Agile is a popular approach to project management that prioritizes flexibility, short work sprints, and gathering feedback.
Agile project management is a broad category that encompasses many specific project management methodologies. In this guide, we break down the pros and cons of agile, explain how to implement agile, and investigate the five phases of agile project development.
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What is agile project management?
Agile is an iterative approach to project management that focuses on continuous deliverables, incremental progress through sprints, and frequent gathering of customer feedback. Many specific project management methodologies fall under the larger agile umbrella, such as scrum, kanban, and lean.
Agile originally arose as a framework for software development projects, but its flexibility and effectiveness have made it a popular choice for many different kinds of teams looking for project management approaches. Agile works especially well for small businesses, or for smaller teams within a larger enterprise.
Benefits and drawbacks of agile project management
| Highly flexible, can be used for many types of projects by many kinds of teams. | Lack of documentation throughout the process can be difficult to overcome later. |
| Constant gathering of feedback means that issues are identified and fixed quickly. | Frequently leads to scope creep due to the absence of set parameters. |
| Faster turnaround times often lead to quicker deployment. | Unpredictability can cause stress for team members and stakeholders. |
| Reduced bureaucracy frees up employees to work on value-added tasks instead of busywork. | No clear deadlines or end to projects. |
| Multiple methodologies to choose from, so your team can select the one that works best. | Difficult to predict final costs and therefore create a budget and stick to it. |
How to implement agile project management
If you’re interested in implementing an agile approach to project management for the first time, there are some best practices that you can follow to make the process as smooth as possible.
Here are our expert tips for how to implement agile project management:
Fill knowledge gaps before you begin
Agile is a wide-ranging project management approach that encompasses a lot of possibilities, so you should brush up on your knowledge before plunging ahead.
Determine if agile is the right approach
Agile is a popular project management approach for a reason, but it’s not the right choice for every single project. Take a hard look at your project requirements, goals, and team structure to see if agile will be the most effective approach.
Pick a specific agile methodology
Once you’ve determined that agile is a good approach for your project, you need to pick a specific methodology to use, such as scrum, kanban, extreme programming (XP), or lean. After you’ve chosen a methodology, stick with it for the duration of the project.
Get buy-in from all stakeholders
If you’re going to implement agile, then both the client and your team need to be on board. Discuss the demands of agile with all relevant parties to make sure that everyone is willing and able to put in the work.
Assemble your agile team
If you’re new to agile project tracking, then you might want to bring in some experts with agile certifications to help implement it. For example, if you’re going to use a scrum methodology, then you will probably want experienced Scrum Masters and Product Managers on your team who have implemented scrum project management before.
Create a plan for one small project
If you and your team are new to agile, it’s best to start with a small, simple project as opposed to a large, complex one. Learning a new project management methodology is challenging, and you want to set your team up for success without overwhelming them.
Choose the right agile project management tools
You’ll need the right software to successfully implement agile project management. Check out our recommendations for the best project management software, such as Smartsheet for growing teams and Wrike for larger teams.
Check in with your team throughout the project
You’ll be getting feedback from the clients and users throughout the project, so don’t forget to ask your team for additional feedback about how agile is (or isn’t) working out so far. This will allow you to address issues as they arise instead of giving them time to develop into bigger problems.
Host a retrospective after project completion
Once your first agile project is finished, schedule a debrief meeting with your team to break down what worked and what can be improved next time. If your client is open to it, you should also do a debrief session with them.
Agile vs waterfall project management
Traditional project management, also known as waterfall project management, is a completely different approach from agile. Here are the main ways that waterfall project management and agile project management differ:
- With the waterfall methodology, teams follow a strict series of phases, and must complete each stage before moving onto the next.
- Stakeholders set very strict deadlines, budgets, and requirements at the beginning and stick to them throughout the entire project, contrasting with agile’s flexible approach.
- Under waterfall project management, team roles and responsibilities are very rigid and don’t change throughout the project.
- Decisions are made top-down by the project managers in waterfall instead of the entire team participating in decision-making like agile.
- Traditional project management focuses on completing specific deliverables by certain dates instead of prioritizing discovery and alternative problem solving the way agile does.
- The waterfall method uses longer project phases, as opposed to agile’s shorter sprints.
- Traditional project management requires keeping comprehensive documentation throughout the entire process.
The five phases of agile project management
Agile project management uses a five-phase structure that is highly flexible and adaptable to many kinds of projects. The five phases of agile methodology project management are:
- Envision: The client and the team collaborate together to conceptualize the overall product or project and set some initial requirements.
- Speculate: Stakeholders decide on a specific list of requirements and create milestones for the project based on them.
- Explore: Each team starts working on a single milestone, exploring possibilities for fulfilling the requirements while staying within the project constraints.
- Adapt: The client gives feedback on the current iteration of the product, and the team makes changes to it based on the feedback.
- Close: The final product or project is compared to the list of initial requirements, and any lingering issues are addressed in order to finish off the deliverable.
Agile methodologies
There are multiple specific agile methodologies to choose from, depending on your team, goals, and industry. The four most popular agile methodologies are:
- Scrum: Relies on sprints, which are defined work periods of a certain time length, managed by specific roles such as the Scrum Master and Product Owner.
- Kanban: Uses a kanban board to visually manage work as it moves through specific stages on the way to completion.
- Extreme programming (XP): Combines a rigid structure with highly focused, very short sprints to quickly deliver software products.
- Lean: Prioritizes reducing waste and increasing efficiency; especially popular in the manufacturing industry, where it originated.
Agile project management principles
Agile management follows four values and 12 essential principles, as outlined in the Agile Manifesto, which was published in 2001.
The four values are:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
- Working software over comprehensive documentation.
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
- Responding to change over following a plan.
The Agile Manifesto also outlines 12 agile management principles that derive from these four main values.
The principles are:
- Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
- Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
- Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
- Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
- Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
- The most efficient 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 architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
- At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.