— detailed strategy, optimal sequence for development and integration

Speaker: Vincent McGevna, PMP
Meeting Date: Thursday, February 2, 2012
Time: 6:00 pm Networking; 6:30 pm Management Forum/Guided Networking; 7:00 pm dinner; 7:30 pm Presentation
Location: RAMADA Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale, CA

 
Summary:
Management Forum / Guided Networking: Bring Your Management Challenge; Arrive by 6:30 PM to join this exciting Management Forum. Following informal networking is a guided discussion typically related to the topic of the evening’s after dinner talk, or of general Technology Management interest.
Light Dinner: This month we’re continuing with our light dinner format — typically sandwiches, salad, drinks, and cookie or similar light dinner.

Presentation: Using Agile-like Iterative Development on Large, Complex Projects
While Agile project management is an effective process that has been proven to be very beneficial for certain types of projects, there are many projects to which Agile project management just does not apply. For example, many new product development projects are too large and complex to execute without a carefully thought out plan, and within a sequence of short, fixed timeboxes.

One of the main reasons Agile has been effective it’s the use of iterative development – the end product is built up incrementally through a series of iterations. But being iterative is not unique to Agile. All of the new product development projects I’ve managed, many two or more years in duration, were done iteratively. Each had a detailed plan and, in all cases, the planning was essential.

The key element of the plan is the integration strategy which takes the low level deliverables in the WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and lays out an optimal sequence for development and integration. In my experience, large projects with a detailed strategy are more successful and less stressful than those without. Here we’ll look at what an integration strategy is, and how to go about creating one.

Bio:
Vince is the co-founder of Winning Schedules which is dedicated to mentoring organizations on effective ways they can use Microsoft Project. Vince has also developed planning and Microsoft Project e-Learning which is available at www.pmsuccess.com. Currently he is completing his book on Schedule Centered Planning which lays out how to create a schedule that is a project plan, and how to include the benefits of Agile in that plan.

Vince has a certificate in Engineering Project Management from U.C Santa Cruz, is a Project Management Professional, PMP, and a Certified Prince2 Practitioner.