Agile Methodology

• Agile Project Management is a way by which  a project can be managed by breaking into several stages or sprints.

• Agile methodolgy allows teams to release segments of the project, that are completed.

• Agile process management does not require a project manager to require a central control.

• Agile is a set of values  and principles.
  
  

Why Agile Mangement?

Agile Project Management has been adopted by several types of industries, such as software companies, product development, marketing campaigns, and even in construction companies. Let's have a look at some reasons, that encourage industries to take up tha Agile Methodology: 

HIght Product Quality

• HIght Product Quality refers to smooth working of the project, keeping in minds the demands of all the stakeholders.

• To ensure High Product Quality testing is performed all through the project development process.

• Team performs regular check-ups to improve the project quality.

HIgh Customer Satisfaction

• The customer will have full knowledge of what is being done in the project.

• Continous and Fast Delivery.

• Customer may give changes at any point in project.

Reduced Risk

• The Project is divided into sprints, so even if the risk is vulnerable in the first sprint, it will not effect the second sprint.

• Risk Analysis is simultaneously done with other project processes.

• Easy adaptaions to the client requirements all through the development process.

Better and Faster ROI

• The project is completed in several versions, so the project is market-ready after a few versions.

• Agile helps in the fast release of the project and help stay ahead in competition with other companies.

• A project that took a long time to complete and deploy earlier can now be relaesed as beta verison of the project.

Principles for successful Agile Project Management 

The Principles are very general and are less about telling you what to do than they are about giving you the ability to make a good decision in a particular situation.

• Customer is satisfies beacuse of fast and continous delivery.

• Shortening the time period between planning and delivery, increases the effctiveness of the work.

• The management and developers work together for better understanding and productive work.

• Accepting stakeholder changes, even late in the development phase.

• Better coordination with team members.

• Monitoring of the project progress at each iteration and finding solutions wherever needed.

• Trust and support the team to complete project's objectives.

• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a developemnt team is face-to-face converstaion.

• The requirements are understood, and the simplest soluton to meet those requirements is taken.

• Scrum tools are used to cleanup confusing code, which saves time.

Values of Agile

• People over processes and tools.

• Working software over comprehensive documentation.

• Customer collaboration over rigid contracts.

• Responding to change rather than following a plan.

Example using Agile - 

• While a team may find that having a daily standup is helpful, the standup is only 'Agile' to the extent that it is the result of a team following the Agile principles and values. 

• When you understand this, it is easy to see that Agile is really a collection of beliefs that teams can use for making decisions about how to do the work of developing software.

• While this means  the term Agile gets subjected to a great deal of abuse when people claim that this or that is the way to be a Agile, it also means that if you truly understand what Agile is, it is surprisingly flexible.

• Agile doesnot make decisions for you. Instead it gives a foundation for teams to make decisions  that result in better software development.

Steps in Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management is adopted to shorten the development cycles and increase the frequency of project release.

There are six steps in agile Project methodology -

Project Planning

Project Planning is a step that ensures everyone understands the end goal and value of that project. Here, the scope is developed, and the work is estimated by 
breaking into sprints or iteartions.

Roadmap Creation

A Roadmap is a list of all the features that the final product should have. It acts as a plan of action on how a project will evolve. Hence, the roadmap is an integral part of the plan as these features are built during each sprint.

Release Planning

A plan is made for all feature releases and this plan is revisited at the begining of ach sprint. Agile project methodology uses shorter development cycles or sprints, with features released at the end of each cycle.

Sprint Planning

Sprint Planning ensures that each team member has an assigned task before the sprint begins. The stakeholders, need to plan what is to accomplished in that 
sprint and that the workload is evenly shared amongest the team.

Daily meetings

Daily meetings helps the team in accomplishing their daily tasks in an efficient manner. During these meetings, each team member tells what they have accomplished the previous day and what is their task for today.

Sprint review and retrospective

Sprint review and retrospective helps the team to inspect itself and plan to make  changes to improve the forth coming sprints. Sprint retrospective takes place  after the sprint review, and before the next sprint planning.

Agile Project Management Frameworks

Agile Project Management Frameworks involves continous planning and testing. There are different frameworks  each of them having their own unique qualities.

The most popular Agile Frameworks are: 

Kanban Framework

Kanban Framework is used to implement Agile software development and requires real-time communication. Work items are represented on a Kanban board,  allowing team members to see the state of each work at any time.

Scrum Framework

Scrum Framework helps in dealing with complex problems and making it possible to deliver high-quality products at the same time. It helps in managing complex, advanced work with a little emphasis on software development.

Conclusion

Much of the discussion around Agile has to  do with following different practices, using various methodologies, and even developing  with specific tools. While these things might help a team that is trying to follow Agile, they aren't Agile in and of themselves. Agile methodology is more beneficial to every project development process  as it ensures effective communication between teams, and ensures quality outcomes.