Written by: Alex Leonard, PMP
Can you imagine an agile country? What if the values of agile could lead the social impact? Can we use Agile in the entire government to improve a country?
Presentation Overview 
On March 19, 2024, the PMI Atlanta Chapter Agile Forum attendees met virtually as Rocío Briceño presented on “Social Impact Agile: How Agile is Used to Improve the World”. During her presentation Rocío discussed how agile project management can be used to manage social governance projects.
To set the stage, Rocío began discussing the problems that big companies and country governments have. She emphasized that when you look at these problems closely, they are not all too unsimilar. The key to dealing with these problems is not to focus on all that is wrong, but instead, focus on the solution. And that is where Social Impact (SI) Agile comes into play. In the SI Agile Manifesto, there are five commitments:
- Share clear objectives
- Actively involve beneficiaries
- Action teams with social passion
- Be transparent
- Provide visible and frequent results
These five commitments are the pillars of SI Agile. While you concentrate on solutions, you will uncover problems, but they are not your focus. The solution to addressing country governance problems lies in the united application of the SI Agile commitments. During the event, Rocío walked us through a case study explaining how SI Agile was applied to solve solutions in Chile and the National Army of Columbia. Furthermore, she explained how the five SI Agile commitments, and a combination of agile frameworks and approaches, were used in a plan to put the entire country of Costa Rica on the path to progress and well-being while humming to the social mantra of “pura vida” which means “everything is going to be alright”!
Takeaways
- Agile frameworks and approaches are not limited to the business sector; they can also be used successfully in a social governance context.
- When we work together in a unified way, there is no national problem to big that cannot be solved with the commitment and resilience of the people.
Next Event
Join us at the next in-person PMI Atlanta Agile Forum at Motion Recruitment on Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Keynote Presentation: “The Agile Lifestyle” by Emanuella Altidor
Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar
Event Pictures
