An Agile Approach to Project Management?

Different companies have implemented different project management approaches. What’s working for your competitors may not necessarily be the most suitable project management method for your business. One of the most popular project management approaches that have been gaining immense popularity lately is agile methodology.

It’s an iterative approach that breaks down a large and complex project into several small steps, all of which can be adjusted as you work on the project. Instead of a linear method, agile project management methodology promotes a flexible management plan that helps you execute projects in a flexible and efficient manner. In this post, we have discussed all you should know about the agile project management approach, why most businesses embrace it, and its perks. Let’s get started.

What is Agile Management Methodology?

The primary goal of agile management is to make the organizational workflow flexible, effective, and easy to manage. The methodology focuses on improving at every stage of the project’s lifecycle instead of making changes at the end of the project. The approach is mostly followed by software development teams that require regular feedback.

Simply put, the agile framework in project management divides the project into several smaller cycles, known as sprints. The process involves continuous testing and feedback so that the team can get a better idea of where they are lacking, what they can do to improve the project’s outcome, and how they should implement the feedback regularly. Although the method was primarily designed for software developers, it became so popular that every industry has started embracing the concept to make the development cycle as effective and smoother as possible.

The agile approach is useful for projects that must be delivered within the given timeframe and without exceeding the allocated budget and resources.

Principles of Agile Project Management

The agile principles are based on the concept that each project should be aligned with the corporate goals and must offer value to the end user. The goal is to bring all departments and people working on the project together and encourage a seamless collaboration between them at all stages of development. When the approach is followed efficiently and all principles are implemented properly, you will achieve your desired outcome after completing the project. Let’s check out some prominent principles of the agile approach.

• Each project is broken into smaller and manageable steps, called sprints. These sprints are then prioritized based on their importance and deadlines.

• The organization must focus on a collaborative effort instead of individual tasks. Each employee should work in teams to get the best results.

• The approach is more about combining planning and execution so the team can develop a working mindset and make changes to the plans whenever needed. Unlike those rigid project management methodologies, the agile approach allows you to learn, change, and constantly improve so that your client gets the best results.

• The deadlines and budgets are set in the planning stage, and each process should be in line with these pre-determined conditions.

• Achieve customer satisfaction by communicating the project status to them regularly and working on their feedback to improve the outcome. It promotes innovation through effective collaboration.

Shifting from your current project management approach to agile can get a bit hectic, especially for an organization that has been relying on a traditional management method for decades. But, if you want to bring flexibility into your workflow, there couldn’t be a better way to achieve the results than by adapting to agile methodology.

Benefits of Agile Project Management Approach

Agile is much more than a modern methodology for projects that change frequently and require an iterative approach. The method empowers your teams to work together, improve constantly, deliver value, and manage projects’ changing requirements.

The biggest advantage of implementing an agile methodology is that it allows you to encourage teamwork and efficient project deliveries. It saves you the time of reworking the project or re-starting the project from scratch just because you couldn’t meet the customer's needs. Taking their feedback at every stage makes it easier to deliver the results that solve your customers’ pain points.

Make Informed Decisions

The most important principle of agile methodology is combining the planning and execution phases. This allows the team to collect crucial data during development instead of after the project is finished.

As the developers work with the client and take their feedback at every stage of the project’s lifecycle, it’s easier for them to handle complex management operations. They don’t make decisions based on their prediction. Instead, they work on the actual feedback, which helps improve the project outcome. Dividing larger projects into sprints offers greater visibility into the project, reducing overall risk and improving the outcome.

Customer Satisfaction

Another important principle of this approach is customer collaboration, which eventually results in greater customer satisfaction. Agile encourages your team to work with customers and other major stakeholders. You get peace of mind knowing that your project is in line with the customers’ requirements. Since the approach enables regular testing and review, you can collect real-time feedback from your customers.

Good for Your Team

Agile is not just for customer satisfaction, but its flexibility ensures excellent teamwork and motivated employees. You make your teams feel valued by allowing them to work together and giving them the freedom to propose new ideas and strategies. This will motivate your team to work harder and be highly productive throughout the project’s lifecycle.

They won’t hesitate to share their opinions and showcase their creativity to make projects highly efficient. As a result, the collaborative effort of your team will improve the bottom line. If you want to achieve employee retention, you should incorporate agile project management into your workflow.

While all these benefits sound great, you can’t just go from following a traditional approach to being agile overnight. It requires some great people on your team, a project manager holding agile certification, and the right project management tools that allow your team to work together and communicate seamlessly.