by Jeffrey Ries
Focus on the main problem first: If you are like many businesses, there are probably many problems that you need to solve. But you don’t have the time and resources to do all of them at the same time. When you get started with Lean Analytics, you must figure out what the main issue is, the one that will have the biggest impact on your profits, and work with that first. Once you have successfully implemented Lean Analytics and worked on the problem, then you can go back and see if there are any other problems that need to be addressed.
Get rid of the waste: Remember that the most important thing that you will do with the Lean system is get rid of waste. And the data that you collect in the Lean Analytics stage is meant to help you to find the waste and learn how to get rid of it. Take a look at some of the most common types of waste that businesses may experience (and that we listed in an earlier chapter) to give you a good idea of where to start.
Lean Analytics can be a great way for you to get a strategy together that will help your business become more successful. If you follow these tips and some of the strategies that we talk about in this guidebook, you are sure to see some amazing results in no time.
Conclusion
Thank you for making it through to the end of Lean Analytics: The Complete Guide to Using Data to Track, Optimize and Build a Better and Faster Startup Business, let’s hope it was informative and able to provide you with all of the tools you need to achieve your goals.
The next step is to start the process of implementing Lean Analytics into your own business. Learning how to make changes so that you can be more cost effective and provide better service to your customers all starts with Lean Analytics. This stage asks you to search for the data you need and analyze it so you know what step to take next. You can’t come up with a plan for improving your business without the help of Lean Analytics to make it possible.
Finally, if you found this book useful in any way, a review on Amazon is always appreciated!
Agile Project Management
The Complete Step-By-Step Beginner’s Guide to Agile Project Management and Software Development
Introduction
Congratulations on downloading Agile Project Management and thank you for doing so.
Your project went completely off the rails despite putting forward your best efforts. Deadlines were missed, the scope was never attained, and fingers were pointed. No amount of efforts and dedication by your developers could make the situation better, and the client grew tired of asking for a refining of the product.
Answers were sought because popular phrases such as “We are never going to do this again” and “This should not have happened” went round in the conference rooms.
If you have ever gone through this, you are not alone. If you know how a Waterfall model works, then you can understand the problems that come with it. In brief, a Waterfall model is a sequential design where development assumes a downward flow like the shape of a waterfall.
Therefore, Agile Project Management provides solutions to many problems of the traditional waterfall model. The Agile methodology responds to the actual behavior of humans after every sprint. It eliminates the need to wait for years before releasing a final product to the client. Agile propels for fast release and quick response to user changes.
With Agile Project Management, one is sure of a faster development and product release. In this book, all the chapters help you learn Agile Project Management. It offers the reader with unique insights to help adopt Agile principles in the organization. It helps one change their priority from generating money for the company by satisfying the customer.
There are plenty of books on this subject on the market, so thanks again for choosing this one! Every effort was made to ensure it is full of as much useful information as possible. Please enjoy!
Chapter 1: What Do We Mean by Agile Project Management
Agile Project Management refers to a way of managing projects. In short, it is a way of handling a project to help fulfill its goals. This may include early delivery of a specific task and a continuous development of the project processes and products. Besides that, Agile Project Management focuses on creating a flexible scope and ensuring that products are tested to reflect the different needs of a customer.
Everyone understands that a project requires total attention, time, and correct planning. Without these factors, it becomes difficult for a project to be successful. All software projects have a goal and objective set. In addition, each project has defined time for completion.
Agile Project Management has different techniques that help improve the way of managing a project. Being a leader of a project, it is important to stay updated with the Agile approaches of project management. It is also useful if one can understand some history of the project management and the common issues that may be involved.
The Start of Modern Project Management
Projects have been around right from the invention of the printing press to the building of the Great Wall of China. Projects have been present whether small or big.
However, project management started in the middle of the twentieth century. It was during this time when most researchers were looking for major developments and changes in the computing industry. In order for these researchers to complete these developments, they decided to set up effective ways that can help them manage and complete projects. At the start, these mechanisms were based on a systematic procedure, so people in the field of programming and computing went on to adopt most of these processes.
One reason for this is because all computers relied mostly on hardware. The software was set to expand. In fact, during this time, software represented a tiny part of the computer. Don’t forget that part of the history of computing was comprised of computers built with thousands of physical tubes and only a few lines of code. Therefore, the manufacturing process used during this period led to the development of the Waterfall methodology.
Why go Agile?
Now that you have some basic understanding of agile, it’s better to also know how agile works, the roles of agile, and why adopt agile.
At the start, we had defined Agile Project Management as a way of managing projects by delivering value to customers and the organization. In other words, this gives project managers the ability to offer a high-priority and high-quality work in the various projects.
Agile Project Management is a dynamic approach to managing projects where it accommodates whichever type of change that comes on the way. Even late in the development phase, Agile Project Management will embrace the change. It will allow one to create the right features that have the best value. With Agile Project Management, one is sure to deal with real-time information as well as handle scope, time, and cost.
The most interesting thing about managing projects using Agile practices is that it is simple and efficient. It will help cut down on the complexity by ensuring that it reduces the time needed to put together requirements for the entire project. It will further help build the whole project and test it to discover multiple product problems.
Why do you need to bother about Agile Project Management?
Let’s say you have started to apply Agile practices, and you find it much complex, chances are that certain things aren’t going well. Maybe some components are missing. In this case, it is advised to inspect the implementation process. What everyone must know is that implementing Agile in the right way will always create success in the delivery process. In general, one must record a positive improvement both in the value delivered to customers and the product.
With Agile Project Management, time and cost are an important aspect. It continuously examines these two elements that are the keys to any software project. In addition, it delivers a rapid feedback to the team. It further helps the team to adapt and apply a QA practice. This will help deliver top-notch service and output. Project managers who have mastered Agile practices dwell on real-time delivery, proactive, and the aggregate flow. The overall goal is to have a minimum cost of
a project as well as a working product delivered on time.
Examples of Agile Project Management Software
Monday
Monday is formerly called DaPulse. It mainly focuses on social communication and sharing of internal information. Monday has prioritized top choices in Agile project management. Collaboration is achieved by a board outlining who is working on what within a specific time. Then teams can move on to comment on other teammate’s work or add required files. There is a mobile or desktop application that facilitates real-time notification. Monday is great software to use for basic and enterprise plans.
Wrike
It is SaaS project management and collaboration software. Wrike is designed based on a minimalist user interface. It has a project management feature that allows one to monitor dates, project dependencies, and manage assignments and resources. It features an interactive Gantt chart, sortable table and workload view that one can customize to store project data. The collaboration features of Wrike help in conversations, decision making, and asset creation by the team members. These comprise of Wrike’s Live co-editor, tools to attach documents, track changes, and discussion threads. Wrike has an “inbox” feature and browser notification to remind users of updates from their dashboards about pending tasks. It is available both in IOS apps and native Android.
Asana
This is web-based software designed to enhance collaboration. It mainly allows users to control projects and online tasks without using an email. Asana supports team sharing, organization, planning, and monitoring progress of each member in a simple style.
Taiga
This is an open source Agile Project Management platform designed for smaller teams of project managers, developers, and designers. It facilitates project collaboration, time tracking, and task management. Taiga features a customizable Agile functionality like Kanban boards and backlogs. This software supports Web-based deployments that are flexible with a lot of operating systems. The system can be accessed as a free self-hosted model where projects are public. There is also a paid plan where projects are private.
Planbox
This supports members with different business functions to collaborate, plan, and create Agile projects. It has a Scrum methodology that features iterations, Scrum roles, backlog, sprints, and story points. Planbox has a four-level platform that includes tasks, projects, initiatives, and items. This supports drag and drop prioritization, to-do lists, messaging, bug tracking, and reporting among other functions.
Smartsheet
This is another SaaS-based application that supports collaboration and work management. Smartsheet has an interface similar to that of a spreadsheet to track projects, manage calendars, monitor progress, and manage other works. Every row in the Smartsheet might have files attached to it, discussion board linked to it as well as emails stored. While information is updated, another Smartsheet which monitor the same task is updated automatically.
Trello
It is web-based project management software and a well-known brand out there. With a free account, anyone has an opportunity to use the majority of the functions while a premium account has complex features. Trello has a design that depends on the Kanban methodology. Projects are viewed as boards that have lists. Each list has a progressive card that supports drag-and-drop functionality.
Chapter 2: How to Implement Agile Project Management
The previous chapter defined Agile Project Management. If you remember, Agile Project Management represents an iterative approach that takes into consideration the user feedback, adapts to changes, and produces a working result.
This chapter shall look at how one can implement Agile Project Management. Project managers who want to learn how they can use Agile practices in their organization can benefit more from this chapter.
Let’s first start by looking at Agile Project Management in detail:
Agile is an iterative practice. This means that it is applied in small chunks. In each chunk, there is an improvement based on the previous feedback.
Agile is defined as an approach and mindset. It is not a collection of instruction. In fact, it’s a mistake to consider Agile as a black and white template.
Agile delivers a practical working result after every iteration process. This involves creating a rough draft and revising the draft based on the feedback from the client.
Agile Project Management involves communicating effectively over a chain of emails or meetings. It involves communicating proficiently in the right way and in a precise manner.
Agile practices provide fast development, more revenue, and more releases. So, why should you not use Agile Project Management for the organization or team? Well, when it comes to using Agile to building projects, you don’t just throw in your documentation, tools, and plans. Even though they are important, the main things that one should consider are the iteration, collaboration, and prototypes.
Most users don’t focus a lot on documentation or in the long-term plan. Instead, whatever they want, they want it delivered immediately. A majority would want a problem fixed at that time instead of waiting for one month.
These days, users have a lot of needs, and there is no better way than using Agile to satisfy these needs.
How can you tell whether Agile is the best for your team?
Agile is an amazing way to build projects, but not every project can deliver all the benefits that Agile practices provide.
Agile redefines the working process of an organization. It changes everything right from the time when a team of developers begins to work on a project to the time when the project requirements were outlined. It reduces the time it takes to build a project. Therefore, all project managers must understand if their organization can handle all the changes that Agile Project Management brings in the project cycle. To be sure, below are a few questions to consider.
Are you ready to begin a project without having a precise endpoint?
Agile Project Management involves completing small parts of a project within a short period. There is real-time testing of a product with users as well as a recording of feedbacks about the product. If a person is not used to this type of process, it can be stressful and tiresome. That is why, it is important that everyone in the team are prepared and comfortable with releasing a half-baked product to test with users before the organization finally decides if they should adopt the Agile development practices.
What are your levels of risk-taking?
A major characteristic of Agile projects involves a continuous release of a product and learning from the mistakes highlighted by the users. This could be a high-risk endeavor for those people who are not used to taking risks. The ability to take a big risk and begin an organizational change is a major decision. So, before fully adopting Agile practices, it is important to be ready to deal with any unfamiliar challenges that might come on the way.
Measure the level of flexibility of your team
When it comes to building Agile products, one has to work directly with customers to improve the product. It is not similar to how developers and designers create products based on how they think a product should be. Instead, the product is created based on the customer’s feedback.
How is the discipline in the organization hierarchy?
One of the key factors with Agile is not just working with users alone but the link between developers and the major stakeholders. There are some companies where this is not easy. In fact, some have a complicated hierarchy where it is hard to get in touch with the stakeholders. Ask yourself, what kind of hierarchy exists in your company?
What are the means you use to measure success and progress?
Agile features a continuous work to refine and make a product better. Therefore, an individual who is quick to adopt a new idea and abandon the previous one might not get the best results that Agile provides. It is important to take some time and redefine the measures of success or progress to help achieve the goals set.
Implementat
ion of Agile
Project managers have a responsibility to ensure that everybody works in the correct way. They have to make sure that a team stays put on the requirements that a client has stated. With Agile, project managers have an easy time to oversee a project. Below are seven steps in the implementation of Agile in an organization.