A PRINCE for our times? Getting the best out of Agile development with DSDM

Perhaps one of the most obvious identifiers of a digital attitude to business change is a rapid and Agile approach to systems development. Over the years, ICT has developed a reputation for careful, methodical analysis, specification, and waterfall development of new business requirements. Skilled capture of user requirements, followed by a period of development and then presentation of the wonderful new solution. In certain situations this still makes sense. Infrastructural IT projects especially need the discipline of rigorous project management, critical path analysis, and a work package mentality to ensure complexity and integration are carefully managed. But time has also shown us that although users of systems are mostly best placed to describe their needs, these needs are often most well developed where the user can see a solution evolve, generating further ideas and requirements that can be incorporated. This has led to daily 'stand-up‘ meetings and the concept of a state of constant iterative and incremental development. So is it possible for the public sector to integrate its tried-and-trusted PRINCE2 approach to project management with the very different demands of an Agile development approach? We think it is, and have produced a research report in conjunction with the DSDM Consortium to provide practical advice on how we can bring the two approaches together as one.