Agile Project Management

Course Description

As a researcher you may at times face two challenges in your project management (PM): you may have to oversee a variety of projects in parallel and you often may need to respond to requests for change at a rather late stage of each project. Agile project management (PM) offers a way to address both issues: it starts with the end-product in mind and breaks the work down into smaller blocks, which are iteratively delivered and tested within short time frames, thereby, ensuring incremental improvements towards the final result. While agile PM might present a challenge for some researchers, given its emphasis on trial-and-error (rather than perfect results) and close interaction with different stakeholders (rather than individual effort), it is also great fun and very motivating for a team to work this way.

The workshop combines an introduction to agile PM with elements of team leadership. It is aimed at researchers working with a team of other researchers or students. The workshop proceeds by following the agile method, i.e. you will experience the agile PM approach first, then learn the basic concepts, and apply them to your own project.

It is recommended that participants have previously undergone some project management training and are familiar with the basic concepts of planning, executing, monitoring, and closing a project.