Agile Project Management: Creating Innovative Products

Foreword by Israel Gat

The Agile Software Development Series
Cockburn • Highsmith
Series Editors

Creating Innovative Products

Software Development/Agile

Best practices for managing projects in agile environments–now updated with new techniques for larger projects

Today, the pace of project management moves faster. Project management needs to become more flexible and far more responsive to customers. Using Agile Project Management (APM), project managers can achieve all these goals without compromising value, quality, or business discipline. In Agile Project Management, Second Edition, renowned agile pioneer Jim Highsmith thoroughly updates his classic guide to APM, extending and refining it to support even the largest projects and organizations.

Writing for project leaders, managers, and executives at all levels, Highsmith integrates the best project management, product management, and software development practices into an overall framework designed to support unprecedented speed and mobility. The many topics added in this new edition include incorporating agile values, scaling agile projects, release planning, portfolio governance, and enhancing organizational agility. Project and business leaders will especially appreciate Highsmith’s new coverage of promoting agility through performance measurements based on value, quality, and constraints.

This edition’s coverage includes:

Understanding the agile revolution’s impact on product development

Recognizing when agile methods will work in project management, and when they won’t

Setting realistic business objectives for Agile Project Management

 Promoting agile values and principles across the organization

Utilizing a proven Agile Enterprise Framework that encompasses governance, project and iteration management, and technical practices

Optimizing all five stages of the agile project: Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close

Organizational and product-related processes for scaling agile to the largest projects and teams

Agile project governance solutions for executives and management

 The “Agile Triangle”: measuring performance in ways that encourage agility instead of discouraging it

The changing role of the agile project leader

Jim Highsmith is a founding member of the AgileAlliance,
co-author of the Agile Manifesto, and director of the Agile Project Management Advisory Service for
the Cutter Consortium. He consults with development organizations throughout the U.S., Europe, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Japan, India, and New Zealand on accelerating development in today’s increasingly complex, uncertain environments. Highsmith is author of Adaptive Software Development, winner of the 2000 Jolt Award, and (with Alistair Cockburn) co-editor of The Agile Software Development Series. He has more than 25 years’ experience as an IT manager, product manager, project manager, consultant, and software developer.