The Next Generation of Project Management

Paper Abstract

The concept of Agile Project Management is very rapidly evolving and will have a significant impact on the project management profession and cause us to rethink many things we have taken for granted about what “project management” is for a long time. However, we are in the very early stages of that transformation and there is a lot of confusion that exists in today’s world between the Agile and traditional plan-driven Project Management communities and many people see them as competitive and mutually-exclusive alternatives. Some of the factors that contribute to this confusion are:
  • Many stereotypes and misconceptions exist about both Agile and traditional plan-driven project management
  • Agile and traditional plan-driven project management principles and practices have been treated as separate and independent domains of knowledge with very little or no integration between the two
  • Agile and “waterfall” have been treated as binary, mutually-exclusive alternatives and many people make the mistake of force-fitting a project to one of those extremes

It’s no wonder that project managers and others might be confused by all of this!

A large portion of closing the gap that exists between the Agile and traditional plan-driven project management communities can be attributed to a mindset change that includes:
  1. Getting past a number of stereotypes and misconceptions that exist about both Agile and traditional project management
  2. Broadening our thinking about what “project management” is

This paper will help you unravel the confusion that exists and see Agile and traditional plan-driven project management principles and practices in an entirely new light as complementary to each other rather than competitive.


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