When you are a digital agency, it’s sometimes hard to be confident in consistently delivering quality projects in a fast-paced web environment. Technology moves quickly. New ideas and approaches come and go in a short period of time. How to manage this changing landscape is often the question. In this blog series, I will outline how we here at SilverStripe approach the project life cycle using Agile mindsets and practices to deal with changes and successfully deliver projects. There will be lessons to learn and techniques to use that will help you manage projects with confidence in the ever-changing world.
Background
Over many years delivering successful and transformational Agile projects, we have become leaders in creating Agile mindsets and using Agile practices. We have lifted our consistency in project delivery and succeeded in bigger and more technically challenging projects. We have become much more adaptive to change for the betterment of users and clients. We are often asked to share our lessons in Agile project delivery so that people can learn from them, start their own Agile journey and succeed.
In response to this common request, I am creating a blog series covering the full Agile project life cycle:
- How to price Agile projects with confidence and win larger clients
- How to incorporate design into Agile cadences
- How to ensure projects stay on track when the development begins
- What business-as-usual looks like and how you can support your client outside of the project cycle
The first topic is a biggie:
How to price Agile projects with confidence and win larger clients
Such a big topic, in fact, I wrote a small book about it: the ‘Agile pricing guide’. The book is about how we price Agile projects here at SilverStripe. I felt it important to get this concept across well, as this is the question I am asked most by our partners, who are digital agencies looking to begin planning and estimating Agile projects.
Pricing Agile projects or programmes has often been seen as a difficult chicken/egg scenario. It is even more challenging in government projects where there may remain a culture of ‘fixed price, fixed outcome’. However at SilverStripe, we have priced in the Agile way for at least 5 years with little push back, no reverting to the old waterfall ways, and no compromise in the way we want to work. We are confident in our approach and can stand by the results we have delivered over the years. One key ingredient in effective Agile pricing is to articulate your approach well to your client – it’s how you can gain a client’s trust. It may be difficult at first, but after a few successful attempts, it will become natural to you. You will never want to go back to those old ways again.
In the ‘Agile pricing guide’, I also cover:
- Busting the top two myths of Agile pricing – by tackling the misconceptions head on, you are free to proceed with confidence
- The ‘golden triangle’ to guide your pricing – a good way to conceptualise your project types based on Time, Cost, Scope, without compromising quality
- The three pricing scenarios to establish priorities before a project begins, which saves you time, money and headaches
You can download this guide below and see how it could apply to your world.
I hope this blog series will make you more confident to give it a go. In my view, the more we can move organisations in this direction, the more this will become the norm, not the exception. Please do not hesitate to contact us and see how we can help you master the Agile project life cycle.
