In software development, most project managers struggle to make their businesses efficient and flexible. According to research conducted by PMI,
- 45 percent of projects are not finished by the deadline.
- 31 percent of projects do not meet the business intent and initial goals.
- 43 percent of projects go over budget.
According to the survey, 91 percent of worldwide software developers have adopted agile development methodology. However, they are unable to meet expectations.
To make your business truly agile, you need to go back to the basic 12 guiding principles, allowing the project managers to focus on learning, change, and collaboration.
1. Attain Customer Satisfaction
As an agile team, your first and foremost priority is to satisfy your customer by shortening the time gap between delivering and reporting to your customer. This will increase customer satisfaction and increase ROI (return on investment).
2. Don’t Be Afraid Of Change
Embrace change now. Even when the customer requests late changes, you can implement it at any time. Agile helps to harness change for your customer’s competitive advantage.
In waterfall or predictive, it would be considered hard to pivot, but Agile allows the customer and the team to add valuable changes later in the project.
3. Deliver Value Frequently
Agile principles focus on shorter, effective planning. Agile sprints create results in the same time frame that more traditional projects need to create more detailed plans.
4. Bring Business Minds And “Techies” Together
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The Agile method relies on collaboration between team management and stakeholders. It is the best way to understand each other and work together. Frequent communications are encouraged and are an important part of Agile.
5. Build Projects Around Motivated Individuals
There should be no micromanaging. It doesn’t work and it is bad for morale. Have the right team and keep them motivated. Trust your team members to give their best performances.
6. Engage In Face-To-Face Interaction
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In Agile, face-to-face conversation is crucial. This is another way to build strong working relationships and increase motivation. When a team works under the same roof, they can see facial expressions and body language, which does help with clearer communications. Plus, more innovative email and narrative streams create a better collaborative environment. In today’s world, with more team members working remotely, find a way to keep everyone feeling connected.
7. Working Software Is The Primary Measure Of Progress
It is the prime factor that should be considered by every project manager. It doesn’t matter how many hours you are working. Or how many words you have typed. The only thing that matters is for each project, do it correctly. You can’t measure the quality of your work without the success of the project.
8. Maintain A Sustainable Working Pace
When you are working for a long period, you may suffer from burnout. An agile team should practice completing a short productive task without overburdening the team or taking excessive time. The best practice is maintaining quality work without consistently asking your team to overextend themselves.
9. Continuous Excellence Enhances Agility
Continued attention to excellence and good design enhances agility.
Agile emphasizes that the development team consistently employ monitoring and testing. Problems identified early are easier to correct and are not passed on to future sprints.
10. Simplicity Is Essential
Don’t make things more complicated than necessary. Simplicity can be elegant. Simplicity allows you and your team to maximize your effort. Simplicity is all about:
- Maximizing fun that adds value
- Cutting out unnecessary complexities
- Using simple design and features
11. Use Self-Organizing Teams
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It is crucial that you develop a self-reliant team and give them the freedom to work independently. Let them identify problems and solutions. Allowing them to work independently will boost their productivity and skills.
12. Regularly Reflect And Review
The last of the Agile principles is related to evaluating your performance and finding ways to make continuous improvements, Discuss areas where the team excels and areas where improvements can be made. Invite team members to identify how to improve. Be positive while reviewing your team’s performance and convey your message in a professional manner.
Conclusion
Agile principles guide project managers to create a healthy working environment drawing upon communication, collaboration, and change.
When project managers embrace these principles, and become practiced in applying them, everyone associated with the project benefits.
Contributed by Stella Lincoln.
Stella Lincoln is currently working as a Project Manager at Crowd Writer. She aims to deliver her knowledge to readers through blogs and articles. Stella is a tech-geek and keeps herself updated with the latest technology.