Agile or "agile"? That Is the Question

November 28, 2022 | by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

An eon ago -- in October just before everyone in my family came down with Covid--I promised two more installments of blogs covering the lingering questions from our research webinar,

Q: I represent IT sector and I provide and implement Agile processes. Where is a border line between managerial processes and development processes in your surveys?

A: One of the things that comes up frequently in our team meetings is the crucial difference between Agile and agile. This border line that you are asking about runs right through the middle of this discussion.

Because our research focuses on the ways that project management processes assist organizations in delivering strategic objectives, we don’t go into detail asking about development processes. Agile development processes may take place under the umbrella of projects within IT, of course, and there are significant ways in which Agile can influence/reform project management when more small-a agility is beneficial to the organizations. An “agile mindset” is in fact one of the recommendations for success as a project and program manager. But development is only a subset of all the important activities that make up the discipline of project and program management.

Eric Foss, our President, Client Success, is particularly keen on making sure project managers and customers understand the border between small- and large-A agility. If you are at the PMI Global  Congress in Las Vegas, NV on Dec. 1 (today!) you can hear him on this and other subjects in person.

I’ll be there as well—your chance to ask more questions!

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About the Author

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief for PM Solutions Research, and the author, co-author and editor of over twenty books on project management, including the 2007 PMI Literature Award winner, The AMA Handbook of Project Management, Second Edition.

View Posts by Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin

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