Question

1. Applying the Product Development Uncertainty Principle means that Traditional/Waterfall projects are seemingly destined to fail. What prevents a company from just changing to Agile?
2. History is an important influencer of project management. Give three examples of how this is true?

Answer 1

Solution -

With the iterative product development methodology in use a waterfall model is bound to fail. The challenges that prevent any company from moving into agile project management practice are as follows -

• Lack of the right skillsets - Agile methodology requires companies to plan well and formulate a complete work breakdown structure so that sprint execution can be introduced. The lack of availablity of skilled project management within the company prevents the company from changing its methodology.
• The traditional behavior - The teams within a company are use to the concept of waterfall way of working and hence this behavioral hurdle is difficult and requires a cultural shift for the company to evolve into agile framework.
• No cross-functional teams - An agile methodology encourages cross-functional way of working and unavailability of such flexibility in the organisation proves to be a major hurdle for a company to move towards agile.

History has always influenced project management. A lot of work in project management today is guided by the experience from the past. After each project completion certain learnings are recorded. This is done to ensure to carry the legacy of knowledge from the experience. Hence history influences project management.

A lot past data is used to make decisions in the project. For instance to forecast the budget and performance previous data is utilized. This is an important factor on how history influences project management and its outcomes.

Project management is based on many theories. Techniques like critical path and Gantt chart are in use since the early nineteenth century. Today such techniques are still in use for control and monitoring of a project. Apart from this certain historical team structures are still in use today and allow for driving the project. Hence history has a marked influence on project management.