Project Governance vs. Agile Flexibility

Organizations use project governance to control a project’s activities-scope, cost, schedule, activities, personnel, quality, and authority. Most traditional governance processes assume we fix the scope of the project upfront, and it remains constant throughout the project. In contrast, agile methodologies focus on delivering the greatest value to the customer at the lowest cost, often resulting in scope changes as the project proceeds. This difference can cause friction between project managers and the agile team. To bridge this gap, Mario Moreira shows how to adapt project governance policies for more flexibility toward customer needs and changing market conditions. He outlines and discusses an agile framework-based on XP, sprint zero, agile release planning, end-of-sprint reviews, and quantified confidence levels-to provide project managers with a broad view of the work ahead. Mario’s framework produces sufficient information for traditional project governance reporting. Proven to work in organizations that have strong governance, this framework has helped bridge the gap facing many agile development teams.