The Top 5 Benefits of Implementing Agile in Enterprise Projects

Agile has been a buzzword in project management for several years now. Many companies have already implemented Agile methodologies in their projects, while others are still contemplating whether or not to adopt this approach. In this article, we will discuss the top 5 benefits of implementing Agile in enterprise projects.

Introduction

Agile is a methodology that has been widely adopted by software development teams for over two decades. Agile is an iterative and incremental approach to project management, which emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, and adaptability. Agile has proved to be effective in software development projects, but its benefits extend beyond software development.

Enterprise projects are complex and require a flexible approach that can adapt to the changing needs of the business. Agile offers a framework that enables teams to work more efficiently, respond to changes quickly, and deliver high-quality products that meet customer needs. Let's explore the top 5 benefits of implementing Agile in enterprise projects.

1. Improved Flexibility and Adaptability

One of the significant benefits of Agile is the flexibility it provides. Agile methodology emphasizes on an adaptive approach that enables teams to respond quickly to changes in project requirements. Agile methodology allows for changes to be made throughout the project, which ensures that the final product aligns with the client's requirements.

Traditional project management methodologies follow a linear approach that does not allow changes once the project plan is set. In contrast, Agile is a flexible methodology that allows for continuous iteration and improvement. This flexibility ensures that the team can adapt to the changing needs of the project.

2. Faster Time-to-Market

Agile methodologies have been proven to accelerate time-to-market for products. The Agile approach enables teams to deliver working software in small increments, which allows for the product to be tested and validated throughout the development process.

With Agile methodology, product development occurs in short iterations, allowing teams to quickly identify and fix any issues. This approach ensures that the product is ready for the market much faster than with traditional project management methodologies.

3. Enhanced Collaboration and Communication

Agile emphasizes collaboration and communication among team members. This approach fosters a culture of transparency and accountability, which results in improved team morale and productivity.

Agile methodology encourages regular meetings, such as daily stand-up meetings, to ensure that everyone is on the same page. This approach helps to identify and solve problems quickly, resulting in higher-quality products.

4. Better Quality Deliverables

Agile methodology emphasizes continuous improvement, which helps to ensure the quality of the deliverables. The Agile approach emphasizes testing and validation throughout the development process, which helps to identify and fix any issues early on.

The Agile methodology encourages regular feedback from stakeholders, which helps to ensure that the final product meets the client's requirements. This approach ensures that the final product is of high quality and meets the client's needs.

5. Increased Customer Satisfaction

Agile methodology puts the customer at the center of the development process. Agile ensures that the product meets the client's requirements by regularly incorporating feedback into the development process.

Agile methodology ensures that the final product is of high quality and meets the client's needs. This approach results in increased customer satisfaction and a higher likelihood of repeat business.

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The Benefits of Agile Methodologies for Software Development

Agile methodologies have recently become increasingly popular for managing software development projects. These methodologies are based on the Agile manifesto, emphasizing flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. 

In this blog post, we will explore the benefits of Agile methodologies for software development, including increased efficiency, better communication, and more effective management of changing requirements. Overall, this blog post aims to provide an overview of Agile methodologies and the value they can bring to software development teams.

An Overview 

In today’s fast-paced business world, software development teams are constantly pressured to deliver high-quality software products promptly and cost-effectively. Many teams have turned to Agile methodologies to streamline their development process and improve their overall performance to meet these demands.

Agile methodologies are a set of iterative and incremental software development approaches that focus on flexibly and adaptively delivering high-quality software. Agile methodologies are based on the Agile Manifesto, a set of guiding principles for software development that prioritize individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change.

Agile Advantages for Software Development

Flexibility and Adaptability

One of the key benefits of Agile methodologies is their flexibility and adaptability. Agile methodologies allow software development teams to respond quickly and effectively to changes in project requirements, whether they are driven by market conditions, customer feedback, or other factors. This is achieved through short development cycles, called sprints, that focus on delivering specific, measurable, and deliverable chunks of functionality.

Sprints allow teams to quickly adapt to changes in project requirements and deliver software that meets the customer’s needs. This contrasts traditional Waterfall methodologies, requiring teams to complete all project phases before delivering any software. With Agile, teams can deliver working software to the customer early and often, which improves customer satisfaction and reduces the risk of delivering a product that doesn’t meet customer needs.

Improved Communication and Collaboration

Another key benefit of Agile methodologies is their ability to improve communication and collaboration among team members. Agile methodologies encourage face-to-face communication and promote collaboration among team members, which leads to better communication, more efficient problem-solving, and improved team dynamics.

The use of daily stand-up meetings in Agile methodologies is an example of how Agile promotes face-to-face communication and collaboration. These meetings are short, typically 15 minutes or less, and are used to discuss progress, issues, and upcoming work. The use of these meetings helps to keep team members informed and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Increased Productivity and Quality

Agile methodologies also increase productivity and quality. Agile methodologies focus on delivering working software early and often, which helps keep the development process on track and ensures that the software meets the customer’s needs. This is achieved through the use of sprints, which focus on delivering specific, measurable, and deliverable chunks of functionality.

The use of sprints also helps to improve the overall quality of the software. By delivering working software early and often, teams can identify and fix any issues early in the development process, reducing the risk of delivering a product that doesn’t meet customer needs. This, in turn, leads to higher customer satisfaction and a better overall product.

Better Customer Satisfaction

Agile methodologies lead to better customer satisfaction by involving the customer in the development process. Agile methodologies focus on delivering working software early and often, allowing the customer to see the project’s progress and provide feedback. This is achieved through the use of sprints, which focus on delivering specific, measurable, and deliverable chunks of functionality.

The use of sprints also allows teams to quickly adapt to changes in project requirements, which leads to better customer satisfaction. This is because teams can deliver working software that meets the customer’s needs, reducing the risk of delivering a product that doesn’t meet customer needs. This, in turn, leads to higher customer satisfaction and a better overall product.

Secure Superior Quality Product

Agile software development improves product quality by breaking the project into manageable units thoroughly tested before delivery. This ongoing quality assurance process ensures that the final product is of superior quality, with the added benefit of being able to make changes or add features as the project progresses easily. In contrast, traditional waterfall development methods often result in a high number of defects as testing is only done at the end, and changes are difficult to implement once the project is underway

Mitigate Risks

Agile methodology promotes effective teamwork by addressing common project challenges such as scope creep, unrealistic deadlines, and unresolved dependencies. Regular meetings and data-driven decisions allow quick action to resolve obstacles and minimize the risk of project failure. As a result, the success rate of projects is increased, with studies showing that agile projects have a 1.5 times higher success rate than traditional project management methods.

Real-World Examples

Many companies and organizations have successfully implemented Agile methodologies in their software development process and have seen significant benefits. Some examples include:

Spotify

The music streaming service has been using Agile methodologies for many years and has seen significant benefits. Spotify’s Agile process is based on Scrum, an Agile methodology that focuses on delivering working software in short sprints. By using Scrum, Spotify has been able to deliver high-quality software products in a timely and cost-effective manner, which has led to increased customer satisfaction and a better overall product.

ING Bank

ING Bank adopted Agile methodologies to improve its online banking platform. They found that Agile helped them deliver new features and improvements to customers faster and improved communication and collaboration within the development team.

Adobe

Adobe, a multinational computer software company, implemented Agile methodologies company-wide and found that it helped them to be more responsive to customer needs and deliver new features faster.

These are just a few examples of the many case studies demonstrating the benefits of Agile methodologies for software development. These studies show that Agile can help companies to improve their development process and deliver better software to customers.

Source: invensislearning.com

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Project Management Information System: Features and Advantages

A project is completely based on information and data revolving and communicating with team members. Project management manages all the functions and the data involved in the projects. The way the Project Managers handle projects will vary depending on the project. The PMP certification is a globally perceived project management certification that tests a candidate’s ability to manage a professional project’s people, processes, and business priorities. Further, with the advances in technology, Project Management Information System is developed with the help of software programs and applications.

What is Project Management Information System?

Projects will consist of data from both the internal and external environment. The data from the project is highly valuable and helpful in managing the project effectively. Therefore, the Project Management Information System (PMIS) is a software application used to store, organize, and control project data and information. With the help of the data, project managers can easily execute the deliverables of the project without the need to deliver the real data to the team members. In addition. there are several PMIS available in the market to manage and control the project data. Though there are differences in the various PMIS, the essential features are common. The following are essential features for PMIS.

Need for Project Management Information System

With the old traditional project management systems, project managers have had trouble. It is because of various reasons like managing data and information regarding the project. In addition, project team silos are causing issues like a lack of coordination and collaboration among the teams. The communication and the knowledge between the other teams are also lagging in the traditional project management system. Project Management Information System is developed as a software tool for managing project and resolving the available issues. Moreover, project managers can use it to manage and communicate with the project. It provides various features and benefits when compared to traditional project management. 

Essential Features of Project Management Information System

A Project Management Information System requires essential features to deal with its various functions. The following are some of the important features that a PMIS must have:

Planning and Scheduling

It is one of the most important functions of project management. When you initiate a project, the plan and the schedule are the two important components. In addition to that, the PMIS will have scheduling tools with which the project could be under control. Team members will have the schedule to track their day-to-day activities. As a result, the project planning become easier with PMIS. Resource availability, and the costs are linked with the project planning.

Budget and Estimation

Budget and estimation is the feature based on plan and schedule of the project. These estimates are calculated for every project task. Moreover, it helps in calculating the total time for the project completion. In fact, it helps keep track of the current flow and spending for the project. The estimation should consider the resources in the project, time available, and budget from the customer side.

Resource and Procurement Management

Resources of the project may be of several types like human resources, material resources, machinery, etc. The resources are managed on timely basis and updated to avoid wastage of work or idle time. Procurement is also managed with the help of PMIS system. It helps keep track of the costs spent on both the resources and the procurement.

Project Performance

The performance measurement of management is another feature available in the PMIS. The project plan can be changed to obtain the success of the project. The changes has to be useful and must not affect the budget and timeline in higher manner. Hence, calculations like Estimate at Completion (EAC), Estimate to Complete (ETC), Variance at Completion (VAC), etc. will be helpful in managing the projects effectively.

Progress Reporting and Communication

The reports are generated for every task and project to understand the work. The positives and negatives from the project can be studied. Therefore, PMIS system will help generate progress reports to communicate with various team members and stakeholders. In addition, the reports will be analyzed for any requirement. The PMIS is useful for communicating with various project team members.

Integration

The silos in the main issue when dealing with project management. It is because of teams working in different aspects. To overcome the challenges, PMIS is highly helpful in maintaining the data integration in the project. Likewise, the system helps in producing productive and useful information with integration. It also helps in effective management on tasks with timely manner.

Advantages of Project Management Information System

Traditional software project management is harder and tedious to manage the tasks. However, new and advanced Project Management Information System has various advantages over the traditional systems.

Better Collaboration and Teamwork

The teams can collaborate and work together as the communication is effective with the Project Management Information Systems. As a result, team members can work together with better collaboration. Also, the documentation of the project will become easier while working together as a team.

Competitive Advantage

The project teams were migrating to the PMIS-based system to attain its benefits. New and cutting-edge technologies helps in improving the competition in the industry. In addition, customers like their project managers using PMIS system.

Keeping Track of Everything

The main advantage of using the PMIS system is the focus and the track made with it. Project managers can work toward the project’s focus with the various techniques and tools. For example, planning, estimation, management, etc., have helped focus on the project’s aim. With PMIS you can have the complete control of the project. Moreover, cost and time are the two important factors where PMIS provided benefits in projects. 

Decision-making Abilities

The decision making is one of the most important roles of the project manager. Nothing will be an issue when a project goes right, and if a project has lost control, the consequences will be serious. In addition, with the PMIS system, project managers can make the decisions on time without facing any serious challenges. For example, any changes or issues in the project will resolve immediately without taking much time.

Manage Multiple Projects at a Time

The number of projects possibly managed with the PMIS system is more. Further, it helps in handling more projects effectively. They are helpful in reducing the errors in the project development.

How to Select Project Management Information System

There are several Project Management Information System available in the market. The following factors will help select the right PMIS for the project.

Suitability

The suitability here refers to the various aspects like the size of the project, team size, cost of the PMIS suite, etc. The compatibility and the other factors are verified before selecting the PMIS for the organization.

Ease of Use

The usability will differ from one PMIS system to another. However, PMIS system should be easier to use without having any challenges in it. Therefore, the team members should not find it difficult to work with it.

Features

The next is the selection of the features that are available in it. Mostly all the PMIS systems will have the basic essential features for managing the project. Moreover, the required features should be verified and selected for best results.

Mobile Application

Mobile application availability should be verified before buying the Project Management Information System. The mobile application helps users to manage the task effectively without the need for a computer.

Communication

The platform or option for communication and sharing the files is verified while working on selecting the PMIS system. Here, it is important to communicate with the team members in the project.

Third-party Application Integration

PMIS system should have capability of integrating third-party applications in it. In addition, it will help manage the tasks with integration and collaboration with the other tasks.

Examples of Project Management Information System

There are several Project Management Information Systems available in the market. Budget and feature requirement are the two basic factors while selecting the PMIS. The following are some examples of PMIS systems available.

◉ ProofHub

◉ Basecamp

◉ Citrix Podio

◉ Jira

◉ Trello

Apart from these, there is numerous other PMIS software that is available. The software tool selection is solely based on requirements, budgets, and ease of use.

Source: invensislearning.com

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How to Incorporate Change Management into Agile Projects

Change management is the most important advantage when dealing with agile project development. With that, you can easily accept and implement the changes in the project. Several factors are available that are important to deal with while implementing the changes. The changes are mainly in the design, development, and testing of the project. The acceptance of the changes in the project is based on several factors. The reasons for the changes in the software are the less planning and the customer requirements. In traditional software development, changes are not possible as they are based on sequential phases, and once a phase is completed, it cannot be developed again. Hence, the software development with the agile model will produce various benefits in achieving customer satisfaction and productivity.

Read More: PMI Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

Software development is not based on a single essential output. Instead, the customer comes up with some changes in the features and functionalities in the middle of the project. Developers and Testers can suggest some changes while working on the development. In such conditions, Agile-based software development helps incorporate the identified changes effectively. So, with effective change management implementation with agile, all the stakeholders involved in the project are satisfied. In addition, Change Management Certification Training is one of the growing certification courses that is apt for professionals looking forward to gaining a comprehensive understanding of how the process of organizational change or transformation occurs, and how one can ensure it is done in a structured/ organized fashion.

This blog will mainly focus on discussing change management implementation in software projects. However, before all that, let us understand what change management is.

What is Agile Change Management?

The method of agile change management is the term that enhances to take over the momentum around the globe. There are possibilities of several changes in the intermediate level of the project. The changes from the customer side or other stakeholders take some time to review and initiate. First, the team will check the need for the change in the project and then the possibilities of accepting the change. Agile is a highly helpful approach when coming to change management. Moreover, Agile change management helps focus on the changes from any stakeholders and of any size, from minor to major.

Many organizations will not ask for the customer requirements completely in advance, causing the changes in the middle. The changes will cause trouble for the developing team. Therefore, it is important to note the required changes and discuss them among the team members. In the case of change management, several phases are involved, which are planned accordingly. Hence, this was the reason for adopting agile projects for the change management and considering each phase like development, designing, and testing the cycles over the change management.

On the other hand, every project management elaborates on progressing things in technical ways to reach the particular things through the quality, cost, and constraints. The popularity of agile increases the iterative segments broken through some tackles. The agile project will have to keep the change management to support the adoption and usage necessary for accurate results achievement. And therefore, the importance of change management over agile was much needed throughout the project lifecycle.

Now, let us discuss the various ways in which change management is incorporated into agile projects.

Ways for Incorporating Change Management Into Agile

It is simple when we talk theoretically about change management, but implementing the changes in the software project is highly difficult. It is to understand that Agile assists in accepting, implementing, and managing the required changes in the project. In addition, change management is the success of the agile approach, and it has to be effectively handled to avoid issues and failures in the project. Following are the ways to incorporate change management into agile projects.

Accept the Change and Make Adjustments

Small or even minor changes in traditional software development projects are hard to implement. But in the Agile software development model, the changes help in reducing the number of errors and failures. An excellent way to implement the change is to verify it and accept it based on the various acceptance criteria. Then, based on the available iterations, the changes are planned and initiated. The base idea here is to accept the changes requested by both stakeholders and the customers. The acceptance is based on the software development feasibility that should not affect the project’s schedule and budget constraints.

Design for Customer Requirements

Change implementation helps in meeting the customer requirements in software development. Customer satisfaction is possible with proper change implementation in the projects. Every phase of the development requires better communication with the customer. The acceptance and declination of the changes are vitally discussed. Once the changes do not meet customer expectations, the performed changes are not successful. Thus, connecting and communicating with the customer is most important while implementing the changes in the software development process.

Focus on User Stories and Change Vision

The user stories are the most valued activity, and it is vital to design and develop from the iteration. The most recent and important stories are delivered to all the project developers and testers to verify any required changes. The user stories developed at the project initiation may change when the customer needs some additional requirements. Therefore, it is important to identify the changes at the development stage itself. The prioritization of the user stories will help manage the changes from the acceptance stage. It will help manage the changes and avoid delays while working on the changes. The vision for the change is important, and hence the vision should be kept in focus.

Provide Power to People Working on Change

When a change is implemented in a project, several people will be working towards it. The people working on the change must have the power to make the decisions in their tasks. Providing powers to the people will help to complete the tasks on time without any delay as they do not require to wait for the higher authorities to deal with it. They will drive the change from the beginning to avoid additional and major changes in the intermediate stages. The customer is the first point for change requirements, and hence the discussion with the customer is important. Developers need to communicate with the customers at regular time intervals to understand their needs. In addition, they are responsible for delivering the project successfully and achieving customer satisfaction. It also helps the project team’s expertise in change management and the associated principles, which will be helpful in future projects.

Update User Stories to Make Them Accurate

The acceptance criteria and descriptions of the project are kept accurate and up to to date. The user story is the feature description to discuss the functional abilities that it can do. In agile, every feature doesn’t relate to one another, and hence the user stories are separate. Any changes or modifications by the customer or the product owner are the prime cause of change management. Dissatisfaction from the customer side is highly possible if the changes are not effective as per the plan. Therefore, updating user stories and descriptions is essential at frequent time intervals. The accuracy here refers to the feedback from the customer side on the acceptance and any changes made from their side. Therefore, the need for accuracy in user stories is important.

Improve the Employee Communication

Communication is the top priority when dealing with change management in agile project management. When dealing with the changes in the project communication, it plays a vital role. The developers, testers, product owners, and the other internal stakeholders are essential to communicate themselves a regular time intervals. It helps them figure out the possibility of the changes and acceptance criteria. The possible options to incorporate the change are important while dealing with change management. Hence, communication on the change plan, design, and development are essential among the team members.

Increase the Team Collaboration

The collaboration between the developing and testing teams is significant. The team collaboration help understand how the changes are according to customer requirements. If any errors or quality issues occur due to the change implementation, the tester can immediately revert to the developing team to resolve it immediately. Change discussion or change meetings are necessary during the development or change implementation to maintain and manage the changes in the project. The tests become more effective when the teams collaborate, and hence the quality of the final product will be more. The team leaders are responsible for conducting these change meetings and discussions among the team to increase the collaboration among the teams.

Prioritize and Handle Changes Effectively

The identified, accepted, and implemented changes are made based on priority. The priority is required to deal with the right change at the right time. It is important to note the challenges arising while working on these changes. As part of the change implementation in the projects, a team will be helpful. The change team is a team focusing only on the successful completion of the changes in the project. The review of the change proposal is essential for dealing with the changes in acceptance of refusal. Therefore, the change decisions are important as they help make the right decisions to implement the change in projects. In addition, the development and testing teams need to work together to make the change management effective. Priority in the change implementation is also important as this helps in working based on the significance.

Manage the Change and Sprints

The sprints managed in the project should not disturb in the middle as this can cause serious issues leading to sprint failure, which causes delays. The changes are implemented at the initiation of the future sprints of the project. Every team member needs to know the change, and hence change requests and status are publicly visible. The discussion on the change before the sprint will help obtain feedback and suggestions on the acceptance or rejection of the change. The yes or no answers from the team members are based on change review, time, and the budget available in the project. The application release and project schedule is important during change management. The surprise changes will cause frustration and impact the product development quality.

Communicate and Manage Customer Requirements

Communication between the managers and customers is important in project development. The team members should make the better communication among themselves and other teams to make the effective collaboration. Therefore, some communication methods like team meetings, video conferencing, audio conferencing, etc., help deliver the insignificant changes form. In addition, team collaboration is possible with the increase in communication between the team members. Therefore, team members are vital in providing the changes in the project. There are different methods of communication, and the customers can prefer anyone to interact with the project managers to achieve the best results.

Hope you have got an idea about implementing the changes in project management. Now, let us study the benefits of agile change management.

Benefits of Change Management

◉ Achievement in change management provides a variety of benefits. It helps to support the effective transition from the old progress to the new one and results in effective results for the organization in adopting the change management

◉ Change management encompasses different approaches toward result production during meticulously planning and managing systems

◉ Data and resource requirements for the project are possible with change management

◉ It extends to modifying the resources through the business to support the changes

◉ Change management helps in the easier addition of changes with reduced cost

◉ It encompasses an effective strategy for mitigating the complicated issues raised during the development

◉ Helps to reduce the failure possibilities in solution achievement

◉ It enables the daily routine to run the business with effective changes

◉ Change management improves the communication between the team members and other teams in the organization. Hence, communication seems to be the key element of the organization’s development

◉ Project development helps to modify the strategies for the extensions of best results

◉ It enables access to the competitive edges for positive organizational modification and helps follow the consistency over the success points

◉ It clears the business through effective consistency and clarity of the data and sets the best framework for the best business direction

◉ Progressing data within the fixed budget is much required. The improvement in the efficiency of the teams is another advantage

Overall, change management helps the entire business and projects with many benefits and enables recent technologies to develop works. Moreover, the changes are now feasible with the frameworks with advanced features and functionalities.

Source: invensislearning.com

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What is Agile Methodology? A Comprehensive Guide on Agile Methodology

The digitized era has varied processes, tools, and techniques to enhance the quality of the output. Among all the options that we have, Agile is one of the most widely used as it allows the team to work in small increments and adapt to the stakeholder’s requirements quickly. This blog will help you to understand Agile Methodology in-depth.

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile methodology is a collection of practices used in project management and software development. It promotes continuous iteration in development and testing throughout the SDLC lifecycle.

Agile allows the team to work in smaller increments, optimize the performance, and deliver value to customers efficiently. The team responds to the changes quickly.

Agile Model vs. Waterfall Model

Agile and waterfall models help to come up with high-quality software. They are the two potential ways of delivering projects. Are you finding it difficult to choose the best one for your project? Understanding the differences between Agile and Waterfall models will help you choose the right for the successful accomplishment of a project. You can’t conclude which methodology is better. It all depends on the project you take up and the level of clarity.

Benefits of Agile Methodology

Agile methodology is suitable for organizations looking ahead to transform the way of working as a whole. Here are the benefits of offered Agile methodology:

• The delivery of any software is determined and greater attention is given to the designing phase.

• Stakeholders and the development team, work in collaboration throughout the process. They are involved at the sprint review meeting to look at the product features and functionalities and check if it meets their expectations. Their feedback can be incorporated at any phase of the development.

• After delivering the features and functionalities to the stakeholders, it enhances their satisfaction level.

Phases of Agile Methodology

Understanding the concept

It is vital to have a thorough understanding of Agile necessity at the initial phase, how it benefits the organization and clients, and how to accomplish the end goal. It is the phase wherein the vision and scope of the project is created.

The purpose of using Agile methodology is to adapt to the change and integrate it into the existing business processes. Thus, this feature should be flexible enough and the success of the project can be envisioned at this stage.

Inception

Having a versatile team is indeed the next big step for the success of a project as they are accountable from the planning till the delivery phase. The team should have the flexibility to change anything required at any phase. Initial requirements must be discussed and decided at this phase.

Iteration

The project team begins to work adhering to the project roadmap focusing on feedback and iteration requirements. Consider the feedback and design a re-plan approach for the next iterations.

Release

This phase is where quality testing, reporting, documentation (internal and external), and training are considered for the production phase.

Production

The production phase helps you to track your project status regularly, ensure it is optimized and ready to adapt to any uncertainties.

Retirement

Here comes the final phase of Agile methodology. Before ending a project, it is the team’s responsibility to review the project and meet the desired goals.

Key Agile Methodologies

Agile methodologies are of various types. Each of the methodologies refers to a set of conventions that the team should follow for their organization. Here we shall discuss a few of the prominent Agile methodologies:

Scrum

Scrum framework is one of the best Agile methodology suitable for complex projects. This is mainly used for handling iterative and incremental projects. The scrum framework is widely used by 58% of the organizations, and the remaining are combined with other methodologies. The framework involves roles like Product Owner and Scrum Master.

Kanban

Kanban framework visualizes the workflow and also limit the work-in-progress. Unlike Scrum, there is no fixed time approach in kanban methodology. There are no sprints in Kanban as the team starts their work from the beginning. This framework is useful in unpredictable circumstances wherein the deployment needs to be done immediately.

Lean Software Development

Lean comes under Agile methodology as it shares a few of the values like easy adapt to change. It mainly focuses on recognizing and eliminating the waste to speed up the entire development process, create knowledge, and quick delivery. Lean allows optimizing the resources and development time as well, thereby delivering customer requirements.

Crystal

This methodology mainly focuses on people and interactions instead of using tools and processes. This methodology’s primary focus is to improve communication among the team and implement continuous integration and user involvement.

Crystal methodology is of various forms like Crystal Clear, Crystal Red, Crystal Orange, Crystal Yellow, etc. You can choose based on project priorities and team size.

Extreme Programming

This methodology is useful for projects that need changing requirements from the customers. Another scenario where this methodology can be used is, when the product owner is not clear on the product’s functionalities.

Extreme programming supports 12 processes for software development:

1. Planning Game

2. Small Releases

3. Customer Acceptance Tests

4. Simple Design

5. Pair Programming

6. Test-Driven Development

7. Refactoring

8. Continuous Integration

9. Collective Code Ownership

10. Coding Standards

11. Metaphor

12. Sustainable Pace

Feature Driven Development

Feature Driven Development helps to create software models regularly and an appropriate design plan for every feature. This requires more documentation than any other methodologies and is suitable for the team having advanced design and planning skills.

Feature Driven Development breaks down the project into simple steps:

1. Model overview

2. Build a feature list

3. Plan by feature

4. Design by feature

5. Build by feature

Best Practices of Agile Methodology

Agile methodology has become one of the most popular methodologies that every organization should implement in place. Here is a list of few Agile best practices that one should be familiar with.

Let’s take a look at these practices:

Iterative Development

The concept of iterative development is about breaking a bigger project into easily manageable smaller chunks. This step involves continuous iterations in repetitive cycles. The teams must have a clear idea regarding the functionalities of the project.

Reducing Waste

The concept of reducing waste in Agile methodology is about removing the tasks or events that don’t have any value in the entire process. Doing so, provides an overall idea about adding value to the business process to achieve goals within time.

Continuous Improvement

Incorporating continuous improvement process in Agile methodology helps to attain desired results adhering to customer requirements with reduced waste.

Scrum Meetings

Scrum meeting is all about conducting daily meetings involving all the team members and supervised by a product owner. The session lasts about 15-20 minutes. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss previous day tasks, current-day work, and any obstacles encountered.

Sprint demo meetings

Sprint demo meeting is held to explain the functionality features to clients. Customers confirm the acceptance of features included according to their requirements and expectations.

Retrospective Meetings

A retrospective meeting is about conducting the final iterative development of the project involving all the team members (Clients may also be part of the meeting). The meeting involves various activities such as processes improvisation, tools, and quality of work.

Burndown Charts

Burndown charts are used to monitor the progress of the project and ensure that the work is on track. A graphical representation of the pending work and tasks done will be provided against time.

Source: invensislearning.com

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Self Organizing Teams in Agile: Why Is It The New Big Thing?

At your workplace, you probably are working under some manager who assigns you tasks on a regular basis, you have

Self-organizing groups are at the core of the Agile approach however constructing one has never been a simple errand. Wikipedia characterizes self-association as “The process where a structure or pattern appears in a system without a central authority or external element imposing it through planning”. More difficult than one might expect without a doubt. 

We as a whole realize that giving a group the authority of turning out to be self-composed is a ton unique in relation to the customary working technique for delegating assignments where the vast majority are utilized to. It requires some investment for progress from a customary group model to a self-organized one—and this cycle, as a rule, doesn't get refined in one meeting yet requires steady correspondence and preparation of colleagues which encourages this change cycle. Nonetheless, this hierarchical change is totally worth the underlying venture and it will pay off toward the end. The outcome will be shockingly great products made by happy employees. As you most likely are aware, everyone needs to see this.

How self-organization enhances our agility and what are its benefits?

1. Higher speed

Self-organizing teams quickly decide how to meet certain deadlines in the product development roadmap. This feature is extremely important especially for startups where the company faces loads of change requests from customers. Self-organizing teams ensure a higher development velocity that enables the company to respond to market fluctuations more rapidly and turn around a product much faster.

2. Extreme agility

It's entirely expected to see significant priority changes in Agile particularly before the start of the impending Sprint (Product Owner, as a rule, does this). Self-organized groups have a bit of leeway compared to traditional groups as they can rapidly change gears and push ahead without hanging tight for somebody's authorization. This will permit improvement groups to focus on basic undertakings that have higher-worth and a more prominent rate of profitability.

3. Increased quality/customer focus

Rather than simply doing what the manager says, self-organized groups will in general zero in on what the client truly needs or potentially needs. They pay attention to client criticism and feel amazingly dependable of building an item that coordinates these highlights and measurements. A self-arranging group focuses on building an item that will fulfill the purchaser’s/clients' needs.

4. Less need for team management

Checking worker statuses, allocating tasks, figuring cost of assets, occupying time sheets… All sounds insane old to me. On the off chance that you are determined to build Agile groups, you should feel the equivalent. A self-composed group is exclusively mindful of appointing and following its work and announcing its own personal advancement.

5. True teams vs hidden managers

You may have found out about the "hidden manager" hypothesis. This straightforward principle demonstrates that the lion's share of customarily oversaw groups can really have a doled out (not formally) colleague as a group level administrator. This individual is generally called the "go-to fellow". Contingent upon another person's assertion is totally against oneself sorted out group hypothesis as self-composed groups see each other's jobs and assignments undeniably more and depend far less on one's expertise or position in the group.

6. Increased employee satisfaction

Self-organizing team members have higher worker fulfillment. Toward the day's end, we go through a large portion of our day at the workplace and it bodes well to see more joyful representatives by decreasing the miniature administration model, for example, indiscriminately following requests or holding up director's endorsement prior to pushing ahead. Getting the entire team to contribute and pushing the task ahead are keys for bliss at work.

A few associations endeavor to make self-organizing groups and find that the group isn't considered responsible, or the management is as yet instructing everybody. It is difficult to change individuals' perspectives particularly in the event that they have been doing it for a long time. You simply need to keep calibrating your cycles and it will get simpler to find that balance over time. It likewise requires the correct organization culture and workers who are prepared to acknowledge another group model which urges colleagues to take responsibility for and measures.

In his book “Agile Project Management with Scrum”, Ken Schwaber described how it is our instinct to expect others to make decisions that we should be making ourselves:

“Being managed by someone else is totally ingrained in our life and work experience. Parents, teachers, and bosses who teach us to self-manage instead of striving to fulfill their expectations are rare. Why should we expect that when we tell a Team that it is responsible for managing itself, it will know what we are talking about? “Self-management” is just a phrase to them; it isn’t yet something real. A Team requires concrete experience with Scrum before it can truly understand how to manage itself and how to take the responsibility and authority for planning and conducting its own activities. Not only must the ScrumMaster help the Team to acquire this experience, but the Scrum Master must also do so while overcoming his or her own tendencies to manage the Team. Both the ScrumMaster and the Team have to learn anew how to approach the issue of management.”

The 3 Attributes of Self-Organizing Teams

◉ A self-organizing group is where colleagues will choose themselves who does what; the group will deal with issues and have some capacity to eliminate their own personal blockages. Obviously, there are groups who are more self-sorting out than others and groups which have more authority than others. 

◉ In a self-organizing group, there is no dynamic everyday management of the group. The group is successfully left to deal with their own personal work. To my psyche, this is a more grounded type of self-sorting out. 

◉ A self-coordinated group is a group that defines its own personal objectives, chooses its own personal targets, and decides its own personal needs.

Self-organizing teams in Scrum

Scrum is as yet the most well-known Agile system in the software development field. Consequently, it's critical to obviously comprehend Scrum jobs and how to incorporate these parts with a self-arranging group model all through the development lifecycle.

◉ In the self-organizing group model, nobody (not even the Scrum Master) advises the Development Team on how to transform Product Backlog into Increments of possibly releasable usefulness. 

◉ The Scrum Master is the servant leader and serves the Development Team in a few different ways, including Coaching the Development Team in self-association and cross-usefulness 

◉ Before the finish of the Sprint Planning, the Development Team ought to have the option to disclose to the Product Owner and Scrum Master how it means to fill in as a self-organized group to achieve the Sprint Goal (submitted client stories) and make the foreseen Increment.

Source: novelvista.com

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10 Popular Project Management Methodologies

Project management methodologies have essential roles in how you govern your project. Until a few years back we used to have one popular project management methodology, which is the traditional project management methodology or waterfall.

This methodology was useful for construction types of projects where you have a well-defined scope; however, IT projects had trouble with this project management approach because these projects had continuous changes and the waterfall method was not suited for projects with changing requirements. 

So project managers needed new methodologies to help deal with changing requirements. Consequently, Agile methodologies came, and afterward, many more new more project management approaches followed. 

In today’s post, I will introduce you to ten popular project management methodologies.

Project Management Methodologies

A project management methodology is a set of guidelines and best practices that help you to complete your project efficiently with less obstruction.

Every project is unique and you need the right methodology for your project.

The project management framework evolved from a traditional approach to Agile, resulting in significant changes in the way we carry out the project activities. 

Project management approaches affect the culture of the organization and the project team. You need to understand the culture to work seamlessly with your team. 

Here are the top ten project management methodologies used by organizations to complete their projects:

1. Waterfall

2. Scrum

3. Disciplined Agile

4. SaFE (Scaled Agile Frameworks)

5. DSDM (Dynamic Systems Dev. Method)

6. LeSS (Large Scale Scrum)

7. Scrum of Scrum (SoS)

8. XP (eXtreme Programming)

9. Kanban

10. Lean

#1. Waterfall

This is the most popular project management methodology. Here you have a well-defined scope and activities are planned in sequence. You invest a lot of effort into collecting requirements and then developing the project management plan. Once all plans are developed, baselines are created, you get them approved and follow them religiously.

Changes in the project management plan or baseline are not easy. All change requests go through a lengthy process to get approved. After the approval, you will update your plans and baselines.

Changing requirements in this project management approach are difficult and costly. All change requests go through a time-consuming change management process. 

Time and Risk Increase WIth Progress

The waterfall methodology is impracticable for a dynamic environment where requirements keep on changing. 

The scope in a waterfall is fixed, unlike Agile where changing customer needs is built into the methodology. Feedback in agile is continuous, whereas, in the waterfall method, it’s at the point of validating scope. You can miss defects during the product development, and correcting them at a later stage will be time-consuming and costly. 

But in Agile, changes are part of the framework. Customers can request changes at any time, and finding defects is easier because of frequent demos.

In waterfall, quality control activities are carried out throughout the execution phase, unlike test-driven Agile projects where you build in quality with automated testing as the project progresses.

The waterfall method is suitable for well-understood projects with stable requirements.

#2. Scrum

Scrum is one of the most popular Agile methodologies. It guides the team on iterative and incremental product development. 

While a traditional project management methodology works with fixed requirements and optimizes around time and cost, Scrum, on the other hand, fixes time (via time boxes) and cost (via prioritizing the product backlog for a potentially shippable delivery) to optimize changing customer requirements through collaboration and frequent feedback. 

Scrum is an adaptive methodology to develop the desired product.

Scrum Events

Scrum Roles 

N.B.: The sprint is a time-boxed activity to complete the work. The sprint ends with a sprint review and then a retrospective. The product backlog may change, but once the sprint is planned, any new feature is sent to the product backlog and prioritized for the next sprint. A sprint normally lasts two weeks.

During the sprint, daily standups last for 15 minutes where each member tells the team what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today, and what is getting in their way. This is where the scrum master removes impediments.

How does the scrum track progress in a sprint? 

The team uses visible information radiators such as burndown charts and task boards to track the progress.

#3. Disciplined Agile

This is an upgraded version of Agile. It combines the freedom of choice and suitability with proper guidance on narrowing choices. It is characterized by the freedom to choose your way of working (WoW). 

Disciplined Agile is context-dependent. It is about tailoring what works for you. It blends Scrum, SaFE (Scaled Agile Frameworks), Traditional (waterfall) approach, Kanban, eXtreme Programming, etc. It is an Agile optimization tool that can be used to extend agility from the team to the organizational level. 

It accelerates value delivery, which can help customers test the product in the market quickly.

The Disciplined Agile (DA) has seven principles:

1. The choice is Good: You have to choose the best-fit technique for your processes/situation. You have to understand all choices and trade-offs of selecting a particular choice. 

2. Delight Customers: The customer is the center of everything, whether internal or external. You have to make them happy. If you don’t delight them, someone else will and the customer will move elsewhere.

3. Be Awesome: Be awesome with what you do. If you are awesome, the client will love working with you.

4. Pragmatism: It implies doing what works, not what is usual. If something works best even in a traditional project approach, adopt it. Be as effective and efficient as possible.

5. Optimize Flow: Continuous flow of task/work by using Kanban. Your organization may have a complex flow system but you have to adapt to it. Ensure that communication is smooth between your team and the organization or even within different teams in your organization.

6. Context Counts: We all are unique and so is the organization’s culture. Understand the context and evolve with an effective strategy for the situation you face.

7. Enterprise Awareness: Ensure that the team is aware of their organization. It motivates them to align with the organization’s objectives and they will contribute to achieving larger goals.

DA uses six different life cycles, the life cycles are:

You can choose the best fit for your needs.

DA’s process tailoring workshops help your team understand the importance of working together. It includes selecting a lifecycle, walking through the process goals one at a time, addressing the decision points, and deciding roles and responsibilities.

DA has four phases: Inception, Construction, Transition, and Deployment. 

As shown in the table below, these phases have 21 process goals:

Each process goal links to a decision point that further branches to various ways of achieving the goal. 

For example, assume you want to ensure production readiness.

DA believes business agility comes from freedom, not frameworks. So, it combines all known frameworks such as Lean and Scrum to eXtreme Programming and provides you with choices to select and deliver the consumable solution (not working software) to the market quickly. 

Disciplined Agile helps you choose the best agile solution for your situation.

While Agile produces working software, DA produces a consumable solution. A consumable is a usable product that is ready to be deployed to the market.

In summary, Disciplined Agile deals with decisions you need to consider, the options available to you, and the trade-offs associated with these options. You make your choice.

This helps products get released to the market sooner.

Further on the example above, let’s consider the trade-offs for each option.

#4. SaFE (Scaled Agile Frameworks)

Here you take the lean and Agile approach from team level to enterprise level. It is about transition and bringing different agile teams together. To avoid challenges, large framework implementation requires a systematic approach to incorporate best practices. 

SaFE helps in organizing several agile teams. Large companies like Microsoft and Ericsson have adopted the scaled agile approach. 

Before we discuss SaFE any further, let us understand Agile methodology.

Agile methodology is flexible compared to traditional project management methodology and adapts to changing needs against a pre-planned approach. It provides customers with a minimum viable product (working software) as early as possible. 

Agile is iterative and allows changing needs and dynamic environment realities. It breaks functional silos and pulls talent from each function into teams to achieve collaboration and coordination. 

If your organization is intending to scale agile from team to enterprise-level, they must assess the fitness level of the team and its culture, including:

◉ Leaders with clear vision.

◉ Changes are welcomed and must be anticipated.

◉ Time and cost are fixed, but the scope is flexible.

◉ Stakeholders’ interest in working software components.

◉ Active customer participation.

The above conditions are typical agile requirements. Since the organization is adopting an agile approach, the team’s mindset must be agile to follow an agile framework.

Choosing an agile framework to scale depends on some factors, such as:

◉ The number of agile teams in the organization.

◉ The company strategy and the impact of agile practices.

◉ Average size and complexity of agile projects.

◉ Critical success factors for the transition.

These factors are better described in the ten principles of SaFE, which are:

SaFE pioneered the Agile Release Train (ART) concept to organize teams around a value stream. They align teams (remember, scaled agile deals with several agile teams) to a shared business objective. A value stream is a set of actions that create customer value. 

The term train is used to show interconnection. The figure below shows agile teams 1, 2, and 3 aligned on a value stream for a desired solution/feature.

T1, T2, and T3 are agile teams, while S-is the solution or the value. The value stream is the movement from design through build, test to deploy.

The value stream is common in both Agile and lean. It is a set of actions that create customer value. SaFE provides enterprise agility that enables portfolio, program, and project (execution) teams to release a product to the market rapidly.

Some roles in SaFE are:

#5. Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM)

Agile and Kanban are subsets of lean and DSDM. DSDM is a framework applicable to constraint-driven projects where constraints such as cost, time, and quality are fixed, while scope (functionality/features) can change.

Its principles comply with agile such as collaboration, continuous and clear communication, iterative development, and delivery on time. 

DSDM has eight principles:

1. Focus on the business needs. Every project decision must be in sync with high-level business value.

2. Deliver on time-timebox project tasks, focus on business priorities.

3. Collaborate and build a one-team culture for increased understanding, greater speed, and shared ownership.

4. Never compromise quality. Test early and continuously. Agree with the quality level from the outset.

5. Build incrementally from a firm foundation. This implies that a good understanding is required before building a solution.

6. Develop iteratively to embrace changes from feedback.

7. Communicate continuously and clearly. Aim for honesty and transparency in all communication.

8. Demonstrate control-make plans and projects visible to all using, for example, Gantt charts and task boards.

Roles in DSDM

DSDM facilitates workshops. This helps engage stakeholders in solving a problem or developing a plan. The business owner, team lead, etc., can request this workshop.

The workshop is moderated by a neutral individual called the facilitator. The neutrality of the facilitator is important for a better outcome or workshop.

#6. Large Scale Scrum (LeSS)

LeSS is scrum extended to different scrum teams. It is a scrum applied to large-scale development. Here you still retain the basic attributes of a scrum, such as: 

◉ Teams work on their sprints concurrently.

◉ One product owner handles the team.

◉ Teams are co-located.

◉ The teams work with one definition of done.

◉ One potentially shippable product from all the teams.

◉ One sprint for all.

◉ One product backlog for all, but each team has its own sprint backlog.

LeSS Principles

◉ Systems thinking: Everyone in the organization should focus on the whole product. They should know that there is no value in separate parts but integrated parts. It helps break silos, has a long-term team view, finds root cause solutions, and has fewer impediments. The team needs to understand the impact of their actions on the surrounding environment.

Other principles are

◉ Transparency 

◉ Customer-centric

◉ Lean thinking

◉ More with LeSS (Large Scale Scrum)

◉ Continuous improvement

◉ Queuing Theory (reducing batch sizes to shorten delivery time)

◉ Empirical process control

#7. Scrum of Scrum

This project management methodology is useful when work from several scrum teams needs to be coordinated. Representatives from each scrum meet to coordinate their work. These representatives are referred to as “Ambassadors.” 

The meeting is similar to the daily stand-up meeting where each representative reports completed work, the next assignments, and impediments. This meeting (Scrum of Scrums) aims to ensure smooth coordination of work. 

This Scrum of Scrum can further extend to the Scrum of Scrums of Scrums depending on project size; the principle for coordination is the same.  

Scrum of Scrum is also called meta-scrum. The duration of a scrum meeting is about 15 minutes. This is still retained at the Scrum of Scrum meetings.

A, B, and C are scrum teams with one ambassador attending D, a Scrum of Scrums.

Similarly, J is the Scrum of Scrums of scrum teams F, G, H, and I.

The ambassadors of Scrum of Scrums D and J meet at E, Scrum of Scrums of Scrums.

It helps to ensure that the scrum teams fit together and operate cohesively.

#8. Extreme Programming (XP)

It started in 1996 when Chrysler Corporation embarked on a payroll restructuring program, the C3 (Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation) system. Their development team adopted a way of working that metamorphosed into Extreme Programming. 

Extreme Programming (XP) has an agile mindset based on values, principles, and ways of working. XP is the foundation of excellent software development.

This is like refining, where you aim to get the purest product. Quality is at its peak. It requires repeated cycles of testing and refactoring.

The core values of Extreme Programming are Communication, Courage, Respect, Simplicity, and Feedback.

Extreme Programming has four practice areas: organizational, technical, planning and integration. These areas require primary practices, which are necessary for secondary (corollary) practices. 

In the figures below, the practice areas are depicted with their corresponding primary and corollary practices. Red, yellow, and blue (primary colors) represent the primary practices, while secondary colors (orange, green, purple) represent the corollary practice.

The primary practices must be in place before you implement secondary practices.

For example, with no pair programming, it will be difficult to have a shared code/ownership mindset. 

The workspace for Extreme Programming must have visual aids such as flip charts or task boards to communicate status and progress. 

You should maintain the workload of the team to avoid burnout. They should not work more than 40 hours per week.

Slack helps in planning to avoid delays because of unlikely events. It is a set of minor activities built into the planning to meet the deadlines.

Small projects have a higher success rate. So, XP recommends incremental delivery. Break down the huge mass into manageable increments of small but regular releases with only the required functionality. Release time is between 2-4 weeks. 

Simplicity means designs are as simple as possible. XP doesn’t venture into the complicated end. They keep it as simple as possible and work with small batches. 

No wasted motion. Only the important part is coded. Code is only used to suit the current functionality. There are no add-ons, no wasted resources. The XP only modifies to emplace newly added features. Small releases are the emphasis here. 

XP decomposes the project into small deliverables. Early small releases provide user feedback and Return On Investment (ROI).

Other practices are: 

◉ Continuous Integration: It implies that developers integrate their work daily and do not leave anything out. It is a daily commitment, thus leaving room for early error detection and correction. It helps save accumulated rework.

◉ The real Customer Involvement: This is called onsite customers. This person represents end-users who are expected to provide daily feedback on work done and the next desirable feature.

◉ Pair Programming: In pair programming, the software is built by two programmers sitting side-by-side at the same workstation. This helps code review by a different programmer, resulting in a better product. Pair programming helps knowledge sharing amongst developers as pairs switch. As partners change throughout the day, pair programming can facilitate communication within the team.

◉ Refactoring: This is a quality testing method. It is the reworking of the code for better quality. It is like cleaning the code and it should be a daily routine. You use it to clear the technical debt. You clean up the code without modifying its behavior. Thus improving maintainability. It supports a continuous approach to paying down existing technical debt, though it may slow down current work. It will increase development productivity and save future costs.

◉ Collective Code Ownership: This implies everyone who notices a defect corrects it immediately. It works along with pair programming.

#9. KANBAN

KANBAN is a Japanese term that means signboard. It is about workflow management and ensuring visualization for all. In KANBAN, you hold a card that shows the upstream worker that you are waiting for the work. This is called a pull workstream. 

A typical Kanban board is shown below. It is used to manage work.

Sometimes this board is known as an information radiator. This board shows the project status on user stories such as done, ongoing, yet to do.

In Lean manufacturing, the Kanban method is used for scheduling inventory control and replenishment. It is derived from lean principles. The KANBAN methodology is easy to implement.

The basic principles of this methodology are:

Continuous Delivery

You do not start new tasks while you have some work in progress (WIP). However, as soon as WIP completes, you should start the new tasks. There must be a continuous workflow.

In Kanban (like Lean), the aim is to eliminate the WIP and increase productivity. There is no value in WIP nor new activity but in a finished task. You set a limit for the WIP and don’t exceed it. 

This continuous and controlled flow prevents the team from being bogged down by overcommitment, which could negatively affect the progress.

Increased Efficiency

Non-value activities are eliminated to focus on business value, thus increasing efficiency.

Reduction of Waste

You can visualize the workflow; hence, waste can easily be removed. With Kanban, organizations stop starting and start finishing.

Lastly, Kanban implements a feedback loop used to improve service delivery. The feedback loop can be reviews or meetings.

One application of the KANBAN method is in manufacturing, where cars are built only on order. Resources are only committed to value. There is no waste. 

#10. Lean

Lean is a set of management practices rooted in the Toyota Production System, where they tried to eliminate non-value activities to increase operational efficiency.

The lean concept focuses on value, small batch sizes, elimination of waste, short cycles, frequent reviews, and retrospectives with small improvements.

The seven principles of Lean are:

1. Eliminate Waste: Waste is any activity that does not add value to the finished product. Seven wastes in a software project are extra features, extra processes, partially done work, motion, waiting, task switching, and defects.

2. Build Quality in: Defects should not be allowed, but when this is impossible, try to minimize them. You will do extra work to validate, fix and iterate. Agile does this using Test Driven Developments (TDD), pair programming, and modeling with others (mob modeling).

3. Create Knowledge (Amplify Learning): Team members should be encouraged to reflect and act to improve their approach regularly. Iteration allows team members to learn what exactly the stakeholder wants.

4. Defer Commitment: Keep options open, and use incremental delivery to avoid wasting effort on creating features that were not useful. Software tools for this are emergent designs, automated testing, and patterns thinking.

5. Deliver Quickly: An effective organization gives teams only what they can do so they don’t burn out due to overcommitment. They also allow the team to self-organize, and they deliver quickly.

6. Respect People: Motivate and enable a team to empower and not control them.

7. Optimize the Whole: Look at the bigger picture. Understand how the product synchronizes with the high-level organizational/business objective. The aim is to deliver valuable outcomes to stakeholders.

Source: pmstudycircle.com

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