Why Going Agile And Embracing Change Is Easier That You Thought
Inside every project manager is an ‘agilist’, trying to get out. In fact, that’s true of everyone in a project team. While the status quo and comfort zones have an undeniable attraction for our lazy streaks, we’re not made to do the same things over and over again. We may be apprehensive about change, but we also need it. The perils of endless repetition include boredom and rapidly increasing error rates. So what’s the answer?
A little root cause analysis will help here. Change is stressful when it involves the unknown. We worry about whether we’ll feel good about what comes after, compared to what we had before. When constant change is a fundamental part of an agile project approach, it can turn into a real tug of war between the urge for variety and the fear of failure or degradation of a situation. The pressures of project sponsors and end-customers for delivery of new products or services then exacerbate the problem.
But good methods for managing change and succeeding with agile methodologies can be learned. Agile project management may be characterized by fast-moving activities focused on action for rapid results. Yet it still relies on well-defined concepts and techniques to work successfully. It can be taught, internalized and then applied with confidence – and therefore without stress or worry – about the quality of the output of each agile cycle. Going agile and embracing change can then become a source of satisfaction for all concerned.
