Agile planning techniques are imperative to a successful business, and here’s why;
Your ability to plan anything – the implementation of a new system, the restructuring of a team, the launch of a new product or service – these things are all key to your career success.
It doesn’t matter what your role is within an organisation; learning agile planning techniques is crucial for your success. If you cannot plan, then you cannot organise your thoughts. And if you are unable to organise your thoughts, then you will be told what to do because you haven’t worked out for yourself what needs doing.
Agile Planning Techniques – Roadmap for Success
When it comes to agile planning techniques, I have developed The Agile Change roadmap described in this video. This is a great project management technique, which can be used for individual projects, programmes of multiple projects and for planning a change project, to organise all the steps to shift to a new way of working.
The idea of the Agile Change roadmap is that you can take any change initiative and break it down from the initial idea into all of the component parts. You can then work through the steps and know when the change is complete. This agile planning technique also prompts you to think about what you can expect at the end of this change and what results you are aiming for.
Why use a Roadmap as an Agile Planning Technique?
For all different types of organisation change, there are several elements that need to be considered. By using a roadmap, you can break your change down into digestible chunks, making your planning process far more manageable.
The Agile Planning Roadmap for Success provides the following:
- Clarity and Focus: The Agile Change roadmap provides a clear overview of the project, outlining the major milestones and the path to achieving them. This clarity helps teams stay focused on their goals and ensures everyone understands their role in the project.
- Improved Communication: By visualising the project plan, a roadmap facilitates better communication among team members and stakeholders. It provides a shared reference point that can help align expectations and keep everyone on the same page.
- Enhanced Planning and Coordination: The Agile Change roadmap helps in coordinating different tasks and resources efficiently. The Agile Change roadmap allows project managers and business change managers to allocate resources more effectively and ensure that all activities are aligned with the project timeline.
- Risk Management: Using the Agile Change roadmap allows for early identification of potential risks and challenges. By anticipating these issues, teams can develop mitigation strategies and avoid disruptions in the project flow.
- Progress Tracking: The Agile Change roadmap provides a framework for tracking progress against predefined milestones. This tracking helps monitor the project’s advancement and make necessary adjustments to keep it on track.
- Motivation and Engagement: Visualising the project’s progress and seeing milestones achieved can boost team morale and motivation. It gives a sense of accomplishment and encourages continued effort toward the project goals.
These benefits of using the agile planning roadmap collectively contribute to more effective and efficient project management. You can then ensure that project deliverables and new ways of working are implemented and adopted on time, and the benefits of the change have been realised for your organisation.
Agile Planning Techniques from Agile Change Management
If you are a project manager or business change manager and want the latest thinking in agile planning techniques, you may be interested in joining the next Agile Change Agent course. Adding the Agile Change Agent digital badge to your profile demonstrates you have the latest thinking and are committed to building your capability.