Embracing Agile Process for Project Success

When we continue with any project, only one thing is constant with time. And that is change in project requirements. As we delve into our projects daily, we sometimes get overwhelmed with the details of the project itself, we hardly get time to think from a broader perspective. However, the guidelines with the best practices from agile methods do help in approaching the reality from correct perspective and to make sure that the project gets completed in time and within the allocated budget.

As we see from the backlog of a project, we see a number of tasks getting added with client request. Sometime, these are added citing usual features and other time it is usability. If we look at these superficially, we may consider these very frustrating as the project moves away from the estimated timeline and budget – worse still, sometimes from the desired goal. On the other hand, we can control this chaotic situation with a few practices like small iterations with review by client, and accepting only the requirements that pragmatically lead to the desired goal.

As the project is executed in small iterations and the progress is reviewed at the end of each iteration, the risk is the least in case of agile process. Moreover, it also demands that the project team takes up risky tasks first. Particularly, non-functional quality requirements are the major risk factors in a project. All these can be avoided, and success in projects can be significantly greater when we embrace agile process.

Read more about how agile processes have been adopted in practice at ADII.