Does your Agile team have good project management skills? If “yes” is not the answer you were going for, fear not. All software development teams face issues and challenges, especially when it comes to project management. Since this is such a common issue, ventures in the sector from all over the world use project management systems and tools to help them approach each development stage with more success and stay within the budget.
Still, teams that follow Agile methodologies can use other smart tips and tricks to overcome some of the most common project management challenges, apart from using dedicated tools. This will help them keep everybody happy, from employees to stakeholders, customers, and executives.
Keep reading below to find out more on the topic.
Challenge: Reluctance to change
Many business ventures struggle to adopt and implement Agile frameworks. In many company cultures, this framework seems to be contrasting and may face organizational resistance. While the implementation can be challenging in situations like this, there is a smart and easy solution.
Solution: A change of company culture at upper-management and executive levels. An open-minded executive will become a valuable evolution driver, in this case.
Challenge: Not having a distributed team
Many think that having a co-located Agile team will help them deliver better results and lower operational costs. While this is partially true, it has been proven that distributed teams can work better, in some cases. Yes, co-located teams tend to communicate better because there aren’t language barriers. In some cases, language barriers make teams inefficient and might hinder important projects. But distributed Agile teams are more time-efficient: the follow-the-sun-model allows them to get their products on the market faster. Having people who work in different time zones can prove a valuable resource. Besides, distributed teams offer access to better-trained and talented employees.
Solution: Go for distributed teams, for the best results.
Challenge: Modifying teams
Every time managers change the membership of their agile teams, they disrupt their workflow and dynamics. Generally, Agile teams need time to readjust to such changes, which diminishes their efficiency. And this is a valid standpoint in different teams from different industries, too. For instance, writing companies all over the world avoid changing team membership when not absolutely necessary. Each team member will need time to adapt to the new tasks and it will take time to re-establish balance within Agile teams.
Solution: Agile team managers can avoid this issue by understanding each member’s abilities and skills before issuing changes. When managed poorly, such changes can throw off the rails an entire project.
Challenge: Not having daily meetings
To save time and resources, many Agile team managers forget about the importance of daily meetings. But this will keep team members from reaching their project goals and stay within the deadlines and budget established at the beginning of the project.
Solution: Daily, Agile teams should start off by having a brief, 15-minute meeting and get over tasks that have been completed and tasks and bugs that need immediate attention. This will help them identify project areas and tasks that have higher urgency levels and tackle them more efficiently.
Challenge: Your team doesn’t handle urgent on-demand bugs and tasks
Most teams forget how important separating work in different Backlogs is. Sprint has to be separated in the product backlog, bug backlog, and others. This will help your team allocate the necessary time to fix all the bugs and solve any project issues there may appear.
Solution: As a team manager, make sure you calculate the work necessary for each sprint in hours. This will offer you and your team a better image on how long each task and bug will take to complete. Also, team managers should make sure to plan for the unexpected.
Challenge: You don’t incorporate testing in the Sprint
Many testers fail to understand their role in the Sprint testing phase. This usually happens because Agile developers complete the assigned tasks on the last day of their sprint. In this case, testers have to identify bugs and issues within a brief period. In some cases, this is almost impossible to achieve.
Solution: incorporate testing in all phases of the Sprint. This will ensure closer collaboration between your development teams and your testers.
Wrapping up
Agile methodologies are a goldmine for small enterprises, but especially for start-ups. These methodologies increase innovation capabilities, but only if they overcome the challenges presented above.
