What is Agile Project Management and how can you implement it?

We could fill far more pages on agile project management than this article is long. But for anyone who is initially dealing with it or wants to pick up new food for thought as an advanced user on agile project management, we have brought it to the point in a compressed form. After all, there are plenty of statements floating around the net about it.

Time to clear up and clarify what agile project management actually is, what it means to work agilely and what this agile manifest is supposed to be, which project managers like to talk about. And because even with that, the most important questions would not have been clarified, we felt it was a good idea to define when agile project management makes sense and what methods there are.

Little spoiler: There are some and agile project management is not suitable for every project!

1. What is agile project management?

Let's start the question catalog simply: What is agile project management and how does it differ from the classic form?

Classic project management specifies the scope of a project, to which effort and timeframe adapt. In other words, everything is already set with the project plan and the project follows successive phases - at most with some temporal leeway. For this, the costs and the resource effort are predictable in order to achieve a concrete result.

In agile project management it is exactly the opposite: The scope is unclear beforehand, dates and effort are fixed. Daily meetings explain the progress and the interim results. The focus is on business value as well as on collaboration with stakeholders. If ideas arise in the team during the course of the project that promote business value, they can be implemented within agile project management. The end result thus becomes the best possible version. For this, costs and resources are not firmly calculated in advance. Agile project management methods often save a lot of money, as problems are worked on during the project and not afterwards.

Classic vs. Agile Project Management

Agile vs. classic project management means to approach a project flexibly or pre-defined. This does not make the classic approach outdated. Much more needs to be looked at which management style suits the respective project better.

2. What does it mean to work agilely?

More precisely, agile means that something is lightweight and flexible. If obstacles, innovations or suggestions arise during the work on the project, they can be easily changed or implemented. This significantly increases the business value. However, deadlines must be kept so that the project management does not stall. Processes partly run simultaneously and are dependent on each other. If one process shifts, it has an impact. Results are thus delivered on an ongoing basis and evaluated in meetings.

In addition, agile project management means that a team works together - including stakeholders - and thus also shares responsibility. Whereas in classic project management, the project manager wears the hat and is the interface between stakeholders and the team.

Example monday.com

We illustrate the difference to you using a classic and an agile project management example:

Development of an app in the health sector (B2C): The goal is to create an application that meets the expectations of the target group. During the development, opinion polls and market analyses are made, which can change the requirements for the project. In addition, further ideas for features of the app may arise in the meantime. In this case, it makes sense to apply agile project management, as it responds directly to any changes and the goal is an optimized app. If you apply classic project management, the development would be predetermined and in the end the application would only come on the market with the pre-planned functions.

Redesign and content revision of an existing company website (B2B): Here, a fixed goal is given: A website is to receive a new look and new content in order to improve the Google ranking and generate more leads. The goal is clear, now the way to it is divided into phases: start, planning, implementation, controlling and conclusion. Each phase is given a milestone that must be reached in order to start the next one. Thus, an inventory of the website is created, a new design is chosen, this is created and programmed, SEO content is created and then the website is put online. Game, set and match for classic project management, so to speak!

3. What is the agile manifesto?

Agile project management had to have its origins somehow. It was not invented by a single person, but by 17. In 2001, they got together, pooled their project management experiences and wrote down four agile values and twelve principles in the „Manifesto for Agile Software Development“. In retrospect, it turned out that the manifesto can not only be used in software development. Agile project management is oriented towards what is to be achieved by the project.

The four agile values:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

In summary, it's about self-control based on results, customer satisfaction, fast, effective and questioned work, and the avoidance of too much planning and long meetings. The task of the project management is the constant motivation of the team and the direction of the meetings. The project manager must have the trust that the work is being done. As agile project management has delivered many successful examples in the past two decades, it shows that agile project management works and that the core statements mentioned actually lead to the desired results.

4. When is agile project management useful?

According to the definition of agile project management, one could quickly think that it can always be relevant when flexibility is needed. After all, wouldn't you always like to be able to respond to anything you encounter in the project? Some projects would therefore never come to an end. So when is agile project management useful?

• When stakeholders want to be part of the project - and not just see the final result.
• When a product has the potential to be optimized again and again.
• When a project does not fit into a framework from the outset and this is defined in the course of the project.
• When an iterative approach makes more sense than phase for phase.
• When it is a digital project, an agile approach is usually the best option.
• In general, when the requirements for the project are unclear, in order to remain flexible and to start without much planning.
  

5. What are the advantages of agile project management?

After the previous parts, the advantages of agile project management are at least on the table, if you have not already internalized them yourself during reading. If you are facing a project that has the prerequisite to work on it agilely, make these 10 advantages for agile project management aware again:

1. You are more flexible.

2. No detailed project plan is necessary as an agile project lives from discovery.

3. The focus is on teamwork, which also distributes responsibility.

4. Different roles bring different expertise and ideas.

5. It is worked in short sprints on a daily basis, eliminating lengthy, often non-targeted long tasks.

6. Regular meetings keep the team and stakeholders informed. Additional transparency is created through uniform communication channels and tools.

7. It is more customer-friendly as stakeholders are usually heavily involved in the project.

8. You do not waste time or resources.

9. Faster launches of software or other products.

10. Low risk that a project will fail completely.

6. What agile project management methods are there?

Of course, there is not the one method in agile project management. If that were the case, it would certainly go against the definition of "agile". In order to always be able to respond to the respective project nature, various agile methods have emerged over time. We present five of them to you.

Project Management Method Kanban

With the Kanban method, you have the best opportunity to visually represent a project, provide transparency, and make the processing of tasks clear. So-called Kanban boards consist of several columns, which contain tasks to be done, tasks in work, tasks for evaluation, and completed tasks. Each project participant has an insight into the current happenings. Tasks can be assigned to the respective people and based on the current status, results can be measured and change proposals can be implemented in meetings. Kanban was developed in 1947 at Toyota. Meanwhile, many Project Management Tools have picked up the principle, for example Trello and monday.com. OMR tip: Kanban tools are also perfect for your own task management.

You are looking for the best digital Kanban boards? Then definitely read our best-of-article on it.

Example Trello

Project Management Method Scrum

You'll see the agile project management method Scrum particularly in the IT sector. The method was introduced in 1995 by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, who also collaborated on the "Agile Manifesto". Scrum is particularly suitable for highly complex and challenging projects that allow no planning. All project participants work in short sprints, which always end in feedback rounds. This checks the success of the sprints and discusses further steps. Open and continuous communication and a clear distribution of roles are at the forefront of the Scrum method. This project management method provides for dividing into Product Owner, Scrum Master and development team.

Project management method Scrumban

The name already suggests it: Scrumban is the mix of Kanban and Scrum. This agile project management method is structured even more precisely by daily stand-up meetings, in which smaller, quick-to-achieve sprints are defined. The Kanban boards promote transparency in the team. Scrumban is particularly ideal to apply when you want to solve problems within management processes or if a product development is imminent.

Project management method Design Thinking

Design Thinking is considered a still young agile method that, in light of the advancing digitalization, still holds a lot of application potential. The team in Design Thinking is mixed colorful, based on expertise, position, age, working culture or department. In this way, existing or new processes and products are to be viewed from new perspectives. The Design Thinking method does not have a fixed framework in order to focus completely on the creativity of the participants. All ideas and impressions are collected by the moderator.

Project management method Extreme Programming

In Extreme Programming projects, it gets fast and ruthlessly effective. In repeating cycles, the fastest way is found to make a product viable. Programming is done in pairs, who control each other to optimize. The written code, which is constantly extended by the results from the team work, is subject to a permanent review. This way, you can immediately tell if something is wrong. In Extreme Programming, there are also daily stand-up meetings to explain the project progress. As soon as a new functional version of a software is available, this is handed over to the customer. This cyclical approach repeats itself over and over again. Usually, there is also no end like in traditional project management, as a software must always be supplied with updates.

Other agile project management methods are PRINCE2, Lean Startup, Spotify, Crystal Clear, Feature-Driven Development and DSDM. Many of them are based on one of the approaches just explained or make use of some of their properties. If you also want to learn more about classic Project Management Methods in order to better compare agile methods for example, you can find all the relevant information in the linked article.

7. Which softwares are best suited for agile project management?

In times of digitization, it is advisable to take advantage of this in the form of SaaS solutions. Since a lot of communication and transparency is involved in agile project management, Project Management Tools help to lay a solid foundation. If everyone involved in the project has access to the softwares selected at the start of the project, everyone also has access to the status quo, the schedule, the tasks and other important information.

Example Asana

We thus end the article with the crème de la crème of agile project management tools and also give a recommendation for efficient communication. You can find more tools on our comparison platform OMR Reviews.

Asana

monday.com

Trello

MeisterTask

awork

Wrike

Jira

• For communication: Slack

Example Slack

By the way, if you want to know why exactly these 7 tools for agile project management are worth it, then have a look at our article about the 7 best agile project management tools.