Training Your Team in Agile Project Management

team training

What is agile project management? What do you have to know so that you can train your team in agile scrum? Does it boost productivity?

You might be interested to know more about agile methodology if these questions have crossed your mind. Many team leaders want to know how to apply this methodology to boost that team spirit. In this article, we will try to answer your questions so you can prepare your team to do things the Agile way.

What is Agile Methodology?

The agile methodology allows for the ever-changing requirements of industries, and enables teams to achieve more with higher productivity. It is a real-time approach that helps leaders manage and track the development of the project more efficiently. With agile methodology, managers can incorporate customer feedback into the test in order to further improve the final product.

The Project Management Institute conducted market research to prove the effectiveness of agile project management. This market research revealed that agile organizations perform better than non-agile organizations. Seventy-five percent of their goals are fulfilled, while non-agile organizations can achieve only fifty-six percent of their goals, on average. Moreover, agile organizations are also more particular about their deadlines than their non-agile counterparts. Another benefit to consider has to do with low project costs. They can complete their project efficiently, without going beyond their budget. These agile teams can generate thirty percent more profits as well.

You can also expect better productivity, more efficiency, and improved profits. Despite these advantages, here’s the catch: your team has to be properly trained to do things right. Agile is an easy concept to understand, but it can be challenging to apply once the project starts.

Separate Agile from the IT Mindset

Before moving forward with your decision, you have to ensure that you are separating it from the IT mindset. Agile methodology is not all about technology. You have to prepare your team to embrace changes that boost efficiency and performance, and deliver a product that the client wants. The agile approach will help your team to become more flexible, allowing them to manage unpredictable changes.

Related Content: Understanding Agile Project Management Frameworks

Project Agile as an Opportunity to Improve and Grow

At first, your team might find the methodology a bit confusing and complicated. So, at the beginning of the training phase, address their concerns and confusion. Assure your team that Agile will benefit not only the company, but also the team itself. Describe the concept by highlighting its advantages. You can introduce the methodology as the best opportunity to boost their skills and unleash their full potential.

Most employees want to grow professionally and expand their skills. Encourage them to become more open to understanding Agile to make the processes easier and faster to adapt to.

Identify Any Barriers

Now, you need to identify the barriers that can slow down the adoption of the methodology. There are a few factors to address here. Otherwise, it might take longer to train your employees, and they might not work at their full potential to embrace the change.

There are three types of employees that can get involved with this issue. These are mavericks, crisis managers, and brilliant hermits. These employees either don’t report every day or lack social skills. More importantly, they might not show interest in adopting Agile to manage the project. If you have someone on your team that fits the description, pay more attention to better understand their concerns. Make them feel that you’re here to help them, and motivate them to embrace the methodology for your organization’s benefit.

Find Out the Hierarchical Barriers

Aside from the steps mentioned above, you also have to look for hierarchical barriers. You might need to make some adjustments to your policies as you implement Agile methodology for your projects. The key principle of Agile Scrum is to work with major stockholders and users on a daily basis. So, make sure that your organization’s policy is supporting your endeavor. If it’s not the current situation, the upper management should amend several policies that hinder your team from implementing Agile for the project.

Related Content: An Easy Guide to Agile Project Management Pros and Cons

Consider Live Training Instead of Theory

As mentioned earlier, agile methodology is all about changes. Therefore, you have to consider real-life examples to make training easy and effective for your team members. You will find different types of agile applications that include XP, Scrum, Kanban, and Crystal. Some team members might be familiar with one or a couple of these applications, but you still have to explain each of them in further detail.

So, what’s the best move for this? Use real-life experiences instead of theory. Live training can be the best for the experts as well as intermediates. You can start a project with any agile application and define the goals and scope for the achievements. Design the guidelines, develop software, and then integrate them with agile methods. Once you are fully prepared, you can test the function. If you find the method successful, you can go ahead with your project. Otherwise, you can document all the errors and lapses to fix them so you can succeed in your next attempt.

Hire a Coach

There are times when things become overwhelming for project managers. If this is the case, hire an agile coach based on the project’s timeline and budget. An agile coach can use live examples from your existing projects to help your employees understand the methodology. This makes for easier and faster implementation. You can consider either pull-based or push-based agile coaching. Pull-based coaching will engage your team to adapt to new values and principles with encouragement and consistent feedback, while push-based coaching will involve the coach’s direct training.

Wrapping Up

Implementing Agile into your project is no easy task. If you need further help and guidance, you can work with experts. Bydrec provides project management services to organizations that want to incorporate Agile into their strategy. Call us at 888-864-3124 for more information.

Topics: agile project management, project management

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