There are not many books available that cover the topic of when to apply an agile or plan driven method. In my opinion the selection of when to apply a certain technique or process component remains the most difficult area of Project Management. I only know of two books that cover this in detail, my own and "Balancing Agility And Discipline" by Barry Boehm and Richard Turner.

First of all, the fact that the book is written by Boehm and Turner is remarkable. Boehm wrote the classic "Software Engineering Economics", formulated Theory-W, invented the spiral model, a true influential pioneer. Turner helped shape the CMMI model. So, both respected "old school" software engineering professionals. The fact that they try to have an impartial look at agile is an accomplishment on its own.

The book provides insights in when to apply agile methods and when to apply plan-driven methods. The authors argue that for every type there is a kind of project that is suited for one of the approaches. Or a kind of combination.

Five factors are considered influential when considering an approach:

• Critically: if the end result doesn't work, are people going to die or is it a minor inconvenience?
• Personnel: how good are your people?
• Dynamism: are requirements changing all over the place?
• Culture: do people like change or do they need order?
• Size: how many people are involved in the project?

Presented is a risk-driven approach to select the proper method. Some general project environment risks (E) are considered, risks associated with the use of agile methods (A) and risks that occur when plan-driven methods (P) are used. An assessment of these risks should help you to make a proper choice of method.

The risks are:

• E-Tech: Technology uncertainties.
• E-Coord: A lot of stakeholders to coordinate.
• E-Complex: The complexity of the system.
• A-Scale: Scalability and critically.
• A-YAGNI: Use of simple design or YAGNI (You Aint Gonna Need It).
• A-Churn: Personnel turn-over and churn.
• A-Skill: Not enough people skilled in agile methods.
• P-Change: Rapid change.
• P-Speed: Need for rapid results.
• P-Emerge: Emergent requirements.
• P-Skill: Not enough people skilled in plan-driven methods.

What I find very useful is the appendix with a comparison of a lot of methods like Scrum, RUP, Crystal, CMMI etc.

Although the book is very dry, although you don't get a ready recipe for success (duh!), this book will make your mind better suited for balancing different methods.

Rival to Microsoft Project goes open source

There already is an open source alternative for MS Office, OpenOffice, and now we are finally getting a free subsititute for MS Project.

Hunt for project management software

This company is looking for new project management software. Read their findings during the selection process. Part 1 and Part 2.

Life outside the Iron Triangle

It is an ongoing discussion: should we as Project Managers stick to the iron triangle of constraints?

I Hate Your Job

I know, if you read too much Dilbert, your company looks like the comic. You can get cynical if you read stuff like that. That being said, this blog is very funny. But use with caution.

Mike Ramm from the Stop And Think blog tagged me for the 8 Random Facts meme. In it I have to tell 8 random facts about myself on my blog.

First I have to post these rules:

• Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves which others do not know about them.
• People who are tagged need to write in their own blog and post these rules.
• At the end of your 8 random facts post, you must select 8 more people and leave a message at their site that they have been tagged.

It is a nice change after the previous heavy conceptual postings

So, here it goes, 8 facts about me:

• My official first name is Sebastiaan. However at the age of 5 when I had to learn to write my name Bas was easier to write. That is how I came to my first name.
• I married in Las Vegas in 2000.
• My kitchen has two colors: apple green with deep purple.
• My goal is the life style outlined in "The 4 Hour Work Week" by Tim Ferris.
• A nice algorithm to me is better than a painting or picture. But it is too geeky to say out loud.
• I drive a Fiat Stylo, which is a typical Italian brand car: looks great and spends a lot of time at the car repair shop.
• I met my wife at a birthday party of a relative. Really.
• When the World Wide Web was invented I was studying at the Free University in Amsterdam. I totally missed that event! I missed the birth of the web!

There you have it. Totally random facts about me.

Finding 8 bloggers to pass this meme on to turned out to be a disaster. Most of the blogs I read are tagged already. I might come back sometimes and edit this post to add a new person to come up to the desired amount.

I tag..

• Thushara Wijewardena from Projectized
• PierG
• Hal from Reforming Project Management
• Dina Scott from Controlling Chaos Podcast
• Cornelius Fichtner from PM Podcast
• James McGovern
• James Robertson
• Anne Zelenka

I included some podcasts in the hope that they mention it on an episode.

Photography by Dylan Parker

A couple of years ago I was asked during a sales presentation what I thought was the most essential ingredient for a successful project. My answer was "mutual trust". People
in the room were staring at me like I was some kind of Softy Oozy New Age Treehugger. I switched very fast to the normal "plan-and-control" crap to get happy faces again.

Today I would provide the same answer to that question. Trust is essential to doing successful projects, and therefor a core concept for Project Management. But to avoid this "Treehugger" image, let me give you a view on how trust can be modelled, so we put some hands and feet to this rather abstract idea.

As a starting point we take the Prisoners Dilemma (PD) as discussed in this posting. In essence it is a situation where

• 1) if people cooperate both have success,
• 2) if one person is taking advantage of the other (defect) this person has an even larger benefit, but the other suffers a loss,
• 3) if both persons defect they loose both. In a situation like being in prison, you have only those two options, cooperate and defect.

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When I got my first class on computer networks, I was hooked. I loved the idea of small packets of information hopping from one computer to another. Amazed about how the information always seemed to arrive at the right spot, even if there were a gazillion computers connected, like on the Internet. Although I never worked in that particular field of information technology, I still remember an important lesson from the routing-algorithms that could be used. To find out which way another computer was located within the network, you can use one single computer as the main guide; that host has all the data needed to locate the computer you want to send your information package to.

This sound very effective at first, and it even is, if not too many PCs and mainframes are connected to the network. However, when you are thinking about the Internet, forget it. The information is just too much, and always outdated if you try to have a single map of the net. You have also a single point of failure in this scenario. If this one computer crashes, not one package will arrive at its destination. In search for alternatives, my mind was fixed on needing a map of the network. As it turned out, you can also have algorithms without the need for a image of the entire network; if you get a data package, you just give it to a computer you are connected with, and that accepts it the fastest. I never forget the new: the hot-potato-algorithm. After a while, the package will end if with its destination.
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Predicting the future is always more an art than a science, but I will give it a shot today. What will the next generation of Project management software look like? Except from the intensified collaboration features, we will see some serious power in generating non-trivial management information. Let's say, data mining for Project Management on steroids.

A glimpse can be seen with the new tool from MindSystems, ThemeReader. This system creates from collections of digital information (like documents and email) maps that group themes and topics together. These patterns emerge, nothing is orchestrated up front. This is exactly where we can expect some real support for future PMs. From here it is a small step (yeah right :)) to deduct hidden communication patterns and real concerns of stakeholders from the vast collection of information that is produced during a project.

Imagine the PM getting a nice mail of potential bad behavior of stakeholder X because his wishes are neglected. Impossible? Sociolinguistics tells us that we can deduct a lot from the language a person is using. So, difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. Makes your mind spin if you think about what can happen next…

If you want to have a nice overview of what can happen now, read this great article about some project management systems. It is one of the better articles about the subject in a long time.