Becoming Agile in 2022: Benefits, Tips and Challenges

Agile, Project Management

Agile in 2022: Benefits, Tips and Challenges

Agile Ways of Working in 2022. Leveraging Agile Project Management

Are you ready for Agile in 2022? Agile is the most popular management philosophy of our time, but what does it mean to be Agile? Agile methodology and Agile Ways of Working are thinking about work that values early and continuous delivery over documentation. With disciplined Agile delivery, you’ll find yourself with more resources and less waste. It’s no secret that building an agile business can be challenging – there are many benefits to reap from becoming agile and some challenges along the way. If you’re looking for your organisation to become more agile in 2022, then this blog post is just for you!

To be successful in becoming Agile, you must have a clear understanding of the difference between Agile methodology and Agile Ways of Working and what benefits it can bring your organisation. Agile Ways of Working is a set of principles that help organisations harness change and be more flexible and responsive to change. The agile methodology aims to deliver the most valuable features of the product or solution to the customer early and often while responding to change throughout the development process. Agile is not just about working faster or more effectively; it’s also about letting people be creative problem solvers in their area of expertise so they can work together with customers to deliver quality results.

Contents

Are Agile Ways of Working the same as Agile Project Management?

Agile ways of working and agile project management are two different things. Agile ways of working is a philosophy that can apply to any process in any organisation. In contrast, agile project management is a methodology for managing projects using agile techniques. However, the two concepts are often confused with one another.

Similarities

Agile ways of working and agile project management have common characteristics: collaboration principles, self-organising teams, openness, and feedback.

Both agile ways of working and agile project management rely on transparency and timely communication. It allows team members to know what’s expected of each other, and to feel comfortable approaching their agile project manager with any questions or concerns.

Agile and agile project management work because constant feedback allows for fast changes as situations change. It ensures that projects use agile management practices to stay flexible enough to adapt to changes.

Differences

Agile ways of working are all about being flexible and adaptive, while agile project management methods are specifically about using agile techniques to manage projects. Organisations can use it in conjunction with agile project management or other methodologies.

Agile ways of working is a philosophy that encourages people to be flexible and adaptive in their work. It’s all about being able to change and adapt as needed to achieve the best results. Agile project management is flexible and adaptive to respond to changes and challenges during the project.

What are the principles of Agile Ways of Working?

The Agile Ways of Working principles leverage the Agile Manifesto, Lean Start-up principles, and Scrum. Many industries, including healthcare and software development companies, marketing agencies, IT consulting firms, big technological corporations, use them. The most crucial aspect of the Agile Ways of Working is that Agile is not a process; it’s an approach. Agile ways of working don’t prescribe how to work and can work in any business project or situation.

Agile approaches have helped team members deliver better customer value by focusing on incremental learning that allows for constant adaptation to changing needs. An Agile team can respond quickly to changes in customer demand. They can ship working products or solutions faster than traditional project management methods to help deliver a customer’s competitive advantage.

Agile Ways of Working aims to provide the best value against business priorities within the allowed amount of time and budget by applying Agile principles.

Agile Ways of Working

If you’re looking to adopt an agile way of working in your organisation, there are a few key things to keep in mind:

Empowerment of human interactions with the organisation

Agile Ways of Working is all about people, not tools or processes. While agile principles and Agile project methods are essential, the most critical part of agile is the people. The agile manifesto puts individuals first because they are the most crucial part of a successful project. Agile is not a process; it’s an approach. Therefore, the tools and techniques you use should be flexible enough to allow for change.

Rapid, continuous delivery of value is essential when working agile.

It is about delivering value quickly and efficiently to your customer through a repeatable process, at a constant pace that includes feedback loops to minimise risks, maximise learning, build transparency. Ultimately, it’s about being agile in all aspects of the business, from an agile team making decisions locally while being connected globally to leadership teams providing clear vision, goals and direction while encouraging autonomy.

Being agile requires trust.

It is about empowering your people to make the right decisions at the right time with minimal supervision or control by management. It’s also about having a culture of openness where everyone feels responsible for their work and that of others to achieve the team goal.

An iterative approach based on feedback and frequent feedback loops

To deliver the best value against business priorities, agile ways of working require a rapid, continuous delivery of value using an iterative approach that thrives in a culture of openness. It’s about the courage to try new things, even in the face of failure and learn from it quickly so you can get better at what you do next time around!

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

A good working relationship with your customers (internal or external to your organisation) helps you get feedback and make changes quickly. Agile Ways of Working puts customers first by emphasising customer collaboration over contract negotiation. To provide the best value to your customers, you must work closely with transparency and open communication between the customer and development teams throughout the project/product life cycle.

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Agile teams value face-to-face communication and interactions over written documents. In addition, popular Agile methodologies such as Scrum and a Kanban task board help facilitate collaboration focused on the project scope and deliverables. in contrast, traditional project management tends to be documentation led. As a result, it is often outdated when it is time to be used.

Working products and solutions over comprehensive documentation

Agile teams value working software, products and solutions more than detailed specifications that can get outdated. Instead, agile teams focus on delivering features in shorter development cycles using an iterative approach, which allows them to get feedback from customers more quickly.

Responding to change over following a plan

Agile teams are constantly adapting to changing requirements, which contrasts the traditional project management methods of sticking to a pre-determined plan. Agile allows for quick and flexible responses to change. In contrast, traditional project management methods and delivery approaches often lead to wasted time and resources as teams adapt existing plans that do not fit the new business requirement or situation.

Having an agile mindset

Having an agile mindset allows you to be flexible and agile in your work, which is essential to success in the ever-changing world of business. This mindset means that you can take on new changes to the scope of projects without getting stuck in old ways of thinking. An agile mindset works with an agile approach to business which focuses on delivering products iteratively with shorter development cycles.

Agility is not a destination; it’s a journey.

It requires constant pace indefinitely and continuous development in all aspects of the business. No one agile way of working fits all organisations, so you must experiment and evolve your approach to be successful constantly.

How to become agile? Where does one begin?

When it comes to becoming agile, every organisation is different. It all depends on the existing Agile management maturity of your organisation. Here is some help to help you get started if you are embarking on this journey for the first time and on your way to creating a successful agile business:

Start by identifying the areas of your business that need the most improvement.

Agile is all about continuous improvement, so you’ll want to focus on the areas of your business that are causing the most problems.

Identify and prioritise your stakeholders.

Agile requires close collaboration with stakeholders to be successful, so you’ll need to identify who they are and make sure you’re communicating with them regularly.

Make sure you’re agile across the whole business, not just IT.

Agile requires cross-functional teams to be successful, so everyone in your organisation must be working together towards the same goals.

Get buy-in from senior management.

Agile is a change in the way your business operates, and as such, will require support from the top down. Senior management needs to be on board with agile and understand why it’s essential for the organisation.

Start small and grow gradually.

Agile is all about experimentation, so don’t try to do too much too soon. Instead, start with a small team and gradually expand as you become more comfortable with agile methods.

Hire the right people

Agile ways of working require hiring great people to empower this work ethic. The core value of Agile is human over the process. So it would help if you focused on the essential things to attract the right person. Find the right team with the skills and talents for solving problems, not merely obeying instructions if necessary, and you’re almost halfway there.

Agile teams should have a certain amount of autonomy, and managers must not micromanage. Instead, you should trust people and respect their intelligence, experience, and knowledge, including how much control and guidance to make them feel like part of something bigger than themselves. It’s not about getting the cheapest resource; it’s about getting the best people and empowering them.

Hiring for agile is different from hiring for waterfall project management approaches. With agile, you’re looking for someone who can think on their feet, work within a team, be self-directed and not afraid of change. To find these qualities in your next agile hire, you need to ensure that the interviewer asks the right questions.

Ask agile interview questions such as: How do you prefer working with your team? What is one thing about agile development that caught your attention? Why did you choose agile instead of waterfall project management when looking for a new job? If we were to start doing agile today and didn’t have a significant agile transformation in the works, what would be your strategy?

Regardless of whether you’re looking for an agile software developer, scrum master or agile project manager to work with agile, keep these qualities in mind when interviewing and don’t just stick to traditional waterfall project management questions.

Agile Training & Certification

Agile Training and Certification is a must for agile transformation and creating an agile environment. However, hiring agile professionals is not enough; you need to work on your agile mindset and culture within existing teams in your organisation. Here are three reasons why Agile Transformation goes beyond hiring new agile professional resources.

First, agile is not just about working in agile ways. It’s also a mindset learned through continuous learning and experience. It requires changes at all levels — from business leadership to individual contributors. Ideally, an excellent agile training program should consist of experiential exercises and theoretical knowledge, so employees understand what they are doing at all times and learn.

Secondly, the ability for agile teams to function well and be agile is mainly dependent on the power of individuals within that team. Agile Training & Certification ensures that your agile employees have a common understanding, making them more productive, efficient, and consistent in their work practices. Once team members have completed agile training and certification courses, they will better understand agile principles and their benefits. In addition, they will be able to train others in their teams, thus accelerating agile transformation.

Lastly, agile training is not just about learning concepts or processes but also about transformation at an individual level that enables the employees to work in agile ways and adapt as their agile environment changes.

Hiring agile pros may get your journey started, but continued training of existing employees is critical for sustainable development.

Benefits of implementing an Agile Project Management Methodology

There are many benefits of an Agile Project Management Methodology for organisations. Here are some key business benefits:

Flexibility

Agile Project Management Methods allows for faster adaptation to changes in the market or customer needs and is iterative and incremental, allowing for minor changes that can be quickly tested and evaluated.

Efficiency

Agile Project Management Methods helps ensure that projects are completed as quickly and efficiently as possible by focusing on early delivery of value to the customer, short cycles, and regular feedback loops.

Innovation

Agile Project Management Methodologies promote a culture of innovation by encouraging collaboration and creativity by emphasising teamwork and the use of short cycles and regular feedback loops.

Increased awareness and embeds repeatability

Agile project management is not a one-time event but a methodology that an entire organisation adopts to increase awareness and promote the repeatability of Agile project management best practices.

Greater customer satisfaction and happier teams

Agile projects focus on the customer and encourage collaborations and communication between stakeholders to ensure an effective solution for their specific problem, leading to happier, more productive teams and a better product or service for the customer.

Faster response to change

Agile Project Management Methodologies allows for faster adaptation to changes in the market or customer needs due to its iterative and incremental nature, allowing for minor, quickly tested and evaluated changes. Agile projects are practical because they allow changes early when cost-effectiveness is most significant. They also ensure clear communication between the team and stakeholders.

In summary, an organisation that uses Agile methods has projects, products, and solutions completed more quickly and with fewer problems.

How do I implement Agile Project Management?

One can implement Agile project management in several ways, but the most common approach is Scrum. Scrum is a formal framework for Agile projects. Organisations use it to manage a scrum team. This methodology focuses on the product development life cycle, where requirements are prioritised, broken into manageable pieces and built upon iteratively until complete. The framework has rules for daily meetings, including a review of progress against goals so that issues can be quickly identified & fixed before they become more significant problems.

In addition to Scrum, some organisations use the Kanban Methodology based on Lean-Production Theory from Toyota and use a visual task board to represent the work-in-progress for scrum teams. As a result, work progresses through different states before completion.

However, there are pitfalls and challenges in implementing Agile methodologies too. To learn more, click here.

AgilePM® Certification

AgilePM® is a formal global benchmark certification from APMG (Association of Project Managers Group) that will ensure that a structured, consistent, repeatable Agile methodology is embedded within the organisation to deliver agile projects successfully.

It uses a proven agile project management approach developed by the Agile Business Consortium. This approach shows you how to deliver agile projects in organisations requiring standards, rigour and visibility around Agile Project Management while at the same time enabling the fast pace, change and empowerment expected in an agile environment.

The APMG AgilePM® certification is a globally recognised way to prove Agile knowledge, so hiring someone who has the AgilePM® Certification ensures you know they will have no issues leading such a project. They won’t need to be a lot of handholding.

For more information, please visit our website.

 

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