Project Management in Practice

Beyond the alphabet soup of PRINCE2, MSP, PMBOK, ITIL, Agile

PRINCE2, ITIL, Agile … can I have the best of all?

12 Comments Posted by on April 14, 2011

There is a lot of discussion about what the best methodology is to adopt for an organisation. As soon as the discussion moves in that direction, it moves away from realities of any Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Projects simply do not mushroom out of thin air. Something causes a realisation in the organisation that moves them to  mobilize and start a project. The project than needs monitoring and control to bring the desired transformation in the organisation.

In an IT Service Management context, this realisation would come from the Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) process in ITIL. CSI should highlight required areas for improvement. That should in turn form the business case for a project in an PRINCE2 Start Up process. Once the business case has been approved, ITIL Service Design strategies can be used to initiate the project and plan the product catalog. PRINCE2 being a project management framework, does not specify how the specialist products are produced. Therefore, subsequent development stages can now be executed using Agile methodology. Agile and PRINCE2 both recognize the folly of planning too far ahead. During the iteration deployment, the ITIL Service Deployment strategies can be used. Each iteration length can be used as individual management stages.

Credits: ITIL from OGC, PRINCE2 adapted from OGC, Agile: Mountain Goat Software - click to view larger

PRINCE2, ITIL and agile methodologies all come from a desire to implement successful projects. All of these come from many years of learning by many involved in the SDLC. Each have their unique strengths. When the entire life cycle is taken into account, they can all fit nicely in their own areas.

Yes indeed, you can have the best of all 3.

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12 Responses to PRINCE2, ITIL, Agile … can I have the best of all?

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  5. simonwmoore December 20, 2011 at 9:30 pm

    Interesting post Shoaib, I agree that blurring the lines between the different methodologies is preferable to just picking one and forcing it through, but to what extent is it truly an agile process if the phases are determined in advance by PRINCE2?

    Reply
  6. Shoaib Ahmed January 4, 2012 at 3:03 am

    PRINCE2 is really implementing a management phase, rather than a deliverable phase. In some respects it is not that different to an agile sprint. The goal is that if the project isn’t continued, there would be some output that would benefit the organisation … very similar to the complete working product at each sprint.

    Reply

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  8. Andy Murray January 13, 2012 at 8:35 pm

    Great article Shoaib and a point I have been making for years. PRINCE2 is a method for managing a project and for projects with specialist deliverables it expects there to be a specialist development method to be used. That’s why the interplay between Controlling a Stage and Managing Product Delivery is defined in that way. The various project management ‘strategies’ and the project controls should be used to define how PRINCE2 will be used with the chosen development method.
    Regards
    Andy, PRINCE2 Lead Author

    Reply
    • Shoaib Ahmed January 13, 2012 at 9:45 pm

      Thanks Andy. Appreciate your comments. I find most people try to adopt a methodology or back office system to address gaps. Rarely time is taken to adapt the methodology to suit the organization.

      Reply

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