Successfully Designing Hybrid Project Management

Why the combination of Scrum with conventional project management approaches hardly adds any value and which alternatives have been proven for years.

Justus M. Dumont

• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9783753481470
• eBook ISBN: 9783752680430
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Many organizations find that the use of Scrum does not bring the expected positive effects. In addition, such projects often do not seem to be really controllable. Accordingly, attempts are made to achieve more control and controlling possibilities and better risk and quality management by combining Scrum with a project management methodology. Often it remains with the attempt, because thereby some fundamental considerations and realizations are not considered. Justus M. Dumont, a successful consultant and project manager for more than twenty years, has this to say: "Many customers believe that Scrum leads to productivity increases and cost reductions in every case. The fact that this is not automatically the case and, in many cases, leads to loss of control and poorer results makes them look for alternatives. Many believe they can find the best of both worlds, so to speak, by combining classic project management and Scrum, only to find that they are more likely to achieve the disadvantages of both approaches."In this book, the author presents an approach that has optimally combined agility and project control for more than two decades, thereby even enabling successful fixed-price projects.

DSDM ® - Agile Project Management: An Introduction to the
Framework

The basics

DSDM ®³ stands for Dynamics Systems Development Method and is a further development of RAD (Rapid Application Development), based on the experience that this agile approach was very successful in terms of implementation speed and integration of employees from different areas into powerful teams, but lacked actual project control.

The first approaches of DSDM can be found in the first half of the nineties of the last century and have been continuously developed since then. Thus, DSDM Atern was initially created as the first version of the project framework; this has since been replaced in a further generation by AgilePF, which provides the basis for the training courses available today: AgilePM (Agile Project Manager), AgileBA (Agile Business

Analyst), AgileDS (Agile Digital Services) and AgilePgM (Agile Program Management). These terms represent the different role trainings and application areas. This framework is becoming increasingly widespread, and there are reports that the number of people getting certified in the context of DSDM is already said to exceed the number of new Prince2 ® certifications in some European countries. However, since many certifiers are very cautious with these numbers, I could not verify this statement so far.

DSDM is based on a simple philosophy. It is:

"The greatest business value occurs when projects are aligned with clear business goals, deliver regular results, and involve the collaboration of motivated and empowered people."

DSDM attaches great importance to projects being carried out with DSDM based on common sense and pragmatic decisions. Accordingly, DSDM does not try to describe all possible use cases and options individually (which is not successful in practice anyway), but formulates eight principles which provide a good basis for decisions in the course of the project in order to really use DSDM in a target-oriented way within the framework of a continuous improvement process.

The eight principles are called:

1. Focus on the business need
2. Deliver on time
3. Work together
4. Do not tolerate any compromise in terms of quality
5. Build step by step on solid foundations
6. Develop iteratively
7. Communicate continuously and clearly
8. Demonstrate control

As a complete project management method, DSDM has the framework practiced by most methods of processes and their tasks, roles and responsibilities, and products to control the process. Products may sound somewhat foreign to some in this context. However, the choice of words is accurate. These are elements such as reports, registers, displays or similar, which are created in the course of the project by people involved in the project. These elements are not primarily made for delivery to the customer - as what we would commonly understand as a product - but are needed for the control and execution of the project itself.

We will look at the above elements in more detail below:

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³ For the sake of easier readability, the ® designation is omitted in the following in relation to DSDM, to the DSDM products (AgilePM ® etc.) as well as in relation to other methods such as Prince2 ® after a single mention in the following text, but is always considered to be included.

The process

The project management process of DSDM is not much different from the one known from Prince2, for example. It is also a development process managed in process phases with the phases:

• Pre-Project
• Feasibility phase (feasibility phase)
• Foundations phase (basic phase)
• Evolutionary Design (development phase)
• Deployment phase (delivery phase)
• Post-Project (after the project)

In the pre-project phase, it should be ensured that only those projects are started which can also achieve the intended goal. Based on the results of the work, a decision is made as to whether the project is to be pursued further or whether it is to be terminated at this stage, thus saving the expense of further work.

In the subsequent feasibility phase, it is determined whether the project is technically feasible and economically viable from a business perspective. If this is not the case, the project can still be stopped before further expenses are incurred.

In the Foundations phase, on the one hand, a solid understanding of the purpose of the project is to be ensured by all parties involved. In addition, the products and plans for implementation are created. The planning is only so detailed that it does not hinder the agile implementation in the course of the implementation phases. In smaller projects, the Feasibility and Foundations phases can coincide, and in more complex projects, it is possible to enter the next implementation cycle with a new Foundations phase after the Deployment phases.

After the foundation has been laid in this way, implementation takes place in the form of development cycles, which are called timeboxes in DSDM. It can be assumed that decision-making powers are distributed within the project based on the prioritization of requirements. More detailed information on this will be presented in the section on MoSCow prioritization.

As usual in the context of agile decision-making, development is characterized by short development cycles, feedback rounds and continuous learning. An increment is developed, which is then delivered as part of the deployment phase. The project is then formally completed with the last release.

During the post-project phase, which takes place after the project life cycle, the extent to which the project is able to realize the goals planned for it is examined.

MoSCoW - the hybrid decision

MoSCow prioritization is used in various contexts. Here MoSCoW stands for

• MUST - represent the MUST, the Minimum Usable SubseT, i.e. those requirements that are guaranteed to be implemented because their omission would call into question the justification of the project.
• SHOULD - Requirements which are implemented under normal circumstances and provide significant benefit to the organizatio...

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Taylorism
• Surviving in the VUCA world
• The hybrid challenge
• DSDM ® - Agile Project Management: An Introduction to the Framework
• DSDM as a hybrid alternative
• Afterword
• Bibliography
• Copyright