In my previous article I mentioned the differences in terms of scope management of adaptive (value-driven) and “plan-focused” approaches. Before examining the fundamental differences between the two approaches in terms of time management, I would briefly mention time management in adaptive approaches.
Time management is interrelated with agile principles 1-2-3 and 8. http://www.agilealliance.org/the-alliance/the-agile-manifesto/the-twelve-principles-of-agile-software/
Three factors are considered when determining the duration of agile projects:
Project deadline
Project budget constraint
Functional completion rate
The high level requirements in the Product Roadmap and Product Backlog are sufficient for the creation of a general time schedule for the project. Detailed planning is done for each version and iteration.
Versions can be planned based on a specific trend or minimum functionality (MMF).
Versions can be planned according to the length of time required to achieve a specific feature set.
At Sprint planning meetings, the development team estimates the time (in hours) required to perform the tasks of the sprint requirements, other than determining the sprint coverage. Sprint backlog is used to track the use of detail time during sprint.
It is possible to summarize the main differences between plan-oriented approaches and adaptive approaches in terms of time management.
In plan-focused approaches, changes can be made to the project schedule based on fixed coverage, while in adaptive approaches, the project is not scoped at the beginning, time is fixed, and the development team develops the requirements in accordance with a specific time.
In Plan-Focused Approaches, the Project Manager constantly evaluates how much work the team can do during the project, during the project, during the adaptive approach, while creating the time plan depending on the needs gathered at the beginning of the project.
In plan-focused approaches, during the Project / Phase, the project team will work through all the requirements in one go; requirements collection, design, development, testing and commissioning. There is no difference between critical and optional requirements in terms of time planning. In adaptive approaches; agile teams work in the first place during the iterations to develop the highest requirements of priority and value.
In plan-centric approaches, the project team usually does not start until the product development needs are gathered and the design phases are completed. Agile teams start product development from the first iteration.
In plan-centered approaches, time variability is greater. In adaptive approaches, time-boxed iterations are defined.
In Plan-Focused Approaches, when the Project Manager is trying to estimate the duration of the product with minimum knowledge of the product – at the beginning of the project – when agile teams have more knowledge of the product as the project progresses, estimating the time taking into account the development team’s velocity updates. http://guide.agilealliance.org/guide/velocity.html
In adaptive approaches, the speed of agile teams is considered as a very important metric in planning. Finally, I end this article by adding two topics that you can consider regarding the speed of agile teams.
Basic prerequisites for the consistency of agile teams’ speed
Constant iteration times
Variable working hours
Modification of development team members
Some of the actions that can be taken to increase the speed of agile teams
Removing project obstacles
Elimination of situations that will distract the team
Consider team feedback on problems
Note: I will share the comparison of adaptive and plan-centric approaches in the areas of cost management, procurement management, team dynamics and communication management, quality and risk management in future editions