Agile project management involves taking a marginal and incremental approach to management. It is based on helping project teams become better gradually in an evolving environment while keeping the business focus on the rapid delivery of customer value.
Agile project management uses a distinct set of methods that follow the agile doctrine that is based on continuous improvement for team members. It requires flexibility, input from the team members, and results must be delivered in high quality.
Traditional Management vs. Agile Management
Traditionally, businesses have relied on a management style where operations flow in a pattern that goes through different phases. It is a sequential model where new ventures start with problem identification and analysis, design planning, implementation of solution, organization of resources, testing for stability, and finally end up in a maintenance cycle.
Agile management aims to improve final deliverables by making projects capable of continuous improvement and adaptation at any stage of completion. Agile management helps improve visibility and transparency in projects by encouraging user involvement and feedback at all stages.
Main Benefits of Agile Project Management
Implementing the agile project management style in your business organization can give the following benefits.
Higher Product Quality
In agile management, product planning, testing, and redesign are made an integral part of the development cycle. The project manager conducts regular checks on the product to assess the quality and gets the client or higher management in the loop about how work is progressing.
Constant communication with the client allows them to add improvements or changes in the product according to their needs. It also ensures that they are aware of where the product is going and any planned features can be removed or new ones get added during the production cycle.
Better Team Morale
Agile project management style requires giving the project team members freedom to be creative and innovative with design ideas. Creativity freedom brings out the best in people when it comes to designing and helps raise the overall morale of the team.
Better Collaboration between Team Members
Under the agile management style, the client, development team, and scrum master work together almost on a daily basis to organize resources and implement solutions more effectively. Daily meetings ensure that all team members are aware of what is required of them and play a more effective part in meeting client requirements.
Greater Client Satisfaction
Since clients (or business management in case of an internal project) are made an integral part of the product development, the project usually gets completed according to their requirements or as close to it as possible. The close coordination with the client gives a number of benefits.
1. It demonstrates the product’s final working functionality to customers at every stage of development.
2. It enables the delivery of the product in the market more quickly. At times, the client may agree to remove a feature that could delay the product to get it completed sooner. Since the review is an ongoing process and there is little to no final back and forth after completion, products get launched sooner.
3. As the customer has taken an active role in the development process, they are much more happy and satisfied with the deliverables.
Risk Reduction
Agile project management can significantly lower the risk of ultimate project failure. Most projects get shelved because the client is not happy with the final delivery and unwilling to spend costs to alter it to their needs. When the client is an active part of the development process, it is more likely that the product gets launched in the market on time.
Agile management style gives freedom to management about implementing new changes. Since the review process takes place all the time, changes can be put into effect whenever the management wants rather than waiting for the end of a phase before implementing them.
Better Project Control
All types of projects have a control mechanism where management must review, adapt, and implement changes. The agile management style takes this process to the next level and gives management more effective control over the project.
Time-Boxing and Managing Requirements
There is an issue of managing time that is particularly important to consider for agile project management. When we use the traditional approach, there is a set time limit for initiation, completion, and inspection of final product delivery. This makes getting things completed according to project deadline easier.
With agile management, client feedback is considered a crucial element of the input process. If the client is unsure about their requirements or changes their mind over and over, the project can get delayed.
It can be tempting for project managers to promise too much or try to include as many features as they can to meet client requirements. This can delay projects unnecessarily and severely limit the management’s ability to deliver results on time.
Under agile methodology, client requirements and input are kept somewhere close to 40% of the project scope. Project managers only assign a finite number of tasks to team members as active at any given time and must keep an eye on the delivery date to ensure the project is completed on time.
The management must also keep the project activities relatable and should not implement drastic changes to keep the overall complexity manageable.
Agile project management is particularly popular in software development, new product design, and system enhancements. To learn more about how agile project management style can benefit your organization, subscribe to our newsletter or get in touch with us at projectvanguards.com!
