AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
CHALLENGES
Scope Of Our Project
By the end of the training the DFA team leaders will be able to effectively use the AGILE project management cycle to track the progress of their project teams and to ensure that the teams stay on track of the assignments.
Organizational Need
Pain Points:
DFA studio leads and DFA national fellows have trouble keeping track of what all the project teams are doing.
Project team’s progress isn’t tracked in any uniform way, so studio leads and fellows don’t know
what project teams are doing, making it difficult to know 1) who is making progress, 2) who needs
help, or 3) how to help them.
Example Pains in DFA
Project Management:
‒ Struggle with managing team
‒ Difficult to make goals clear when working in large groups
‒ Difficult time communicating roles and responsibilities of individual team members Loft:
‒ Never heard of Loft
‒ Knows of Loft, does not use it
‒ Knows of Loft, would consider using it if taught how to do midterm and final critiques
‒ Uses Google Drive to manage team, but can get unorganized at times
What is the Agile Project Management Cycle?
How Do We Help?
Workshop
Agenda:
❏ Powerpoint with a worked through example using agile project management cycle on Loft
❏ Handout with procedural information Length: 20 minutes
Instructor: Studio Lead
Space: Anywhere with a projector
Deliverable 1:
The Agile Project Management Cycle
Presentation
The Agile Project Management Cycle
DFA Team Leaders Workshop
How do you manage
your team?
Do you think your team
is making progress?
What challenges do you face?
Why?
Here is a better way to
manage your team!
Step 1: Create sprint goal
Pain Point 1: ? Pain Point 2: ? Pain Point 3: ? It is important to establish a sprint goal
because it allows the team to gain focus and direction
Step 2: Technical Spike
Identify knowledge gap
What do we already know about the client?
What do we need to know about the client?
Establish areas of learning and learning tools
How do we interview to identify client’s pain points?
It is important to establish what we already know about the client in order to identify what research still needs to be done to achieve the sprint goal
Step 3: Plan out Approach
Assign roles and responsibilities to team members
- Prioritize responsibilities
The team needs to assign roles and responsibilities to the team
members so every member is aware of their specific assignment within the larger goal
The team needs to work together in order to move closer to
achieving their sprint goal.
Step 4: Accomplish Task
Step 5: Monitor Progress
The team needs to monitor the progress of the sprint to ensure they are on track to achieving the goal and they can identify specific progress they have made thus far
Step 6: Demo
Critique/Feedback!
The team needs to present the deliverable to the client so that everyone is on the same page, and DFA can then go ahead with the next step of their project based off their feedback
Reflect on processes and team dynamics
Note: Step 5-6 can be repeated multiple times before Step 7.
The team needs to reflect on the sprint goal cycle with their team in order to identify what they did well, and what they can improve on in the future
Step 7: Mini retrospective
Why use the
Agile Project Management Cycle
− Use the Loft tools to
- Foster increased communication between the team - Identify roles and responsibilities
- Set short term goals to their team - Facilitate discussions
- Reflect on work
− Stay on top of goals and assignments to ensure deadlines are met
Goals Work Progress Happy Client
Deliverable 2:
Team Leader’s
Guide To Loft
Agile Project Management Cycle Workshop: Team Leader’s Guide To Loft
Purpose: Use this as a reference for the steps of the Agile Project Management Cycle.
1. Create Sprint Goal (not taught)
It is important to establish a sprint goal because it allows to team to gain focus and direction.
Example: Identify 3 pain points of the client
2. Technical Spike
a. Hover mouse over Guides b. Click Browse Guides
c. Click DFA Process
d. Read the appropriate guide
It is important to establish what we already know about the client in order to identify what research still needs to be done to achieve the sprint goal.
Example: What do we already know about the client? (research, preliminary interview, etc.); What information do we still need to gather about the client in order to identify the most important pain point?
3. Plan Out Approach
a. Click Workbench
b. Click objectives and add a new objective [i.e. Interview 2 individuals, analyze interviews for pains and gains]
c. Click test #, and assign roles & responsibilities
The team needs to assign roles and responsibilities to the team members so every member is aware of their specific assignment within the larger goal.
Example: Who is responsible for each aspect of research on the client in order to fully identify all of the pain points?
4. Accomplish Task (not taught)
The team needs to work together in order to move closer to achieving their sprint goal.
Example:
Re-interview client to learn about the pains they are dealing with.
5. Monitor Progress
a. Click activity b. Click stand
c. Choose one person to be the scribe, and everyone else in the group stands up to contribute to the questions being asked d. When going through the different questions in the stand, make sure everyone contributes to the discussion and agrees on the
sprint goals, challenges, and current progress, so that all members are on the same page moving forward
○ What is your sprint goal for the week?
○ Are you on track to achieving your sprint goal? (Yes/No)
○ What specific progress have you made toward the goal since last stand?
○ (e.g. what you learned about your user or problem, what you built or tested)
○ What will you achieve between now and the next stand?
○ What obstacles are in the way of achieving your sprint goal? Who do you need to talk to or what will you do to overcome these obstacles?
e. Frequently check back on the stands to see where progress is being made, and what still needs to be done in order to accomplish the group goals
The team needs to monitor the progress of the sprint to ensure they are on track to achieving the goal and they can identify specific progress they have made thus far
Agile Project Management Cycle Workshop: Team Leader’s Guide To Loft
6. Demo (not taught)
The team needs to present the deliverable to the client so that everyone is on the same page, and DFA can then go ahead with the next step of their project based off their feedback.
Example: Present pain points and make sure client agrees with the points
7. Mini Retrospective
a. Click activity b. Click status
c. Reflect on the progress your group has made so far, any group challenges you've faced thus far, and what else needs to be done in order to achieve future goals
Note: Step 5-6 can be repeated multiple times before Step 7.
The team needs to reflect on the sprint goal cycle with their team in order to identify what they did well, and what they can improve on in the future.
Example: What did the team do well? What can the team do better during the next cycle?
Agile Project Management Cycle Workshop: Team Leader’s Guide To Loft
Deliverable 3:
Instructor
Lesson Plan
Purpose: Team leads understand the importance and process of the Agile Project Management Cycle and employ it to make progress in their projects.
Pre-workshop preparation: Instructor reads Instructor Lesson Plan prior to the workshop. Instructor prints a copy of the Team Leader’s Guide To Loft for each participant. Tell participants to bring laptops to the workshop.
Instructions: Hand out Team Leader’s Guide To Loft at the beginning of the workshop. Tell participants that you will instruct them when to read it.
Present slides 1-4 and have a discussion with the participants by asking them the questions on the slide. Make sure to discuss the first three questions. This will structure the problem and allow team leads to identify pain points, which will emphasize the importance of the Agile Project Management Cycle to help team leads better manage their projects.
Present Slide 6 - explain to participants that you will all walk through and practice Agile Project Management Cycle. They can follow along with more detailed instructions using the Team Leader’s Guide To Loft. Present the rest of the powerpoint and work through the example with the participants. Make sure team leads are actively going through loft while you present.
After the powerpoint has concluded, stress the importance of having the leaders follow the Agile Project Management Cycle when leading their teams. Have them take the worksheets with them, so they can use them as reference for future projects.
