Confused or annoyed by ‘agile’?

March 6, 2024 Leave a comment

An alternative strategy could be to aim to be turgid.

So many people use the term ‘agile’ for so many things that it can be source of confusion and, looking at posts on social media, the term can really annoy the hell out of some people. Everyone looks at it from their own viewpoint, which could be from the depths of a software development team to an aspiring senior manager wanting to make their mark and appear up to date or ‘ahead of the curve’. (well, it is too late for them!). That is life, we can’t and should not control everyday speech but if you are writing standards, methods or working with teams and use the term, it is essential you have a clear and shared interpretation. I published a paper which looked at a dozen authoritative sources (including from APM, PMI, ISO, IPMA and the European Commission) to look at what view they take. They don’t all agree on everything but . . . my paper should give you a way to pas through the agile jungle and gain some clarity . . . and if you can be clear, then hopefully you can help those you work with.

By the way, you can tell if something is agile when it is written in pretend hand-writing by a person in ripped jeans (just joking).

You can download my paper here

Reference: Buttrick, R. (2022). Addressing ‘agility’ in current project management standards and other authoritative publications, PM World Journal, Vol. XI, Issue XII, December.

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About Robert Buttrick
Robert Buttrick is the author of the Project Workout. He has been providing advice and guidance since the publication of the first edition of his best-selling “flagship” book, the Project Workout in 1997 and now its 4th edition. The principles laid out in the publications, take a holistic view, ensuring that culture, systems, processes and accountabilities are mutually compatible. The book has been translated into French, Korean, Chinese, Russian and Romanian . . . but not yet into Latin! Robert received a Distinguished Service Certificate from BSI for services to national and international project management standards; he is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Chartered Engineer and an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Project Management. He currently works as a consultant and is a Visiting Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick.

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