A look at Agile Project Management at Harvard Business School

1. Agile Project Management
In
Harvard Business School’s Information Technology Group

2. What is Agile?
 “An iterative and incremental approach
to managing projects, with every
iteration delivering a complete, working
subset of the final product.”1
 The Agile Manifesto, a set of guiding
principles for Agile Project Management,
was developed in 2001.

3. The Agile Manifesto2
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it
and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to
value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and
tools Working software over comprehensive
documentation Customer collaboration over contract
negotiation Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the
items on the left more.
© 2001, the above authors this declaration may be freely copied in any form, but only
in its entirety through this notice.

4. Principles Behind the Agile
Manifesto2 is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous
Our highest priority
delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile
processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the
project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment
and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and
within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

5. Principles Behind the Agile
Manifesto2
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors,
developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace
indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is
essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from
self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more
effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

7. ITG Structure
Dean
Administrative
Dean
CIO
Managing Director
Executive
Managing Director Managing Director
of Technology
Managing Director
of Architecture
of Educational
Technology Group
of PMO and Team
Services Strategic Initiatives
and Web Services
Senior
Functional Functional Functional Functional
Directors Directors Directors Directors Management
Team
Project
Management
Office

8. External PMO Oversight
 Information Technology Resource
Allocation Committee (iTRAC)
 Comprised of the school’s senior
management, and some faculty
 Reviews project requests annually from the
various departments and allocates
resources to the top priority projects
 Sets the agenda for what ITG will work on
over the course of a fiscal year

9. Internal PMO Oversight
 The Director of the PMO reports directly to
the Managing Director of the PMO and
Strategic Initiatives
 The Project Managers that make up the
PMO report directly to the Director of the
PMO
 The Director of the PMO is responsible for
directing the Project Management
processes and procedures for all of ITG
 PMO Cookbook
 ITG Project Management Community of Practice

11. The “Principles” and ITG
Our highest priority  ITG develops the
software in iterations and
is to satisfy the presents each iteration’s
customer through product to the
stakeholders
early and
 The concept of “MVP”
continuous (Most Viable Product) is
delivery of valuable what ITG strives for in
software. each iteration
Principle ITG

12. The “Principles” and ITG
Business people  Daily “standups” with the
project team and the
and developers project sponsors
must work  Constant communication
between PM and
together daily Sponsor
throughout the  Often the developers
know and interact
project. directly with the sponsor
Principle ITG

13. The “Principles” and ITG
Build projects  ITG encourages developer
creativity and exploration in
around motivated projects
individuals. Give  Open and collaborative
environment creates a
them the positive energy and allows
environment and information to flow freely
amongst teams
support they  Budgetary and resource
need, and trust constraints are few when it
them to get the job comes to improving a
project.
done.
Principle ITG

14. The “Principles” and ITG
The most efficient  Major projects have weekly
and effective face-to-face project
meetings with sponsors to
method of review progress
conveying  The progress or current
information to and status is demoed and
within a feedback is given
development team  The project sponsors are
is face-to-face able to see the project from
conversation. its infancy to its completion
Principle ITG

15. The “Principles” and ITG
Working software  Each project team is
scored every month on
is the primary their ability to deliver on
measure of their planned objectives
 Often the “planned
progress. objectives” are customer-
facing iterations of a
project
Principle ITG

16. The “Principles” and ITG
Working software  Each project team is
scored every month on
is the primary their ability to deliver on
measure of their planned objectives
 Often the “planned
progress. objectives” are customer-
facing iterations of a
project
Principle ITG

17. The “Principles” and ITG
 Project teams are built
The best around agile teams
architectures,  Each agile team has at
least a developer, a
requirements, and quality engineer, a
designs emerge project manager, and a
database admin
from self-  The team is responsible
organizing teams. for managing several
business partners’
software portfolios
Principle ITG

18. The “Principles” and ITG
At regular intervals,  Agile teams meet regularly
to discuss process and
the team reflects on progress
how to become  Retrospectives after each
project allow for reflection
more effective, then and insight on what went
tunes and adjusts well, what didn’t go well,
and lessons learned
its behavior  Members of each agile
accordingly. team hold each other
accountable for tuning and
adjusting behavior
Principle ITG

20. References
1. Goncalves, Marcus. Fundamentals of
Agile Project Management: An
Overview. New York, NY: ASME,
2010. Print.
2. http://agilemanifesto.org/