Editing UNITA Agile Management Guide (section)

=== What is AGILE for UNITA? ===

This type of project management encourages collaboration and continuous improvement. It is referred to as an agile team.  
AGILE consists of dividing the project into several phases or cycles, and the various project activities are broken down into several specific, simple and prioritised actions.

==== 1. Definition of an AGILE TEAM ====

Agile teams work in a highly collaborative way, adopting the most effective communication techniques for their situation and striving to work together as closely as possible.  
The aim is to ensure that:
* Everyone feels part of the team, moving in the same direction.
* The team includes all the people needed to complete the task. An autonomous team must have the skills and knowledge needed to get the job done. Specialists may be called in if necessary.
* Each team member contributes according to his/her means. The team is made up of multidisciplinary members;
* The team is self-organised. The people best placed to plan and organise the work are those who actually do the work. This results in more accurate estimates, more realistic deadlines and greater team commitment to the plan;
* The team maintains a steady pace; everyone works closely together, avoiding discouragement.

==== 2. Definition of an ACTION ====

# An action may be defined as the result of a breakdown of a general activity in specific and simple operations, to be executed within one month, with a clear outcome.
# An action is defined and detailed by an explicit specification sheet (cf the UNITA’s project management tools)

==== 3. Definition of a CYCLE ====
# Every month (at least), the task co-leaders plan, organise and coordinate a meeting with all the members of the task: the task meeting. A cycle is defined as the period between two task meetings. During this period, the team must work on the action(s) chosen at the meeting at the start of the cycle. At the end of the cycle, the actions are reviewed at the next meeting. Based on the progress made, the team then decides what action to take next: continuation, reorientation, stopping, etc. The team implements the decisions taken on the actions in progress during the next cycle.
# A week before the task meeting, the co-leaders meet to prepare for the meeting and draw up the pre-minutes. They make these pre-minutes available to the task team members.
# Depending on the actions to be implemented, they may decide to divide the work into sub-groups and schedule interim meetings.