In response to technological progress and changing customer expectations, IT specialists have developed the skill of agile project management, the essence of which is to provide a working solution and its development as soon as possible through minor and frequent changes.
The concept of agile management quickly moved from IT departments to the mainstream business, as an increasingly popular method of building innovative business models and creating new products and services. This approach has allowed many companies to achieve tremendous improvement in efficiency, speed of introducing new products to the market and customer and employee satisfaction.
The main assumptions of this approach are above all openness to changes, proposing changes in order to create what the customer really needs (even if it is to some extent divergent with what was originally ordered). This can be achieved by better and more accurate understanding of the real needs of the client and jointly developing a solution that will answer them.
This approach is in opposition to the classic style of project management, also known as cascade or waterfall, in which at the beginning it is planned in the smallest details according to the BDUF (Big Design Up Front) concept. AgilePM promotes so-called EDUF (Enough Design Up Front), which is sufficient description of the project at the beginning. This prevents situations where all details are refined at the very beginning according to the BDUF concept. These situations give only a false sense of security regarding the scope (“since we know everything, it only needs to be done”).
Traditional project risk factors:
• Deadlines missed
• Assumption that unknown or changing requirements are explicit and established
• Providing an inappropriate solution
• User acceptance tests at a late stage of the project
Agile project risk factors:
• No use of principles
• Unavailability of business roles
• Detailed specification at the beginning
• Continuous exchange of resources
Below is a certificate of the company owner’s agile management method:
