Forecasts and commitments

In 2011, the Scrum Guide instituted a subtle, but controversial, change to the step describing sprint planning by replacing the word “commit” with the word “forecast.” Although this was seen as fundamentally altering one of the core Scrum processes, I believe that this was because the two terms were seen as mutually exclusive. However, as I will discuss in this post, the two terms can quite happily coexist in the Agile framework.

Structured Agility: Define Scope, part 1

The PMBOK v5 defines “define scope” as “the process of developing a detailed description of the project and product.”

In this post, I will lay the groundwork for discussing the Agile implementation of that process. Comparison of this process with the PMBOK will occur in part 2.

Why Agile doesn’t kill the PM

One supposed “selling point” with regards to Agile is that removes the need for project managers for controlling a project. Part of this is due to the correct idea that some of the duties traditionally performed by project managers are fulfilled by other members of the Agile project team. However, another part of this is due, in my opinion, to a misunderstanding of project management as both a specific knowledge domain, and a domain for which there exists highly trained and certified practitioners.

Structured Agility: Plan Scope Management

The PMBOK v5 defines plan scope management as “the process of creating a scope management plan that documents how the project scope will be defined, validated, and controlled.”

In this post, I will be discussing the Agile implementation of that process.