What is Agile and How Does it Differ from Traditional Project Management?
Project management is a method of planning and instituting to direct the performance of a project. This ensures that all requirements are known and resources are allocated to complete the work.
Traditional project management is a linear approach to project management that includes:
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Preparing an estimate of what will be done.
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Prioritizing tasks and deadlines.
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Assigning responsibility for tasks according to each person’s expertise.
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Monitoring progress closely (tracking) and providing feedback on results.
Agile development is a software development methodology that was developed to address the challenges in order to create and deliver software products. In agile development, there are iterative and incremental cycles in which code and design are updated. The final goal is for the project teams to reach the finish line with a working product.
Traditional project management focuses on long-term planning and there are fewer iterations as opposed to agile developments.
What do you Need to Know about Agile Methodologies
Agile methodologies are, in many ways, similar to waterfall in that they both rely on feedback loops and testing. Waterfall focuses on the development process and how it should be completed and Agile focuses on how teams should work together.
Productivity is the main goal of Agile – this is done by working closely with our clients and stakeholders. We can create an environment where all the team members are able to maximize their output for a given amount of time.
The key features of Agile project management are:
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Iterative development
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Cross functional teams
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Frequent delivery
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Continuous improvement
The only way that Agile methodologies work is if you have a project manager who is responsible for the end-to-end process. The project manager needs to be the one who figures out what needs to be done and provide estimations.
As an organization looking into adopting Agile methodology, they need to make sure they are balancing risk and reward. You can find more information about this from Gartner’s report: “Understanding Software Development Tension Between Risk And Reward.”
How to Implement Agile Project Management into Your Own Businesses
Agile project management is a framework. It is not so much a specific process as it is a set of principles that enable companies to adapt to changing environments. The key concept to agile project management is the idea that teams should be self-organizing and cross-functional, with all members being able to contribute at any point in time.
This new way of working creates flexibility for the business, because it does not have to plan everything in advance and can instead be adaptable, responding to on-going changes. Companies that implement an agile project management process, have reported to see a 29% increase in quality, 27% increase in delivery speed and 31% decrease in project wastage.
It is easy to implement this process into your own business by using software such as JIRA Agile for Scrum which has all the features you will need to go through the five modes of agile. We can implement agile project management into our own businesses by following these steps:
- Create a team of experts in various fields and give them the freedom to work together as per their expertise.
- Create an initial product backlog with all features or requirements for the product and divide it into prioritized features or releases.
- Establish a regular working rhythm for your team like daily stand-up meetings, reviews, retrospectives, sprints etc and make sure you take care of the necessary communication channels between your teams and stakeholders.
Conclusion: Why You Should Use Agile for Software Development
It’s no wonder that agile projects are sweeping the world. The methodology can be applied to any industry or company size, regardless of industry or company size. Agile project management is a more efficient way to manage software development projects, and it’s more popular because of the benefits it offers. Agile combines iterative practices, and feedback loops to help in building more collaborative relationships among teams.
Software development projects are now faster and with better quality than before. Teams are also more than just developers as they have other skillsets such as designers and product managers. Agile helps people in their day-to-day work with this structure from tools to tasks, which give people the chance to find their own strengths and use them for what they are best at. Nonetheless, making this methodology the ideal practice to adopt in your organization.