Working on a project could be a very demanding thing, especially when planning wasn't the best and team members are frustrated with poor project management. The answer to this problem is very simple - just use agile workflow, follow the agile lifecycle and be responsible for your tasks.
Agile methodology was created to improve traditional project management which seemed to be too complicated and time-consuming. Group of software developers decided to make something faster, more transparent, and more useful. Agile Manifesto was born - a document that contains 4 values and 12 principles that guide the Agile philosophy.
Agile project management is used especially by software development teams because they were the authors of the agile development lifecycle. Their needs made this way of working appeared and become one of the most efficient methodologies. Now Agile is used by many teams, no really matter, what they did, they could be small companies or big enterprises like Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble. According to the research, 71% of companies are adopting Agile and 60% of companies experience growth in profits after adopting an Agile approach. It means that introduction of Agile to your company gives you only benefits.
Agile philosophy is not based only on one system, there are about 10 different Agile methodologies, but we would describe only the most popular.
According to the dataset of Organize Agile, Scrum is used by 80% of respondents. Scrum is based on the cooperation of the Product Owner with the team on a Product Backlog. This is a list of tasks that need to be done to achieve the final product. Work is divided into short iterations, called Sprints, and after every finisher Sprint, the Product Backlog is analyzed and prioritized. It is time to plan the next Sprint or to sum up the work.
Kanban is second the most popular Agile methodology and is based on visual workflow. Kanban is often associated with post-its and creating huge maps of projects. And that's partly true, but right now Kanban is more virtual. Planning work by using this method helps teams work more effectively and efficiently, no matter how complicated the project is.
In the third place, we can see Agile Portfolio Management, which brings the world of Agile into a traditional portfolio and project management. Thanks to this method, project managers can easily divide project requirements into smaller parts, which provides more flexibility in case there would be needed to change or adapt new requests.
It's time to present the Agile software development lifecycle. We can distinguish 5 or 6 steps, it depends on the detail of the division. But the most important fact is that the lifecycle looks usually the same, no matter how we named different steps.
This is the first step and the main idea is to scope and prioritize projects. This is the moment for brainstorming and looking for chances and opportunities for project success. Then it's time to decide which project is most valuable and profitable.
The second step is to make a plan for how the project would be completed. What resources do you need? What are the requirements? What are the individual responsibilities? Which sprint would be working on specific tasks? Many questions, even more answers.
With everything in the entire project was define and approved, the development team can get to work on the first iteration. The basic workflow during this phase includes:
After multiple iterations, the fourth step is to release a final product. During this phase, the agile teams are testing, identifying any bugs and defects, and making user documentation before the production phase.
This step is what you've waited for the most. The product is available for everyone and this means that your work is almost ready. Almost, because your team needs to constantly monitor and ongoing support to keep the system running smoothly and ensure users understand how to use it.
This is the last step when the product is outdated, unnecessary, or ready to be replaced. This stage includes all end-of-life activities, such as notifying customers and migrating the system release out of production.
Agile project management has many advantages, which are connected with different areas of work. Agile working:
Now you know what Agile software development methodology is and how Agile lifecycle looks. You can implement this methodology to the agile team in your company and see what business value it brings.
PS. Read our article about top agile project management tools and find the best for you.
