While "agile" continues to be a hot topic within the project management fraternity, there's a significant disconnect between the enthusiasm individual project managers have for the methodology, and the willingness of their organisations to adopt it.
That was one of the key findings of the 2017 AXELOS project and programme management (PPM) Benchmark study, "The Value of Project Management Excellence and the Search for Competitive Advantage".
AXELOS is a joint venture company set up by the UK government to develop a portfolio of global best practice project management methodologies and qualifications including ITIL, PRINCE2 and MSP.
The findings of the benchmark study in which 77% of respondents saw value in working in a more agile way and just 2% saw no value in it, closely mirrored the findings of two previous ALEXOS reports: the PRINCE2 2016 survey, where over 80% of individuals scored the value of agile highly; and the more recent 'The Future Project Management Professional' report which noted that 84% of project managers agreed that agile would grow in importance.
However, there is less enthusiasm for agile within the project management function as well as in organisations overall. Just 46% of respondents said there was significant appetite for adopting agile techniques within their function; this fell further to 39% at an organisational level.
There was a similar discrepancy in the ALEXOS PRINCE2 2016 survey, which showed only a 59% functional appetite for agile and 51% for the organisation.
Agile misunderstood
According to Cameron Stewart, head of PPM Product Development at Axelos, a reason for the discrepancy could be a result of a lack of understanding, with 'agile' still perceived as "the latest buzzword".
This might not be the organisation's fault as even agile enthusiasts seemingly have different interpretations and understandings of what agile actually is.
Asked to provide a definition of agile, respondents in the 2017 benchmark survey gave a range of answers, including:
- * An iterative approach to planning and guiding project processes;
- * A different way of managing IT development teams and projects;
- * A new way of management and organisation to deliver value incrementally;
- * Brings humanity to management and organisation; and
- * The ability to learn rapidly from errors and environmental feedback.
The report suggested that this wide variety of interpretations among project managers was making it difficult for organisations to develop their understanding of and confidence in employing agile approaches more widely.
Another reason provided by respondents for lack of uptake of agile within organisations was that senior management was sceptical about the value of agile, seeing it as a way of by-passing sign-off and controls that they considered integral to project management.
"Organisations will have to overcome their current scepticism about agile because working in an agile way will allow project managers to meet evolving business needs by ensuring their response to project delivery is fast-paced, flexible and business oriented," the report stated.
Steward concluded that this would require project managers to educate the business about the value of agile in helping to deliver the number of projects that organisations were demanding.
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