Thanks to an agile framework, businesses can benefit from a highly flexible work environment that improves operations and maximizes return on investment. Many business owners believe that an Agile project management (APM) framework lacks structure and sequence because of its inherently adaptable nature. In fact, that isn’t the case.
Agile development promotes self-direction and allows team members to decide on projects at the moment. Yet, this iterative technique adheres to a set procedure with five distinct phases. In this article, let’s delve into the five phases of agile project management that can pave the way for better business outcomes. Before that, let’s brush up on an agile approach and why businesses must consider the APM framework.
Contents
An Overview of the Agile Approach & Process
Agile techniques approach software development iteratively. Agile projects comprise a variety of shorter cycles as opposed to a simple linear Waterfall paradigm. Each of these is a micro project, with design, implementation, testing, and deployment phases all falling under a pre-established scope of work.
An incremental product that may be shipped is delivered at the end of each cycle. This leads to progressive project growth as new features are introduced to the product with each iteration. The likelihood of releasing a potentially flawed product is greatly reduced when the features are verified early in development.
Why businesses must consider the APM Framework?
The different phases of agile project management offer customers various advantages in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. The capacity to quickly alter the project’s course to accommodate changing requirements is its greatest advantage over traditional project management methods.
There are quite a few processes in the conventional project management system, and incorporating all the changes is challenging. Agile project management concepts provide team members total freedom and put the client’s needs ahead of all other considerations.
5 phases of Agile Project Management to know about!
Five separate phases comprise the end-to-end Agile project management flow, most analogous to the conventional PM stages we stated earlier. So, here are the five major phases of agile project management:
Phase 1: Initiation/Conception/Envision
In the first phase of the agile project management technique, end-user needs are identified, corporate goals are established, and desired outcomes are described. A project manager allocates duties to team members and locates the appropriate stakeholders.
Phase 2: Speculation
This is comparable to the PMBOK’s version of the planning phase. It focuses on developing the final product’s feature list and how the team will work to accomplish it. Two essential tasks typically dominate the speculating phase of agile project management are:
- Determining the anticipated project timeline and “breaking down” the project into several high-level milestones.
- Developing a preliminary knowledge of the project’s crucial tasks. During this stage, some tasks are prioritized above others, and the team members decide how to preserve the quality of the project’s final product.
Phase 3: Exploration
The Exploration phase is one of the most crucial phases of agile project management. This phase emphasizes finishing and putting features for each specified iteration into practice. The team will meet for around 15 minutes each day.
They go over their goals for the day and what they must do to achieve them. The Explore phase of development also includes stakeholder management and quality assurance.
Phase 4: Adaptation
Developers compare the outcomes of features described in the Explore section with the initial plans established during the Speculate phase during the Adapt phase. The time has come to assess if everything went as planned or whether changes are still necessary to guarantee that features work as expected.
Most notably, the Adapt phase of an Agile project management framework offers a great chance for user feedback, which may be quite helpful when changing a strategy to get better outcomes.
Phase 5: Closing phase
The team ensures the project is finished and complies with all recent standards at the final stage. The best course of action in this situation is to talk about errors made during the project and potential areas for development to help you make better judgments in the future.
Bonus phase that businesses often ignore – Maintenance!
Now that the program has been installed completely, users can access it. It gets into the maintenance phase after completing this particular step. The software development team will offer assistance during this stage to help the system operate efficiently and fix any new bugs.
They will also be available to provide consumers with further training and ensure they are familiar with how to utilize the product. Iterations can be made to the current product over time to add improvements and new features.
Workflow overview of the Agile Iteration
Agile iterations typically last two to four weeks and have a set end date. An Agile iteration’s workflow typically consists of the following five steps:
- Plan requirements
- Develop product
- Test software
- Deliver iteration
- Add Feedback
Software engineers will iterate during each Agile phase to improve their work and provide the best software possible.
These iterations are essentially minor iterations of the larger Agile life cycle. A crucial structural paradigm for software development teams is the agile life cycle, which helps teams stay on track as they develop products from conception to retirement.
Team members must have access to the necessary materials and equipment, such as an Agile project management platform, to support all phases of the Agile cycle.
Best practices For Agile Project Management
Let’s review the standards that Agile adheres to.
- Flexibility: Depending on new requirements, the work’s scope may alter. The project is broken down into smaller cycles.
- Teamwork: Teamwork’s benefits include close collaboration and a shared understanding of everyone’s roles.
- Iterative Improvements: The work completed throughout a cycle is frequently reviewed to improve the final result.
- Client Collaboration: The client is actively involved in the development process and has the power to modify the requirements or accept the team’s recommendations.
Conclusion
The 5 phases of agile project management may appear first to be a complicated and challenging approach if you’re new to it. However, whether you feel it or not, you already carry out many of the requirements of Agile. With a few modest adjustments, you can achieve quicker development cycles and more frequent, smaller product releases.
By enrolling in an online agile project management certification course, you may learn more about agile processes, methodologies, tools, and approaches. Moreover, in association with top-rated universities, online learning platforms offer classroom training for agile certification in your chosen city. So, why wait?
