Am I Agile by nature?

Traditional project management methods emphasise control. There are a myriad of processes and tools (with attendant templates) to impose control over the chaos that is typical of the average IT project.

Not least of these is the bizarre addiction to MS Project. I know few people who use it well, and even fewer who actually like using it. I hated it! Still do. A company I worked for until recently insisted that all projects use one of three templates (and had a department monitoring adherence - QA they called it!!). The different templates were intended to be used for different types or sizes of project, and differed in the number of standard tasks that were listed.

The problem with MS Project templates of course is the tailoring needed to make them fit the reality of the project you are planning. And in typical waterfall projects the plan tends to change on an all-too-frequent basis. I found myself having to manage the plan, rather than the project, because that was what the company expected of me. How unproductive is that?

I knew that there was a problem with this approach to project management - this management by template - I just didn’t know how to express it. In essence, it takes away our focus on the most important element of any project – the people. It forces managers to focus on the administration, the bureaucracy, the paperwork.

In our fairly extreme implementation of Agile practices, MS Project is not used at all. Our planning is done on two levels:

• How much overall work is there, how long will it take, and how many people are required?
• What detailed tasks are we going to work on within the next timebox (1-4 weeks)

Now that I am able to more simply monitor – not control – the task plan, I am utilising my time to better effect. I am more effective in leading the team forward, and I am happier as a result. Perhaps I was born an Agilist?