Effective Project Management: Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme, Fourth Edition

Chapter 17. Client Checkpoint

Any plan is bad which is not susceptible to change.

—Bartolommeo de San Concordio, Florentine painter and writer

This is the very heart of the APF. Here the client and the project team confer openly about what has been done so far, what still needs to be done, and what new learning and discovery have taken place in the just completed cycle. The next cycle functionality is discussed and the cycle begins again with the Cycle Plan Phase.

One of the real advantages of the APF over other approaches is that the client is involved as a principal and decision maker at all critical junctures in the project. Because cycle length is so short and so controlled, little can go wrong that is not easily corrected. Within the cycle itself, not even a day passes without the team taking stock of where it is compared to where it was planned to be, adjusting accordingly. Such is also the case between cycles. Little can go wrong that cannot be corrected, and few dollars and little time are wasted because of the APF's structure. It is here that the team and the client spend valuable time looking at what was done, reflecting on what was discovered and learned since the last checkpoint, and planning the functionality that will be built in the next cycle.

As you will see, this introspection with client and project team fully engaged is a very thorough process. If properly done, it is unlikely that anything significant will be missed. Figure 17-1 is a graphical display of the Client ...