual responsibility for team members, and more facilitation skills required for the project manager. Most are uncomfortable with their new roles at first, and it is the project manager’s responsibility to build team cohesion and foster good communication.

Not everyone is willing to make this paradigm shift, project managers included. But for those who are willing, they’ll find both the process and the new skills they’ve learned to be richly rewarding and well worth the effort involved.