An AGILE Guide to Project Management
Experiences
An AGILE Guide to Project Management

“It’s not the motivation level of your teammates that influences the project management framework, it’s the project that decides the framework you use,” said Felix Goh, Google’s Singapore Strategic Lead for education, research and EdTech. Mr Goh also works closely with educational institutions and government agencies to equip the current and future workforce with industry-relevant skillsets.

 

On 28 August 2021, Mr Goh conducted a masterclass on project management at ABYA’s invitation, bringing his 15 years of experience in the education and technology industry to the participants. In this masterclass, he covered the following elements of project management:

Written by: Rebecca Tan
Edited by: Wei Wen

First, what is the project management framework?

Mr Goh shared that the project management framework is a set of standardized processes with goals and milestones at each stage of the project timeline. The 5 phases of the project management framework are as follows:

What’s the difference between a project life cycle and a project control cycle then?

 

A project life cycle is a sequence of project phases that has a roadmap with milestones to accomplish at each stage. On the other hand, a project control cycle describes how a task or components within the project is being managed. It involves active monitoring such as managing and mitigating risks, tracking progress across teams and team members and communicating project status with external stakeholders.

 

So, what are the different project management frameworks?

 

“AGILE is one of the project management methodologies that rely on short delivery cycles and is often employed for projects where speed and flexibility are prioritized,” emphasized Mr Goh. At the core of AGILE is the requirement to improve solutions through collaboration among self-organising and cross-functional teams.

 

Below are the 4 key values and 12 principles of AGILE that create a people-centric approach to project management.

 

4 key values of AGILE:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

Mr Goh also highlighted the importance of maintaining controlled methods of communication and establishing a central repository to store and access notes, documents and comments to ensure that everyone can track amendments.

 

Other than AGILE, Mr Goh also introduced 4 other project management frameworks:

 

  1. The Waterfall method: Workflows sequentially between defined phases and workstations. Each stage can only begin after the completion of the previous stage. This method is helpful for projects that have longer delivery cycles.
  2. The PRINCE2 method: Involves a high degree of early-stage planning and is commonly employed for IT projects.
  3. SCRUM: Adaptation of the AGILE framework that uses cause and effect to classify situations driving a new project and to decide the most appropriate response.
  4. LEAN: Data-driven framework that relies on systematic measurement and analysis of quality to minimize defects in the project.

 

Conclusion

Mr Goh wrapped up the masterclass with a simulation activity, which allowed participants to apply the AGILE framework and a short question-and-answer segment.

 

“Above all, remember not to let the age of your teammates restrict you when managing projects – leverage on their experience and allow them to guide you through what works and what doesn’t,” he highlighted.

 

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Missed this chance to attend this project management masterclass? Watch out for upcoming masterclasses on ABYA’s telegram or Instagram to gain interesting insights!