When it comes to managing a project, there are many project management methodologies to choose from. You may have heard of Waterfall and Kanban, but one term that comes up often in reference to project management is agile.
Agile project management is commonly used for managing software projects, so many of the terms used to describe it are technical. But agile has succeeded with all types of teams and projects because of its versatility. In this article, we’ll explore the agile project management methodology, agile principles, and agile project management frameworks — plus share how you can gain certification through an online project management program.
Let’s get started.
What Is Agile Methodology?
The agile project management methodology is an iterative and incremental method of completing a project’s requirements during the project’s life cycle. Its iterative process makes it highly effective in unpredictable environments like software development, where technologies, designing, developing, testing, deployment, and review.
History of the Agile Method
Determining where the concepts behind the agile project management methodology began is hard. You can trace some of the concepts back to the 1960s. And the Nonaka-Takeuchi model from the 1980s also contains some agile concepts. But agile gained steam in the 1990s when many different agile methods were developed.
The Agile Manifesto was created in 2001 by 17 leading software developers at a ski resort in Utah. They were meeting to discuss their software development problems and come up with solutions. They created this manifesto to guide software development teams on developing better software and to make the agile concepts that had been floating around the industry concrete.
Advantages of Agile Project Management Methodologies
While the agile project management methodology was born in the software development industry and provided a better framework than existing ones like the Waterfall methodology, it can benefit many types of projects and teams. Here are some of the advantages of agile project management:
- It improves alignment between software teams and end users
- It allows the product to more easily adapt to changes
- End users are happier with the results because they helped guide the development
- Teams are happier because they are more autonomous
- Project costs are lower because time isn’t wasted on planned but unused features
- Shorter delivery cycles give customers a return on their investment sooner
How Is Agile Different From Traditional Project Management?
Agile focuses on customer satisfaction and relies on their feedback to guide the direction of a project. As a project moves forward, it is tested continuously and updated to meet the customer or client’s requirements, even if they change during development. In agile, a project manager is an enabler between the development team and the customer.
With traditional project management, the project manager follows the plan created at the beginning of the project and ensures team members do as well. And the project manager decides when there are changes to the project scope.
The 4 Pillars of Agile
The Agile Manifesto focused on four values and 12 principles of agile project management. Here are those values:
Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
The processes and tools in software development are only meant to aid your work. They should not drive development. The people who use and develop the software are the drivers of the development process, so they should be considered first.
Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
With processes like the Waterfall method, documentation came first, and every detail of the final product had to be worked out before development started. Agile development begins with user stories, which tell the developer how an end user would interact with the product, and many of the details are worked out in the agile process. This allows development to begin sooner.
Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
Similar to how upfront detailed documentation can slow the development process, so can contract negotiation. In agile, the customer collaborates with developers during the development process instead of working out every detail of the product’s requirements before work starts.
Respond to Change Over Following a Plan
The agile methodology is flexible because change is a given. Not only that, what is often envisioned in a detailed upfront plan doesn’t work as expected. Short sprints and regular feedback help an agile team respond quickly to changes.
The 12 Agile Project Management Principles
Along with the four pillars of agile, the Agile Manifesto outlined the 12 principles of agile development that expand on the pillars.
- The highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Welcome changing requirements, even in late development. agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
- Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference for a shorter timescale.
- Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to do the job.
- A face-to-face conversation is the most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team.
- Working software is the primary measure of progress.
- Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
- Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.
- The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- The team regularly reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Agile Terms & Definitions
- Acceptance criteria: The set of requirements that must be met for a feature to be considered complete.
- Backlog: Tasks to build a feature for a product are created, and this is where they are stored until they are put into a spring and developed.
- Poker planning: A meeting where the team determines the relative size of tasks and assigns them story points.
- Sprint: This is the short iteration cycle where features are developed, which is usually a week to a few weeks long.
- Stand-up: The daily meeting where software development team members discuss their tasks’ status.
- Story points: The unit applied to a task to estimate its size or complexity relative to other tasks.
- User story: A description of how an end user would use a feature that determines the acceptance criteria of a task.
Ways to Leverage Agile Project Management Principles
One agile project methodology example is a software team tasked with creating a to-do list application. Here is how that team might use the agile project management methodology:
- Project planning: Here, they would determine what they are trying to accomplish with the to-do list application, the expected cost of development, and create the project scope.
- Project roadmap creation: The team would then determine the features they will add to the to-do app and add them to the project’s backlog.
- Release planning: In this step, the features are assigned to one- to two-week sprints, after which that feature or set of features will be released to end users.
- Daily stand-ups: Project team members meet daily to describe where they are with their tasks and any issues they are having and adjust their processes and plans accordingly.
- Sprint review and retrospective: After each sprint, the project members discuss what went well, what went wrong, and how they can improve the next sprint.
Tools for Agile Project Management
While the first principle of the Agile Manifesto states that individuals and interactions need to be valued above tools and processes, tools are important and can streamline agile implementation. Here are some tools that help the agile project management process:
Agile Project Management Frameworks
Many companies that use agile methodologies find that agile frameworks help them incorporate agile principles into their processes more easily. Here are some common agile project management frameworks:
- Scrum: This framework is often used with smaller teams and is led by a ScrumMaster who removes obstacles from the team’s workflow. Teams meet daily, work in sprints, and hold sprint planning and retrospective meetings.
- Kanban: This framework is visual. Tasks are cards on a board. Stages of development are columns on this board. Tasks are moved from column to column as they progress through the stages.
- Extreme Programming (XP): XP is a technical approach to agile with five values: communication, simplicity, feedback, courage, and respect.
- Feature-Driven Development (FDD): This agile framework focuses on customer feedback and prioritizes what features customers need.
Build Your Agile Project Management Skills
If you want to advance your career by developing a strong foundation in agile project management, consider enrolling in the online project management course delivered by Simplilearn in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts. This 24-week online bootcamp is designed to build your project management skills and provide you with a comprehensive understanding of agile project management frameworks.
This program covers agile management, customer experience design, design thinking, digital transformation, leadership skills, and the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. The program covers 17 industry-related projects, and you will complete one capstone project from three domains.
FAQs
What Is Agile Project Management?
It is an iterative method for managing software development projects. Applications are completed in several iterations, where new features are released to end users. Short release cycles allow the plan for the project to adapt based on user feedback.
How Does Agile Project Management Work?
A software development project is broken up into smaller, manageable tasks. These tasks are worked for a specific interval, usually one to two weeks, called sprints, and the new feature is then released to end users for feedback. This feedback will be used in future sprints to improve the product.
What Is Agile Project Management Methodology?
This is a project management method that splits it into smaller phases. Each project phase involves a cycle of planning, executing, and assessing the results. During each phase, there is constant collaboration with stakeholders to improve the project results continually.
What Are the Stages of Agile Methodology?
Agile methodology is commonly broken down into these six phases, though some diagrams may show five or seven agile project management methodology phases.
- Plan: This is where you develop the idea or concept for the product.
- Design: This is the stage where the user interface is mocked up, and its architecture is created.
- Develop: This is the longest stage, where a product feature is built.
- Test: The feature is tested to ensure it functions correctly.
- Deploy: It is released to end users.
- Review: The process and the feature are reviewed to determine if they can be improved in future iterations.
