Agile Project Management

Agile software development techniques arose from the Agile Manifesto, a document hammered out by seventeen project management and software development gurus in 2001. Each of these luminaries represented a different software development philosophy or methodology: Extreme Programming, Scrum, DSDM, Adaptive Software Development, Crystal, Feature Driven Development, and Pragmatic programming. They drafted the Agile Manifesto to create a simplified, unified theory of project management as it applies to software development.

Essentially, Agile project management works like a master carpenter. He cuts a tiny bit, measures, fits, checks the result, measures again, then cuts in small increments. He adapts frequently in small adaptations. If wood warps, he catches the change quickly and adjusts accordingly. He doesn't have to go back and rework large portions of a job. So he finishes sooner and the finished product is more nearly perfect. That's the basic idea behind Agile project management, only complex projects generally involve more than one carpenter.

Collaboration and communication between all parties to a project is another Agile project management principal. It's not enough for you to know what you're doing; you must also know what others are doing and how their work products will fit into your work product. So Agile project management involves a lot of meetings, both face-to-face and online. Emails and instant messages fly. Calendars and task lists and status reports are updated constantly. A lot of time is spent seeing what everyone else is doing. It's worth the time investment, at least up to a point.

Larger teams of collaborators -- more than 20 software developers, some experts say -- will spend so much time checking with each other that they won't get the job done on time. Agile methodology works best when a team consists of seasoned veterans, and least well when junior members are involved. Collaboration is much easier and more effective when everyone is in the same geographical location.

Agile project management with Scrum relies heavily on one of the methodologies from which the Agile Manifesto was derived. "Scrum" is method of managing projects like rubgy plays, which are called "scrums". Short, intensive bursts of activity -- such as software coding -- are punctuated by moments of assessment of results, re-planning, and then another scrum of frantic activity.