Agile has a variety of proficient reasons explaining why many project managers prefer using this approach, however we will discuss below, the hybrid approach, its advantages and the value it brings to the project management practice in any organization
What is Agile Project Management?
Agile has become a new dominator in the business world, since this world is fast phasing rapidly, businesses are looking for new approaches, processes and methodologies that could help them run their business more efficiently.
Agile is a general approach used for software development, it relies on multiple key factors, such as teamwork, collaboration, boxing time for tasks, and the flexibility to adapt into changes. Keeping on the following important values:
- More focus on individuals and interactions than processes and tools
- Working software is more important than comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration is more vital than negotiation
- The process should respond to change rather than blindly following a plan
Benefits of agile project management
- Flexible prioritization
- Predictability & ease of delivery
- Predictable costs and schedules
- Improves quality
- More transparency
choosing an iterative process by dividing projects into shorter span cycles called “sprints”. More flexibility set in terms of development and project management.
Why is Agile preferred to PM approach?
Agile has a variety of proficient reasons explaining why many project managers prefer using this approach, however we will discuss a few below:
- Flexibility: Testing and experimenting is an option. The best thing about this, is that it focuses more on the end product not its immutable structure. Thus, any last-minute changes can be implemented in the process without affecting or disrupting the project schedule.
- Transperancy: Clients and decision makers are actively involved from the initiation, planning, review, and in the testing part of a product. This enables team members to view the progress through all phases. This level of transparency plays a significant role to constitute a healthy work environment.
- Accountability: Every team member shares ownership of the project. Each one of them plays an active role to complete the sprint within the estimated time, along with the shared responsibility.
- Feedback: Delivering a high-quality product or service on time, by being able to respond to customer requests as customers to validate each iteration.
- Project complexity: Projects consisting of one stage that depends on many variables, or even has multiple interconnected phases, due to reasons we discussed, agile will better fit any complex project.