Today’s business environment is full of new challenges. The main challenge is the quick pace of change that comes in many shapes and sizes. Budgets constraints, new or improved competitors, evolving markets, new technologies, altered objectives, unforeseen needs, staff turnover…

In this ever-changing and challenging context, the ability to manage projects with great flexibility is crucial. Adaptation on the go is key to successful project completion. That’s why Adaptive Project Management is an ideal solution.

 

 

What is adaptive project management and why use it

Adaptive Project Management (APM) was first described in Robert K. Wysocki’s ‘Adaptive Project Framework: Managing Complexity in the Face of Uncertainty’ (2010). APM is a systematic, structured, and creative agile approach that actually sets us up for success. 

Traditional project management forces us to follow a project plan rather than respond to customer needs and changing demands and constraints. It can be rigid, slow, and inflexible, and even steer us off our original objectives.

Adaptive methodology is different – it helps us deliver successful projects because of it.

• recognizes that we may not know the solutions at the start of the project
• lets us start even if we don’t know all the objectives or solutions at the beginning
• accepts changes happen throughout a project
• helps us navigate through changing objectives
• encourages the project manager and team to continuously find creative solutions
• avoids exhaustive and wasteful over-planning
• focuses on what the customer needs, rather than what a stale project plan dictates
• prioritizes high-value delivery
• requires reflection, learning, and discovery for improvement.

Wysocki’s Adaptive Project Framework (APF) is the toolkit that allows us to manage our projects adaptively and flexibly. Operating in this framework, the project managers use whatever tools are necessary when they are necessary. This allows for responsiveness to the project’s changing context. Wysocki aligns this to the difference between a cook and a chef:

‘…if all you can do is blindly follow someone else’s recipe for managing a project, you won’t have a chance! But if you can create a recipe adapted to the conditions of the moment, you will have planted the seeds of success.’

Use APF and you’ll be a project chef! 

 

How does an adaptive project management framework work?

Before exploring the Adaptive Project Framework, remember that it’s not a magic bullet. There are some prerequisites. Assess if your team is ready for it:

1. The project manager and team must be willing to roll with changes, adapt, and be flexible. Do you and your team have the right skills and perspectives? 
2. Your team must be open and value a trusting, working relationship with each other.  Does your team need any soft skills training?
3. The client is an integral puzzle piece. Continual involvement and interaction are necessary to ensure customer needs are fulfilled. How will you establish and maintain this relationship?

 

The Adaptive Project Framework itself has 5 main stages.

Stage 1: Defining the project & Project Scope

Scoping the project includes three basic tasks. 

1. Identify the Conditions of Satisfaction (CoS). What are the outcomes of the project? The project manager and the customer work closely together to develop the CoS.
2. Write the Project Overview Statement (PoS). Keep it short – one page noting the CoS, possible problems, success criteria, and any predicted risks or opportunities. The PoS is not a fossilized document. If the goals of the project change during the project, just change the PoS.
3. Plan the version scope – it involves
   1. deciding on the project management model
   2. identifying any constraints (time, resource capacity, cost)
   3. creating the work breakdown structure (an estimation of resources and time needed, dividing the overall goal into smaller objectives, like tasks).
      It is impossible for the work breakdown structure (WBS) to be complete at this stage – it will evolve and adapt throughout the project.
   4. prioritizing functional requirements (for example, think about business value and dependencies)
   5. writing the high-level project plan 

Don’t plan the whole project at this stage. In fact, you probably don’t know all the solutions or ways of achieving the desired outcome. That’s actually a good problem and means the project is a good fit for APF! Now, you can proceed to create solutions in the Cycle Plan, Cycle Build, and Client Checkpoint.

Stage 2: Cycle Plan

Cycle planning occurs multiple times during a project. In the Cycle Plan, focus on specific sections of the WBS, decompose these into smaller tasks, consider dependencies, allocate resources to the tasks, and establish the duration of the cycle. Simultaneous Cycle Plans are possible. These ‘swim lanes’ increase the project’s efficiency.

Stage 3: Cycle Build (completing tasks)

Cycle Build is doing the work. But, don’t just work. You also need to monitor how the work is being done, track its stages, keep an eye out for any emerging changes, identify new solutions, adjust as needed, and keep a transparent record. (Note: you don’t need high-level permission to make your adjustments. Be creative and solve the problem.)

Stage 4: Client Checkpoint (updating the customer)

Client Checkpoint occurs upon completion of one cycle but before planning the next. Keeping the customer up-to-date cannot be underestimated. In the end, it’s the customer’s needs that drive the project! 

Main discussion points include:

• What was planned vs. what was done?
• Does the cycle’s output meet the conditions of satisfaction and provide value? 
• Are there change requests or updated requirements from the customer?
• What other stakeholders or clients can contribute or need information at this stage?
• What was learned that can be applied to the next cycle?

After the Client Checkpoint, the process goes back to Stage 2 – Cycle Plan. If the project is complete, you are free to move out of the cycles and conduct the Post-version Review.

Stage 5: Post-version Review (reflecting and reporting)

Assess the project’s success. Identify the solutions created to achieve the objectives. Assess the team’s use of the framework. Identify improvement opportunities. Finally, write a final report documenting these reflections and recommendations.

 

Adaptive vs Agile vs Traditional project management

Traditional Project Management (TPM) uses the so-called waterfall models. All the planning is up-front (very little room for changes) and the project work is often linear. The team does not divert from the original plan. The outcomes are all delivered at the end, and the customer has little involvement during the project. Very often the outcomes do not result in meeting the customer’s underlying needs. 

Agile project management is an umbrella term for management approaches that are change-driven and include multiple plan-do-deliver stages throughout. This means some planning at the start, but doing is valued over up-front planning. Product delivery occurs throughout the project (not just at the end), the customer is involved throughout, and the prioritized iterative stages allow for changing requirements and solutions. 

Some Agile approaches are minimalist, where the solutions may be somewhat known at the start (e.g., Evolutionary Development Waterfall, Feature Driven Development). Other Agile approaches are maximalist, where the solutions are generally not known up-front so the project is more complex (e.g., APF, Scrum). 

The Adaptive Project Framework and adaptive project management is an Agile approach that recognizes that every project is different. So, every project needs a tailored and evolving solution. 

The adaptive project life cycle in APF is not only about iterations. It uses continual interaction with the customer. It pushes the team to learn and apply that learning in each step of the process. APF encourages analysis and adaptation of how we plan and build cycles. These cycles are designed to converge on necessary solutions, rather than implementing predictable solutions.

Weekwise, naturally, provides the tools to let you apply adaptive project management in a cloud-based context. Weekwise helps you wisely focus on your resources, and here are two examples of how this makes it suited for adaptive project management.

Example 1

Weekwise’s Resource Allocation & Planning tools allow you to do the minimal planning upfront and then adjust and adapt throughout a project. Weekwise simultaneously handles as many projects as you have on the go, and tracks your resources across all of these projects. Weekwise thinks about projects in terms of weeks, so this gives you maximum flexibility each step of the way.

Example 2

Weekwise supports continual transparency. Beyond onsite or online stand-ups and transparent shared boards, the Timesheets feature gives team members the space to update the project manager each step of the way, including work done, milestones achieved, and any issues that arise.