Recently, business executives have seen the importance of project management in the smooth running of their organisation. Today, project management is not just about executing a job, but also incorporating a strategic approach to solving complex business problems in little time with fewer resources. Therefore, a lot of businesses have entrusted change in organisational processes to project managers.

One cannot take a project-related decision without a project manager to evaluate and check the possible options and likely outcome of the decision. Many approaches have been employed for the management of projects in organisations of varying sizes; one of these is the Agile Project Management.

Agile Project Management has a number of frameworks in it to design projects that fit perfectly with customer demands. Agile Project Management uses an iterative approach, which focuses on delivering project outputs as quick as possible and in a progressive manner, rather than the ‘one-time bang’ approach. Often, the software and product development industries use this approach in the execution of their plans.

Using the iterative approach, Agile Project Management principles enable software developers to constantly adjust and review their software development processes. This helps to improve their performance incrementally, as they use lessons learnt from output recipients to re-present the deliverables in a subsequent iteration.

Consequently, the Agile Project Management approach allows for constant evaluation and improvement in product development processes. An organisation or team of workers who imbibe the Agile Project Management training becomes more effective in completing any job as fast as it optimises workflow.

Just as the name implies, Agile, this project management approach equips managers and the workforce to quickly alter the direction of a project and remain focused on the new course. Due to frequent changes in demand for a product in the market, software companies and many company’s product processes are frequently adjusted to meet the market demand. Hence, the need for Agile approaches for re-evaluation and adjustments to remain relevant to the market.

This is why this article is set to discuss some case studies on Agile Project Management in software development projects and production processes. We shall look into these companies’ setbacks and how Agile tremendously changed the companies’ respective narratives.

Incorporation of Agile Project Management: A case study on a Software Company

In this current dispensation, any business that does not tend towards digitalisation may be risking becoming extinct. This is no fallacy! The good news is that there is rapid digital transformation going on within the Information Technology (IT) industry. As a result, smaller companies, in particular, can access some of these knowledge cheaply.

Research has further shown that circa two-thirds of company directors seek to accelerate digital business technology in their respective organisations. However, apparently only about 20% achieve this change and enjoy the benefits of business transformation with digitalisation[1]!

A key reason for a high unsuccessful rate is the obvious lack of alignment between business managers and IT experts. Several digital transformations in software processes still focus on changes in the back-end system rather than developing the front-end services through the lenses of the business managers who will utilise the systems that have been designed.

This is the case with our selected company, which is a software agency in West Africa that focuses on digital marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) tools and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) tools. In this company, the focus, in prior times, had always been the end result of using the software.

There is a flaw in this projected view. An objective assessment could conjure an impression that the technical team is the most important functional unit within the organisation. Further, this unit can be portrayed to function in a silo.

With the rapid changes in the digital age, our case-study company has seen that it is not just about altering the backend of their software but also investing more in Agile Project Management. The adoption of the Agile philosophy has helped to knit all the workforce within the software company to work with a streamed, clear and well-defined goals.

In a published interview with Joe Soule, the chief technology officer of the giant financial services organisation, Capital One Europe, he suggested that digital transformation comes when one integrates Agile principles and allow cross-functional teamwork to solve customer challenges. Hence, the daily stand-ups Agile tool was introduced into our case study company.

What do the daily stand-ups imply? This is an Agile approach to manage the process of information dissemination and receipt by the relevant stakeholders of a particular work process. This is usually a brief meeting with the workforce to allow everyone to be in tune with the progress of the on-going project without going into too much detail at the succinct meeting.

In Agile project management, daily stand-up meetings are essential to share critical information, raise any issues openly, and allow team members to become accountable to one another. Ultimately, a stand-up meeting should not take more than 15 minutes. Any issues that require further deliberation are done with the relevant persons after the daily stand-up session is ended.

The Agile stand-up meeting should avoid swaying off the meeting agenda; this would disrupt the purpose of the meeting. Better meetings create a better product. This became our case-study company’s most valued approach to solving the IT industry’s changes and, ultimately, within the organisation.

The company was using this to communicate a salient fact – the people are more important than the technology!

A Shift from Waterfall Methodology to Agile: A Case Study of Ericsson AB

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If you are acquainted with project management, you would, no doubt, have heard or used many approaches to solving business problems. The Lean Six Sigma, Scrum, critical path and the Waterfall are just a few.

The Waterfall model is a traditional business approach used by many businesses before the advent of Agile. The model requires a linear process to project management. It is very strict and requires team members to gather all research information, budget, actual work to be performed, as well as tests to be conducted, before starting the project.

A lot of software testing companies used the Waterfall model since its inception in the early 1970s to deliver the final product in a ‘one-time bang’. A lot of problems have since been identified with this approach. These include: a lengthy project cycle prior to implementation, difficulty in getting change requests authorised, non-user friendly systems deployed etc.

At Ericsson AB, Sweden, the Waterfall model was used for several years. Ericsson AB is a leading and global company offering solutions in telecommunication and multimedia in Europe. The market in which the company operates is characterised as highly dynamic with high innovation in products and solutions[2].

The case study of Ericsson AB contributes to the illustration of the Waterfall model’s practice within large-scale industrial software development and the identification of its pros and cons. The Waterfall model used at this company follows requirements engineering, design and implementation, testing, release, and maintenance.

However, the challenge about the Waterfall model at Ericsson AB is that most times, the prediction of the outcome of projects is not accurate. Invariably, Ericsson’s toughest challenge was time.

As a result, when the entire team is under pressure to meet up with an urgent market need, they apparently end up cutting away the Waterfall model’s testing stage to meet a deadline. This invariably results in products that are either not properly processed or perhaps become defective soon after use.

Interestingly, Ericsson AB started applying the Agile Project Management philosophy for the first time in 2008. This was after they had realised that the lead time and feedback loops of their products were too long. The increased competition in the telecommunication industry required that the Ericsson products become faster and required continuous product improvement.

This led to the adoption of the Agile Project Management training for its team. The approach used by Ericsson AB was to hire external proficient Agile Project Management trainers. All members on board were trained simultaneously in the Scrum framework of the Agile Project Management processes.

The training worked to transform Ericsson AB from a waterfall linear organisation to a Scrum-like organisation with respective Product Owners and multiple Scrum teams as well as their Scrum Masters to lead each group. Basically, existing project managers were transformed into Scrum masters, coaches, or team members.

Scrum Agile Project Management Framework at Ericsson AB

The Scrum framework is one of the most common Agile Project Management approaches used by many organisations today. This methodology allows a Product Owner to work with a team to develop its products, create a product backlog, a prioritised list of the features and functionalities required to deliver a successful software system. The development team then produces the deliverables in a series of prioritised increments.

The transformation at Ericsson AB is evidenced as an iterative and incremental enabling organisation that is learning all the time by using the Scrum approach. So, a cross-functional team of highly professional individuals was set up to teach Scrum and, of course, software development practices.

Also, the office layout was changed to allow each team to have their working space. This enabled the respective team members to try out something new before a possible scale-up. The organisation later realised that the Scrum framework was the best fit for their Agile Project Management model.

One of the good ways by which the Scrum technique had been applied to transform Ericsson was with planning. In an interview conducted by InfoQ with Hendrik Esser, the manager of a special project at Ericsson, Esser spoke about how Agile helped them re-organise their plans and build what was referred to as Portfolio Management – a lightweight Agile project office.

During the interview, when asked, what practical techniques had been used to make change happen, Esser responded as follows:

“Early we understood that estimates shouldn’t be (mis-)used any more as a “commitment”, but as an expression of uncertainty and risk. And it should be owned by the team. The method we introduced was “uncertainty ranges”, instead of one “precisely wrong” estimate like “we will deliver this on the 12th of October 10:30 am”, we started saying “According to our current best knowledge we will deliver this between August and November.” We would get a re-estimate after every sprint (continuous learning) and collect these new ranges from the teams to be able to compile an overall picture, that we can discuss with our business management. My organization was in charge of collecting the ranges from the teams.”[3]

As such, Ericsson was able to transform the expectations of the respective Product Owner(s), whom the development teams were working in conjunction with.

Agile Project Management Principles

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No doubt, the Agile Project Management philosophy had greatly improved project success across several industries since its inception. There are 12 major principles applicable to Agile Project Management. These principles remain as a guide for Agile Project Management. These are:

Customer satisfaction through quick and continuous delivery

Agile Project Management ensures that customer satisfaction is a priority. Hence, it provides quick and fast delivery of products to customers.

Changes in requirement are accepted even late in the project

Agile embraces change regardless of the stage the project had reached. This flexibility provides customers with a competitive advantage.

Deliver value frequently

In Agile, products or services are delivered at a higher frequency of occurence.

Cross-functional team work

Agile Project Management allows business managers, developers and stakeholders to collaborate on projects.

Work with motivated individuals

The effectiveness of face-to-face communication

Face-to-face meetings, like in the case of stand-up meetings at our initial case study above, enables project success.

Measuring progress through working software

Maintenance of sustainable working pace

Agile allows stakeholders and the development team to maintain a constant pace through sustainable development.

Continuous delivery of excellence enhances agility

Simplicity is essential

A self-organised team produces most value

Regular reflection and adjustment boost effectiveness

These principles still matter today. However, some of these principles have been further challenged or stretched. For example, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020 helped to prove that remote work could also deliver the same results as meeting face-to-face physically.

According to a new study among professionals in 19 countries, nearly half of all organisations in these countries have been applying the Agile philosophy for three years or longer. These companies are mainly using Agile for transformation and business successes.

Interestingly, large organisations embrace the Agile philosophy among their small multidisciplinary teams to deliver results in a fast, experimental and iterative manner. Some of these companies that use Agile include Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble.

In conclusion, Agile Project Management has come to stay and the best companies now adopt its viewpoint to run their businesses effectively. If you want to experience quick transformation within your organisation, now is the best time to embrace the Agile Project Management certification.

REFERENCES

[1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/agile-is-changing-software-development-heres-how-one-company-made-the-switch/

[2] The Waterfall Model in Large-Scale Development. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:835760/FULLTEXT02.pdf

[3] Agile Transformation at Ericsson – InfoQ. https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-transformation-ericsson/