What is a lithe venture for the executives? Its regional standards into independent subprojects and iterative turn of events contrast with conventional venture executives, who intend to move toward each undertaking stage consecutively.
In this article, we will figure out what venture the executives imply: the establishing standards of deft methodologies and how they work, as well as the means for carrying them out in your association. Eliminate the hindrances, change to Deft and find the scrum ace secret in you!
Presentation Of Agile Project Management
The Agile Approach: Flexibility And Visibility In Project Management
Over a strategy, the light-footed mode is a methodology or culture in how a venture is drawn nearer. It varies from the more conventional venture of the executive’s philosophies, which follow a linear and prescient system since it is centered around adaptability, correspondence and division. Taking on the deft technique, we track down an experimental strategy with the accompanying:
- short-term goals: no detailed planning of the progress of the project;
- project progress forecasts, based on experience: give way to permanent readjustments;
- Customization efforts: the goal is to meet user needs primarily and not the specifications specified at the design stage;
- The live results of the project by eliminating the famous “tunnel effect”, i.e. the lack of visibility during the project’s progress until its completion, can lead to a gap between the result expected by the client and the final product delivered.
Its Fundamental Principles: The Agile Manifesto
The agile approach is based on shared values and principles, established and formalized by experts to improve software development in the Agile Manifesto. The four values are mentioned in the following table: From these core values, derive the following 12 principles:
- Achieve customer satisfaction through smooth and timely delivery of expected features.
- At any point during the project, remain open to changing requests and see them as an opportunity to add value to the project.
- Schedule frequent deliveries based on short cycles of a few weeks or months, with operational results to test functionality.
- Foster close collaboration between users and the development team throughout the project.
- Allowing the interested parties greater autonomy offers them a motivating work environment and confidence in achieving the set objectives.
- Favor a face-to-face communication method rather than technological communication channels: interactions are more prosperous and more effective.
- Have operating software, a critical condition to progress.
- Follow a sustainable and steady pace in line with the capabilities of all stakeholders.
- Focus on technical quality and good design to improve agility.
- Keep things simple by getting to the essentials and minimizing unnecessary work.
- Make sure the team organizes itself to perform better.
- Regularly review the team’s working methods and consider improving efficiency by adapting the processes and tools used.
How Does An Agile Project Work?
In concrete terms, based on the principles mentioned above, we can say that:
- Upstream planning of the entire project is counterproductive. The product owner must therefore set short-term goals and divide the project into several subprojects. After each goal, the next is accomplished, and so on, until the final goal is achieved.
- Changes are accepted and welcomed as an opportunity to create added value. In this way, the unexpected has its place and encourages the team to react flexibly to unforeseen events and to adjust their work processes. Changes in initial demand also give the customer a competitive edge.
- The relationship between the agile team and the customer is based on trust: dialogue and communication are privileged, favoring responsiveness to customer needs. After the checks, each stage is validated. The evolution of his needs is considered, and adjustments are immediately made for a final product that meets his expectations as closely as possible.
In conclusion, agility is based on a flexible evolution: nothing is set in stone at launch, and the project team must be ready to face criticisms and question themselves to try to improve their methods of work constantly.
Agile Method: Which One To Choose?
The different agile methods
There is a wide variety of so-called “agile” development methods, each with its specificities:
- scrum,
- Extreme Programming or XP,
- lean,
- crystal clear,
- Adaptive Project Framework (APF),
- Adaptive Software Development (ASD),
- Agile UX,
- Feature-Driven Development (FDD),
- Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM), etc.
We have chosen to highlight the Scrum method, one of the most popular agile approaches.
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Agile PM
As with everything, this tool also has its lights and shadows. Among the advantages:
- Better to develop a more collaborative type of working approach
- Faster development
- A better understanding of the customer
- Reduction of waste in processes
- Optimized processes and controls
- Flexibility
- Better error checking
Of the minuses:
- Of course, the focus on the customer is essential, but it can lead to dissatisfaction with the end user
- Flexibility sometimes clashes with large projects and more traditional companies
The Five Keys To The Success Of The Agile Method
Reduce The Tunnel Effect
The best way to understand user needs is to allow them to test the product as they go along in real-life situations. A successful product is the one that best meets the needs of users. The tunnel effect generally occurs when the project owner and team consult only at the beginning and end, without interacting during the project realization phase (hence the term tunnel) when it is the most important.
Thus, the lack of visibility can cause dissatisfaction and frustration on the part of users. To avoid this, the time between the formulation of a requirement and the realization of the corresponding function should be reduced. The product is enriched as it is developed, and its compliance is checked regularly.
Stay Open To Change
In any project, however small, risks are inevitable. Even more so than these kinds of imponderables, project teams are sometimes faced with direction and direction changes concerning launch.
Such changes should be seen as opportunities rather than obstacles. New ideas can emerge, bring unplanned features to the product, and create value. Openness to change is essential to create optimal conditions for innovation.
Communicate Effectively
Direct communication rather than through communication tools: emails, notifications, and written specifications in a document are all communication vectors that can lead to misunderstandings.
Finally, face-to-face communication remains the key: all the players involved, without intermediaries between the product manager, who represents the users, and the development team for the functional part.
Interaction is essential daily to achieve a clear “product” oriented goal. However, when dialogue is not always possible, project management tools that encourage collaborative work allow data to be centralized to facilitate monitoring and make communication more effective.
Focus On The Essentials
A project specification is often very extensive and contains more functionality than necessary, most of which may or may not be used. The goal is to adopt a minimalist approach by prioritizing the highest value-added features. In this way, the first version of the product with its essential functions can be quickly developed and tested by users. Depending on the test results, they can be added, changed, improved, etc.
Objective Of Continuous Improvement
Through iterations, the team regularly challenges the way it works and uses an empirical approach to optimize its effectiveness. It is, therefore, possible to keep the “successful” methods or reject the less efficient ones to continue to improve the implementation process as a whole. This way, as the experience is put into practice, the project can be started sooner, and less time can be spent planning it.
Conclusion
More than a methodology, Agile is a natural state of mind that requires a whole new approach to project management, away from traditional waterfall methods. The main challenge at the heart of agile is to deliver value in the shortest possible time to satisfy the customer in an environment that tends to become more complex (competition, uncertainty about market developments, etc.).
