was the topic of the exclusive theme evening organised by Hoffmann Consulting GmbH together with the German-Dutch consulting firm Meedian/ABS yesterday in Düsseldorf. The limited invitation was accepted by 25 managers, mostly from large telecommunication companies, who learned about project management solutions to increase cost efficiency, delivery capability and customer satisfaction.

Dirk Rejahl, Director at Mediaan/ABS, opened the evening with an introductory comparison between traditional software development according to the waterfall model and current agile practice. Using the management method SCRUM as an example, Mr Rejahl explained how the competing models of thinking differ. He positioned SCRUM as a very effective micro-management method that systematically supports the user in realising the maximum benefit for his business with a given budget and in a given time. He demonstrated how SCRUM systematically manages and controls the development process and thoroughly dispelled the prejudice that agile project management is chaotic and unpredictable.

In the following presentation,Jens Hoffmann, Managing Director of Hoffmann Consulting GmbH, showed how the combination of an agile method such as SCRUM and a traditional approach such as PRINCE2 can be used to implement a resilient project organisation that is also acceptable in large companies. The traditional project management becomes more agile through the combination with agile principles and focuses on the actual customer benefit of the project results. By combining the agile approach with a traditional project management method such as PRINCE2, it is much easier to cooperate with other sub-projects and specialised organisations that do not yet work in an agile way. At the same time, this approach significantly increases the acceptance of the agile approach by top management.


The theme evening was rounded off by a presentation by Marcel Pereboom from Mediaan/ABS in the Netherlands on the topic of metrics and scope management. He showed how the productivity of software development teams can be measured and thus made comparable through the use of established metrics such as function points. At the same time, he also offered an approach to make the commissioning of agile software development transparent and reliable for the customer and, on the other hand, to take into account the needs of the supplier for stable and low-risk contractual relationships.