The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile, 2nd Edition

9Agile Communications and Tools

AGILE COMMUNICATIONS PRACTICES

TWO OF THE MOST IMPORTANT VALUES behind Agile are openness and transparency (see Chapter 3). Many classical plan‐driven 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 Project Manager in that environment has been to manage the 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 classical plan‐driven 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 communication 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 are 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 co‐located, that is, working in the same area, which is often the case.
• Sharing information with the customer and business sponsor is also essential for the same reasons to support a close and collaborative ...