PRINCE2 Agile - Controlling a Stage Flashcards
How does Controlling a Stage work in PRINCE2 Agile?
In Agile, there is no “stage” to manage and control resource and spending. Instead, Agile uses timeboxes and releases to focus on functionality.
The closest parallel to a stage is multiple timeboxes (can be with the same or different teams) that feed into a larger timebox. The PM could manage this larger timebox as a stage using CAS. This larger timebox could be a release, iteration, or increment. They are distinct as sprints, increments, and releases focus on the functionality to be delivered, whereas CAS focuses on resources and gives space for the PM to spend based on CBJ.
Work packages allow self-organisation as they can act within the tolerances.
The focus should always be on the functionality and the release.
Internal and customer feedback is informal and can be done via demos at the end of the sprint.
How is information transmitted between Management Levels in PRINCE2 Agile?
Agile favours less documentation like checkpoint reports and more releases.
PM informed of progress in daily scum and information radiators. This follows the Agile behaviours of self-organising and empowering individuals.
PM could have a daily scrum per team, or a regular meeting, to be informally keep up to date - this is not a report. This is more informal than PRINCE2.
One can still provide checkpoint report to satisfy project governance. This can be delegated by the PM .
How can one ensure transparency and collaboration across multiple teams?
A company can run a scrum of scrums meeting with one representative from each scrum team (normally the scrum master). This also allows collaboration between teams to discover and liaise on dependencies and project-wide issues. Typically, a TM or Scrum Master attends these, but the PM does not - any issues that breach tolerance will be escalated.
How is reporting done in PRINCE2 Agile?
Information related to the sprint is shown on Information Radiators and the PM / PB is expected to pull this information when they need it. This moves away from the standardised reporting of pure PRINCE2.
At the end of the sprint or release, the product is shown via a demo.
Burndown charts are more common than Gantt charts.
The amount of formal reporting depends on the Project Governance.
Highlight Reports are generally still sent.
Exception Reports may still be needed if a tolerance is breached.
How can daily stand ups or scrums be used?
These are run by the delivery team and the attendance of the PM is optional. This provides a daily opportunity to share progress, issues, and risks.
How should daily stand ups or scrum meetings run?
Questions for the scrum of scrums:
- What has your team achieved since the last meeting?
- What issues have occurred with a negative impact ?
- What should you accomplish before the next meeting?
- What output from your team do you see interfering or interacting with other teams (i.e. dependencies)? Does your team see any issues with the collaboration?
Very quick meeting with visual aid. A few minutes per person.
What are other names for an issue in the daily scrum?
Issues are also called impediments, blockers.
How should the PM handle Controlling a Stage in PRINCE2 Agile?
Empower team to self-organise and make sure there is an environment to practise Manage By Exception.
Enable rich communication and collaboration.
Focus on delivery, specifically the scope and quality
Capture and monitor risks as per RMA. In PRINCE2, RMA is rigid with heavy documentation. If Project Governance needs this then fine. Agile would prefer quick communication with risks raised in the daily scrum and displayed on information radiator.
Use visual cues (information radiators, daily stand-ups, sprint review), empirical, build and test as we go
Plan frequent Releases
What are the advantages of frequent releases?
- Keeps customer, SU, and PM happy.
- Allows opportunity for customer to give feedback and get involved, and gives them the opportunity to check the team is building the right solution (reduces risk of delivering the wrong product).
- Fosters stakeholder engagement
- Makes releasing easier
- A release may not go into the operational environment
What considerations does the PM need to make when releasing frequently?
- Planned releases should be planned in the SU phase and noted in the Project and Stage plan with what will be released and when
- Need to consider different views when setting dates for releases:
- PB want to know when the releases are planned to establish the appropriate stage boundaries
- Early benefits may be needed to fund later parts of the project
- Need to establish a product early on to allow it to fail
- Products can be delivered too quickly, leading to disruption. Customer may not have the capacity or time to run focus groups or test.
- Releasing to prod is ideal, but releasing to staging is accepted if needed
In PRINCE2 Agile, how is risk management in CAS?
If a risk breaches tolerances, it is flagged by individual team members to the Scrum Master in the Daily Stand Up. If this breaches the SM’s tolerances, it is escalated to the PM. Risks can also be escalated in the sprint retro.
Any risks identified in the Agile assessment should be continually monitored.
The team is encourage to only commit to corrective actions they have capacity for and be vocal about actions they cannot take on. This boosts the chances of the corrective actions having the desired impact.
How does planning work in PRINCE2 Agile?
A hallmark of Agile is for the team to be involved in sprint or release planning.
What is a retrospective and what is it used for?
A common and significant Agile technique. It is a review that looks back to review the success of a sprint / period of time and looks for learnings. These focus specifically on the ways of working and not on the work being delivered. It supports the continuous improvement Agile mindset.
It is important retros are carefully planned, managed, and facilitated.
It is important to adapt the retros to keep people stimulated.
The length of the retro is proportional to the length of time being assessed
What is the ideal agenda for a retrospective?
The agenda should be:
- Share reading ahead of time
- Determine the objective and house rules
- Present the data
- Generate views on what went well and what didn’t
- Gather list of takeaway actions
- Close the meeting
How could one review how the retros are working and suggest improvements?
One could hold a retro for the retro to examine progress and highlight learnings. This could be at the end of a retro, or after some time (i.e. retro-ing the last April retro at the end of the retro in May). For the latter, the impact and resilience of the changes implemented from the retro could be analysed before the meeting.
