The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and Practices for an Adaptive Approach

9 Agile Communications and Tools

AGILE COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT values behind agile is openness and transparency (see Chapter 3). Many traditional projects in the past limited the sharing of information to carefully controlled channels of communication and bad news was sometimes hidden from view in order to present a favorable image of progress. An important role of a traditional project manager in that environment has been to manage that flow of information.

Since the flow of information in an agile project is more open and transparent, information can be allowed to flow much more easily and automatically using the concept of an information radiator. For that reason, the role of a traditional project manager to manage the flow of that information is less essential. In addition to the general importance of openness and transparency, there are a number of other reasons why communications is extremely important in an agile project:

• Information is rapidly and dynamically changing in real-time throughout the project and needs to be shared efficiently.
• Good communications is essential to support close collaboration among everyone on the project team as well as people who may be peripheral to the project team, especially if the team cannot be collocated—that is, working in the same area—which is often the case.
• Sharing of information with the customer and business sponsor is also essential for the same reasons to support a close and collaborative partnership ...