The core concept in IMP/IMS is the assessment of the increasing maturity of the project as time passes. Not the meeting or milestones, or the completion of task - those are important. But how do these efforts contribute to the increasing maturity of "done?"
In the concepts of Extreme Programming and SCRUM, iterations defined by the customer notion of "value" are the core paradigm. As time passes the customer receives more of the system. There is no formal concept of increasing maturity defined in SCRUM or XP. They assume the customer can recognize this when they see it.
IMP/IMS plays a critical role here - defining the desired level of maturity as a function of time. Joining IMP/IMS with an agile software development process is a natural and synergistic approach.
I came to this realization when Ron Jeffries wrote in the new Agile Community of Practice forum...
To accomplish this (stay under control), Agile projects need to turn classical "waterfall" thinking on its side.
Actually agile projects using IMP/IMS produce finer grained deliverables than the traditional waterfall. Deliveries appear on bi-weekly boundaries. Assessment of completeness takes place the significant accomplishments and their criteria. At the end of each iteration a collection of "accomplishment criteria" can be defined. At the end of the release cycle the "Significant Accomplishments" can be assessed.
As the project progresses the increasing maturity is assessed through the Program Events. These events are defined from the requirements, business process needs, and customer definition of value. The Declaration of Interdependence says "we increase return on investment by making continuous flow of value our focus."
Here's the direct way to measure that increasing flow of value - measure the increasing maturity of the project in terms of project events, their accomplsihments and criteria. By maturity it is meant the business value in terms of usefulness, "earning your keep," and concepts like that - not just the simple minded financial ROI.
