Andy Silber

Adaptive Project Management: Leading Complex and Uncertain Projects Andy Silber

Does Adaptive Project Management make sense for you?

Are you using waterfall/PMP project management and...
...your stakeholders expect innovation, a predictable schedule, and a fixed budget without padding?
...it's impossible to build a Work Breakdown Structure because your team doesn't understand the solution yet?
...you're using new technology making it impossible to estimate durations accurately?

Are you using agile project management and...
...your project includes hardware and your plan includes complex dependencies?
...it takes weeks to complete and test a build?

Are you trying to get a project completed without any project management and...
...priorities aren't clear, so the wrong tasks are being worked on?
...your delivery dates are just guesses and things are always late?
...when your projects are complete the end users say "That's not what I need or want"?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then Adaptive Project Management is for you.
In Adaptive Project Management, the project manager does just enough planning to be confident that the team is working on the correct tasks. Those tasks might be risk reduction, on the critical path, or building prototypes to better understand what the end-user wants. The goal is to be constantly reducing risk and uncertainty as you move through a project, always updating the plan as you increase your knowledge. This book explains how to succeed or fail fast for projects that are too uncertain to use waterfall project management and too complex to succeed with agile project management.