DEBRE MARKOS UNIVERSITY

School of Computing
Information Technologies Academic Program

IT Project Management Assignment 2

Name ID
Mewaie kassa DMU153263

Submitted to Getnet (Assi prof)

Feb 2023
Debre Markos Ethiopia

1. Discuss common project management challenges and how to overcome them.

As a project manager, you have to consistently deal with time, budget, and resource constraints to achieve
project objectives. A good project manager anticipates and proactively tackles the limitless challenges a
project throws at them. In this article, we will discuss common project management challenges and how
you can resolve them.
Team-related Challenges
Projects are built up by the teams you manage and when they can’t work together or communicate
effectively, then everything you’ve worked for will topple over or not even get off the ground.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni cleverly highlights why some teams fail to create
quality project results.
The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team (in order)
1. Absence of Trust
Teams that lack trust are afraid of making mistakes and showing vulnerabilities. This not only wastes
time but also raises other company issues such as employee turnover rates.
Signs that your team lacks trust:
1.Does not ask for help
2.Hesitant to ask for feedback
3.Makes mistakes by not asking for clarification
4.Not being active in meetings
What you can do about it:
1.Trust is an exchange. Listening to your team’s suggestions will help them feel that you trust their
judgment towards creating better projects.
2.Get to know their personality. Expressing interest in your team’s life makes sharing information feel
more natural.
3.Proactively give constructive feedback. Let them know if they’re doing a good job or put negative
feedback down lightly to discourage creating fear.
2. Fear of Conflict
Have you ever experienced “friendliness” in the office, only to discover that one worker hates another?
That’s called Artificial Harmony. When teams have a fear of conflict, they settle for these passive,
peaceful, and unproductive solutions instead of healthy debates.

Signs your team has Fear of Conflict:

1.You have quick, quiet, and unsubstantial meetings
2.Not addressing the elephant in the room
3.The workspace is filled with internal gossip and politics
What you can do about it:
1.Encourage openness. Creating an environment that allows workers to have casual conversations is a
step towards better communication.
2.Deliberately ask thought-provoking questions in meetings.
3. Lack of Commitment
Fearing conflict essentially throws commitment out of the window. There are 2 underlying issues arising
from a lack of commitment:
1.Team Indecision
2.Certainty
A good team considers everyone’s ideas, debates on them, and chooses which one is best in a unified
consensus. Of course, the opposite of that is indecision, where team members cannot accept others' ideas.
This makes the uncompromising team members feel uneasy about following the plan.
What you can do about it:
1.Always consider a team member’s suggestion. Discuss thoroughly why it would or won’t work to avoid
seeming dismissal.
2.Ask for clarification questions at the end of a meeting
3.Introduce contingency plans for when complications arise. This negates uncertainty towards
accomplishing tasks.
4. Avoidance of Accountability
Uncommitted teams will have no confidence in their work. Therefore, they usually have trouble staying
accountable for actions or tasks they’ve done. In the same way, members who lack accountability will
refuse to call out behavioral and performance problems for the sake of maintaining good relations with
colleagues.
Signs your team is avoiding accountability:
1.Discipline and performance is only maintained when in front of the team leader
2.Frequently missed deadlines
3.Team members are not motivated to generate own ideas
What you can do about it:
1.Create a structure that’s makes it convenient (and rewarding) for anyone to report project/peer issues
2.Engage in one-on-one conversations with members that indicates signs of avoiding accountability
3.Define the team’s goals with as many necessary details as possible. Having clear objectives counter
ambiguity, the opposite of accountability
5. Inattention to results
For a team, when one loses, everyone does. A member who focuses on their own interest is sabotaging
the team’s objectives. Inadvertently, a team that can be held accountable will gravitate on a collaborative
effort to reach peak performance.
Signs your team is inattentive to results:
1.Individual members are too focused on building their own career
2.There’s a noticeable imbalance in quality for each section of a project
What you can do about it:
1.Create a rewarding system that benefits the entire team
2.Have the intention to publicly declare the project’s results
Inadequate Risk Management
“Failing to plan is planning to fail” is a passage you’d often see on a motivational post and there's a good
reason why: Being ill-prepared for a project would spell disaster in a lot of ways. Common issues that
may arise would be project delays and risks of over budgeting.
What you can do about it:
Create detailed project plans and timelines. Fill the overall blueprint of your operational plan with
contingencies but at the same time, make room for some error, nobody is perfect after all. . This way,
even if business tool issues or employee day offs come up, you will still be on time with your
deliverables.
Not Enough "Skills" in The Team
It’s one thing to have a disorganized team. But when you have one that just doesn’t have enough
manpower or skills to produce the quality you want, it can be really difficult to satisfy stakeholders.
What you can do about it:
Having a graphic designer that can’t capture your envisioned style is a pain that you can’t really solve
instantly. That’s why, to solve this problem, we have to go back to the beginning… preparation. You
don’t necessarily need to form a team based on their years of experience. Instead, pick ones that have the
required expertise.
External Challenges
Unrealistic Expectations from Project Stakeholders
When clients or project owners fall into the side of being both unsupportive and having unrealistic
expectations, things can get complicated.
A client that aggressively demands quality results within a few days for a 2 week project scope is
frustrating for the whole team if the client does not provide any additional support.
What you can do about it:
1.Clarify the scope of a project at the start and have a plan to achieve it before confirming acceptance on
the project.
2.Try to include the stakeholders to be proactive in the project and have tools to document
communications.
3.Be upfront to notify stakeholders on any potential scope creep effects - immediately is best to give
stakeholders a chance to back up on requests that they may not really need if it will cost them.
Scope Creep
Scope creep happens in all projects, the trick on resolving troubles they present is really just in the
manner of managing them. The issue here is that some clients do not have a clear vision of what their
output should look like. So it’s up to your team to adjust for new tasks, requirements, and timelines.
What you can do about it:
1.Proactively discuss project changes requested by clients especially if it requires any additional time or
costs. Give them a chance to limit scope creep and cancel less important ideas.
2.Preparation work and foresight to see potential problems before they need to be rectified with cost and
time.
3.Establish a system that makes collaboration more seamless. This can be in the form of project
management tools, shared files, chat tools, or other SaaS collaboration tools.
How Frameworks Solve Project Management Challenges
A project management framework comprises the processes, tasks and tools needed to take the project
from beginning to end. It’s typically broken into three parts:
1.Project lifecycle
2.Project control cycle
3.Tools & Templates
Adopting and following a proper project management framework can greatly help a project be successful
in the same way that forcing a bad one can hinder its progress.
Scrum is a popular framework that Smartoo has adopted. It’s based on the concept of iterative and
incremental development.
scrum
Graphic credit to: Digite
Some project management challenges that Scrum can solve:
1. Team Related Challenges
A framework like Scrum has ceremonies to help a team plan their work together and stay focused on the
Sprint goal. Each role has clear accountability and Retrospectives empowers team members to better
communicate their opinions on how the team can improve for the next sprint.
2. Unrealistic Expectations from Project Stakeholders
Scrum forces our Director to be involved as the product owner role allowing a very direct communication
channel on how product requests may impact time, cost and quality.
3. Scope Creep
Similar to item 2 above, product owners and the team are fully aware that requests or stories will take
time and scrum has put that problem at the forefront. A sprint is a fixed timebox and the team decides
what stories / tasks can be achieved in each sprint. Adding new requests means another less urgent
request needs to be removed. Note however, that this does not mean that projects can be completed faster,
it’s just a way for the team to be aligned with how to handle future requests.
Resolving Project Management Challenges with Smartoo
While Smartoo is technically a project scheduling tool, it definitely does fix most of the challenges we’ve
talked about today.
A project scheduling tool is kind of like a project management tool, with just 1 main difference. A
scheduling tool like Smartoo uses graphs and time blocks to actually see the schedules of each project and
team member. Meanwhile, a project management tool is more task-focused, usually in a to-do list style.

2. What are the Advantages of Using Project Management Principles or Knowledge during
managing a certain project?
Advantages of of project management
If you’re still on the fence about whether or not you need project management, read on to discover the
benefits of project management, along with a few simple ways to bring these ideas to your team’s way of
working—no fancy degree or certification course required.
Cut project time in half with Asana
1. Clear, organized plans improve team collaboration
If you’ve ever leapt into a project without a plan, you know how messy things can get right from the start.
You might end up skipping essential steps in your project schedule, scrambling to complete a forgotten
task at the last minute, or answering the same logistical questions over and over again: “When’s this due?
What are we doing next?” Worse, the quality of your work might suffer as you rush to push your project
across the finish line.

Instead of writing the plan as you go, map out everything that needs to get done, along with task owners,
deliverables, and due dates, before starting your project. Then, visualize your project to-dos in a timeline
or categorized list to clearly outline who’s doing what by when. For example, if you’re planning an event,
you might list each individual step leading up to the main event, who’s responsible for each step, and how
far in advance you need to complete the steps. Then, schedule them on a shared project calendar. This
way, you’ll avoid rushing to order last-minute invites or having two teammates book two separate
caterers (whoops!).

By outlining a clear plan with all of your project to-dos, then adding deadlines, task owners, and other
essential details, you’ll turn what would have otherwise been a chaotic and wasteful execution process
into an efficient one. You’ll have a clear idea of the scope and timing of your work, and can spot potential
conflicts before you’ve even started. With just a bit of forethought and planning, you’ll be able to waste
less time and resources—and who doesn’t want that?

Organize everything in a shareable plan. Whether you use a simple list or calendar, or something more
visual like a timeline or Kanban boards, you’ll want to organize your plan so it’s easy for anyone to see
who’s doing what by when. Then, circulate it among your stakeholders to get everyone on the same page.

Turn repeatable projects into a template. If this is a project you’ll run over and over, create a template that
you can iterate on to save time in the planning phase next time around.

2. Defining everyone’s role eliminates confusion

Once the prep work is done, it’s on to the actual management part of project management. However,
without a clear project owner to help your team across the finish line, it’s all too easy for teammates to
drop tasks, forget details, or not know who to go to with questions.

While companies with a formal project management function will have a Project Manager to make sure
project plans are going according to, well, plan, those without one often let these responsibilities fall on
the person leading or initiating the project. For example, if you’re an editor publishing a new series of
articles, a developer orchestrating a website migration, or an account manager updating their client
reporting systems, you’re also likely the one coordinating all the moving pieces of your project.

Fortunately, you don’t have to take on a second job to manage your project effectively—a little
communication and collaboration can go a long way. By making it clear to others that you’re the point
person for your project, everyone else involved will know who to go to with questions and to look to for
updates. And by outlining everyone else’s role in the project, you’ll eliminate confusion on how you want
your teammates to be involved.
Clearly communicate your role (and everyone else’s). Whether it’s in the planning phase or at the outset
of your project, make sure everyone knows who the project lead is (you!) as well as the responsibilities of
others involved.

Check in with and answer questions for task owners. Since you’ve created a clear plan, stakeholders
already know what they’re responsible for. Now, help them stay on track by checking in on how their
work is progressing or helping them get access to anything they need to unblock work.

Regularly share status updates.Keep the momentum going by sharing updates with your team on project
progress. Not only will this keep everyone up to date and reduce status update questions, but it will
encourage and motivate your stakeholders.

3. Well-defined goals improve team effectiveness

Projects aren’t successful when teams don’t know what their project goals are. Without clear goals, teams
not only lack intrinsic motivation—they also run the risk of working towards the wrong objective or
toiling away at low-impact work.

With a project management tool, you define your project goals up front. That way, everyone working on
the project is aligned on the project goals—and can optimize for the steps they need to take to get there.
For example, if your project is to launch a new product, you might set a goal to “Drive a 20% increase in
upgrades.” This goal would in turn influence your launch decisions as you go. It would also serve as a
metric to measure success after the launch.

The individuals on your project team will benefit too. By ensuring you’ve really thought through the
problem you’re trying to solve and giving your team a “north star” to align on, you’ll keep your team
focused on tasks that will make an impact on these goals—rather than getting lost on unnecessary work.

4. Defining a communication plan keeps your team aligned and focused

The term may be project “management,” but managing a project is only one piece of the puzzle. Before
you even get started on work, you should align on a communication plan. Your team likely has an email
management tool, an instant messaging tool, and a project management tool, among others. A
communication plan establishes when each tool should be used. For example, at Asana, we use email for
external communication, Slack for quick internal messages, and Asana for all of our actionable work.
Establish communication conventions. At the most basic level, your communication plan should define
the tools and frequency of communication between your team.

Provide opportunities for feedback to be shared. Your communication plan has to work for everyone on
your team, so make sure all stakeholders are aligned. Offer opportunities for feedback and workshopping,
until the communication plan feels doable for all involved.
Clarify project stakeholders and their roles. When should stakeholders be looped in? Are there any project
approvers that should always be notified before anything goes live? Document project stakeholders and
their roles as part of your communication plan.

Align on the frequency and style of status updates.One of the most important elements of your
communication plan is how you’ll share project progress. Ideally, all of your actionable work will be
stored in your project management tool, so you can easily compile and share status updates.
5. Project Management Improves Productivity and Reduces Costs and Workload
The ultimate goal of project management and planning is efficiency. You want to do as much as possible
in as little time as possible.
Project management helps you create an optimized methodology.

Once you create processes, templates, and procedures, you’ll be able to reuse them with every project and
know exactly what you can count on.
This will automatically mitigate risks and improve your efficiency.
How to Improve Efficiency with Project Management
Create a project plan that contains: information you received from clients and other stakeholders,
resources, a work breakdown structure, and a timeline with milestones.
Break down the project into tasks and clearly define task owners, task dependencies, due dates, and
resources. Use Gantt charts to monitor individual team members’ workloads and ensure no one is biting
off more than they can chew. Keep your clients and top management in the loop, and agree on check-in
points where you’ll update them on the progress.
Create a change policy before starting the project. If the project grows in scope or clients want to make
changes, make sure you reference the policy to assess if it’s viable and if you’re risking going over budget
or being late.

6. Project Management Improves Customer Satisfaction

Let’s be real: you are the project manager. You are the one responsible for keeping everyone happy.
How to Improve Customer Satisfaction with Project Management
Understand customers’ expectations and communicate clearly. In the initiation phase, make sure clients
are clear about project objectives and their own expectations. What are they hoping to accomplish? Once
you understand their expectations, structure clear deliverables and get their approval.
Prepare the necessary documentation: Project Initiation Document / Project Business Case, Project
Charter, and Change Policy are some of the most important documents.
Monitor risks and prepare a plan for mitigating them. Assess your project clearly after creating a work
breakdown structure. Are you likely to go over budget? Do you think you’ll have to make changes to the
scope? Understand the risks instead of ignoring them.

7. Project Management Helps with Problem Resolution

Finally, there are always problems in projects. After all, there are a lot of moving parts involved.
However, when you’re using a PM methodology, you know exactly how to approach a problem.
A structured way of organizing work can even help you nip problems in the bud or notice them before
they wreak havoc on your project.
How to Resolve Problems with Project Management
Establish risk management processes.
Note every change and problem in your change/issue log.
Create communication plans for every stakeholder group, and stick to them.
Update your project and task plans with every new accepted change to understand how they’ll reflect on
the entirety of the project.
3. Discuss at least six most Widely used project management tools and techniques.
Project Management Tools & Techniques for Project Managers.
Project management tools and techniques make planning and managing projects easier and more
effective. They can be applied to any project regardless of the field or industry. When used in tandem
with project management software, they help save time and reduce costs.
We’ve compiled the best project management tools and techniques that every project manager should
know in order to control their projects and steer them to successful ends. Let’s first review project
management tools and then review the project management techniques in which they can be used.

1. Gantt Charts
Gantt charts are one of the most important project management tools due to their versatility. Gantt charts
can be used throughout the various phases of your projects to help with project planning, project
scheduling and project tracking.
Gantt charts facilitate the process of creating a project timeline. If you’re using the online Gantt chart in
ProjectManager, you simply need to add tasks and due dates to automatically create interactive project
plans. Then you can adjust your project schedules as needed and link dependent tasks by clicking and
dragging items on the timeline.

Task dependencies can be linked on ProjectManager so there aren’t bottlenecks or downtime. Project
managers can automate notifications on upcoming deadlines to keep the project on track. When the team
updates their status, task management and resource management information is instantly reflected
throughout ProjectManager, so everyone is always on the same page. Get started today for free.
ProjectManager's gantt chart is a very useful tool for project managers
ProjectManager has Gantt charts that are powerful enough to meet the needs of your projects.Learn more
2. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Projects big and small can feel overwhelming at first glance as there’s so much to do. The idea of diving
in and learning how to swim is how projects drown in time and costs. As any experienced project
manager knows, everything requires a plan before it's put into action.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a way to organize work into smaller, more manageable pieces.
According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), WBS is a “deliverable-oriented
hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the team.”

The WBS is a graphic representation of every task in the project. At the top is the final product with a line
that goes down the page to a box (or boxes) that represent the larger tasks that lead to that completed
project. Each of these boxes is then attached with lines that go under it to smaller tasks.

Work breakdown structure diagrams are a very popular project management tool, typically used in project
management techniques such as the critical path method (CPM) or the Program Evaluation Review
Technique (PERT).

3. Project Network Diagrams

Project network diagrams are graphical representations of a project. They look like a series of arrows that
connect to boxes and they show how activities interact in a project. The boxes are called nodes and they
represent an activity in the project, while the arrows show the relationship among the activities.
Network diagrams work well as a project management technique as they must have a start and finish, just
like a project. There isn’t one way to draw a network diagram, however, the most common are the
precedence diagramming method (PDM) and arrow diagramming method (ADM).

The purpose of the network diagram in terms of project management techniques is that it helps project
managers track each project element. It also makes it easier to share and communicate with others on the
project team. Network diagrams are used in various project management techniques that require a
graphical representation of task sequences.

4. Kanban Boards
Kanban boards are a visual task management tool that consists of a board and moving cards that represent
activities. Project managers and team members use them to collaborate as they work on projects. Kanban
boards let project managers visualize their workflows, assign tasks and report on their progress. Kanban
boards can be used for workflow management by a variety of teams, from marketing to agile software
development. They’re also used as part of techniques such as lean manufacturing.

Project management software takes kanban to the next level. ProjectManager has a board view that syncs
with all its other project views, allowing teams to work however they want. All updates are reflected
throughout the tool and teams love how they can manage their backlog and plan sprints. Managers get the
transparency they want to see potential blocks and reallocate resources quickly to keep production
moving ahead smoothly.

using kanban boards to make workflow more efficient

The project board helps team members visualize what they must get done today, seeing their tasks in the
wider context of the others. This limits the amount of work in progress (WIP) and balances the workflow
to avoid overburdening the team. Because the cards on the board can be prioritized, workflow is
improved. Once one task is done, the card moves to the next column and the team member starts on the
card on top of their to-do column.

5. Risk Matrix
A risk matrix is another key project management tool that any project manager should know. They’re a
simple tool that helps you to figure out the likelihood and severity of potential project risks. By having the
means to access risk this way, you can chart their impact on the project. This allows project managers to
assign a priority to the risk and determine the response if it becomes an issue in the project. For these
reasons, you should always use a risk matrix, risk log or other risk management tools when planning your
projects, regardless of the project management techniques you choose.

There are many different types of risks of which project managers must be aware. Common risks include
strategic, operational, financial, technical and external risks. Remember, not all risks are bad. Some can
be taken advantage of and positively impact the project.

6. Timesheets
Teams need to get paid and timesheets are a tool that helps accomplish that. As in any employment,
timesheets are a way to track the number of hours a person has worked over the course of a specific time,
usually a week or biweekly.

In project management, timesheets do more than just facilitate payment. They’re used as project controls
to record the amount of time that the team member has spent on their specific tasks, though they can also
track time on a project or for a particular client.

Timesheets can be used in a variety of different modes, from paper to spreadsheets and software. Online
timesheets can even update in real time. However you use a timesheet, they’re vital for payment, meeting
deadlines and keeping to your budget.

7. Project Dashboards
Just as you have a dashboard on vehicles that gauge speed, amount of fuel remaining in the tank and
mileage, project dashboards track metrics in the project. It’s one page where you can view the project’s
progress and performance at a glance.

This is a key tool for getting high-level data on the project or conducting a project management audit. It’s
a visual tool that turns hard data into easy-to-read charts and graphs, which helps make the information
more digestible.

dashboard showing project metrics in real-time

Some of the metrics that dashboards display can be cost-related, task-related or about the overall health of
the project. Dashboards can also show workload and other resource management metrics. They’re an
essential part of any project management software.
8. Project Reports
Project reports are simply documentation that detail either an overview or details of a project. There are
many different types of project reports, each serving a different purpose, but all give a project manager
data on the progress and performance of their project.

Another aspect of project reporting as a project management technique is that it’s a communication tool.
As noted, it communicates valuable project details to the project manager. But it also provides the project
manager with a means of updating the project stakeholders, all of whom have a vested interest in the
project’s success.

One of the more common project reports is the status report, which is usually weekly or monthly. There
are also progress reports and workload reports that are crucial to resource management. There are even
reports that look at risk, cost-benefit analysis and project variance.

Now that we’ve learned what these project management tools are, let’s see how they can be used as part
of the following project management techniques.

9. Agile Project Management

Agile is a way to approach projects in an iterative fashion with short durations of work. These periods are
called sprints. Agile sprints begin with planning, which is typically done using task lists and kanban
boards. A product owner requests the work and the development team decides on what work will be done
during the sprint.

The development team has the final say in terms of what work will be accomplished during the sprint,
while the product owner defines the criteria by which the work will be considered done and approved.

In this process, a scrum master is an expert on the scrum framework and determines the length of the
sprint. There are artifacts that provide information to the scrum team including backlog, burndown charts
and user stories.

10. PERT
PERT is an acronym that stands for program evaluation and review technique. It’s a project management
technique to help with time estimates. Scheduling is critical to getting a project completed on time but
also within the set budget.
So, how does PERT work? It manages probabilities by using network diagrams and simple statistical
methods. PERT breaks down tasks into detailed activities, by using the WBS discussed above, then adds
these to a PERT diagram to identify those activities that are interdependent. From that data, you create an
illustrative map of the network of activities and their interdependencies.

On the map, a node represents an event and the activities are represented by arrows drawn from one event
to another based on its order. From this, the earliest time (TE) and the latest time (TL) for each activity
are figured out, as well as the slack time for each activity.

11. Critical Path Method (CPM)

Critical Path Method (CPM) is a cornerstone of project management techniques. CPM involves the use of
network diagrams, WBS and Gantt charts. CPM consists in using these tools to create a project timeline
and identify the critical path, which is the longest sequence of activities in the project. The activities in
the critical path are known as critical tasks and have the highest priority in terms of project schedules.
Now you know what tasks are critical to the project and which have float or can be delayed without
lengthening the project timeline. With this information, you can determine the shortest time needed to
complete the project.

Not all project management tools can filter the critical path automatically. But ProjectManager’s online
Gantt chart finds the critical path with a click, saving you valuable time. Once your schedule is planned,
set the baseline on the Gantt chart view. This allows you to compare your actual progress versus the
planned effort, which helps you stay on track.

ProjectManager allows you to filter for the critical path on the Gantt chart
12. Cost-Benefit Analysis
A cost-benefit analysis looks at the investment into a project and what that return might be. This is a
valuable project management technique to help decide which projects are viable and which ones are better
off being passed.

The idea is simple: add the costs of the project and then the value from a business perspective, whether
that’s benefits or opportunities. If the benefits outweigh the costs, then the project is more likely worth
pursuing. If not, you might save yourself a loss by turning it down.
The value of such a project management technique is clear in terms of making organizational decisions. It
helps you view the project in terms of its return on investment (ROI) and your organization’s value chain.
This is a data-driven way to make a decision as opposed to betting on your gut.

13. Earned Value Management

Earned value management (EVM) is used in project management to integrate schedules, costs and scope
as a way to measure project performance. By looking at planned and actual values, EVM can help make
predictions that allow project managers to better manage projects. Project managers use tools like WBS,
Gantt charts and project dashboards as they implement EVM.

Predicting the future is never wholly accurate, but according to studies, once 20 percent into a project,
EVM does a pretty good job. It’s often used to control project costs.

Other benefits include reducing unknowns into quantifiable factors and comparing and benchmarking the
current project status with the project baseline. It also provides insights into projects and portfolios.

14. Stakeholder Mapping

Stakeholders have a vested interest in the project, but they can also influence your project. Therefore,
project managers need to know who the project stakeholders are and how they might influence the
project.

That’s where the project management technique of stakeholder mapping comes in. It’s a visual process
that lays out the project stakeholders and lets the project manager know how to deal with the stakeholders
and which ones need to know what and when.

Stakeholders can be varied. Customers or users of a product are stakeholders, but so are industries and
markets, suppliers and investors. They can be new or old customers, retailers or even the project team,
such as the project manager, developer, design or executive. In general, they can be broken up into two
categories: internal and external. Project dashboards and Gantt charts can then be used to report on
progress and keep stakeholders informed.

4. What is Agile project management? What are the five essential attributes of agile project
management? Discuss about Agile values, principles and Agile project management methods.
Agile project management (APM)
Agile project management (APM) is an iterative approach to planning and guiding project processes. It
breaks project processes down into smaller cycles called sprints, or iterations.

Agile project management enables project teams in software development to work quickly and
collaboratively on a project while being able to adapt to changing requirements in development. It also
enables development teams to react to feedback quickly, so they can make changes at each sprint and
product cycle.
Just as in Agile software development, an Agile project is completed in small sections. In Agile software
development, for instance, an iteration refers to a single development cycle. Each section or iteration is
reviewed and critiqued by the project team, which should include representatives of the project's various
stakeholders. Insights gained from the critique of an iteration are used to determine what the next step
should be in the project.

Agile project management focuses on working in small batches, visualizing processes and collaborating
with end users to gain feedback. Continuous releases are also a focus, as these normally incorporate given
feedback within each iteration.
Project portfolio management: A beginner's guide
Which also includes:
The main benefit of getting started with Agile project management is its ability to respond to issues that
arise throughout the course of the project. Making a necessary change to a project at the right time can
save resources and help to deliver a successful project on time and within budget.

What is Agile project methodology?

The Agile project methodology breaks projects into small pieces. These project pieces are completed in
sprints that generally run anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. These sessions run from the initial
design phase to testing and quality assurance (QA).

The Agile methodology enables teams to release segments as they're completed. This continuous release
schedule enables teams to demonstrate that these segments are successful and, if not, to fix flaws quickly.
The belief is that this helps reduce the chance of large-scale failures because there's continuous
improvement throughout the project lifecycle.
How APM works
Agile teams build rapid feedback, continuous adaptation and QA best practices into their iterations. They
adopt practices such as continuous deployment and continuous integration using technology that
automates steps to speed up the release and use of products.

Additionally, Agile project management calls for teams to continuously evaluate time and cost as they
move through their work. They use velocity, burndown and burnup charts to measure their work instead
of using Gantt charts and project milestones to track progress.

Agile project management doesn't require the presence or participation of a project manager. Although a
project manager is essential for success under the traditional project delivery methodologies -- such as the
Waterfall model, where the position manages the budget, personnel, project scope and other key elements
-- the project manager's role under APM is distributed among team members.

For instance, the product owner sets project goals, while team members divide up scheduling, progress
reporting and quality tasks. Certain Agile approaches add other layers of management. The Scrum
approach, for example, calls for a Scrum Master who helps set priorities and guides the project through to
completion.

Project managers can still be used in Agile project management. Many organizations still use them for
Agile projects -- particularly larger, more complex ones. These organizations generally place project
managers in more of a coordinator role, with the product owner taking responsibility for the project's
overall completion.

Given the shift in work from project managers to Agile teams, Agile project management demands that
team members know how to work within the framework. They must be able to collaborate with each
other and with users. They must be able to communicate well to keep projects on track. And they should
feel comfortable taking appropriate actions at the right times to keep pace with delivery schedules.

Agile values and principles

Agile project management is constructed out of four key values and 12 main principles. The four main
values help clarify that APM is collaborative and people-oriented, with the goal of creating functional
software that delivers value to the end user. These four values are as follows:

Individuals and interactions should be valued over processes and tools used.
Creating working software should be valued over producing comprehensive documents.
Customer collaborations should be valued over negotiating contracts.
Being able to respond to changes should be valued over following a set plan.
The 12 principles of Agile project management are as follows:

Early and continuous delivery of software is the highest priority to achieve customer satisfaction.
Teams must be able to change requirements at any point in the development process, even in late stages.
Prioritize continuous creation and deployment of working software in short succession.
Developers must work together with end users and project stakeholders throughout the project.
Team members need to be motivated to support their surrounding environment.
Convey information in development teams through face-to-face conversations, if possible.
Measure progress primarily by progress made on creating working software.
Developers must maintain a constant pace to continue a sustainable development process.
Continuous attention should be given to the quality of software to ensure good design.
Maximize the work done by focusing on simplicity in design.
Teams must be self-organizing to produce the best software.
Teams need to reflect on how to become more effective at regular intervals.
The 5 phases of APM
There are five main phases involved in the APM process:

Envision. The project and overall product are first conceptualized in this phase, and the needs of the end
customers are identified. This phase also determines who is going to work on the project and its
stakeholders.
Speculate. This phase involves creating the initial requirements for the product. Teams will work together
to brainstorm a features list of the final product, then identify milestones involving the project timeline.
Explore. The project is worked on with a focus on staying within project constraints, but teams will also
explore alternatives to fulfill project requirements. Teams work on single milestones and iterate before
moving on to the next.
Adapt. Delivered results are reviewed and teams adapt as needed. This phase focuses on changes or
corrections that occur based on customer and staff perspectives. Feedback should be constantly given so
each part of the project meets end-user requirements. The project should improve with each iteration.
Close. Delivered results are reviewed and teams adapt as needed. The final project is measured against
updated requirements. Mistakes or issues encountered within the process should be reviewed to avoid
similar issues in the future.
History of APM
The 21st century saw a rapid rise in the use of the Agile project management methodology, particularly
for software development projects and other IT initiatives.

a chart listing the five phases of APM: envision, speculate, explore, adapt, close
Similar to traditional project management, the five phases of APM show how each project management
stage is connected.
However, the concept of continuous development dates back to the mid-20th century and has taken
various forms, championed by different leaders over the decades. For example, there was James Martin's
Rapid Iterative Production Prototyping, an approach that served as the premise for the 1991 book Rapid
Application Development and the approach of the same name, RAD.

A specific Agile project management framework that has evolved in more recent years is Scrum. This
methodology features a product owner who works with a development team to create a product backlog --
a prioritized list of the features, functionalities and fixes required to deliver a successful software system.
The team then delivers the pieces in rapid increments.

Additional Agile frameworks include Lean, Kanban and Extreme Programming (XP).

Benefits of Agile project management

Advocates for Agile project management say the methodology delivers numerous benefits, including the
following:

More freedom. Project management lets designers work on models that use their strengths.
Efficient use of resources. This enables rapid deployment with minimal waste.
Greater flexibility and adaptability. Developers can better adapt to and make needed changes.
Rapid detection of problems. This enables quicker fixes and better control of projects.
Increased collaboration with users. This leads to products that better meet user needs.
Differences from other project management methods. APM doesn't require as clearly defined goals and
processes at the start of development when compared to traditional project management methods, like
Waterfall.
Drawbacks of Agile project management
Agile project management also has some potential drawbacks, including the following:

Inconsistent results. A project can go off track because there are fewer predetermined courses of action at
the start of a project.
Progress is difficult to measure. Off-track projects lead to less predictable outcomes.
Time constraints. Agile management relies on making decisions quickly, so it isn't suitable for
organizations that take a long time to analyze issues.
Communication can be challenging. Collaboration between teams or end users must continually happen
to make the best possible product.
an image that shows the reasons why Agile projects fail
Agile projects can fail due to a number of reasons, such as a lack of management support or a work
culture at odds with Agile practices.
APM vs. Waterfall
Agile project management was, and remains, a counter to the Waterfall methodology. The Waterfall
methodology features a strict sequential approach to projects, where initiatives start with gathering all
requirements before the work begins. The next steps are scoping out the resources needed, establishing
budgets and timelines, performing the actual work, testing and then delivering the project as a whole
when all the work is complete.

In response to what were recognized problems in that approach, 17 software developers in 2001 published
the Agile Manifesto outlining 12 principles of Agile software development. These principles continue to
guide Agile project management even today.

Examples of Agile project management

Teams often pick one or two of the following APM methods to implement:
Scrum. Scrum is a framework for project management that emphasizes teamwork, accountability and
iterative progress toward a well-defined goal. The framework begins with a premise of what can be seen
or known. After that, teams track progress and tweak the process as necessary. Scrum includes processes
such as daily scrums, sprints, sprint planning meetings, sprint reviews and sprint retrospectives. Scrum
roles include product owner, Scrum Master and Scrum development team. These roles support the three
pillars of Scrum: transparency, inspection and adaptation.
Extreme Programming. XP is an Agile software method that emphasizes the improvement of software
quality through frequent releases in short development cycles, introducing checkpoints for adopting new
customer requirements. XP focuses on development practices, such as expecting changes, programming
in pairs, code clarity, code review and unit testing, as well as not programming features until they're
required.
Feature-driven development. FDD is a customer-centric software development methodology known for
short iterations and frequent releases. Although it's similar to Scrum, FDD requires the project business
owner to attend initial design meetings and iteration retrospectives. The FDD process includes developing
a model, building a list of features, planning out each feature, and designing and building each feature.
Lean software development. Lean software development is a concept that emphasizes optimizing
efficiency and minimizing waste in the software development process. The process includes eliminating
waste, building quality, promoting learning, delaying commitments to experiment and optimizing the
process.
Adaptive software development. ASD is an early iterative form of Agile software development that
focuses on continuous learning throughout the project as opposed to sticking to a set plan. ASD has a
speculation or planning phase, a collaboration phase and a learning phase.
Kanban. Kanban is a visual system used to manage and keep track of work as it moves through a process.
In manufacturing, Kanban starts with the customer's order and follows production downstream. Work
items are represented on a Kanban board, enabling team members to see every piece of work at once.
References
www.google.com

Alexander S. Gillis, Technical Writer and EditorChristina TorodeMary K. Pratt