Friday August 20th, 2021

Getting Into Agile Project Management: How To Start?


You want to or are supposed to start working agile? But now you still have a few questions? You’re not alone. For instance, I’ve recently been asked:


Who wants to get into Agile project management: How should he or she proceed?

The simple answer of an Agilist can only be: Start! And do it as a team. And with these kinds of questions:

  • Why do you want to change something? What should be achieved with agile measures differently and also different?
  • What result do you expect? In concrete terms?

Then, of course

it also makes sense to get an overview of the basics and different forms of agile working frameworks. Scrum, for example, is well suited for project teams. A training course is recommended. Or you do – for now – as follows:

  • ALL of you, read the Scrum Guide.
  • Read it through again.
  • Talk briefly about what you think you have understood.
  • Then all read through the Scrum Guide again.
  • And then sit down together and talk concretely about what you want to implement and how.
  • Try this out for a while, check the results again and again. Adjust what needs to be adjusted.
  • Do this regularly and again.

It’s also helpful and important

to be accompanied from the beginning by an Agile coach. The coach comes in occasionally and helps the teams to organize themselves in an Agile way.

It is pretty unfamiliar to work in an Agile way, and it also requires a few skills that are not readily available, e.g. a good conflict culture. That’s where a coach helps immensely.

In any case, I wish you a lot of fun! Because that’s what these Agile frameworks were made for: To have fun working together!