Hybrid Project Management

Hybrid Project Management

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Hybrid Project Management isn’t just about creating artifacts.

Hybrid Project Management isn’t just about performing ceremonies.

Change is happening at an exponential rate today and in order to remain competitive, organizations have to adapt quickly and often.?Project management also has to adapt and change to meet these conditions.

Hybrid Management is about adding additional tools to the project management toolkit – and understanding when to apply them, based on the context of the project.

Hybrid Project Management incorporates the concepts as laid out in the Agile Manifesto and the subsequent Principles, and further explained in the Agile Practice Guide from PMI.?These provide the mindset that transforms the Project Manager from the “command and control” role of the past, into that of a Servant Leader.?By incorporating an agile mindset and concepts into traditional projects, projects can support the flexibility required to deliver an outcome that meets changing requirements.?

Starting the Project

Hybrid Project Management starts even before the project has been initiated and assigned to a project manager.?It includes clearly understanding the strategic objectives of the organization, and potential opportunities and benefits that can be delivered by a project effort.?This includes assessment of the needs, current situation, and the impact on the organization.?This leads to a potential solution and the financial justification for investing in the required resources.

Rather than just creating a project charter to authorize the start of the project and identify the project manager, projects using a more hybrid approach include a clear understanding of the vision of the final outcome.?This vision is then continually shared with all team members to allow the focus on the horizon. That vision includes the identification of the features and an initial expectation of “when” those would be delivered.?This supports both the concepts of “rolling wave” and “progressive elaboration” planning techniques.

Adaptive Planning

The Standish Group noted in the 1998 CHAOS Project report, “smaller time frames, with delivery of software components early and often, will increase success rates.”?Using a hybrid approach, an evaluation is made as to whether the delivery of outcomes and resulting benefits can be delivered more often, rather than waiting until the entire project is completed.?This also enables the additional reviews, feedback and demonstrations to help ensure that the result continues to meet the expectations of the stakeholder.

Even in a construction project, which uses a predictive approach, with extensive planning up front, there are times during the actual construction work that a more flexible approach is needed.?Plans and drawings for the entire project must be submitted and approved before the construction can begin.?Once that work starts there are problems encountered and changes required.?By using a more hybrid approach, the details for this portion of the project often follows the “lean” concept, making final decisions “as late as possible”, and “reduce waste” by not redoing or back tracking on work.

Leadership

As the team is formed, the project manager’s role changes to that of a leader, empowering the team members to create their team charter and ground rules, defining how they will work together.?The project manager supports a self-organizing team throughout the project.

Some of the “ceremonies” referred to by various agile methods provide additional transparency and engagement with the team members and the stakeholders, often represented by a key stakeholder or product owner.?This continuous collaboration not only increases the understanding of requirements and expectations, but also enables continuous improvement of both the product/result and the process used.

Summary

Understanding that no one way or method fits all solutions, enables a project manager to continually assess and adjust to deliver a solution that not only meets the customer’s needs and expectations, but also delivers the benefits to support the investment of the project effort.?

As change becomes a way of life, we need to adapt the way that we have delivered projects in the past.

That is what Hybrid Project Management is about.

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For more information check out our website: www.FacilitatedMethods.com

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