A great practical guide to agile project management for anyone and everyone!

Agile is a way to manage projects quickly and efficiently. This method can be used for any type of project, but it was mainly defined for software development. Agile breaks large projects into small, manageable pieces called iterations. At the end of each iteration, a certain result is achieved. The product that is created during each iteration must be usable for subsequent feedback from users or stakeholders.

Agile refers to any process that follows the concepts of the Agile Manifesto. In 2001, 17 software developers met to discuss simple and effective development methods. They published the?Agile Software Development Manifesto, in which they talked about how they found "better ways to develop software by doing it themselves and helping others do it" ;.

This is in contrast to waterfall project management, which is strictly sequential: you don't start development until the research is done, and you don't start development until the design is complete; In agile, designers, developers and business people work simultaneously and in parallel.

The Agile cycle

There are many different agile trends. Your team should choose the process that works best for you. They all follow a short cycle that repeats during each iteration. Not all phases in the agile development cycle can occur sequentially. They are flexible and constantly evolving and improving, with many of them happening in parallel.

Requirements Analysis:?Key stakeholders and users meet to define business requirements that are quantifiable, relevant and detailed.

Planning: Once the idea has been validated, the project team comes together to define features, prioritize them, and assign them to iterations.

Design:?Based on the identified requirements, a design is prepared and the team considers what the product or solution will look like and determines testing strategies or a plan for moving forward.

Implementation or Development:?Develop features and plan iterations for deployment.

Testing:?Testing code against requirements to ensure that the product actually meets the customer's needs. This phase includes unit testing, integration testing, system testing and acceptance testing.

Deployment:?Introducing the product to customers. As customers begin to use the product, they may encounter new problems that the project team will need to solve in subsequent iterations.

Benefits of the Agile approach

As described above, agile project management is heavily focused on flexibility, continuous improvement, speed, and transparency. Here are some of the main advantages of the agile method:

Fast implementation

Agile allows you to get your concept to users as quickly as possible. During each sprint, an agile project delivers something valuable and testable. At any point, you can decide that you want to take what's provided and start building a user base or testing your hypothesis. Conducting testing during every iteration means that bugs are identified and fixed faster.

Flexibility and acceptance of change

Agile project management is based on adapting to change. Software projects are constantly changing. As a software product becomes available or the market expands, you must be able to respond quickly and update the product accordingly. With shorter development planning cycles, there is always an opportunity to refine and reprioritize the backlog to accommodate changes as the project progresses.

Overcoming Ambiguity

Agile is extremely useful for projects where the end goal is not clearly defined. As the project progresses, the goals will become more obvious and clear, and the team will be able to adapt accordingly.

Management of risks

Increasing the number of releases means that the product can be used by stakeholders early in the process. Accepting change in agile means that changing scope mid-project is not an issue, unlike in waterfall project management where it is impossible to talk about changes mid-project.

Strong teamwork

Agile involves frequent communication and face-to-face conversations and ensures that all team members are on the same page. Thus, the transparency of the entire project increases with the absence of any doubts and negative thoughts within the team.

Agile methodologies

There are a number of specific methodologies for implementing agile. We will describe just two of the most commonly used agile methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Other methods: Extreme Programming (XP), Feature-Driven Development (FDD, iterative development methodology), Adaptive System Development (ASD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Lean Software Development (LSD) , Lean Software Development) and Crystal Clear (a lightweight agile methodology).

Scrum methodology

Scrum is one of the most popular agile implementation methods. It is an iterative development model often used to manage the development of complex software and products. Fixed iterations called sprints, lasting one to two weeks, allow the team to release software regularly. At the end of each sprint, stakeholders and team members meet to plan next steps.

Stages of the Scrum process:

1. Product Backlog:?This is a list of all the desired features of a product. Before each sprint, the product owner presents the main backlog items at a sprint planning meeting. The team determines what work it can complete during the sprint and moves it from the product backlog to the sprint backlog.
2. Backlog Refinement:?At the end of each sprint, the team and product owner meet to ensure the product backlog is ready for the next sprint. The team can delete tasks that are no longer relevant. Additionally, due to some bottlenecks, tasks may arise that could not be completed during the previous sprint and may be carried forward to the next sprint.
3. Daily Scrum Meetings:?This is a 15-minute meeting that should take place at the same time and place every day during the sprint. Each person on the team must answer 3 questions: 1. What did you do yesterday? 2. What are you going to do today? 3. Do you need help or are there any obstacles in your work?
4. Post-sprint meeting: At the end of each sprint, the team presents the completed work in a live, working demo. Also at the end of each sprint, the team discusses how well Scrum is working for them and suggests changes that need to be made in the next sprint. This meeting is called the Sprint Retrospective.

Kanban methodology

Kanban means "visual sign" in Japanese. It is a visual framework used to implement Agile and shows what to produce, when to produce and how much to produce. It encourages small, incremental changes to your current system and doesn't require a specific setup or procedure, meaning you can layer Kanban on top of your existing workflows.

Kanban board

A Kanban board is a tool for implementing the Kanban method in projects. Traditionally, this tool is a physical whiteboard, with magnets, plastic counters, or sticky notes on the board. In recent years, many project management software tools have created online Kanban boards.

Basic Kanban Practices

Every Kanban project should adhere to these core principles and practices:

Visualize your workflow:?Visually representing your work allows you to understand the big picture and see how the work is progressing. By making all your work visible, you can identify problems early and improve communication between teams.

Process management and improvement: The progress of work on the Kanban board must be constantly monitored for possible improvement. A fast, continuous process shows that the team is creating value quickly.

Work in progress (WIP)?defines the minimum and maximum amount of work for each board column or for each workflow. By setting a limit on WIP, you can increase speed and flexibility and reduce the need to prioritize tasks.

Clearly state operating principles:?Everyone must understand how everything works or what counts " completed." Make changes to the board to make these processes clearer.

Continually improve the process:?The Kanban method encourages small, ongoing changes that stick. Once the Kanban system is implemented, the team will be able to identify and understand problems and suggest improvements.

In my next article on agile project management, we'll discuss the key differences between Scrum and Kanban and how to use one or both to your advantage.