While trying to address the perennial SCRUM-versus-waterfall
question by researching project success rates, I came upon an interesting
article in Dr. Dobb's Journal. After surveying over 300 project management
practitioners with expertise in both Agile and traditional methodologies, the
Journal was able to quantify success for 71% of Agile projects and 61% “traditional”
projects. Whether this implies that
self-organization effectively mitigates at least some risks, or that Agile projects
are more disciplined than is commonly perceived, remains open to interpretation
[more on this in my next blog entry], but even more interesting were the trends
about workplace health, as documented almost as an afterthought on the survey’s
periphery[1].
It seems that 80% of IT managers and 70% of project managers
put the needs of their staff over the need to deliver on time and on
budget. Great…, no? Well, to me at least, this is actually somewhat
worrisome. However, only 53% of surveyed
business stakeholders have expressed a similar sentiment. Wow!
Effective teams enable organizations to achieve the high
levels of performance that are essential to competing effectively in a
challenging business environment[2]. Prioritizing project health over team health
is detrimental to morale and undermines the team’s strong long-term commitment
to the mission of the organization. Does
this underscore the belief that IT services are becoming [or have already
become!] a commodity?
Typically, project teams' and project managers’ performance
assessments, rewards, and recognition are based on how higher level managers
perceive the teams are meeting the traditional cost, schedule, and performance
goals. The pressure to execute day-to-day without misstep is only continuing to
balloon steadily, but irrespective of the SCRUM-versus-waterfall debate, teams
are still evaluated in large part on the perception
of their final output. Until this
disconnect between project success and project team success is bridged,
allowing the above numbers to get closer to 100%, I think we have a problem.
