BOOK REVIEW
Book Title: AGILE Beyond IT: How to Develop Agility in Project Management in any Sector
Author: Adrian Pyne
Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
List Price: $40.40
Format: Softcover & Kindl, 232 pages
Publication Date: 2022
ISBN: 9781788603270
Reviewer: Trista L. P. Colbert, PMP®
Review Date: August 2024
Introduction
Agility isn’t just a modern business buzzword; it is a vital driver of innovation, adaptability, customer satisfaction, resilience, and competitive advantage. Achieving organizational agility requires a clear vision and steadfast support from senior leadership. In Agile Beyond IT: How to Develop Agility in Project Management in any Sector, Adrian Pyne emphasizes that agility transcends projects; it is about creating value across the entire organization.
This book grounds the reader in ten core principles of agile project management that shape the mindset of teams and individuals. The primary focus is on delivering customer and business value, ensuring that every action taken by the team is aimed at maximizing the project’s end goals. Key principles also include prioritizing customer satisfaction through open communication, defining clear yet flexible roles and responsibilities, and demonstrating real progress with optimal control and documentation. Agile projects emphasize doing just enough to meet requirements, embrace changing requirements, and foster a supportive environment where projects can thrive. Empowering the team with delegated authority is vital, as are encouraging collaboration, continuous improvement, and learning from early failures.
Overview of Book’s Structure
Pyne provides a comprehensive guide to project agility, starting with an introduction to the benefits of agility and the Agile Manifesto’s values and principles. Chapter 2 provides a comparison between Lean and agile methodologies to set the stage for understanding project agility, emphasizing the importance of the organizational landscape. Chapter 3 gives the reader a clear explanation of the key traps and myths associated with project agility, along with stories to highlight common misconceptions.
The relationship between projects and organizational business-as-usual (BAU) activity is explored in Chapter 4, focusing on how organizational culture can either support or hinder agility. The concept of ‘projectization’ of work, coined the Project Economy by the Project Management Institute (PMI), is introduced as an emerging trend that agility can positively influence.
In Chapters 5-8, the book provides detailed insights into transforming project management tools for agility. It explores organization, roles, leadership, planning, change control, and third-party management. The role of software tools and AI in supercharging agility is also discussed. Wrapping up, the book offers a comprehensive guide to becoming agile in project management, featuring a maturity model and a roadmap to achieving value, all while stressing the importance of leveraging existing best practices.
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How to cite this book review: Colbert, T. L. P. (2024). AGILE Beyond IT: How to Develop Agility in Project Management in any Sector, book review, PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue X, October/November. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/pmwj146-OctNov2024-Colbert-Agile-Beyond-IT-book-review-1.pdf
About the Reviewer
Trista Colbert, PMP
Maryland, USA
Trista Colbert, Founder & CEO of Colbert Edge LLC, is a performance-driven technology & operations leader with over two decades of leadership and project/ portfolio management experience. An accomplished Fortune 100 executive, Trista advises the corporate C-suite and their teams on effective, practical strategies to accelerate digital transformation, optimize operations, & achieve performance goals. Her unique ability to tackle complex technical & operational challenges, then swiftly translate them into high-impact solutions, is a proven strength that forms the cornerstone of Colbert Edge LLC.
Prior to launching Colbert Edge LLC, Trista was VP & Senior Partner of IBM’s Federal Hybrid Cloud delivery organization responsible for driving client co-creation, innovation, and growth of the hybrid cloud services portfolio. In this role, her sales & delivery-focused organization was comprised of PM professionals, cloud architects & engineers, managed infrastructure services experts, and managed security services experts working alongside Federal clients to drive mission outcomes.
Colbert Edge LLC delivers smart, innovative, high-impact technology and operations consulting services to Healthcare, Tech, and Public Sector clients. Services include Technology Advisory, Delivery, and Operations Leadership, Complex Program & Portfolio Management, and Fractional Executive Leadership.
Trista can be contacted at Trista L. P. Colbert, PMP® | LinkedIn
Visit https://colbertedge.com for additional contact information.
Editor’s note: This book review was the result of a partnership between the publisher, the PM World Journal and the PMI Silver Spring Chapter. Authors and publishers provide the books to the PMWJ editor or directly to the PMI Silver Spring Chapter, where they are offered free to PMI members to review; book reviews are published in the PM World Journal and PM World Library. PMI Silver Spring Chapter members can keep the books as well as claim PDUs for PMP recertification when their reviews are published.
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