Agile Project Management

Summary

Now that you know WHAT you want to do, HOW are you going to do it? That’s what the Agile Project Management methodology and framework are all about. Agile is a time-boxed, iterative

Why

Traditional Waterfall and “big bang” requirements gathering can be expensive, time consuming, inaccurate, and ineffective. Agile allows teams to gather “just enough requirements” to begin working immediately and deliver a Proof of Concept and a Minimum Viable Product as soon as possible to stakeholders. The value of this is that stakeholders can then see and use the solutions as soon as it is viable, give immediate feedback on the actual project, and rapidly adjust their requirements and assumptions for the solution. It makes work tangible and accessible, and in this way it drives value more rapidly, reduces waste, and gets to valuable solution that actually work quickly. It is a more collaborative, effective, empowering, and realistic way to build complex IT solutions and apps in a dynamic and constantly evolving technology ecosystem. Less theory (minimum needed requirements), more practice (start building something real and test it ASAP). This drives DevOps, continuous feedback, and improvement.

What

Agile is a time-boxed, iterative, open, inclusive, self-organizing way of delivering on IT projects and applications. Agile is a method that focuses on describing and accurately articulating what stakeholders and managers need and want (requirements), and empowering developers and line workers determine the best approach on how to deliver (solution). The power of this methodology is that it lets team members focus on their strengths, it holds everyone accountable, it is open and transparent, and it allows for rapid and direct feedback, so you don’t get off track and you don’t waste resources (time and money) developing things that don’t matter.

How

Agile is a practice that consists of rituals (meetings), sprints (time-boxed, iterate work phases), and tools and artifacts (management systems and deliverables), that help the team to keep moving forward, focus on what matters most, remove roadblocks, all for open access and self-service for needed information, and the removal of roadblocks. It engages team members in a deeper manner, encourages rapid feedback, and the documentation of both requirements, acceptance criteria, progress, issues, risks, and solution decisions and design. There are many tools that can help manage the Agile process and approach.