Agile Professional Learning Network - Explorations in Agile Budgeting

Topic:

Using Agile Tools for Better Budgeting

Description:

Virtual Meeting --- address will be updated the week of the event

There are many factors to consider when forecasting a budget for development work. Who will do the work? How long will it take them? What will it cost to support that effort? How much (if any) of that work can be capitalized? Then, once budget is authorized, how do you track it? How do you know you're veering off-track, and when will you know to ask for additional funding?

Project managers had been navigating these waters for decades, when agile frameworks hit the industry like a tsunami. Suddenly, the old budgeting models started to fall short. Agile teams approached work differently. They estimated differently. They executed differently. The only way to pull a traditional budget estimate out of an agile team was to impose old-model thinking on them.

The result was awkward. The two concepts seemed out of step with one another. Similar shapes, but distorted and unnatural. It was like looking at a spreadsheet through a funhouse mirror.

This month we're going to talk through bringing agile practices into focus from a budgeting perspective. Agile tools exist that can help do this. But it's going to take a leap of faith from the traditional side. In the end it will make everyone's life easier. Let's see how.

Facilitator:

Michael Marchi & Jeff Singleton

Preliminary Agenda:

6:00 - 6:30 : Networking
6:30 - 8:20 : Presentation & Discussion
8:20 - 8:30 : Closing

2 SEU's