3.5 Determine how to prepare and execute task management steps

Enablers

3.5.1 Interpret success criteria of an adaptive project management task

Success criteria for an adaptive project management task can be interpreted as follows:

1. User Story Acceptance Criteria: Each user story should have well-defined acceptance criteria that specifies the conditions that must be met for the story to be considered complete. These act as the success criteria for that story/task.
2. Definition of Done: Teams should have an explicit, shared definition of what “done” means that aligns with acceptance criteria. This prevents incomplete work from being considered successful.
3. Potentially Releasable: Success criteria should ensure the task output is potentially releasable to the customer, meeting their expectations and providing value.
4. Minimum Viable Product: For complex initiatives, success may be defined as delivering a minimum viable product that meets the core requirements.
5. Value-Driven Delivery: Ultimately, success criteria should measure delivery of value to customers/stakeholders, not just task completion.
6. Continuous Stakeholder Collaboration: Acceptance criteria interpretation involves ongoing customer feedback and collaboration throughout.
7. Inspect and Adapt: As new information emerges, success criteria may need to be revisited and adapted accordingly in an agile way.

3.5.2 Prioritize tasks in adaptive project management

Prioritizing tasks in adaptive project management, often associated with Agile methodologies, involves regularly reassessing and rearranging the order of work based on changing project needs, feedback, and evolving requirements. Here’s an explanation of how task prioritization works in adaptive project management:

1. Continuous Reprioritization: Adaptive project management emphasizes the need for continuous reprioritization throughout the project lifecycle. This means that the priority of tasks is not static; it can change as new information becomes available or as project goals evolve.
2. Customer Collaboration: Prioritization in adaptive approaches often involves close collaboration with customers or stakeholders. This ensures that the work being prioritized aligns with the current business priorities and provides the highest value to the end-users.
3. Value-Driven Approach: Tasks are prioritized based on their perceived value to the project and the end-users. Features or tasks that deliver the most value are typically prioritized higher and may be implemented earlier in the project.
4. Backlog Management: Agile projects often maintain a product backlog, a dynamic list of tasks or features to be addressed. The product backlog is regularly reviewed and reprioritized to ensure that the team is working on the most important and valuable items.
5. Iterative Planning: Adaptive methodologies like Scrum often use iterative planning, where tasks are planned for short timeframes (iterations or sprints). At the beginning of each iteration, the team collaboratively selects tasks from the prioritized backlog to work on during that iteration.
6. Responding to Change: In adaptive project management, change is expected and welcomed. The team is responsive to changing requirements, customer feedback, or market conditions, and adjusts task priorities accordingly.
7. Empowered Teams: Teams are empowered to make decisions about task prioritization. This empowerment encourages a sense of ownership and responsibility among team members, fostering a collaborative and flexible working environment.
8. Frequent Review and Retrospective: Regular reviews and retrospectives are conducted to evaluate the progress of the project and the effectiveness of task prioritization. This feedback loop helps the team continuously improve their processes.

In summary, prioritizing tasks in adaptive project management involves a flexible and iterative approach, where the team collaborates with stakeholders, responds to change, and focuses on delivering the highest value throughout the project’s lifecycle.