Agile behaviours, the focus areas and the Agilometer
Behaviours and the five focus areas
PRINCE2 Agile expects behaviours as well as techniques: transparency (make work and problems visible), collaboration (across the delivery team and with the project board), rich communication (face-to-face, visual, osmotic, co-located where possible), self-organisation (the team decides how), and exploration (discover through doing). These apply to the board as much as to the team.
The five focus areas are: the Agilometer; requirements (high-level first, detailed later, prioritised with MoSCoW, expressed as user stories with acceptance criteria); rich communication (information radiators, big visible charts, workshops); frequent delivery (release early and often so value and feedback arrive sooner); and flexible plans (plan at the level of detail the horizon justifies, rolling forward as knowledge grows).
The Agilometer has six sliders: flexibility on what is delivered; level of collaboration; ease of communication; ability to work iteratively and deliver incrementally; advantage of early delivery; and appropriate agile training and experience. It is completed during starting up a project, reviewed as the project progresses, and used to decide how much PRINCE2 control and how much agile freedom is appropriate.
Traps: the Agilometer is not a maturity model, a risk log or a team performance score - it assesses the project environment. Low scores mean tighten control, not abandon agile.
Rule of thumb: low score on a slider → add formality, checkpoints or support in that area; high score → delegate and let the team self-organise.