Agile project management

We are hearing more and more about Agile project management in the news. This is because Agile (and Scrum, one of the methods used) is suitable for any organisation that faces important and strategic product development and IT projects, with tight deadlines in ever more competitive markets. Scrum is an approach that enables the delivery of products that are fit for purpose and operational more quickly, via an iterative and incremental approach and teamwork which is facilitated by a constant dialogue between users and developers.

Success in an Agile project is about managing the outputs of teamwork, and not just the inputs. Together with the customer as a partner throughout the life cycle, who qualifies, prioritises tests and validates the requirements, the team takes responsibility for the results. The benefits are frequent deliveries of the most important outputs that are developed iteratively as prototypes and versions.

Project success with Agile methods requites tight cooperation between the stakeholders, articulated by roles such as Sponsor, Product Owner, Visionary, Technical Coordinator and Scrum Master, as well as a team empowered and equipped to make decisions.

Agile is a public domain user centred 'design to time' approach to developing business systems, which relies on a team-based, business oriented and iterative process. It enables Agile development, using Scrum; XP and other approaches that are based on tests, risk management and version management, with governance, roles, products and principles.

Based on eight principles, Agile covers the entire product or systems development life cycle and is supported by all the necessary technical and quality controls:

• Focus on the business need - Manage a business "baseline" to guarantee alignment and integrity of the solution
• Deliver on Time - Manage an evolving scope in order to create rapidly useful and usable versions
• Collaborate - Synchronise progress and achieve synergy across functional and organizational boundaries
• Never compromise quality - Define and align compliance, acceptance and operational criteria
• Build incrementally from firm foundations - Elaborate a realistic solution that is validated, verified and pragmatic
• Develop iteratively - Develop in small steps, in modular fashion and maintain the ability to adapt, change, re-focus and pivot
• Communicate constantly - Ensure that communication between stakeholders supports and reinforces the project
• Demonstrate control - Show evidence of the management of traceability, reversibility and adequate governance

The users of Agile methods can now be found in every industrial sector. Thanks to its governance structure and its focus on prototyping around user needs that are understood progressively and aligned with the business goals and benefits, the Agile approach is as well suited to product development and it is to software development.

Virak proposes a training for the PMI® Agile Certified Practitioner

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