PRINCE2 Agile: balancing control, speed, and risk in iterative product delivery
Han Bin – Project Management Expert
Han Bin is a project management expert in one of the leading internet companies in China and an early adopter of the new PRINCE2 Agile Version 2.
Most internet companies in China are using some form of agile model for product development. But the methods and techniques vary greatly, and I think now, more than ever, there's a reason to use PRINCE2 Agile to overcome the mounting pressure to take products and ideas to market more quickly.
At my own company, we have started moving away from a four-week to a one-week development cycle to help overcome long R&D demand backlogs. It’s already clear that this will both help us deliver strategic change more quickly, lower overheads, and reduce ambiguity and uncertainty.
For example, we found that during a four-week iteration cycle, new requirements or ideas were frequently proposed by stakeholders or management. This led to costly requirement changes, code becoming redundant, schedule extensions, and more costs incurred.
Consequently, it becomes difficult to respond to genuine, high-priority requests in a timely manner. This creates a decrease in satisfaction among business departments, a reduction in team efficiency, and low morale.
Managing an iterative development approach
The web industry is characterized by its user-centric business model and a trading environment which is fragmented, ambiguous, and volatile.
It therefore makes complete sense that R&D adopts an agile development model that uses a small-step, rapid-validation approach to make products and solutions that meet end user needs and stay in touch with market change.
Internet companies must constantly launch new products that will win and keep customers but, at a project level, it’s not always clear what the initial requirements are when developing a new user-facing product.
By taking an iterative, incremental delivery route, project teams can focus effort on prioritizing the most important product features to create a minimum viable product (MVP). This approach lowers cost and ensures a faster time to market.
The MVP can also be used to validate the new product's value and gather user feedback for continuous optimization and improvement. At the same time, an MVP helps demonstrate the value to management teams. They can see the early benefits and successes, have a better understanding of risk, and are more likely to give the project their continued support.
In this agile context, an approach like PRINCE2 Agile - with its managing product delivery process and agile workshops - enhances delivery efficiency and ensures alignment with project goals.
PRINCE2 Agile brings clarity
Innovative businesses continually deal with uncertainty and ambiguity, and I believe organizations that adopt the PRINCE2 Agile method will enjoy more clarity.
In fact, I know that when teams adopt an agile iteration model and use activities like daily stand ups to communicate across multi-functional teams, they can reduce ambiguity and uncertainty.
Of course, you can’t completely remove risk, but you can manage it. That’s why I think it’s important to put in place the right control measures too.
As I’ve mentioned, projects that have reduced the iterative product cycle from four weeks to one has given the project pace. However, we’ve used a weekly governance mechanism to control the risks associated with the speed of delivery.
We’ve tracked high-priority requirements in the projects and adjusted them in line with the business goals. This solves the problem of adding high-priority requirements at a late stage (i.e. after four weeks) and supports the fast development of solutions with high value outcomes.
Keeping momentum in regulated worlds
PRINCE2 Agile is not only suitable for project scenarios with uncertain requirements and frequent changes, but also those with an acute need to meet compliance obligations.
It can enhance trust and satisfaction among all parties: users, stakeholders, and leadership can control risks through the project stage review mechanism, providing more confidence in achieving the desired outcomes and improving overall stakeholder satisfaction.
Practical tips for successfully balancing control, risk and speed
I’ve found that PRINCE2 Agile perfectly addresses the pain point of balancing project control and agile team delivery and provides best practice guidance we can follow time and again.
There are three concepts I would recommend organizations use when adopting PRINCE2 Agile in a high-speed innovative commercial environment.
1. The PRINCE2 Agile principle of "ensure continued business justification" means project teams consistently align with the company's development strategy from initiation to delivery, rather than simply pursuing the speed of feature launch.
2. Make sure that projects continue to align with the company's strategic direction. Projects can get bogged down in iterative details, leading to a loss of control over the project direction, so reviewing progress against commercial justification helps to avoid this.
3. Next understand the importance of combining "staged management" with "management by exception." Staged management aligns the boundaries of agile iteration and assumes a review is conducted at the end of each stage to assess project value and risks. Meanwhile, “management by exception" clarifies the responsibilities and authority between upper management and the frontline team. A higher-level decision is only initiated when the iteration scope exceeds a predetermined deviation, while daily iterations are driven autonomously by the frontline team.
When you apply both, you can satisfy "rapid trial and error" requirements of a project while mitigating the risks of "unlimited trial and error" through staged reviews.
Adopting PRINCE2 Agile (Version 2) guidance will pay dividends to organizations that want to innovate and grow at pace but combined with structure and control. As I can testify, when it’s used consistently, it will help companies remain flexible to the changing economic dynamics and meet the demands of regulator demands.