Project Management Quality Methodologies

Agile Project management is one of the industries dominating methodology for project management in IT. It is an incremental and iterative way to manage the build and design activities for constructing an IT product, services, and project development in manner which is highly interactive and flexible. In this methodology, scope is defined in granularity that is appropriate with time horizon and checked with the agreement on each feature with the customer. In this methodology work steps are divided with feature breakdown structures. In order to track the progress of the project progress charts are used instead of Gantt charts. Cross-functional and test-driven development teams starts working from the very beginning of the project to provide

methodology and how they can be implemented interactively. Agile is a much more adaptive method than

Several adaptations to the traditional approaches like agile, interactive, phased, extreme, etc have been made but each will be expected to meet the requirements of the project objectives, timeline, resources, and deliveries of the stakeholders. Other industry standard certifications like ISO9000 and regulations like the Sarbanes-Oxley have also influenced methodologies and processes used by several organisations (Kerzner, 2003). Generally, managing projects should involved five major process which include the project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and then project closing. See Fig. 2 below.

There has been a lot said in the last few years about Agile project management methodologies, and I have found that the general feeling is that Agile although not perfect tends to provide better results in software development projects than waterfall and other methodologies. People tend to be very opinionated about it, and in my experience there three dominant positions about Agile: you either love it, hate it or you don’t care, in other words, you do not believe in methodologies at all, you think they are all a waste of time and effort.

In this paper, we are going to analyze the most widely known method of project management; agile project management. Agile has gained an enormous amount of popularity in the world of software development over the last few years due to benefits like increased business value and faster ROI, improved visibility and lower development costs, greater ability to respond to requested changes and decreased risk in solution delivery. The Agile Method ensures that value is optimized throughout the development process. The use of iterative planning and feedback results in teams that can continuously align a delivered product that reflects the desired needs of a client. It easily adapts to changing requirements throughout the process by measuring and evaluating the status of a project. The measuring and evaluating allows accurate and early visibility into the progress of each project.

1, Discuss Software Development Methodologies in general - what is a Methodology, why are methodologies used?

Agile methodology. According to McRoberts (2016), companies are employing new scalable systems and technologies that allow them to connect seamlessly connectivity across people, processes and technology, as well as improving employee safety and energy savings, to replace legacy systems which lack the connectivity and intelligence for business efficiency

Many people think that, Agile and Plan-Driven are the quiet opposite methodologies used in software development process.

Scrum, Kanban, XP are some of the methodologies used to develop the software form the Agile..

These are some reason that traditional processes replace agile processes mainly in small and simple projects. This is happening because of traditional methods’ limitations and deficiencies, which includes a slow adaptation to business requirements changes, and a tendency to go over budget and as well as behind schedule. The traditional methods also lack in providing improvements in simplicity, productivity and reliability phenomena’s. Despite of these limitations, traditional methods are widely used by many software developers in projects. Traditional methods are capable to provide high assurance, predictability, and stability and their nature is structural, straightforward, and methodological. Agile processes mainly focus on incremental as well as iterative development. Also, frequent deliveries after each sprints and customer collaboration are key element of Agile. Agile process has many advantage such as short lifecycle, low bug-rate, high customer satisfaction, and fast adaptation to changing requirements.

Emerging evidence seems to indicate the debate over which project management methodology is optimal continues. Agile approaches which include Iterative and Adaptive models (i.e. Scrum) are at one end of the spectrum. Traditional approaches which includes Linear and Incremental models (i.e. Waterfall) at the other end. With a growing demand to deliver quality products in rapidly changing global market, project managers are required to be creative in their selected approach. Which methodology should be used? Moreover, organizations may mandate a certain approach over another more suitable approach. Is one approach more effective than the other?

Agile methodology is an alternative approach to traditional management, especially in software development. This method assists in responding to the unpredictability of developing software. It uses incremental, iterative work sequences that are generally known as sprints. This methodology is used to minimize risk by developing software in short time boxes. Figure (5) illustrating Agile methodology below.

Agile methodology is a set of tools and principles which shape up a certain approach to software development. It relies upon flexibility, iterative development, interaction between stakeholders, and adaptability to the changing environment and customer’s needs. Agile methodology was put forward in 2001 in Agile Manifesto when a group of the leading software developers gathered up to build up a common understanding of new approaches suitable for the modern times. Then, in 2001, four main Agile methodology principles were voiced which laid the foundation to the whole Agile methodology. Agile patrons agreed upon the following:

Because many organizations are switching to agile methods over traditional methods such as the systems development lifecycle, one must understand the various facets of the agile methodology. It is necessary to know why agile makes teams more productive, what form of agile is most commonly used, and the different roles of team members in an agile system. In order to fully comprehend agile systems, it is vital to understand why traditional methods have been replaced.

Project quality management ensures that the quality of the project is up to the quantified standard defined by the company.