What is agile project management?

Agile project management is an approach to project management characterized by adaptability and continuous improvement.

Project management as a discipline and framework grew out of military, construction, and manufacturing environments. In these environments, project managers were able to clearly define project deliverables or outcomes at the start of a project and plan carefully for the entirety of the project to successfully deliver those outcomes. But as project management moved into other industries, this sequential “waterfall” approach (Plan, Execute, Deliver) didn’t always work as well.

Folks working in software development and technology in the 1980s and 1990s found it especially difficult to fully plan at the beginning of a project for the frequent releases, updates, and continuous delivery that their work required. A more agile approach was needed, and agile project management was born.

While there are many different agile frameworks for managing projects, such as SCRUM and Kanban, most approaches include:

• Iterative timelines or lifecycles, planning and working in iterations

• Continuous improvement, delivering products or outcomes during a project that can be improved over time

• More frequent stakeholder or user feedback, with feedback from one iteration driving planning for the next iteration

• Collaborative, self-organizing teams built around transparency and autonomy.

Even those working on more sequential projects found agile approaches to collaboration and feedback useful, and many project managers use strategies and tools from agile even when working on more traditional, sequential projects.

Agile approaches are especially useful in mission-driven environments where diverse project teams are common, and stakeholder or user feedback is often critical to project success.

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