Project Management: The Balancing Act

When I first got started riding the motorcycle I would just ride, purely for the joy or fun of the ride. I learned early on that to have fun I would have to decide on a destination and the timing of the ride. Knowing where I was going and when I would arrive freed me so I didn’t have to continually figure out what was coming next. That didn’t mean I always knew exactly which road I was taking next, I just knew where I was going to end up. When I took the bike to get to some specific place at a specific time I took a different approach. I knew the route I would be taking and planned it out. The amount of time I took planning either kind of trip, joy ride or making an appointment, was in direct correlation to where I was going, how far away it was, how much time I had to get there and how familiar I was with the route I was taking.

When discussing agile and waterfall the language we use can make it difficult because the words can be interpreted in black and white. To say agile is adaptive is to suggest that waterfall is not which is not the case. To say that waterfall is structured is to suggest that agile is not which is also not the case. Like our political system, project delivery frameworks, styles or methodologies exist on a continuum. Just as someone might say they believe in the republican doctrine they could mean everything from the middle of the road to the far right and the reverse is true for a democrat. If we look at project management in a similar way, agile and waterfall could be considered to be on the left and right. There are those that believe that the far right is the best and those that believe that the far left is the best. I’m a moderate. I believe that both have value and when they are practiced to the extreme neither may bring the value needed.

It is easy to make the mistake of over planning, of trying to make sure that everything has been identified, logged, noted and agreed upon. It is just as easy to make the mistake of moving forward before enough information is known or documented. The balance between too much and not enough is one of the topics when discussing the differences between agile and waterfall. I would argue that the topic of not enough or too much should be discussed as part of any project approach. Each project team has the responsibility to determine the right balance at the beginning of the project no matter what the delivery approach is going to be. Shouldn’t a project team always ask how much work should be done?

To be sure, I can over simplify. The insight into what is best for a specific project is in looking for the simplest answer. The amount of analysis and planning needed should be based on a fundamental question and must be answered by the members of the project team. The project manager is accountable for asking the question repeatedly. Is any additional planning or analysis going to help us get to our destination within the parameters set by our customer? I don’t think that is an agile or waterfall question, I think that is a project management question. The client, sponsor, project manager and the rest of team must answer this question. You will always find folks who need more detail and folks who run from more detail. The voice of balance is in the middle of the continuum. Too much? Not enough? That is the balancing act and it is part of every method of delivery.

Ride On, Manage On