subject: Project management tips for agile development teams [print this page] Project management tips for agile development teams
In an article for TechTarget's SearchCIO website, Joseph Flahiff reported agile development and management practices enable companies to alter plans and projects quickly and without impacting their customer too heavily. He points to agile's demand that new features be provided in iterations rather than all at once as the primary benefit.
For companies conducting research and development projects, agile project management make tasks more accurate in many ways. Since it provides a series of deadlines that require goals be met in steps, it eliminates the frequent problem of excessive research phases, according to Flahiff. However, project management specialists must express these deadlines to employees before the project begins. This allows workers to manage the project and their time better. Task management is a vitally important component of any project, since employees work best when they have clearly defined responsibilities and goals.
While agile is most frequently applied to software development ventures, there are numerous projects that can benefit from the flexibility and accuracy of the agile theory. Aside from those requiring research and development, "product kickoffs, projects whose scope is ambiguous and projects driven by a specific date" are all best suited for agile, according to Flahiff.
With product kickoffs, the frequent impediments to timeliness and budget control can be eliminated using agile management. Project managers can easily define the goals beforehand, but they can also adjust plans more easily with agile. Furthermore, it forces them to consider time and cost before carrying out an alteration. According to Flahiff, these adjustments often go unnoticed with other kinds of management.
In terms of projects with unknown scopes, agile, again, requires all decisions be made with financial responsibility in mind.
"The exploration's goal to clarify the ambiguity within a fixed period of time enough to make it estimable," Flahiff wrote for TechTarget..
Ultimately, projects that are entirely dependent upon completion deadlines are ideal for agile. Project managers can clearly track progess, schedule the most crucial elements for the early stages and be sure the least important tasks are completed after the business-critical aspects of the projects. Flahiff uses game development as an example.
In general, agile makes organizations function smoother than other methods of management. By clearly defining tasks, employees understand what they are supposed to do and by when. This eliminates missed deadlines and overspending, which can paralyze any organization.
