Many practitioners in the IT sector are now looking to Agile methods as a way to improve their development capabilities and overall business
performance.  However, a long lasting debate exists between the so-called traditional Project Managers and the Agile community.  Much of this debate is generated by confusion between the purposes of Agile development and Project Management methods.

There is nothing to prevent the use of both Project Management and Agile development for a successful completion of a software or systems development project.  However, a distinction between the two is required, in order to understand how to use each of them, as well as to set the
right expectations.

Project Management is about management processes that are enacted to define, plan, manage and successfully close a project that is initiated for achieving a certain set of business objectives.   The project might include development work, which calls for application of one or more particular project lifecycles – for instance software development.  The role of such a lifecycle is to define what technical work is required, in what sequence, what are the technical procedures and skills required to complete it, as well as some other technical directions.

Whereas the Project Management processes are the same for each and every project no matter its technical area, project lifecycles – or more specifically, development lifecycles – are very particular to each application area.  Agile development methods fall into the second category, as they are concerned with technical activities, roles and skills required to develop a software product or a system.

Bridging Project Management and Agile development into a successful process framework is possible, but requires a more subtle approach,
as well as a mindset change for both categories of practitioners.  Things like scaling, working with multiple Agile teams, organizational integration and relationship between development and business levels are of much importance whenever an organization is thinking to embrace Agile development in a consistent manner.

We shouldn’t be surprised that two major Project Management organizations – PMI and APMG – have recently released certification programs
for the so-called Agile Project Management.

Hopefully, we are seeing an outbreak of common sense that will lead to real world integration of existing best practice.  Here’s to hoping.