Agile Development Practices 2009: Rightsizing Your Project in a Down Economy

In tough times, both shoes drop simultaneously and "scarcity thinking" takes over in senior executives, managers, and development teams. In this environment, dysfunction can wreak havoc on your projects in the form of scope greed, death-march deadlines, and budget cuts. Often, the tendency is to say "yes" to impossible dates, take on too much, suffer the budget cuts, and pray that heroics might save the day. This is a disaster waiting to happen. It takes a skillful manager to "rightsize" critical projects-right team, right scope, right dates-at the beginning. Scarcity thinking threatens all three. Michael Mah describes how to lead difficult conversations and discuss the "undiscussables." He shares how to artfully frame trade-offs for stakeholders to set priorities. Learn how to get buy-in by using a blend of common sense, essential measurement concepts, and rules of software estimation. Whether you're agile, waterfall, or offshore, discover information you need to make the right choices and gain the support of your organization.