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Waterfall to Agile Dictionary

September 17, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Agile Project Management, Project Management Definitions

Waterfall to Agile Dictionary
By Mike Griffiths

A comprehensive list of traditional (Waterfall) Project Management terms and their meanings in Agile.

Baseline – An approved and saved project plan used to compare progress against.

CAPM – Certified Associate in Project Management - A designation from the PMI given to project managers who have passed the CAPM exam which is easier and less demanding than the PMP exam.

CPI – Cost Performance Index – A measure of project progress from a cost perspective. Agile projects can obtain the same metric by dividing the Planned Costs to date by the Actual Costs to date.

Critical Path – The longest path through the network of project tasks and dependencies. In theory it defines the shorted time that the project can be completed in. Its accuracy is driven by the quality of the task estimates which early in a software project could be very low.

CV – Cost Variance – A measure of how much under or over budget we are. Agile projects calculate this the same way as traditional projects: by deducting the amount actually spent from the amount planned to be spent by now. (negative numbers mean you are over budget).

EV – Earned Value – The value of the work completed to date. Agile projects can get the same information by tracking the features delivered.

EVA – Earned Value Analysis – The process of measuring project performance against the performance defined in a baselined plan. For Agilists an issue is the accuracy of the baselined plan. If that was flawed due to a poor understanding of the true requirements (common for SW) then why track progress against this faulty map.

Gantt Chart – Horizontal bar graph based depiction of project task durations and dependencies. Thought by Agilists to be OK at a high level, but detached from reality for modeling detailed technical tasks.

PERT – Program Evaluation and Review Technique - A network diagram based modeling technique used to determining likely project durations and identify critical path activities. If done only at the start of a project it is thought by Agilists to suffer from premature specification issues.

PMBOK – Project Management Body of Knowledge – The PMI’s reference text of knowledge areas that project managers should understand. The principle basis of the PMP exam.

PMI – Project Management Institute – A project management standards and certification body widely used in North America. Creator of the PMBOK Guide and assigner of CAPM and PMP certifications.

PMO – Project Management Office - A group responsible for centralizing project management best practices and assisting with best practice application. Their actual roles will vary from organization to organization.

PMP – Project Management Professional – The designation given to project managers who have passed the PMI’s PMP Exam PRINCE2 – Projects, IN, Controlled, Environments version2, a European based project management standards and certification body. PRINCE2 is structured, but has less lifecycle guidance than the PMBOK Guide and so is generally easier to integrate agile methods within.

Progressive Elaboration – The PMBOK’s term for acknowledging that details will likely emerge as the project progresses and perhaps the plan will need amending. However, It assumes that the differences will be small and easily accommodated into the plan. Agile teams can you this concept to introduce more radical adaptation ideas.

PSO – Project Support Office - similar to a PMO, a group responsible for centralizing project management best practices and assisting with best practice application. Their actual roles will vary from organization to organization.

Requirements Sign-off – Formal sign-off on a requirements document to indicate that the requirements are complete and agreed. Subsequent changes will require submission through a change management process.

Rolling Wave Planning - The PMBOK’s term for acknowledging that planning needs to be iterative and repeated throughout the project. Agile teams can you this concept to help introduce iteration plans and reprioritization.

SPI – Schedule Performance Index – a measure of project progress from a timeline perspective. Agile projects can obtain the same metric by dividing the number of Completed Features by the number of Planned Features.

SV – Schedule Variance – A measure of how much ahead or behind schedule we are. Agile projects can get the same information by deducting the number of features actually delivered from the number of features planned to be delivered by now.

WBS – Work Breakdown Structure – An org chart style, hierarchical breakdown of project deliverables or functionality. If done very early or taken very deep in detail it may be considered by agile teams as a form of BDUF.

Mike Griffiths is an independent consultant specializing in effective project management. Mike was involved in the creation of DSDM in 1994 and has been using agile methods (Scrum, FDD, XP, DSDM) for the last 13 years. He serves on the board of the Agile Alliance and the Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN). He maintains a leadership and agile project management blog at http://www.LeadingAnswers.com

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 and is filed under Agile Project Management, Project Management Definitions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 person has left a comment

These definitions of course have NOTHING to do with waterfall or agile. The earned value terms are used in scrum based projects all the time in the defense industry.

The notion that the WBS is BDUF (Big Design Up Front) is nonsense. The WBS is an emerging document. A simple read of MIL-STD-881A states it is a living a fluid document of the “Product Breakdown” and the processes needed to produce that product.
Rolling Waves are releases, or iteration depending on your choice of words. Rolling Waves are also larger scaled iterations in billion dollar programs or can be scaled to week or month sized iteration.
Requuirements signoff in Scrum is formal during the planning session, just like it is formal at the beginning of a rolling wave for a billion dollar manned space flight program.
This type of post is not only confusing, it has little actual value to the management of a project or program.

Glen B. Alleman wrote on September 17, 2009 - 12:32 pm | Visit Link

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