Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

Organizations often apply gating and governance to IT projects to ensure resources are being used efficiently and effectively.
Agile project teams often complain that traditional project gating and governance interfere with their ability to delivery because traditional gating and governance were designed for Waterfall delivery methods.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Imposing a traditional gating and governance approach on an Agile project can eliminate the advantages that Agile delivery methods offer. Make sure to rework your traditional project gating and governance approach to be Agile friendly.

Impact and Result

Create a project gating and governance approach that is Agile friendly and helps your organization realize the most benefit from its Agile transformation.
Oversee your Agile projects with confidence by adjusting the level of support and oversight they receive based on their Agilometer score.
Define a revised set of project gating artifacts that support Agile delivery methods.
Adopt a “trust but verify” approach to Agile project gating that will reduce risk and help ensure value delivery.

Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach Research & Tools

1. Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach Deck – A step-by-step guide to creating an Agile-friendly project gating and governance approach that will support Agile delivery methods in your organization.

This deck is a guide to creating your own Agile-friendly project gating and governance approach using Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework.

2. Your Gates 3 and 3A Checklists – The Gates 3 and 3A Checklists are used to determine when a project is ready to enter and exit the Risk Reduction & Value Confirmation phase.

Modify Info-Tech’s Gates 3 and 3A Checklists to meet your organization’s needs, and then use them to determine when Agile projects are ready to enter and exit the RRVC phase.

3. Your Agilometer – The Agilometer is used to determine a project’s readiness to use an Agile delivery method.

Modify Info-Tech’s Agilometer to meet your organization’s needs, and then use it to determine the level of support and oversight the project will need.

4. Your Agile Project Status Report – An Agile Status Report will be used to monitor project progress.

Modify Info-Tech’s Agile Project Status Report to meet your organization’s needs, and then use it to monitor in-flight Agile projects.

5. Project Burndown Chart – A tool to let you monitor project burndown over time.

Use Info-Tech’s Project Burndown Chart to monitor the progress of your in-flight Agile projects.

6. Traditional to Agile Gating Artifact Mapping – A tool to help you rework your project gating artifacts to be Agile-friendly.

Use Info-Tech’s Traditional to Agile Gating Artifact Mapping tool to modify your gating artifacts for Agile projects.

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Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

Use Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework as a guide to gating your Agile projects using a “trust but verify” approach.

Analyst Perspective

Executive Summary

Phase 1: Establish Your Gating and Governance Purpose

Phase 2: Understand and Adapt Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

Phase 3: Complete Your Agile Gating Framework

Where Do I Go Next?

Bibliography

Facilitator Slides

Analyst Perspective

Make your gating and governance process Agile friendly by following a “trust but verify” approach

Most project gating and governance approaches are designed for traditional (Waterfall) delivery methods. However, Agile delivery methods call for a different way of working that doesn’t align well with these approaches.

Applying traditional project gating and governance to Agile projects is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Not only will it make Agile project delivery less efficient, but in the extreme, it can lead to outright project failure and even derail your organization’s Agile transformation.

If you want Agile to successfully take root in your organization, be prepared to rethink your current gating and governance practices. This document presents a framework that you can use to rework your approach to provide both effective oversight and support for your Agile projects.

Alex Ciraco
Principal Research Director,
Application Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Many government organizations are adopting Agile project delivery methods because they have proven to be more effective than traditional delivery approaches at responding to today’s fast pace of change.
Government organizations have an obligation to govern projects to ensure effective use of public resources, regardless of the delivery method being used.

Common Obstacles

Most government gating and governance frameworks were designed around traditional (often called “Waterfall”) delivery methods.
Agile and Waterfall work in completely different ways, so imposing traditional gating and governance frameworks on Agile projects will stifle progress and can even lead to project failure.
Government organizations must adjust their gating and governance frameworks to accommodate Agile delivery methods.

Info-Tech’s Approach

Begin by understanding the fundamental purpose of project gating and governance.
Next, understand the major differences between Agile and Waterfall delivery methods.
Then, armed with this knowledge, use Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework to redefine your gating and governance approach to be Agile friendly.

Info-Tech Insight

Imposing a traditional governance approach on an Agile project can eliminate the advantages that Agile delivery methods offer. Make sure to rework your project gating and governance approach to be Agile friendly.

Info-Tech’s methodology for Creating an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

1. Establish Your Gating and Governance Purpose

2. Understand and Adapt Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

3. Complete your Agile Gating Framework

Phase Steps

1.1 Understand How We Gate and Govern Projects

1.2 Compare Traditional to Agile Delivery

1.3 Realize What Traditional Gating Looks Like and Why

2.1 Understand How Agile Manages Risk and Ensures Value Delivery

2.2 Introducing Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

2.3 Create Your Agilometer

2.4 Create an Agile-Friendly Project Status Report

2.5 Select Your Agile Health Check Tool

3.1 Map Your Traditional Gating Artifacts to Agile Delivery

3.2 Determine Your Now, Next, Later Roadmap for Implementation

Phase Outcomes

Your gating/governance purpose statement
A fundamental understanding of the difference between traditional and Agile delivery methods.

An understanding of Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework
Your Gates 3 and 3A checklists
Your Agilometer tool
Your Agile project status report template
Your Agile health check tool

Artifact map for your Agile gating framework
Roadmap for Agile gating implementation

Key Deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals, including:

Agilometer Tool Create your customized Agilometer tool to determine project support and oversight needs.		Gates 3 and 3A Checklists Create your customized checklists for projects at Gates 3 and 3A.
Agile-Friendly Project Status Report Create your Agile-friendly project status report to monitor progress.		Artifact Mapping Tool Map your traditional gating artifacts to their Agile replacements.

Create an Agile-Friendly Project Gating and Governance Approach

Phase 1

Establish your gating and governance purpose

Phase 1
1.1 Understand How We Gate and Govern Projects
1.2 Compare Traditional to Agile Delivery
1.3 Realize What Traditional Gating Looks Like And Why

Phase 2

2.1 Understand How Agile Manages Risk and Ensures Value Delivery

2.2 Introducing Info-Tech’s Agile Gating Framework

2.3 Create Your Agilometer

2.4 Create Your Agile-Friendly Project Status Report

2.5 Select Your Agile Health Check Tool

Phase 3

3.1 Map Your Traditional Gating Artifacts to Agile Delivery

3.2 Determine Your Now, Next, Later Roadmap for Implementation

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

Understand why gating and governance are so important to your organization.
Compare and contrast traditional to Agile delivery.
Identify what form traditional gating takes in your organization.

This phase involves the following participants:

PMO/Gating Body
Delivery Managers
Delivery Teams
Other Interested Parties

Agile gating–related facts and figures

73% of organizations created their project gating framework before adopting or considering Agile delivery practices. (Athens Journal of Technology and Engineering)

71% of survey respondents felt an Agile-friendly gating approach improves both productivity and product quality. (Athens Journal of Technology and Engineering)

Moving to an Agile-friendly gating approach has many benefits:

Faster response to change
Improved productivity
Higher team morale
Better product quality
Faster releases

(Journal of Product Innovation Management)

Traditional gating approaches can undermine an Agile project

Most existing gating and governance frameworks (often referred to as phase-gate) impose requirements on projects that are anti-patterns to an Agile delivery approach
For example, any gating approach that requires a project to deliver a detailed requirements document before coding can begin will make it difficult or impossible for the project to use an Agile delivery method.
The same can be said for other common phase-gate requirements including:
- Imposing a formal (and onerous) change control process on project requirements.
- Requiring a detailed design document and/or detailed user acceptance test plan at the beginning of the project.
- Asking the project to produce a detailed project plan.

(DZone)

Don’t make the mistake of asking an Agile project to follow a traditional phase-gate approach to project delivery!

Before reworking your gating approach, you need to consider two important questions

Answering these questions will help guide your new gating process to both be Agile friendly and meet your organization’s needs

What is the fundamental purpose of gating? By examining the fundamental purpose of gating, you will be better able to adjust your approach to achieve the desired outcomes in an Agile context.
How does Agile delivery differ from traditional? By understanding how Agile delivery differs from traditional, you will be better able to adjust your gating approach to support Agile delivery methods.

Stock image of speech bubbles hanging on string with a question mark and lightbulb drawn on them.

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