The agile project planning methodology is a great way for teams to stay on target and reach their goals in an efficient way. Many are already using it to run their projects. If your company is not one of them then this is a good time to get on board.
Not every team that decides to go for an agile methodology ends up succeeding. This isn’t because the system doesn’t work. It is almost always because mistakes were made and it didn’t have a chance to show its true potential.
The key is to understand what some of the most common mistakes are so you can avoid them and have your project work out exactly as you envisioned. In this article, we will highlight a few to watch out for.
1. Not enough flexibility
It doesn’t matter if your project manager is using SAFe agile or some other form, the idea is that it needs to be flexible. The whole idea behind Agile is that it is very fluid and doesn’t lock you into a fixed procurement. Things change over time, flaws emerge, and goals can change. Without the flexibility to maneuver the project can be put into peril.
If you’re using agile and not allowing your team to be flexible, then you are throwing away the very benefit that the system brings to the table. Instead of rigid adherence to a particular direction or idea, stay flexible and allow things to change according to their needs.
2. Roles are not clearly established
From the outside looking in it would seem that the scrum master and the project master are the same roles. The fact is that they are both very different. A problem with roles is illustrated by this confusion.
Roles need to be clearly defined and communicated. When they are not clear, the mission gets muddled as nobody knows what is expected of them and where their tasks end and somebody else’s begins.
For example, the scrum master is sort of the Master of Ceremonies and is the communicator of the group that helps make sure everybody is on the same page and everybody knows what their tasks are.
The project manager is the one who makes sure the project is going according to plan and everything is on schedule. When it is clear who is responsible for what, the operation can run smoothly.
3. Getting bogged down
Testing is extremely important when it comes to working with agile systems. When you hit milestones, you need to be able to know that it is time to move on and that comes with testing. With that said, there is a point when you can test too much. While it’s nice being prepared for surprises, testing for every edge case that could arise is going to bog the project down and slow it to a snail’s pace. Admittedly, it is difficult to perform that balancing act of being prepared and over preparing for rare cases.
