Could taking an Agile approach to project management be the future?

Ongoing technological evolutions have made the working world complex and unpredictable, meaning many traditional project management approaches may now be too rigid for some of the challenges facing organisations.

As the pace of change across the business world continues to accelerate, Agile is proving itself as an effective approach for successfully navigating these challenges and offering a solution for the future. Embracing flexibility, collaboration, and iterative development, Agile allows professionals and organisations to meet increasingly complex customer demands and tight timelines to provide high quality products.

What is Agile project management?

Agile project management is a flexible and iterative approach to managing projects. It emphasises collaboration, customer-centricity and adaptability, focusing on delivering value incrementally through small, frequent iterations and fostering continuous feedback and improvement.

How does Agile differ from waterfall project management?

Waterfall project management

The waterfall method is a traditional approach to project management that follows a linear sequence of actions, where the completion of one project stage marks the start of the next. Timelines, budgets, and objectives are set out from the beginning, as a result customer interaction is limited aside from pre-agreed check-ins and deliverable points.

Agile project management

Agile approaches are more fluid in nature, breaking projects down into iterations encouraging client feedback and adjustments to be made throughout.

What are the benefits of Agile project management?

Agile project management provides many benefits for individuals and organisations helping them to develop skills and improve project success rates.

• Improves adaptability: Agile teaches individuals and teams to be more adaptable and responsive to change, enabling them to better cope with unexpected situations and shifting priorities
• Career progression: Agile is widely adopted across industries, making it a valuable and in-demand skill which could help an individual to secure a new position or promotion
• Effective time-management: Agile emphasises timeboxing activities and managing work within specified timeframes, encouraging project managers to become more effective at managing time and meeting deadlines
• Faster project turnaround: The incremental approach encouraged by Agile can allow for a project to be delivered to market quicker
• Better work culture: Agile encourages creativity and continuous improvement building a culture of creativity and healthy discussion within an organisation
• Alignment with business objectives: Encouraging the project team to focus on delivering the most valuable features first, Agile ensures the project remains aligned with organisational objectives

Develop your Agile abilities with support from ILX

We offer a wide range of Agile training, including AgilePM®, Scrum Master, AgileBA®, and more. Our courses will teach you how to use different techniques and methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, and will help you scale Agile within your business.

If you’d like to learn more about Agile project management, the skills you will develop and the benefits it could have for your organisation, register for our webinar on Tuesday 5 December from 11am to 12pm (GMT): ‘How do Agile approaches help you respond effectively in an unpredictable and rapidly evolving world?’