Agile Advantage

Agile allows teams to deliver projects piece by piece and make rapid adjustments when needed. It's especially useful in complex projects where it can result in more customer needs being satisfied at less cost. It's important to remember that Agile needs to complement rather than conflict with higher level program and transformation management frameworks. My name is Rob Llewellyn and as you know, companies need people with the right capabilities to manage and lead transformation. As you know, orchestrating successful transformation isn't that easy and I mean innovative transformation which creates a new future without the constraints of the past. Which is why I hope that what I share in this episode will help you get better equipped to perform at your best as a manager, leader or consultant. If you want to learn more, go.

To studythrive.com Agile allows teams to deliver projects piece by piece and make rapid adjustments as needed. Particularly useful in complex projects, Agile can result in more customer needs being satisfied at less cost. It's important to remember that Agile needs to complement rather than complicate high level frameworks such as program or portfolio management. Agile project management focuses on continuous improvement, scope flexibility, team input and delivering quality products, and Agile project management methodologies include the likes of scrum, Lean, Extreme programming and others. All these methodologies adhere to the Agile Manifesto and the 12 Agile principles which focus on people, communications, the product and flexibility. Some companies attempt to adopt a SCRUM based agile process framework without proper training and understanding. This often results in the project team running into difficulties because they don't understand when to apply Agile practices, how they should be used and why. So let's explore the 12 Agile principles and then delve a little deeper into agile. The 12 agile principles are a set of guiding concepts that support project teams. Let's run through them the first Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software to welcome changing requirements even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage. To deliver working software frequently from a couple of weeks to a couple of months with a preference to the shorter time scale, business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project to build projects around motivated individuals, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done well. The most important and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face to face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility, simplicity, the art of maximizing the amount of work not done is essential. The best architecture's requirements and designs emerge from self organizing teams and finally, at regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly. The Agile Project Management roles make up a collaborative team to complete a project. These teams consist of many roles and include the following five key roles. A development team that's made up of people who do the work of creating the product. These can include developers, testers, designers and anyone who has a hands on role in developing the product. A product owner who is the individual responsible for bridging the gap between the customer, business stakeholders and the development team. The product owner is an expert on the product and the customer's needs and priorities. Then there's a Scrum Master, sometimes called a project facilitator, and they're responsible for supporting the development team, clearing organizational roadblocks and keeping the Agile process consistent. There are stakeholders, which means anyone with an interest in the project. They're not responsible for the product, but they provide input and are affected by the project's outcome. An Agile Mentor, which is an individual who has experience implementing Agile projects and can share those experiences with the project team and help guide them. Then there's the Roadmap to Value which consists of five stages. At stage one, the product owner identifies the product vision, which is a definition of what your product is and how it will support your company's strategy and who will use the product. At stage two, the product owner creates a product roadmap which is a high level view of the product requirements with a loose time frame for when you'll develop those requirements. You'll then need to identify requirements, prioritizing and estimating the effort for those requirements. At stage three, the product owner creates a release plan which identifies a high level timetable for the release of working software. A typical release could have three or three to five sprints and a release plan is required at the beginning of each Release. At Stage 4, the product owner, the Scrum master and the development team plan the sprints and then start creating the product within those sprints. Sprint planning sessions take place at the start of each sprint where the Scrum team determines what requirements will be in the next iteration. At stage five, during each sprint, the development team has daily 15 minute meetings where you'll discuss what you completed yesterday, what you'll do today, and any roadblocks that need removing. At stage six, the team holds a sprint review at the end of every sprint and this demonstrates to stakeholders the product that was created in the Sprint at Stage seven, the team holds a Sprint retrospective at the end of each Sprint. This is a meeting where the team discusses how the Sprint went, lessons learned, and plans for improvements in the next Sprint. To recap, the events that are included in these seven stages include Project planning, Release planning, Sprints, Sprint Planning, daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and Sprint Retrospectives. As at every level of digital business transformation, it's important to remember that project progress needs to be measurable. And for this purpose, Agile project teams can use six key artifacts to develop products and track their progress. These are a Product vision Statement, which is an elevated pitch, or a quick summary, which articulates the goals of the product and how it supports the company's strategy. A product backlog, which is a a full and prioritized list of what's in scope for your project. There's a product roadmap, which is a high level view of the product requirements with a loose time frame for when those requirements will be developed. Then there's a release plan, which is a high level timetable for the release of working software. There's a Sprint backlog, which describes the goal, user stories and tasks associated with the current Sprint, and an incremental, which is the working product functionality at the end of each Sprint. This is just an introduction to Agile project management to learn the detail. You'll find a whole range of organizations out there that provides training and certification in the various Agile methodologies, and these include Agile alliance, the Scrum alliance, the PMI, and others.

If you want to take your transformation capabilities and credentials to the next level, go to studythrive.com.