My 7-year-old son and I stumbled upon a National Geographic documentary called Counting Tigers. It’s about Project Tiger, a tiger conservation program by the Indian government. Early in the film, they posed the question to Lead Scientist, Dr. Yadvendradev Jhala, why do we need to count tigers? Dr. Jhala replied, “You need to have an assessment of what you have and where you have it. You can only judge that if you know if the tigers are increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable. And with all the investment which goes into conservation, do we actually make a difference?”
Much to the annoyance of my son, I kept hitting the 10 second replay button to hear the answer repeated. It struck me, not only could Dr. Jhala’s answer be applied to any project, but he captured the essence of project management in just a few concise sentences.
First, you need to have a goal. In the case of Project Tiger, the goal is clear, increase the population of tigers in India. Second, you need to have a plan, much of the movie is dedicated to their efforts. And thirdly, you need to check your progress to see if the plan is working. Then, of course, make the appropriate adjustments. Whatever the project, the work needs to be broken down into small enough tasks that work completed can be tracked and as they are doing in Project Tiger, progress needs to be linked to the ultimate project objectives.
At SVPM
We might not be counting tigers at SVPM, but we do honor Dr. Jhala’s sentiments. Guided by our overarching goals of allowing our volunteers to gain experience in Scrum and Agile, and to promote and expand the program through the SVPM Website, we segment the work into two-week Sprints. Within each Sprint, the tasks are divvied up amongst the Developers. Not only is each individual Developer responsible for their respective tasks, but as a team, we agree upon a Sprint goal.
By setting up the work in this way, there are multiple ways to track progress. First of all, we can look at a series of Sprints to see how we’re progressing overall and take an average of our speed (or velocity) to help with forecasting. Secondly, we can also track progress of each individual Sprint. The team meets regularly throughout the Sprint to share our advancement toward the Sprint goal and discuss any obstacles we might be encountering. The Scrum Master and other team members help get rid of those obstacles. Lastly, the Assistant Scrum Master constantly updates the Sprint progress on a Burndown Chart that compares actual work completed against what was planned during that Sprint.
Like any project work, we’re not immune to setbacks, but obstacles and issues are dealt with quickly, increasing our chances of success. On the occasion that we don’t completely fulfill our Sprint goal, we can evaluate the reasons during the Sprint Retrospective and apply what we’ve learned to the next Sprint. We are continually learning, improving, and working towards project goals.
Parting advice
Whatever project you may find yourself working on, know your objectives, count your tigers, and keep on learning.
Hello Loren,
Thank you for your thoughtful post. Counting tigers resonates with me because my personal mission is environmental preservation which aligns with the tiger (or any animal) conservation program.
From reading your post, there are many applications that I can apply “counting tigers” to such as Project Risk Management. Project Risk Management improves the predictability of project objectives thus increasing the probability of project success (PMI, 2019). A risk is an uncertainty that, if it occurs, can affect project objectives (PMI, 2021). Analogous to Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle, Risk Management is planning the approach, recognizing and evaluating the risks, response planning and implementation, and ongoing monitoring of risks (PMI, 2019). This is also consistent with the Scrum events – sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, and sprint retrospective.
Tigers should be counted throughout these events to ensure that the project objectives and project risks are managed to ensure project success. With the unique and dynamic nature of projects, risks are inherent in projects and may arise at any point. Artifacts are used such as the product and sprint backlogs, burndown charts, risk analyses, risk registers, etc.
I am thoroughly grateful that SVPM provides resources and a supportive learning environment for its members and the general public. The benefits that it offers to an individual, a team, and the project management community is invaluable.
Regards,
Lalaine
References:
Project Management Institute. (2019). The Standard for Risk Management in Portfolios, Programs, and Projects. Project Management Institute.
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
I totally agree that project objectives are critical in achieving the project goals. They need to be clear and concise for everyone on the team to grasp the goals they are pursuing. The objectives serve as a roadmap for achieving the project’s objectives.
When I worked as a project officer for a local NGO in Kenya, the project objectives had to be clearly stated before we could begin working on our projects. This resulted in the creation of project activities that led to the attainment of those goals. This contributed significantly to the effective completion of community initiatives that benefited the community.