“agile Project Management Is an Iterative Development Methodology

Chapter 20 – Enhancing development productivity is talking about system development and Agile methodology is Latest trend in system development. So, I have chosen Agile methodology topic and I am going to mention what are the advantages and disadvantages of agile methodology.

Agile methodology is defined as “Agile project management is an iterative development methodology that values human communication and feedback, adapting to changes, and producing working results”. (Shankaramani,para 1).Agile is defined as “iterative” , meaning the project is done in sprints. Sprints are pieces of the projects. With each sprint, lessons learnt from previous sprint and improve in the current sprint. Recently most of the companies opting agile methodology because handling changes in agile is much easier than other methodologies like waterfall. Agile methodology has lot of benefits

Stakeholder Engagement: Agile methodology allows you to communicate with stakeholders before, after or during each sprint. Collaborating with stake holder frequently provides more knowledge on project vision and what exactly clients wants. Transparency: It provides transparency between clients and team. Early and Predictable delivery: with each schedules sprint between two to four weeks, new features frequently delivered and with predictability. Predictable costs and schedule: In agile, each sprint is a fixed time, cost can be predictable for each sprint. Allows for change: Agile allows to change and refine the product backlog items. If the team finds any betterment of the current work, agile allows to change the work. Focuses on business value: Allowing stakeholders to determine the features, team understands what exactly business wants, and they deliver those features first to provide the business value. Focuses on users: agile uses “user stories” focused on business to define product features. Improves quality: In agile, we break down the project in to sprints and team can focus on business priority on quality development.

Agile Methodology Constraints: Agile methodology has few dis advantages too. Agile methodology is easy to misunderstand. As agile focuses first on highest business priorities, there may be a chance of missing small things on time as it is time framed iteration. Agile focuses on customer interaction, early release of software, focusing on individuals than process and tools. We always think Agile is correct but sometimes agile may be wrong for some projects. Agile methodology is more visible which is embarrassing for some of the team members. But it gives value to the customer. In most companies, employees may not want to be accountable for their work they do each day. Agile creates lot of pressure on employees because agile is visible and every day employees have to give updates on their work. Some employees may not like this process. In agile, if any employee not performing well he or she will caught really fast.

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