There are six main domains when it comes to learning Agile project management. They are categorized in a way that people learning about Agile methods can understand them better. They are divided based on the grouping of tools and techniques which are utilized in the Agile methodology. The six agile domain areas are listed below:
- Value-driven delivery
- Stakeholder engagement
- Boosting the performance of the team
- Adaptive planning
- Problem detection and resolution
- Continuous improvement
The article below discusses these agile domain areas in more detail.
Value-driven Delivery
All projects have one main goal in mind, which is to deliver value to their customers. All the stakeholders involved in the process who adopt Agile methods understand this objective. Minimizing risk is another factor that can increase the value by removing obstacles that can reduce the value of a completed product. There are different parts of value-driven delivery given to Agile projects. These are:
Planning value
The Product Owner creates a guideline that discusses the scope, objective, and other features of the project for the team members. Certain tools are used in this stage to prioritize customer value and other relative factors and risk-adjusted backlogs are created while making this guideline. Costs are also assessed in the planning stage.
Delivering value
Once the planning stage is over, aspects of the project that do not add value are eliminated. There are different methods such as Kanban boards that can be used here to schedule the backlogs. The Kanban method can be used within a Sprint to improve processes and eliminate reworks. More than 30% improvement was observed in the accuracy and rate of sprint completion when different methods focusing on delivering value were used.
Confirming value
Now that value has been delivered, the next step is to confirm if the customers are actually engaging with the product using prototypes, various simulations of functionalities, and more.
Tracking and reporting value
There needs to be regular tracking in place to assess the development and value of the project. Agile teams use various cumulative flow diagrams as well as burn-down graphs to communicate this to the stakeholders.
Stakeholder Engagement
There are different stakeholders involved in a project such as customers, project managers, different business representatives, the Agile team, and other external vendors. They contribute to a project and can have an impact on its workflow. Agile teams need to ensure they engage with all stakeholders in the development with a steady communication channel so that it stays on track.
Tools such as wireframes, user stories, backlogs, and user personas are used to gain a better understanding of customer requirements. Agile methods focus greatly on in-person communication to eliminate any misunderstandings and gain the most amount of information. To utilize the face-to-face interactions to their full benefit burndown charts, velocity tracking charts, and cumulative flow diagrams are used.
Another skill Agile teams need to know is active listening to understand their needs completely. Some other soft skills that help improve the project flow include:
- Negotiation skills
- Facilitation skills
- Participatory decision models
- Conflict resolution
Boosting Team Performance
The third domain of Agile is team performance. Agile is highly focused on creating self-organized and independent teams where the team members take full accountability for their tasks. This empowers team members and leads to a boost in performance. In a recent study, it was found that software development teams that used Agile practices were faster by 37% on average when it came to software delivery. Team productivity increased by 16%.
The team plays a big part in a project’s success. Each Agile team for a project needs to be made of carefully selected team members and they need to be involved with every aspect of the project. There are different stages of team development that boost team performance in Agile:
- The forming stage deals with selecting team members for Agile projects
- The storming stage includes the collaboration of team members to come up with ideas
- The norming stage is where teams make rules and create processes for the project
- The performing stage is when the team works together during the development stage
Since the entire team is involved in each stage of the project right from the beginning, team members have a better understanding of their tasks and can manage even complex ones by themselves.
Daily stand-up meetings, mentoring sessions with either the project manager or Scrum Master, iteration planning meetings, retrospective meetings, and coaching sessions can help improve team performance on a group as well as individual level.
Adaptive Planning
The waterfall method of software development involved creating extensive plans before beginning the project. Over time, teams realized that customer demands and market conditions keep changing, which means the old methods would not present satisfactory results. This Agile domain considers an adaptive approach to planning that keeps getting updated based on the project’s growth.
Teams work closely with customers to understand evolving customer requirements of the product. The adaptive planning approach also helps with timely deliveries. Tools such as Wideband Delphi and Ideal Time are used by Agile teams to help them achieve this. Other techniques such as working in iterations and release planning using velocity charts and accurate prioritization of tasks play a big role in the adaptive planning process.
Problem Detection and Resolution
The fifth Agile domain talks about detecting and resolving any problems in the project. Any problems faced by team members in the development process need to be addressed so that any extra work as a result of the problem can be avoided, saving Agile teams both time and money. Also, if the problems are ignored, they can increase in severity and become a lot more difficult to manage in later stages.
Teams need to detect problems and daily stand-up meetings give the perfect platform to identify any issues that any team member might face. Another way of identifying problems is by calculating the cycle time for each task. Limiting the WIP also helps in tracking problems and creating graphs to track any escaped defects.
Once issues are identified, they need to be resolved. Agile teams do this by integrating new code continuously to overcome issues with integrations and validating progress at regular intervals and at various levels. Some techniques used by software development tools for problem resolution include:
- Test-Driven Development (TDD)
- Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD). These methods primarily involve writing the tests before any code is written
Continuous Improvement
The last one of the agile domain areas is using new insights to improve future iterations. This way of learning increases the value added to the project and improves its functionality. Retrospective meetings held at the end of each iteration are used to receive feedback and evaluate what needs to be changed or upgraded in future iterations.
The entire Agile team is a part of the retrospective meeting and team members share their insights on the iteration with their peers. Once again, face-to-face interaction plays an important role in this process to ensure effective communication of feedback and knowledge.
Final Thoughts
Agile practices can be tailored based on the type of project and team members required to complete them, but they will only be successful if the entire team has a complete understanding of Agile methods. Once the team is properly trained in the Agile best practices, they can implement all the necessary strategies involved in their project completion process. I hope this article on agile domain areas was informative.
Some of the popular Agile Certification Courses that individuals and enterprise teams can take up are:
