Task: Manage Iteration |
Assess project status and identify any blocking issues and/or opportunities. Identify and manage exceptions, problems and risks. Communicate project status.
Disciplines: Project Management
Purpose
Identify blocking issues and/or opportunities early to take action and keep the project on track.
Relationships
Roles | Primary Performer: Project Manager | Additional Performers: Analyst Architect Tester Developer Any Role Stakeholder
Inputs | Mandatory: Iteration Plan Project Plan Work Items List Risk List | Optional: None
Outputs | Iteration Plan Project Plan Work Items List Risk List
Steps
Capture status
The project manager needs to continuously monitor the project to ensure its appropriate progress, and to enable the team to react as soon as possible to any change. Many alternative means may be used to track the status: Quick, daily meetings with the project team, also called "scrum meetings” are useful to understand what team members have accomplished since last meeting, and what they plan to accomplish before the next meeting. It also allows the team to identify any blocking issues. See [SCH04] for guidance on scrum meetings. Basic metrics, ideally automatically generated from the tools at hand, or manually assembled. Examples of such metrics include Report: Iteration Burndown and Report: Project Burndown charts. See also Concept: Metrics for more information.
Communicate status
Communicating project status is as important as gathering it. Communication is usually done at two levels: the task level and project level. Task Level – Communicated within the project team: status can be communicated through quick, daily meetings. This allows you to combine the status capturing with the status communications. Project Level – Communicated to the stakeholders and the project team: status is usually communicated through core metrics rather than detailed information. This can be done through meetings, e-mail, or Web publishing.
Handle exceptions and problems
One of the project manager's key responsibilities is to know about the project team's problems and issues. The manager needs to focus on problems that are blocking progress. A quick, daily meeting is usually a good way to monitor those problems and issues. Identify the cause and impact of problems and exceptions as they arise. Identify possible solutions for problems that have an immediate impact on the short-term goals and objectives and identify who needs to be involved in implementing the solution. Then, define the corrective actions and implement them.
Identify and manage risks
Identify risks as soon as the project starts and continue identifying and managing risks throughout the project. The risk list should be revisited weekly, or as a minimum once per iteration, see Concept: Risk and Artifact: Risk List for more details.
Reprioritize work as needed
When a team is falling significantly behind, or critical problems occur, it may be necessary to reprioritize tasks to ensure that the team delivers a useful product increment by the end of the iteration, while maximizing stakeholder value. In these rare cases, the project manager should work with the team and stakeholders on revising the iteration plan and, as necessary, reduce the emphasis on less critical tasks.
More Information
Concepts | Risk Risk Management Metrics
Guidelines | Assign Changes to an Iteration
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