The 9 Key Benefits of Using the Agile Methodology

Agile methodology is arguably one of the best and popular approaches to project management used by teams, project managers, business owners, and software developers. The agile approach is suitable for handling complex projects because of its evolutionary and flexible nature.

In 2001, the Agile manifesto was released which birthed today’s agile methodology. Originally, the agile methodology was designed for software development.

This team-based project management approach focuses on customer satisfaction and completing the project within the set project constraints.

Why is Agile so popular among project managers irrespective of the industry, or why is it combined with other frameworks? The answers lie in the many benefits that agile methodology brings to those who use it. Your job as a project manager becomes easier as it offers you greater control and flexibility over your projects.

In this article, you will learn about 9 of the key benefits of using the agile methodology.

Let’s get started.

1. Superior Product Quality

Testing is a vital process under the project execution phase when using the agile methodology. This process ensures the best quality for the final product.

During the execution or development phase, the client will be actively involved. The client can also ask questions based on realities in the market.

This process is repetitive, enabling the project team to keep learning new processes while executing the project. Self-organization helps the team to grow and improve even while working on tasks. For the agile method, the projects are attended to incrementally because it makes them manageable.

Also, attending to projects in small stages makes it easier to reflect changes in the project management life cycle. If you use some other approach, it might be difficult to detect issues during project implementation. Another approach to project management may not give your team any chance to make corrections until the project is completed.

Agile methodology helps your team quickly find problems and generate solutions for a smooth flow of the project management life cycle.

2. Higher Customer Satisfaction

The agile methodology ensures maximum customer satisfaction because customers and clients are always involved in every decision-making. Involving customers in decision-making reminds them of their importance thereby retaining customers and improving your customer lifetime value (CLV).

In other methods, customers are only called in the planning phase, and their contributions do not affect project execution. However, customers' contributions during executions affect the flexibility of the project results. Keeping customers aware of every step taken with project status reports helps you deliver the best value to the target audience.

When you make changes according to their feedback, your final product will surely be up-to-scale with their requirements. Giving customers privileges like these assures them of your ability to get other projects.

For the agile method, customers can see and monitor the progress of projects. Customers can also engage in development and advise where necessary.

3. Better Quality Control

The iterative, transparent, and integrative processes advocated by agile methodology make project managers take full control of a project. Taking full control ensures better quality because you can utilize information from feedback and integrations. The best quality is ensured during the execution phase of a project management life cycle.

Stakeholders are also involved in the process with the help of advanced reporting tools and extensions. The iterative process of agile methodology makes it easy for the team to identify problems quickly and find efficient solutions to them. Flexibility also allows project teams to respond to customers and improve the product.

4. Improved Project Predictability

Higher visibility during a project execution makes it easier to predict risks when they show up. Predicting risks will in turn give you the chance to craft mitigation plans on how to analyze different risks and avoid the bad ones. The agile methodology presents even greater ways to identify risks, protect, and manage risks.

One benefit of identifying risks beforehand is that it enables the smooth operation of the project. A project operation can go south when the team faces unprepared risks during any phase of the project management life cycle.

The agile method suggests brief meetings between sprints of projects. Sprint meetings are used to reflect on the progress of a project. The team can also make certain predictions from whatever they notice after the conclusion of a sprint. They can also use the meetings to give insights on a project and prepare for the next phases of the project.

Another related benefit of using the agile methodology is that it helps you successfully manage multiple projects.

5. Increased Flexibility

A project team using the agile methodology has flexibility as an advantage. Teams can work in bits and make use of constant feedback and reactions to improve the product to fit into customers' tastes. For some other methods, the application of changes between processes might be costly and time-wasting.

The agile method divides large-scale projects into short milestones so that management and control can be easier. Short sprints allow the team to reflect changes at the slightest opportunity. Its top-notch flexibility is one of the major reasons why large organizations choose to use the agile methodology.

Also, teams tend to be more productive when they put their 100% focus on the task at hand rather than the full scope. Putting your mind on the most important tasks makes it easy for you to identify errors at the slightest opportunity.

6. Continuous Improvement

Self-reflection as a virtue to enable improvement is one of the core values in the agile manifesto. The iterative operations allow the team to work on a sprint better than the previous one. So whatever mistakes are made in a sprint will not be repeated in the next. The methodology welcomes new ideas from people.

Collaboration and exchange of ideas among team members allow them to share experiences and grow together.

7. More Execution, Less Administrative Work

Compared to other project management methodologies such as Waterfall, agile methodology affords you more time executing the project and less time engaging with administrative work.

One of the major differences between agile and waterfall methodologies is in how they divide the available work time between planning and administrative work, and project execution. With agile methodology, you may have 10% of work time available for planning and admin work, and 90% of work time available for project execution.

On the other hand, the waterfall methodology spends more time on planning and admin work and less on execution. You may have 40% of work time available for planning and admin work, and 60% of work time available for project execution.

8. Improved Team Morale

Teams that use agile methodology are often self-organized and it increases autonomy over various decisions. Collaboration is a fundamental characteristic in agile teams. The team members are protected from the interference of sponsors and clients.

Self-management enables members to learn new project management skills on their own and improve on their current roles. The agile method brings teams together to discuss ideas and address business challenges together. It also makes team interactions as flexible as possible depending on the size of the team.

9. Higher ROI From Project Management Or Product Development

One of the major reasons business investors put their money into a project is to get a good ROI (Return On Investment). There are cases where a customer will invest in a business and not get an ROI after several years because of the operational style of the business.

The agile method encourages a higher return on investment from projects at the final phase. Its iterative nature makes your product stand out as the best among its competitors in the market. Other related benefits are reduction of costs during execution or implementation and increment in customer satisfaction and product quality.Using agile software tools like scrum tools for agile project management and agile project management software makes it easy for you to implement the agile methodology for your projects.

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