What Does It Mean to Be Agile?

 “Agile” is almost ashot these days as “mobile” and “gamification” when it comes to trainingindustry buzz words. Sure, agility sounds like it could be a cornerstone ofyour workplace wellness program, but in fact it has a lot more to do with theoverall health of your projects.

What is agile project management?

Agile project management is an approach for managing acreative project process, where team members both accept and expect changealong the way. The team develops successive iterations of a product and usestheir resulting observations to further improve the result. By comparison, astrict interpretation of the ADDIE model (analyze, design, develop, implement,evaluate) and other linear approaches works well in situations where all theinputs and outputs are known in advance. In a strictly linear model, change isoften resisted as it throws project schedules and deliverables out of whack.

How agile works for eLearning development

Agile project management, originally conceived by thesoftware industry, lends itself well to eLearning design and developmentprojects where, if we’re lucky, we’re making creative and complex decisionsalong the way. How often do your customers (internal or external) know exactlywhat they want before the project starts? How often does that change once theysee what you’ve built? How often does the underlying subject change in middleof the development project? We don’t live in a world that stands still while webuild the CBT for it. And, I dare say, every once in a while we get a greatidea that changes everything right in the middle of ADDIE’s development “D.”What to do? Get agile.

There’s a lot to it. For now, let’s start with what I callthe “hallmarks of agile”—practices that agile teams adopt to manage theirprojects to bring them in at the right time, with the right budget, and withthe right solution.

Definescope with user stories

An agile team sits down with stakeholders, learners, andsubject-matter experts to define scope based on specific functions or actions theymust accomplish. This business-performance-focused approach gets the projectoff to a solid start. Product-based projects (think performance support, LMSimplementations, etc.) will tend to use a method based on creating “userstories” to define desired functionality. For instructional-design projects,use performance-based methods like Cathy Moore’s Action Mapping.

Break itdown

When you break scope requirements and work tasks into smallchunks, it’s easier to estimate your work and the project as a whole.Estimating is a whole other topic in and of itself, so for now we’ll focus onkeeping things small. Complex tasks become simpler—and estimable—when you breakthem down into their component parts. And, as you’re working along, you’ll knowwhen your estimates are off sooner if you work in small bursts. How small? Eachteam sets their own pace and has their own culture, but we’ve found that two-to four-hour tasks work well for many project teams. 

Producefrequent iterations to collect feedback

Using an agile project management approach, a team buildstheir deliverables in small increments, releases usable training frequently, anduses those releases to collect feedback early and often. Sound like the successiveapproximation model (SAM)? Successive approximation, aka iterative development,is central to agile methodology. It’s how you proactively gather feedback and,yes, changes, so you can further improve your product.

Accept andexpect changes in requirements

Many of us are in the business of building training to giveour learners and their organizations a strategic competitive advantage. It’simportant to get it right. Some in our industry bristle at the thought of “eleventh-hourchanges” to our projects. In expecting these changes to come, and acceptingthem willingly, we ensure that the training we deliver is up-to-the-minute. NowI’m not saying this is easy—however, it is essential. It’s what being agile isall about. When you produce an iteration, each release is an opportunity togather feedback that influences future iterations. It’s ADDIE’s evaluation “E.”

Communication,communication

Agile is a full-contact sport. Frequent communications withbusiness sponsors, with subject-matter experts, with learners, and within theteam are essential. Not only does this help you manage the day-to-day workflow,but it is also a key method for gathering changes and ensuring that you’ve gotthe message right. Agile teams connect daily to coordinate their efforts inwhat’s called a daily scrum, or a synch-up, or a huddle, to name a few commonlyused terms. In these meetings, team members share what they accomplished in theprevious day, what’s planned for the day ahead, and what they’re stuck on andneed help for. Customers and SMEs are involved in daily or weekly meetings,depending on the pace of the project. Learners are involved at each iterationin the feedback-gathering process.

Live in avisual world

One of the keys to managing small tasks and responding tochange is a visual, vibrant, accessible, and living project plan. Whether it’sindex cards and thumbtacks or a cloud-based tool, everyone has access to theplan, updates their own task completions, and knows exactly where the projectstands at a glance. This is not a neat Gantt chart that’s made once and thenshelved, or, at best, updated only on status-reporting days. An agile projectplan is a living creature that shifts and adjusts as the work is completed eachday.

What comes next?

In the months ahead, I will be addressing the key stepsoutlined above in tips that will appear in LearningSolutions Magazine, and in a Guild Academy course that will provide depthand practice. In the meantime, please post your questions in the Comments onthis article!

Want more?

Megan Torrance will teach a Guild Academy course,Agile Project Management for eLearning, starting May 13, 2014. Sign up forthis course and learn how to apply agileproject management techniques to scope out a project, estimate and plan thework, generate frequent iterations to gather more feedback, and welcomeconstant change into the development process. Findout how to select a first projectto use agile, how to train your team, and how to get your internal and/or external clientson board. Since agile is just as much a state of mind as it is a project-managementmethod, you’ll also explore daily practices for implementing agile in yourworkplace.

Sign up now before this one-of-a-kind classfills! See the course page for details. Thereis a substantial discount for Guild members!