Agile Project Management vs Traditional Project Management

Organisations use project management to plan and allocate resources to fulfil a given job or project. Traditional and agile project management strategies are two of the most frequently used ways to complete tasks.

Traditional Project Management

Traditional project management is a method that is carried out in a sequential manner. The fundamental model contains the phases of initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure. The scope and project requirements must be defined before the outset of the project. Following are the advantages of Traditional Project Management:

• Clear expectations: Traditional project management includes a planning phase that facilitates calculating costs, timelines, and required resources.

• Clear responsibilities: To ensure that the team works as effectively as possible and understands what is expected of them, the project manager should eliminate overlap and redundancy.

• Documentation: Every phase, beginning with planning, needs detailed documentation. Project documentation can function as handbooks for all parties involved.

• Accountability: The project manager should ensure that everyone meets their milestones and that the project is completed on schedule.

Agile Project Management

Agile project management is a contemporary technique that emphasizes smaller groups and participatory releases over the course of a project. To be effective, agile demands team communication, outside feedback, and flexibility, as opposed to the old, inflexible paradigm. Following are the advantages of Agile Project Management:

• Flexibility: In project management Flexibility refers to the capacity to change requirements, priorities, and resources as needed. The project manager in agile project management divides work into small time frames within the overall project.

• Transparency: In an agile project, team members are made aware of their allocated duties as well as the activities of other team members.

• Collaboration: Agile teams might include individuals who would not normally be involved in project management. This can include stakeholders, representatives from various departments, and people at various levels.

Why is Agile project management chosen over traditional project management?

• Project Difficulty
  
  Traditional: Because it is linear, this method is best suited for simple or less complicated tasks. Sudden changes in the project or other complexities might hinder the entire process, forcing the team to restart from the beginning.
  
  Agile: In the event of complicated projects, this is the ideal approach to use. A complicated project may have several interrelated phases, and each stage may be reliant on several others rather than just one, as we have in a basic project.

• Flexibility
  
  Traditional: This technique is based on the assumption that once a phase is completed, it will not be revisited. As a result, it cannot respond to sudden changes in the work plan.
  
  Agile: Because this process is not linear, the adaptability factor is quite high. Complex projects are made up of numerous interrelated stages, where a change in one might impact another. 

Characteristics of Agile Project Management

• Continuous adaptation is an important Agile trait.
• Capability to listen.
• Customer involvement.
• Effective communication.
• Prompt delivery.
• A methodical approach.
• Regular testing.
• Self-motivation.

Can Agile coexist with Other Methodologies?

This is a common question among project managers, and it has sparked debate among specialists. Agile may coexist with traditional project management approaches; nevertheless, vigilance must be used. Using two separate methodologies on the same project, for example, might be counter-productive. Because Agile and many other frameworks are diametrically opposing in nature, the projects might fail. To reduce conflict, it is important to employ Agile in conjunction with other non-traditional project management approaches such as Lean.

Conclusion

In conventional software development, the client is only involved at the beginning of the process. As a result, by the time the project is completed, many errors and unneeded expenditures will have occurred. Because Agile software development allows the client to be involved at each step, changes may be made right away. This allows us to save money. As a result, Agile project management is a genuine thing. Because of its flexibility, it not only allows for more team cooperation but also for improved results.