Agile Project Management

Agile project management (Agility) is about introducing change in handling projects through the iterative process rather than all set plans and initiating new ways of working and delivering projects. Agile Projects are not a one-man show but more of a team effort. Agile thinking dates back to the 1940s (Measey and Radtac, 2017) and have evolved over the years.

Agile project management stems from the Agile mindset. An Agile mindset wraps around everything and it’s not just about ‘doing Agile’ rather it’s about having an Agile (thinking) so that the number of values, principals, practices, tools & processes can aid towards being Agile. For example, ‘An Agile planning tool only provides a visual board’ (Measey and Radtac, 2017) therefore a person working in the Agile organization/environment is supposed to already have the Agile mindset in order to work with Agile practices.

The Agile manifesto was found by 17 software professionals comprising of four core values namely:

1.   Individuals and interactions over processes and tools (Constant communication), which means to value motivated teams and enabled teams over procedures that can just produce the software.

2.   Working software over comprehensive documentation (Less Documentation), represents that focus should be on working software that satisfies customer expectation through incremental deliveries and adding customer value over large documentations which is only produced when most needed.

3.   Customer collaboration over contract negotiation, having an open relation between customer and supplier is essential to ensure the effective product is being produced, the contract should only be kept for clarity and collaboration in between stakeholders.

4.    Responding to change over following a plan (Constant Change), change and flexibility is one of the core ideas of Agile, in order to respond better and adapt quickly to the changing requirements/requests of customers.

Keeping the above four core values in mind which can be applied to any business. Agile mindset or Agile project management has become one of the most popular methodologies to be used by many different industries and businesses. In addition to the four core values above there are twelve principals also attached, namely:

1    Satisfy customers through early and continuous delivery of software. It is important to keep customers satisfied by keeping them informed with regular and continuous progress interactions or with the delivery of minor software.

2    Welcome changing requirements throughout the development process.

3    Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with preference to the shorter timescale.

4    Business stakeholders and developers collaborate closely and daily throughout the project.

5    Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the needed environment and support, and trust them to get the job done.

6    Enable face–to–face interactions.

7    Working software is the primary measure of progress.

8    Support a consistent pace of development.

9    Continuous attention to technical excellence and design enhances agility.

10  Simplicity – maximize the amount of work not done – is essential.

11 Self–organized teams produce the best architectures, requirements and designs.

12  Teams regularly reflect on how to become more effective and adjust accordingly.