Aside from the resistance and objections that may occur at the above mentioned three levels, consideration regarding the transition from traditional project management and project teams also pose a challenge to transitioning to an agile environment.
Project Manager versus Project Leader
The traditional project manager (PM) who manages the triple constraints (scope, time and resources) through the use of a project plan will need to change his/her approach to managing the agile team. The successful agile PM must migrate from management to leadership, from monitoring compliance to enabling self-direction, and from acting as a foreman to becoming a facilitator of creativity and innovation.
Distributed Resources and Virtual Teams
A key concern of organisations that wish to adopt agile is the question of dispersed and virtual teams in agile environments. Communication, collaboration and customer interaction are key tenets of agility and many of the agile methods require attendance at a daily session. Therefore, the ability to form and manage teams across multiple geographies and times zones through the use of video, collaboration tools or other virtual techniques is critical to the success of agile projects. Additionally, teams in which PMs and developers are working on many projects at once add to these concerns.
A High-Level Approach for Adopting the Agile Project Management Framework
To adopt agile project management, companies must take an iterative (or an agile) approach to introduce the framework within their organisations. They must become familiar with agile frameworks, assess their current capabilities to adopt agile project management develop and implement short-term and long-terms initiatives, and adopt the framework over a period of time.
Learn about Agile Project Management
Before launching the "transformation to agile" project, it is important for key execu-tives, senior managers and project managers/leaders to learn about agile frameworks, the Agile Manifesto, and the lexicon that surrounds agile. Learning can be achieved by taking courses, by reading books and publications, and referring to web resources, such as the Agile Alliance and the Project Management Institute (PMI®).
Assess Organisational Readiness
"Are we ready to execute an agile project?" is a question that can be answered by conducting "Strengths and Weaknesses" and "Organisational Readiness" assessments. The organisation needs to identify and evaluate the various organisational forces in