Today, companies are constantly changing their business strategies to optimize workflow and maximize productivity. As a result, the need to provide customers with the best products with minimal lead time has led to a debate about which business strategy is better. Agile Project Management is also one of the prominent methods of this discussion.

Agile Project Management is a short and cyclical task, which means faster and better forecasting of customer demand. However, since it defines a philosophy, it is a collection of methods and principles rather than a specific methodology. For example, Scrum is one of the most famous Agile methods. Today we can increasingly see Scrum not only in software development, but also in municipalities, health institutions, banking, marketing and communications, and industry. This is because Agile is a comprehensive method and can be applied in almost any department. So what exactly is Agile? In which areas is it more successful? What's good for? Let's go over all the details of this Agile Project Management together.

What is Agile?

The English word “Agile” means “agile”. Agile Project Management is therefore an area where skill is crucial. The agile project approach assumes that the world changes during the project and tries to make these changes as easy as possible without losing sight of the project outcome.

In an agile project, the final product is not completely fixed in advance, but adapts to the changing conditions or wishes of the client during the project implementation period. Compared to a traditional project approach, Agile makes a difference by adopting changes during the project rather than avoiding them as much as possible. In a traditional project approach, on the one hand, it tries to prevent changes by laying out the specifications in detail, on the other hand, it establishes a very formal management process for the changes. It is ideal for IT-oriented projects with Agile software development, but its principles can also be used in other types of projects.

In short, Agile Project Management is a way of working that allows you to deliver a project throughout its entire lifecycle. This so-called iterative development process allows teams to build, test and review until they are satisfied with the result. The advantage of iterative work is that instead of following a linear path, you can solve problems and adjust them as you go.

By using agile project management, teams gain better insight into project performance, for example through frequent Scrum meetings and sprint discussions that provide greater transparency. This method is ideal for teams who want to know better how a project is progressing. In addition, Agile promotes increased productivity and mutual collaboration.

Why is Agile Project Management So Popular?

Agile Project Management emerged as a balance against the waterfall method, developed in 1970, which benefits software development. In the waterfall method, all stages are applied in a fixed sequence. At the end of each stage, this is accompanied by the delivery of a large amount of documents. When moving on to the other stage, the previous stage is considered completed, which means that no adjustments can be made later. In practice, it happens that the stages have a very long preparation time, and therefore the requirements of delivery may vary within the process. Therefore, the fact that the delivered software no longer meets the wishes and requirements of the customer at the end of the process has led to the development of Agile management.

Agile Project Management is especially popular in software development, as it ensures that it can be intervened at every stage. It is also increasingly popular due to this feature, since the stages need to be dealt with quickly, and for this, too, a multidisciplinary approach is often required. For example, the strength of the Scrum method is to be able to deliver the right products in a short time, which also meet the customer's expectations.

By involving customers more in a product's development, Agile improves the bond between customer and team members. In this way, team members can better analyze the vision and internal policies on the client side.

Agile Working Method Features

Agile is a philosophy that helps teams and organizations organize themselves in an agile way. Its origins lie in software development, but today it is impossible to imagine almost any organization without the Agile method of working. Because instead of making a comprehensive project plan with design and research beforehand, you can start working on Agile projects right away. You can create part of the project in short time frames of about 1 to 4 weeks (iterations, time boxes, or sprints in Scrum terminology). You can also revisit what is the most important thing to do in the next iteration after these processes. In this way, you can conclude with x number of iterations. There are still some details and more directions, but this is how the Agile approach essentially works. The agile working method brings a number of new principles and insights to projects such as:

• Team members may have different tasks on a project-by-project basis and are therefore often involved in a variety of roles such as consultant, implementer, designer, planner.
• The design of a project outcome arises gradually and is not predetermined or almost undetermined.
• Project steps (milestones, intermediate results) are broken down into smaller parts, which makes the work clearer and allows for faster adjustments if an item to build is not as desired.
• The planning of the project is more realistic, based on smaller timescales as opposed to large deadlines such as a few months.
• The team starts building almost instantly and does not wait for instructions from a project plan.

Advantages of Agile Project Management

The Agile Project Management format is used more often because projects need to be received faster. This often requires a multidisciplinary approach. Once you understand what agile processes really mean, you can better implement this way of working in your own organization.

Agile is not a specific method. Rather, it is a collection of methods and principles. Therefore, multiple methods such as Scrum or Extreme Programming can be implemented within Agile Project Management. Agile Project Management is based on the following Agile manifesto:

• People and their mutual interaction are more important than processes and tools.
• Running software is more important than comprehensive documentation.
• Cooperation with the client takes precedence over contract negotiations.
• Implementing change is more important than implementing a plan that is problematic or whose outcome is uncertain.

Adhering to this disciplined approach also brings with it many advantages. Here are the advantages of Agile Project Management:

• The iterative approach allows you to direct the project in a different direction if necessary, for example, if the characteristics of an intended project result change in the meantime, you can change it.
• You can regularly present intermediate results and ensure that problems and errors are identified before the project is completed.
• Instead of separate expert designers, project leaders, builders and testers, the entire team is involved in the construction and development of a project.
• The team is under less pressure because there is less chance of “squeezing” a lot of work into an iteration (compared to the pressure of meeting a mostly unrealistic deadline)
• Due to relatively short iterations, the progress of the work appears clearer, which motivates the team and provides more insight into the progress for clients.
• The agile working method works well for creative projects such as software development, product development, research and development projects. It is also quite suitable for many student projects in education.

Agile Methods

Based on the Agile way of thinking, organizational developers, entrepreneurs and coaches have designed all kinds of working methods. These paths concretely show what steps you can take to solve a challenge within the organization. According to the application area, the most important Agile methods can be listed as follows:

1. Kanban

The Kanban method consists of agile processes that are quite suitable for production work by reducing congestion in workflows. It works with a reasonable degree of predictability or very short deadlines.

2. Scrum

The Scrum Agile method, its framework is all about managing work and projects. Approach includes roles, lists, and meetings.

3. Agile Portfolio Management

Agile Portfolio Management enables teams to gain insight and connect people, goals, and activities, and jointly direct what matters. It encourages more effective work with different departments on goals that exceed projects.

4. Lean

Lean is about added value for the customer and improvement through better identification of process steps that increase flow (value flow). Lean Agile is a method of direction and adjustment aimed at achieving organizational goals. Processes can be repetitive, and daily work can also be a development process. In these processes, the added value of the product or service is ultimately delivered as paid by the customer.

5. Hybrids

Hybrid Project Management is a combination of waterfall and agile project method. Hybrid forms of project management seek to combine the strengths of both methods by 'blending' classical organizational structures, standards, and procedures with elements of Agile methodology.

There are Extreme Programming and many more Agile Project Management methods. Some are hybrids and address the best aspects of different methods. If you want to best manage processes such as production in your organization and follow a customer-based approach, you can learn the Agile approach, so you can decide whether or not to include it in your projects and how you can use it (or not). In addition, there are many solutions that you can use in the Komtaş Ecosystem in your Project Management processes. You can contact immediately for these solutions and get detailed interest about the services.

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