One of the most important tips for project managers is to adopt Agile Methodology as they begin their project. Why is it important? For starters, in today’s economy, when most businesses are suffering due to the global economy, most companies are looking for ways to cut costs and keep everything as streamlined as possible. Agile is designed to improve the speed of a project.
Suppose you’re a project lead and want to learn how to effectively implement an agile methodology to prevent planning mistakes and improve your team’s productivity and efficiency. In that case, this article will help you out.
What Is Agile Methodology
In software engineering, the agile methodology often involves rapidly building applications and finding specific requirements with a team and their customer’s help. The basic idea behind this methodology is to reduce time to market while improving quality and budget management. Since agile methodologies rely on small and flexible teams that are composed of specialized software professionals, the process becomes self-organized, with no person stepping on someone else’s toes.
When it comes to agile methodology, the first aspect that’ll come into play is ‘iteration.’ Each iteration should be made as short as possible, which means less than one week. The size of each iteration should also be dependent on the project size. So, for a medium-sized project, the number of iterations can go from three to five. Even large projects with more iterations can expect a shorter duration of each iteration.
The other aspect that defines the agile methodology is ‘sprinting.’ Sprinting in agile project management is defined as creating new versions of an existing software application. Each iteration should be completed in less than one week, with a short time between each iteration. Also, each iteration should be completed within 30 days as this is considered a complete sprint.
Agile teams have a more tightly knit structure than traditional software development teams. Each iteration of an agile software project has a formalized process, which allows each team to follow a well-defined path.
Because of its focus on code quality, Agile practices rely heavily on quality assurance. Before releasing it into the production environment, teams will test the code first to ensure that defects don’t sneak into the product. By focusing on quality, Agile ensures that defects are caught before they cause serious problems.
Tips To Help Managers Implement Agile Methodology
The use of agile project management methodologies is quite helpful in achieving the goals you have set as a project lead. Implementing agile methodologies is not very complicated. To help project managers implement the concepts efficiently, they can follow these simple tips:
1. Training Is Crucial
Team members need to be trained on the basics and the Agile software development methodologies, especially if new people join the team. Ongoing training helps them to adapt better to changes. Introducing them to Kanban software can streamline their workflow and improve collaboration within the team.
Aside from that, since approaches may vary from company to company, it’s essential that prospects already know as early as the onboarding process about what’s expected of them and the roles that they’ll be playing. When training and proper onboarding are conducted, time-consuming misunderstanding can be avoided in the future.
2. Don’t Waste Time During Meetings
Traditionally, meetings are programmed with many participants with a long list of agendas. When you implement agile methodologies, meetings should be short and intense. This means that meetings are only set when it’s necessary, like to discuss important concerns regarding the business.
Aside from that, meetings are scheduled or coordinated without interrupting the projects’ execution. Hence, during collaboration meetings, only technical problems should be addressed.
3. Always Consider Risks
Traditional software development usually follows the waterfall method. This is when teams create a detailed project plan and then immediately launch into a formal, step-by-step development process with fixed deadlines and little or no deviation. Instead of planning upfront, Agile groups plan continuously during the project, making frequent, constant changes as issues arise. Because Agile methods encourage the ‘constant improvement’ process, there’s should be an emphasis on the importance of planning.
When planning is involved, make sure that you always include risk. Performing risk analysis before starting with the project execution is essential so you’ll be proactive in mitigating future problems. This will also ensure that the team will be more agile and efficient.
If there are clear risks that can’t be eliminated, you need to perform good planning, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and response planning.
4. Always Provide Feedback
Providing feedback is an essential skill for a project manager. Agile also focuses on continuous feedback. Testers use constant feedback to find bugs, but they don’t write the code themselves. Rather, testers rely on their fellow testers and the overall performance of the project. Then, the team takes the testers’ feedback and creates ways for them to communicate with the programmers who will be writing the code.
This form of self-organizing relies on the cooperation between testers, programmers, and project managers to achieve the best results.
Summary
Agile is a flexible and open development process that can be customized to meet individual businesses’ unique needs. There are many benefits when using agile teams instead of traditional software development teams. For instance, the Agile process allows for quick iterations and more frequent releases. In short, Agile enables business teams to focus on the tasks at hand rather than wasting time and resources on tasks that have no relevance to the organization’s business model.
To become successful in implementing agile methodologies, as a project manager, you should ensure that all team members are trained in the proper execution of agile methods. Aside from that, onboarding with the agile team and all shareholders involved is essential so the team will fully understand their role in the project’s success.
Furthermore, planning should involve risks, and meetings should be short and intense–only discuss technical aspects of the project. Lastly, as a project lead, you should always provide feedback to improve the product’s overall performance further and to detect problems before it becomes a huge issue for the project.
