What a PMO Needs to Know About Agile Development

What started as a management solution for complex software projects has rapidly grown across industries for companies both big and small.
The agile development process has taken CIO’s, CTO’s and Project Managers to new levels of productivity by embracing a culture of continuous change.
Program Management Offices (PMOs) have had to learn to evolve from a regular hierarchical reporting approach to the continuous change model that business demands today. 

50% of PMOs Close Within 3 Years

There’s a difference between running an agile process and pretending to run an agile process. Many companies think they’ve implemented an agile development process, yet in reality, they’ve overlooked the three ABC crucial elements:

• Accountability
• Bureaucracy
• Communication

1.  Accountability

Agile Project Management Solutions, like Scrum or Kanban, require relentless deadlines for incremental product development.  Holding employees accountable for their tasks is more important than ever.
Driving employee accountability is the only way to get teams and the PMO to switch and embrace an agile development environment.  An accountability tool like CommandHound drives clear and transparent accountability down to the individual level.  

2.  Bureaucracy

There’s a reason why many project managers aren’t in favor of an agile development process. Creating an agile process requires cross-functional and self-organizing teams, which puts the project manager in a difficult position as to the role and authority of the PMO.

Many neglect the fact that the role of a PMO is one of the most crucial elements in successfully adopting an agile product development approach:

• Who else would control and optimize the in-flow of new development projects?
• Who else would challenge the existing behaviors of teams and employees in order to create more efficient processes that transform the company into a High Performance Organization (HPO) that embraces continuous change?
• Who else would ensure that each team understands and has been trained on what is required for a successful Scrum transition?

Don’t let the PMO become a bureaucracy that hinders the transition – make sure it gets in front of the change, enabling it every step of the way.

3.  Communication

Team communication is a crucial part of an agile SDLC because so many things are going on at once given its iterative nature.
360-degree communications are vital to ensure that each team is working together to complete each increment of a product development effort as efficiently as possible.
As always, communication and support from the top is crucial.  A recent study by University of Ottawa found that 33% of projects fail because of lack of involvement from senior management.  A successful agile process enforces open communication channels and ensures that all the stakeholders are on the same page.

A Critical Tool for Any PMO

CommandHound has been designed from the ground up to foster accountability to make sure things get done.  By tracking execution performance at the individual level, CommandHound has become an indispensable tool for PMOs. 
Would you like to learn more?