The work of a project manager is to initiate, plan, implement, control and close the work of a team for achievement of the specific goal and get success. We now live in a world that is moving really fast and in this rapidly moving world, the role of a project manager in businesses is very vital who help in running the business without any flaws. All small and large companies are utilizing technology and depending on various project management systems for running a project smoothly with maximum success. Although there are various project management approaches, Agile is one of the reliable and practical mechanism. It can execute several tasks in no time.
But how it is different from traditional project management?
Traditional project management approach is linear where every phase occurs in one sequence. It is based on predictable tools and experience. It follows the same life cycle. The complete project is planned upfront without any need for change based on the assumption that time and cost are variables but the requirement is fixed.
Agile project management prepares a strategy and gives importance to cost, scope as well as time. Agile project manager gives importance to teamwork, flexibility and consumer incorporation. It gives prior importance to the customer feedback on the product. One of the most important features of an agile project management system is an adaptive strategy for which it is very famous nowadays among project managers. The two widely used frameworks are Scrum and Kanban that helps in decision making and decreases consumption of time. Agile coaching is a perquisite if someone wants to become Agile manager.
Some of the other major differences between the traditional project manager and agile project manage are:
- Reliability: A traditional project manager doesn’t give any scope for alterations and is quite rigid whereas Agile project manager posses high adaptability and offers reliability for making changes in the product. They focus on how to get the perfect product than following any rigid timetables.
- Transparency: In a traditional project management system, project manager controls everything in a product journey and team members do not have any say about the project. But in contrast in the agile management system, all team members share the ownership and everyone can put their ideas. There is high transparency in every work of the project which is not there in the traditional system.
- Taking decisions: In case of any obstacles, team members are required to report to their managers in case of a traditional system that causes unnecessary delays thereby increasing cost but in Agile methodology, every team member has right to take decisions. As they are involved in the process very closely, therefore they possess vast knowledge that helps in solving problems.
- Agile coaching – A manager may not go through different trainings such as SAFe training and Spark training. There are certain certifications that were required to be an Agile manager. Traditional manager doesn’t need to go through such stuff; of course there are different sets of training involved.
Thus, we can see how Agile methodology is beneficial over traditional methodology. Moreover, we are living in a dynamic environment where there are very fewer situations where variations never occur. So, it’s better to stick to the Agile process of project management.
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