In a day and age where Agile transformation has become the norm across industry sectors, it is critical for businesses to embrace this phenomenon or get left behind in a dynamic and complex business landscape. Even though the Agile Manifesto was developed decades ago, only now are organizations seeing the benefits of Agile and Scrum Methodologies where they are being integrated with other popular approaches, including Project Management, Lean, Kanban, ITSM, DevOps, and others. Through this article, we shall gain insights into the benefits of Agile and Scrum methodology in Project Management in enterprises worldwide.
Key Benefits of Agile and Scrum in Project Management
- Complete Understanding of Agile and Scrum Principles: Even before we start using Agile and Scrum, it is crucial that we understand the underlying principles of both. Agile is all about collaboration, ARTs, continuous improvement, and flexibility. At the same time, Scrum provides the framework to carry out Agile and other project management best practices in a structured manner. According to popular job search company Zippia, organizations that adopt only waterfall method-based project management only have a 49% success rate, whereas projects with Agile and Scrum methodologies incorporated had a 64% success rate.
- Improved Collaboration: With Agile and Scrum in the picture, there is improved collaboration between team members, customers, and key stakeholders through Daily Standups, Retrospect, Sprints, Backlog Reviews, and more through these methodologies, which in turn makes it easier while changes, scope creep, and new requirements in a project environment. Moreover, according to Enterpriseappstoday.com, 86% of software developers use Agile methodology globally, and the numbers will keep on increasing and also spread across domains.
- Thorough Delineation of Roles and Responsibilities: Agile and Scrum methodologies help layout or define the proper roles and responsibilities of each individual working on a project. With everyone on the same page, the three main pillars that thoroughly implement Agile and Scrum in an organization are the Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team.
- Faster Project Completion: With Agile and Scrum, all the work happens in short iterations and in increments; this helps projects to release functionality and features at regular intervals than all at once. This type of incremental approach in project management helps the project to be completed at a quicker pace and reduces time to market, which becomes a critical component for enterprises to gain first mover advantage.
- Higher Customer Satisfaction: In older and traditional waterfall methodologies of managing projects, everything happened in silos, and there was the least involvement of the customer. And it was a surprise for the customer when there was a demo in the end. But, today, with Agile and Scrum methodologies in tandem with project management, customers are involved throughout the development process, which ensures the final product or service meet the actual needs and requirement, leading to higher customer satisfaction every time and every project.
- Increased Transparency and Flexibility: Adaptability to changing requirements is the bedrock of Agile and Scrum. The emphasis on being flexible and transparent throughout the project lifecycle helps teams to respond better to changes in the project and makes it easier for all the project stakeholders to stay on the same page and address issues at the earliest.
- Achieve Better Quality Consistently: Agile and Scrum best practices incorporated into Project Management provide greater visibility of day-to-day activities. And Sprints and Retrospects help stakeholders see where the project is heading and see if any impediments are hampering the project. Identifying and addressing issues early in the project lifecycle leads to achieving higher quality on a consistent basis.
- Efficient Usage of Resources: When was the last time anybody felt that we were utilizing our critical resources to their fullest potential or at least meeting industry norms in terms of efficiently utilizing them? With Agile and Scrum methodologies, there is higher visibility of who is doing what on a daily basis, which helps to optimize the usage of resources, improve efficiency, and reduce waste, which leads to higher cost savings for businesses across sectors.
Conclusion
In this dynamic business environment, gaining a critical advantage over your competition is what sets you apart. Agile and Scrum methodologies integrated with proven project management best practices not only improve the overall end product or services offered but also help businesses to realize newer opportunities which were out of reach in the past due to dependency on traditional waterfall approaches. And Spoclearn is a pioneer in delivering Agile and Scrum training for individuals and enterprise teams through consulting, instructor-led training, and 1-to-1 training across various governing bodies worldwide.
