One of the outcomes we hope to achieve in this course is to analyze and evaluate agile project

One of the outcomes we hope to achieve in this course is to analyze and evaluate agile project management in a continuously changing environment. Students in this class will also examine the phases of project management: conception, initiation, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing.  In this first module, you will engage in class discussion with your fellow students to help you achieve these learning goals. Please use the prompt below to create a discussion thread.

Discussion Prompt: What benefit of agile do you agree with the most and why?

Directions:

• Discussion #1 content from the following reading assignment: Chapter 1 and 16 (P 262) in Cobb’s The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile
• Grading Criteria: 20 Points
• First, you will share your initial discussion post earlier in the module to save enough time for class discussion. Your response should be a thorough analysis by relating or comparing key concepts and drawing a conclusion or state point of view with supportive evidence/examples. Your response should be about 100 words and include at least three references, meeting APA guidelines (Links to an external site.)
• Second, you will read your peers’ posts and respond to at least two of their posts.
• Third, your instructor will respond to your post as a peer. There would be no additional feedback for grading comments except for missing any posts.

PART 2: Respond to  Peers’ Discussion posts

Discussion 1: Higher Quality with Agile

The benefit of agile that I agree with the most is Higher Quality. According to our text, in agile “the team, as a whole, jointly owns responsibility for building quality into the design of the products that they produce—it’s not someone else’s responsibility” (Cobb, 2015). The project team has control over the product process rather than being directed by a project manager (Carr, 2019). Since the project team is dictating how the product will be created and how to divide the tasks up, the quality would ideally be better because the team would play to everyone’s individual strengths and divide the tasks accordingly. In agile, the developmental process is broken up into iterations called sprints (Cobb, 2015). In every sprint, testing and reviews are done to ensure that the next iteration does not repeat the previous one’s errors. Hence, ensuring the quality of the work is improved each time (Wilson, 2022).

Additionally, in comparison of quality between traditional quality management and agile development, there are many differences, and I find agile development to be much more innovative and fluid, aligning more with customer’s demands nowadays. The main points being the ability to adapt to customer’s ever changing demands, being focused on constant improvement of delivered products, and the sustainability of product and its development (Carr, 2019).

References:

Carr, P. (2019, December 16). Agile Quality Management. Project Leadership. Retrieved August 25, 2022, from https://projectleadershipwaterloo.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/agile-quality-management/

Cobb, C. G. (2015). The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and practices for an adaptive approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Wilson, F. (2022, June 8). Agile benefits: How using agile methodology can result in reduced risks and improved software performance? nTask. Retrieved August 25, 2022, from https://www.ntaskmanager.com/blog/agile-benefits/

Discussion 2: Adaptability and flexibility

The benefits of agile I agree the most with are flexibility and adaptability which in turn focuses on value based project management approach. Compared to agile approaches, plan driven processes are not as flexible and adaptable to new environments and situations; therefore, causing any change to be “considered as an exception to the norm and must be controlled in order to manage the scope, costs, and schedule of the project” (Cobb, 2015). This really hinders any process in producing quality products. This inflexibility does not involve or leave room for consumer participation in changing and inputting to the development process. Flexibility and adaptability creates satisfied customers because they are ensured that their consistent feedback and opinions can effectively create the products that they need. The team will adapt to new insight from them throughout the process and “these tailor-made deliverables will likely improve the overall user experience and boost customer retention” (Wrike, 2022). Adaptability will ensure responsiveness to change and plans can be reassessed to new goals constantly, which is a great quality to have in my opinion.

Cobb, C.G. (2015). The Project Manager’s Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and practices for an adaptive approach. John Wiley & Sons

The benefits & Advantages of Agile: Wrike agile guide. Wrike. (n.d.). Retrieved September 2, 2022, from https://www.wrike.com/agile-guide/benefits-of-agile/

 (Links to an external site.)

Paterska, P. (2021). 10 most important benefits of agile methodology. El Passion. Retrieved September 2, 2022, from https://www.elpassion.com/blog/10-benefits-of-agile