Definition of Agile Project Management
Agile project management emphasizes short cycles of product development, delivering incremental updates of the product rapidly based on the changing needs of the customer. This is the opposite of waterfall project management, which values extensive planning and pre-production.
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History
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In response to the unique challenges of software development projects, computer programmers began using management techniques similar to Agile as early as the 1950s. By the 1990s, these techniques were broadly recognized as an alternative approach to project management. The "Manifesto for Agile Software Development" was then formalized as a document in 2001 (see Resources).
Tenets
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The core principles of Agile project management are productivity, adaptability and collaboration. Agile developers work closely with their customers to deliver frequent working iterations of a product, adapting readily to the customers' feedback and the changing needs of the project.
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Suitability
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While Agile is generally an effective form of project management, it requires considerable discipline and coordination because of its lack of structure. For this reason, it may not be suitable for smaller or personal projects, projects with well-defined goals, or extremely large projects that by their nature demand substantial engineering and pre-production.
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References
- Agilemanifesto.org: Manifesto for Agile Software Development
- Agilealliance.com: Iterative and Incremental Development: A Brief History
- Agilemanifesto.org: History: The Agile Manifesto
- Agilemanifesto.org: Principles behind the Agile Manifesto
- Gnc.com: The good, the bad and the ugly of agile programming
Resources
- Photo Credit the programmer and a computer image by Andrey Andreev from Fotolia.com
