Digital Management Conference
EVALUATING THE USE AND APPLICATION OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT THEORY AND METHODOLOGIES
Introduction
Project management methodology is one of the major approaches that give better approaches to the participants for better performances and better results. It has been one of the most important aspects of project management and in order to get the better attributes of the projects, the application of the proper methodology is required. There are two major methodologies that are used enormously: Agile methodology and Waterfall methodology. Both the methodologies help the projects to get the proper stricture and methods. In this paper Agile methodology and scrum framework have been chosen, this paper will focus on the different aspects of the concepts of agile methodology. In addition, the reason for choosing this methodology will be highlighted. Moreover, the challenges faced by the participants in the project management will be taken into account. Finally, the recommendations will be given based on the different aspects of the real-life implementations of the strategies.
Concept of agile methodology
Agile methodology has been one of the most important project management methodologies that are used in the different steps of project management and it has been seen that one of the major aspects of the methodology is the ease of work and the appropriate work structure (Fronza et al. 2019). This method helps the participants to get the proper structure and a better workflow in the projects. In this paper agile methodology has been chosen as this is one of the methodologies that provide better aspects of the ease of work in the planning stage. Additionally, the scrum framework of the agile methodology has been used here. It has been seen that this methodology has been one of the methodological aspects that provides the participants with increased efficiency in the work strictures. The major benefits of the agile methodology are the flexibility and the adaptability of the new changes (Rush and Connolly, 2020). These factors make the work patterns relevant to recent times. The flexibility in the schedule is one of the major positive factors and the different scope of the implementation of the technologies has made this methodology one of the most relevant ones.
The iterative approach followed by the scrum framework generally consists of several sprints that have an average duration of one to four weeks. As opined by Ciric et al. (2018), it increases the workflow and produces better results in project management. In addition to that, the reduced risk has been one of the most important aspects of agile. The issues can be found in the different steps and resolved in a small amount. As per the views of Sreenivasan and Kohimarama (2019), this helps the project managers to reduce the risk factors.
There are several principles of the agile methodology that are followed by the structure and result in better outcomes for the projects. The principles are as follows-
- The customers must be satisfied with the early and continuous delivery. As per the views of Novac and Ciochină (2018), it has been one of the most important aspects as the customers are given the ultimate values and customer satisfaction is the fundamental principle of the agile methodology.
- The requirements for the changes in the project are welcome even late in the project. It has been one of the prime principles of the agile methodology. The change requirements acceptance gives the project more flexibility and it has been one of the most important aspects of the agile framework.
- Giving value to the customers is one of the fundamental concepts of the agile framework and in this framework; the customers are given value frequently. As per the views, of Salts and Sutherland (2019), this makes this method more trustworthy and effective both for the customers and the companies.
On the other hand, the scrum framework needs to have certain roles and responsibilities to be used in properly in the agile methodology. These are as follows:
- Product owner: The product owner is the person with ultimate authority of the final product (Basias and Pollalis, 2018). Hence, this person has the responsibility of representing the best interest of customers.
- Scrum master: In a project, the project manager generally takes on the role of scrum master; however, they can offer this role to anyone of the team who has a strong facilitating capability. The scrum master has a lot of responsibility including arranging daily meetings, improving team communication, and thus increasing productivity.
- Daily meeting: In order to discuss and assess the project, it is important to arrange daily meeting (Bianchi et al. 2020). The meetings are named as Daily Scrum or Daily Stand-up.
The major components of the agile framework are as follows:
Sprint planning– Sprint has been one of the major components of the agile framework and it has been seen that the work structure can be divided into small and achievable parts and these are called sprints. Sprints are the small and approachable units complaining about different requirements contributing to the overall requirements of the project (Knaster and Leffingwell, 2018). The major feature of the sprints is different aspects of the affordability and meetings of small targets. One of the major features of sprint planning is that the sprints must be completed in order and the completion of one sprint only allows the participants to move to the other sprints. The major benefits of the sprints are the increased workflow and the reduced chances of the risks. The sprints allow the participants as well as the project manager to move faster in the project by completing different small targets and it increases the workflow of the project. On the other hand, issues can be resolved in the individual sprints and this leads the overall projects to reduce the chances of the bigger risks (Putta et al. 2018). It is very important for the participants to plan the sprints properly and the allocation of the sprints to the different participants must be taken into account.
Stand-up meetings– Stand-up meetings are meetings conducted during a particular period of time. It has been seen that this is one of the major aspects of the participants as well as the team to get a better idea about the teamwork and the progress of the projects. In the meetings, the participants give an idea about their responsibilities and their completed work. It helps the team members to get a better idea of the complete picture of the projects. This helps the team members to keep the project on track and the different difficulties can be measured in the projects.
Agile board– Agile board is one of the most important aspects of agile project management and it has been seen that the agile board gives a better idea about the prophecy proceedings and the updates of the projects. It gives the team members clear ideas about the status of the projects and the responsibilities of the individuals. It has been seen that the issues can also be imputed in the agile board and these can be removed by the different individuals. The agile framework can be represented visually in their agile board and the issues in the agile board impact the overall projects.
The agile project management consists of different steps. The steps as follows-
Project planning– project planning is the primary step of project management, In these steps, the planning of the project is done. It has been seen that in these steps the different requirements and the roles are decided. The issues in the planning stage lead to the different aspects of the difficulties faced in the different aspects of the projects.
Product roadmap creation– is the step that comes after the planning step. This step focuses on the different aspects of the creation of the pathway of the roadmap. It has been seen that the pathway was created by the combination of different aspects of the requirements of the project. On the other hand, this step focuses on the different steps of the work breakdown structure.
Sprint planning– It is one of the most important steps. In this step, the overall work is divided into different sprints. The division helps the big project to be approachable. In addition to that, the allocation of the sprints in the different steps is done. It has been considered one of the major projects and the different aspects of the sprint planning and division impact the overall project strictures.
Daily stand-ups– It has been one of the major steps in agile project management. As per the views of Kowalczyk et al. (2022), this step focuses on the communication of the completed work and the required work between the team members. The increased communication about this fact has been one of the most important aspects of the agile framework.
Sprint reviews- this step is the ultimate step of agile project management. It has been seen that in this stage, the sprint requirements and the work done are reviewed for better results. Actually, this step is the step for cross-checking the sprint. As per the views of Conboy and Carroll (2019), the issues in the different sprints are found in these steps and resolution of the issues provides better aspects of the results for the project participants,
Scrum methodology is one of the major parts of the agile methodology and it is mainly used in the different aspects of software development. Scrum framework consists of certain rules, events, and roles that can be implemented in agile projects (Bianchi et al. 2020). The project team can deliver the product at a time regularly by following this approach.
Challenges of agile methodology
Agile methodology has been one often the most important methodologies and ot6 has been seen to be used widely in the different projects; there are several points of this methodology that makes this method very acceptable as well as effective. However, there are several aspects of challenges faced by the individuals in the different sections of the projects. As opined by Dumitriu et al. (2019), these challenges need to be resolved as soon as possible and different aspects of the results can be obtained for the better aspects of the agile project management and the better results in the project planning.
The major issues of the agile methodology are as follows:
One of the major factors related to agile project management is the print planning and the division of the work in the sprints. The sprints have a predetermined structure and the different aspects of the changes in the requirements are boot allowed in the sprints. As per the research of Padmini et al. (2018), the sprints are designed as per the previous planning and the changes in the different stages have been one of the major limitations of agile project management. In the agile project, the requirement changes in between the steps, and it is impossible for the participants to get the better aspects of the sprint structures. In the case of any type of change, the whole structure of the project does.
Requirements for technical skills have been one of the major issues of the agile methodology. In this method, the team members and one individual working with the agile method must be knowledgeable at night in the technological aspects; on the other hand, technical skills are also required to operate the project using this methodology. It has been seen that the technical knowledge requirements of the team members create different issues in different situations. As per the views of Ciampa and Nagel (2018), all the companies cannot implement the agile methodologies in their operations as the requirements of the technical knowledge of the members cannot always be satisfied. As per the views of Ma’arif et al. (2018), on the other hand, the training and development of the employees and the staff increase the cost of the company and in this aspect, it can be said that the company’s head toward different aspects of the financial risks.
No chance of quality measurement is there in the different aspects of the agile framework. In this framework, the major aspect of the sprints is that the prediction of the final product can be done before the starting of the sprints but in between the sprints nothing can be predicted about the final product.
In addition to that, there are several challenges of the scrum framework also. Sometimes the team work gets disrupted as everyone involved in the sprint wants to deliver the best service and conflict occurs. The team work fails when the product owner attempts to introduce any new requirements in the project. As per the research of Steghöfer et al. (2019), it has been seen that the jury is still unable to figure out the perfect sprint duration. Hence, the scum masters set the duration completely on the basis of their expert knowledge.
As opined by Lous et al. (2018), these issues must be resolved as soon as possible in order to get the better aspects of the projects and the resolution of the issues and the property implementations of the agile framework help the team members as well as the project managers to get the better results in the project.
Conclusion
The agile framework has been one of the major project management methodologies that have several positive implications in the different aspects of project planning and implementation. One of the major aspects of the agile methodology is the sprint planning, Sprints are the small and achievable units of the overall project and the overall project is divided into the different sprints, These help the participants to complete the work with less work pressure and the reduced risk possibility has been one of the major benefits of the sprints. The agile framework has been chosen as the major requirement of the project work is the increased efficiency and the decreased workload. However, there are several challenges faced by the individuals in the projects. One of the major challenges of the agile framework is the difficulties in the change requirements of the aspirants. These issues can be resolved by the implementation of flexible sprints in the management.
Recommendation
- There are several issues in the project management methodologies and it has been seen that these issues can be resolved by the implementation of the different plans, One of the most important issues is the change management in the sprints in the agile management, insert to mitigate this issue, the most important implementations must be a flexible sprint in between the steps. This sprint will focus on the different changes in the projects and it will help the different change requirements to take in the required places.
- The better communication tools are to be used to ameliorate the success of a project. It will increase the better communication between the team members. Increased communication helps the participants to get better and clear idea ability the projects and the requirements.
- Employee training and knowledge development campaigns must be conducted by the companies in order to make the employees knowledgeable enough in the agile methodology and the technical skills will improve the better operations of the different components of the agile methodology. Additionally, the use of DSDMIN framework rather than the scrum could have been more useful to judge the sprint duration accurately.
References
Atzberger, A. and Paetzold, K., 2019, July. Current challenges of agile hardware development: What are still the pain points nowadays?. In Proceedings of the Design Society: international conference on Engineering Design (Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 2209-2218). Cambridge University Press.
Basias, N. and Pollalis, Y., 2018. Quantitative and qualitative research in business & technology: Justifying a suitable research methodology. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 7, pp.91-105.
Bianchi, M., Marzi, G. and Guerini, M., 2020. Agile, Stage-Gate and their combination: Exploring how they relate to performance in software development. Journal of Business Research, 110, pp.538-553.
Ciric, D., Lalic, B., Gracanin, D., Palcic, I. and Zivlak, N., 2018, March. Agile project management in new product development and innovation processes: challenges and benefits beyond software domain. In 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (TEMS-ISIE) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.
Conboy, K. and Carroll, N., 2019. Implementing large-scale agile frameworks: challenges and recommendations. IEEE Software, 36(2), pp.44-50.
Dumitriu, F., Meșniță, G. and Radu, L.D., 2019. Challenges and solutions of applying large-scale agile at organizational level. Informatica Economica, 23(3), pp.61-71.
Fronza, I., El Ioini, N., Pahl, C. and Corral, L., 2019. Bringing the benefits of agile techniques inside the classroom: A practical guide. In Agile and Lean Concepts for Teaching and Learning (pp. 133-152). Springer, Singapore.
Knaster, R. and Leffingwell, D., 2018. SAFe 4.5 distilled: applying the scaled agile framework for lean enterprises. Addison-Wesley Professional.
Kowalczyk, M., Marcinkowski, B. and Przybyłek, A., 2022. Scaled agile framework. Dealing with software process‐related challenges of a financial group with the action research approach. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, p.e2455.
Leijnen, S., Aldewereld, H., van Belkom, R., Bijvank, R. and Ossewaarde, R., 2020. An agile framework for trustworthy AI. In NeHuAI@ ECAI (pp. 75-78).
Lous, P., Tell, P., Michelsen, C.B., Dittrich, Y. and Ebdrup, A., 2018, May. From Scrum to Agile: a journey to tackle the challenges of distributed development in an Agile team. In Proceedings of the 2018 International Conference on Software and System Process (pp. 11-20).
Ma’arif, D., Yusnorizam, M., Hafifi Yusof, M.F. and Mohd Satar, N.S., 2018. The Challenges of Implementing Agile Scrum in Information System’s Project. Jour of Adv Research in Dynamical & Control Systems, 10.
Novac, C. and Ciochină, R.S., 2018. Challenges of applying agile principles and values to IT project management. Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, 14(4), pp.43-62.
Padmini, K.J., Kankanamge, P.S., Bandara, H.D. and Perera, G.I.U.S., 2018, May. Challenges Faced by Agile Testers: A Case Study. In 2018 Moratuwa Engineering Research Conference (MERCon) (pp. 431-436). IEEE.
Putta, A., Paasivaara, M. and Lassenius, C., 2018, November. Benefits and challenges of adopting the scaled agile framework (SAFe): preliminary results from a multivocal literature review. In International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (pp. 334-351). Springer, Cham.
Rush, D.E. and Connolly, A.J., 2020. An agile framework for teaching with scrum in the IT project management classroom. Journal of Information Systems Education, 31(3), pp.196-207.
Saltz, J. and Suthrland, A., 2019, December. SKI: An agile framework for data science. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Big Data (Big Data) (pp. 3468-3476). IEEE.
Sreenivasan, S. and Kothandaraman, K., 2019. Improving processes by aligning capability maturity model integration and the Scaled Agile Framework®. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 38(6), pp.42-51.
Steghöfer, J.P., Knauss, E., Horkoff, J. and Wohlrab, R., 2019, November. Challenges of scaled agile for safety-critical systems. In International Conference on Product-Focused Software Process Improvement (pp. 350-366). Springer, Cham.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Know more about UniqueSubmission’s other writing services:
