Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Bruno Larouche from Génération Agile. He helps businesses implement agile methodologies. We had a conversation on Twitter earlier about AceProject’s compatibility with agile project management.

Bruno gave us a very enlightening presentation. While I had read about agile before, I don’t think I had ever had the chance to talk with someone who lives and breathes agile. One thing that hit me as Bruno was explaining what agile project management was about, is the importance of the human in Agile development methodologies.

What I learned about Agile project management and humans

  1. Agile is about adapting to change. The Agile project team must react to changing conditions in our environment.
  2. Agile project management stresses fulfilling a need. It’s important to manage stakeholders’ expectations well.
  3. It’s crucial to involve the client (or at least a representative of the end users) early in the process. There’s no point in asking for feedback when it’s too late to change anything.
  4. Communication and motivation are essential to deliver early and often.
  5. The project manager is never alone: the team provides estimates and participates in sprint planning.

Is Agile project management simply really good teamwork?

When I was listening to Bruno, I felt that Agile methodologies stress the importance of teamwork: assigning the right people to do the job, trusting people, empowering the team in project planning. Those are all important notions that all good project managers should apply, even in more traditional project approaches.

It seems to me that Agile has reintroduced important concepts of working together.