IT World has an interesting article about using the tools and techniques of agile development and scrum for projects other than software development.

Many of the techniques are similar to PK’s own Predictive Management (PM) toolset. For example, the use of regular short meetings (stand-ups in scrum and targeting sessions in PM) and the focus on remaining work rather than work completed (burndown charts in scrum and declining work balance graphs in PM).

The goal of both approaches is to get people to think about what they can really accomplish and keep them on track by focusing on what’s important. We’ve used PM internally and taught it to our clients for their use for over 20 years. Internally we’ve found the techniques allow us to:

• Accurately predict the costs and duration of our projects,
• Deliver services at a lower cost than others, and
• Keep the quality of deliverables and services high.

We have seen these benefits accrue to any project using the Predictive Management toolset. Consider using agile and scrum on your next non-IT project. Or better, yet contact us about using Predictive Management. After we complete our series on Performance Measurement we’ll discuss some of the Predictive Management tools.