Many organizations bundle their projects with a set of management expectations, a business case, a budget and then hand it to a project manager for execution. As a result, the opportunity to build a strong foundation is often an uphill struggle. If significant change is required to the original assumptions, the project manager is in conflict with management who are now invested in not changing the expectations already set. How many times have you (as PM) wanted to start the project “RED”? Did you? Project setup is critical. At Projects in Focus, we define project setup as the work that needs to be conducted prior to execution. Such tasks include concept development/initiation, requirements and initial design, and in some projects, solution selection and contracting. Project setup is the most critical determinant of whether the project can deliver successfully or not. After all, correcting a project in execution is more difficult, time

Agile software development (Agile SD) provides some key lessons for designing projects. Incorporating agility into project processes can transform project value and the quality of the project outputs. Key lessons learned can be taken from the principles supporting the Manifesto for Agile Development. These are: Continuous delivery cycles; Cooperative, enabled, and self organizing teams (engaged in production); Clear interactive face-to-face communication; Technical excellence & good design; & Simplicity A Bit of History: Methods have advanced significantly since the traditional Waterfall method, which was originally designed based on the building construction modeling approach, was introduced in the late 1970’s. The key principle of Waterfall methodology was ‘to develop a perfect design as changes are extremely difficult to be incorporated later.’ Incorporated in this approach are many layers of safety nets to ensure the perfect design is created before coding or building starts. In construction projects, it is easy to understand why this was necessary