Agile Project Management

Introduction

This is a proposal for the future course of design of the http://socialsynergyweb.org/opensourceecology development

Reference Material

http://www.ccpace.com/Resources/documents/AgileProjectManagement.pdf

http://www.rheingold.com/cooperation/decisionmaking.pdf

http://necsi.org/research/multiscale/Civilization.html

http://www.edgeperspectives.com/index3.shtml

Summary Overview

Traditional Project Management

Traditional Project Management, and Product Development seeks to manage, control, organize and coordinate projects, to create order via:

• Hierarchical Organization

• Increasing Control

• Rigid procedures

• People as "resources"

• Reductionist problem solving

• Up-front planning to manage risks, and to enhance predictability

(adapted from pg.3 http://www.ccpace.com/Resources/documents/AgileProjectManagement.pdf)

Complex Adaptive ("Agile") Project Management Framework

"Agile" project management borrows from Complex Adaptive System principles.

(see page 8 table 1 http://www.ccpace.com/Resources/documents/AgileProjectManagement.pdf )

Framework Outline

Guiding Vision

"Guiding Vision" has an immediate effect on influence of behavior of people involved

Teamwork and Collaboration

People are treated as autonomous, intelligent indviduals. Whenever possible, decision making power is handed over to the participants, to allow them to guide in collaborative ways

Simple Rules

Rather than micro-managed control, we all agree to a set of simple rules that guide complex distributed development

Open Information

This site, and all sites, and all communications are open, and constitute open information. Our processes are open and transparent.

Light Touch

Rather than trying to force the direction of evolution, we scale back imposed order, in favor of emergent order. We are flexible, and allow many directions to emerge from any given point. Our goal is to support and enable emergent order.

Agile Vigilance

Leaders, coordinators, people with responsibility pay attention to what is going on, and adapt to the emergent order, rather than trying to force what is evolving and emerging. Instead, they rely on the simple rules, the Guiding vision, open information, and Light Touch to help them adapt to what is emerging

Applying to our processes

All of us Propose a Guiding Vision, and all of us are then responsible for working towards emergent order over imposed order.

Open Product Development is a proposed Guiding Vision, that we are trying to implement. All of the projects evolving at Zero Hour are proposed guiding visions, that try to connect with real-world solutions.