Effective Software Project Management

Traditional Versus Extreme Projects

These two project types are at opposite ends of the landscape you have been studying in this book. For that reason, they are as different as any two projects could be. You know that the Traditional project is completely defined and specified. You also know that the Extreme project will usually have very little of this to base itself on. That translates into differences between project managers, teams, planning, and scope change management, as discussed in this chapter.

Extreme projects do not have the degree of specificity of even the Adaptive projects. Not only will much of the solution (expressed in terms of requirements, functions, and features specification) be unknown, but also the goal itself is often somewhat of a mystery. While a goal may be stated, it is not known whether it is feasible or can be attained. If it can be attained, how will it be attained and will it be different than originally stated? That translates into the goal and the solution being discovered at the same time with one another. That is remarkably different from what any Traditional project might envision.