AGILE

Agile project management approaches, based on the principles of human interaction management, are founded on a process view of human collaboration. It is most typically used in software, website, technology, creative and marketing industries. This contrasts sharply with the traditional approach. In the agile software development or flexible product development approach, the project is seen as a series of relatively small tasks conceived and executed to conclusion as the situation demands in an adaptive manner, rather than as a completely pre-planned process. Advocates of this technique claim that:

• It is the most consistent project management technique since it involves frequent testing of the project under development.
• It is the only technique in which the client will be actively involved in the project development.
• The only disadvantage with this technique is that it should be used only if the client has enough time to be actively involved in the project every now and then.

Agile development methodology provides opportunities to assess the direction of a project throughout the development lifecycle. This is achieved through regular cadences of work, known as sprints or iterations, at the end of which teams must present a potentially shippable product increment. By focusing on the repetition of abbreviated work cycles as well as the functional product they yield, agile methodology is described as 'iterative' and 'incremental.' In waterfall, development teams only have one chance to get each aspect of a project right. In an agile paradigm, every aspect of development — requirements, design, etc. is continually revisited throughout the lifecycle. When a team stops and re-evaluates the direction of a project every two weeks, there's always time to steer it in another direction.

The results of this 'inspect-and-adapt' approach to development greatly reduce both development costs and time to market. Because teams can develop software at the same time they're gathering requirements, the phenomenon known as 'analysis paralysis' is less likely to impede a team from making progress. And because a team's work cycle is limited to two weeks, it gives stakeholders recurring opportunities to calibrate releases for success in the real world. Agile development methodology helps companies build the right product. Instead of committing to market a piece of software that hasn't even been written yet, agile empowers teams to continuously replan their release to optimize its value throughout development, allowing them to be as competitive as possible in the marketplace. Development using an agile methodology preserves a product's critical market relevance and ensures a team's work doesn't wind up on a shelf, never released.

• PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)^®