Agile Project Management Framework - Coursework Example

Project management tool) (Name of the student) (Name of the institution) Date of submission Part 1: Framework The achievements of much software are being hindered by the nature of software architecture. Some of the various qualities attribute which include security, maintainability and performance can only be enhanced through the improvement of the software architect (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). There are several methods which have been developed by scholars to support software architecture analysis. It should be noted that these architecture have several commonalities among them. Some of the commonalities include artifacts, activities and stakeholders involved in the project. Since among all the methods, there is no clear cut on which of them is the best, it is very important to have objective approach in choosing the method. In order to address this issue, a more comprehensive approach needs to be taken, in comparing agile project and PRINCE2. We are going to use the two project management framework, that is; Agile project management Prince2 project management Agile project management framework Agile development refers to a group of methods that challenges the traditional linear based approach to the development of software’s (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). Though it is a software’s development approach, the method can be incorporates into the lifecycle of information technology project management (Ambler 2012).  Scrum is one of the lightweight’s process frameworks to be used in this discussion. This framework is commonly applied in conjunction with agile methods. It can be used as a lightweight framework to help in the execution phase of the project(Turk, France & Rumpe, 2014). It usually works well on projects that include application of software development. One of the merits of using this framework is that its works quicker and adapts quickly to changing designs. It works in modules which are called sprint where team members have specific time period to work on the suggested functionality with a more solidified set of requests. In this framework, sprints are normally supplemented by the daily and weekly status meeting (Ambler, 2012).  Prince2 Framework Prince2 can be defined as project in controlled environment second version. This framework embraces a process driven project management approach and it is a defector of the UK government which is also used in the private sector and internationally. This framework consists of several components (Has & Bode 2015). The framework uses a process model that includes starting up a project directing a project, project initiation, project boundaries management stage, controlling stage, product delivery management and closing of the project. Prince2 is structured but a very flexible process based project management approach that helps in improving the effectiveness of the project management(Has & Bode 2015). The prince2 structure is made up of 4 main elements which are further divided into seven principles, seven processes which are tailored to suit the specific need of the project. Part 2 Agile software Agile project management program can be defined as technical and organizational aspect of Agile. It consists of composite agile method and strategy (Ambler 2012).  Agile project management involves managing lifecycle, daily stand ups and visibility in projects. It is undisputed that the field of project management is growing very fast; it is the skills of controlling and organizing different parts of the project (Da Silva et al. 2011). Projects may include making new product, expansion of business or even a wedding plan. Agile is a development is a method of building software by empowering and trusting people with acknowledging change as normal and promoting constant feedback in the process (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). The software values include; Individuals and interactions Working software Customer collaboration Responding to change The agile software aimed at satisfying customer through continuous delivery of valuable software’s (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). Ensure that organization welcome changing requirements even in the project development as agile processes change harness for customer competitive advantage. The software helps in delivering working software’s after a given intervals with relatively shorter time scale. It ensures that project managers and software’s developers work together until the project completion stage (Da Silva et al. 2011). The agile planning have five level of planning and includes vision, road map, release, iteration and daily. Agile development methodologies include extreme programming, crystal, lean software development, scrum and feature driven development (FDD) (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). Kent Beck in the year 1999 invented XP programming; this agile method of project management was named XP simply because it applied certain old development principles and practices to the extreme. It placed all the project management practices less than one umbrella; it is the first and widely known agile approaches for project management (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). The four main variables in agile project management include time, quality, cost of using it and the scope. The customer has freedom to choose three of the above variables while the fourth one will be decided by the team of expert (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). The agile project management also consists of four main values which include; communication, feedback, simplicity and courage which form the basis of the XP agile project management process. Assume simplicity, rapid feedback, incremental change embracing change and quality work is some of the main principle behind XP agile project management(Da Silva et al. 2011). This simply indicates that using an incremental development with small user stories, continuous testing, involving the customer and communication process optimization and code quality by using pair programming and other practices (Da Silva et al. 2011). One important factor with XP agile is the scaling aspect which should not consist of more than twenty individuals. It should be noted that some of the main barriers to success of XP agile is long feedback cycles and teams which are dispersed all over(Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). The software mostly relies on the on-site customer who is often busy. Moreover, the system should be less complex as when it is complicated, it is difficult to remember everything and the planning perspective cannot be adequate to manage (Williams 2012). Scrum is agile software used in project management method. It uses several distinct roles, meetings and product software’s development in an agile manner. It contains different concepts and uses different roles in project management process(Da Silva et al. 2011). Product backlog is the main foundation of project and it is maintained and filled by the product owner. In most cases, the product owner has a chance to filters the desires from the company, describes and prioritizes the characteristics on the product backlog (Williams 2012). With the help of scrum software, the project team will be in a position to identify the team which supports the product production, produce small working increments at a given interval. These specific intervals are called sprint. After the end of every sprint, the increment is being reviewed by the support team, and new characteristics are to be selected for the next sprint. During the process of project lifetime, project team uses different tools like burn down charts and sprint backlog (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). Scrum agile software’s can be easily introduced in the company without disturbing the traditional organization environment, that is to say, it can be introduced without necessarily interfering with the initial software in the company(Turk, France & Rumpe, 2014). The company can be in a position to test effectiveness of the project through the use of scrum agile software and further be able to make clear judgment concerning further implementation of the scrum software in the company (Williams 2012). Large scale project in the company can be easily scaled up in the company using scrum software hence very beneficial to the management. When priority is low, it is not easy though, to use scrum software in one project in the company, this therefore leaves project managers with no options but to turn to old methods(Williams 2012). Another obstacle for using scrum is the role of the owner, since the company should be in a position to provide a product owner fulltime that has knowledge, power and authority to sticks to the project while there are other people needing him as well (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). As with almost all agile methodologies, scrum demands quality and skilled team members while they sometimes may not be available for the projects. This particularly makes it hard for the implementation of this software’s in the company. Moreover, it can be especially difficult to prioritized the different characteristic since every stakeholders perceives the priority of their high characteristics (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). It squarely lies on the project owner to work around the clock to clear these obstacles. While XP lean towards agile development approach, scrum is more agile software project management approach having distinct project management tools and providing clear roles and concepts. Robert Charette trying to improve on the XP and scrum agile programs, developed lean software. It main aim was to start with the top management in an organization. According to Robert, lean software aimed at creating change tolerant software with one third human effort, one third the development hours, one-third the time, one-third the investment in tools and methods, and one-third the effort to adapt to a new market environment (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). There are four critical success factors in lean agile software. However, the software has very limited scientific documentation. According to M & T, lean software aimed at removing waste in the organization (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). According to Lean thinking, waste is everything that is not able to create value for customer(Williams 2012). These wastes include; Inventory Extra processing Overproduction Transportation Waiting Motion and defect They should be eliminated or reduced to ensure smooth running of the organization. These seven wastes under which Lean agile software have been developed has been translated to seven waste of software development which include; Partially done work Extra processes Extra characteristics Task switching Waiting motion and Defects In order to remove these wastes, 22 thinking tool have been developed to assist software development leaders in their work of becoming more agile in their organization and in managing their projects (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). While the origin of XP and scrum mostly lies on the software development, the origin of lean software development lies in the production process. And as mentioned earlier, XP is more an agile development method while scrum is more agile software project management method and lean software development is an agile mindset like lean thinking was for production environment. Some other agile software of project management methods includes adaptive software development which is more feature driven development and dynamic system methods (Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). The methods vary in their approaches, origins and levels of agility. Conclusion For the past few years, the lack of proper guidance for project management of agile development projects has been a serious gap which requires urgent actions(Turk, France & Rumpe 2014). The different between the agile software world of development and the traditional project management which has left project managers confused asking their roles in the process of project management (Hussain, Slany & Holzinger 2012). By the look, the agile development team as a complex adaptive system and the manager as an integral part of the agile system which helps in developing a framework for managers. The agile process is iterative process and include; Envision Speculate Explore Adapt Close Repeat 3 –5 as necessary Some of challenges in applying agile project management include Requirements of small development teams Responsible for both the operational support and development Many smaller project being handled Less role definition in the project Some of the benefits of agile project software management include It is able to tackle big problems in smaller pieces It is more transparent compared with Prince 2 More adaptable It is capable of producing more tangible results more quickly and more frequent Part3: Prince2: Introduction PRINCE stands for project IN Controlled Environments and can be described as a structured method for an effective project management for all types of project. However, the industry has specific influence over the type of methodology to be used. PRINCE 2 is of different versions and each is used as per customer taste and preference (Tomanek & Juricek 2015). Prince2 was originally based on PROMPT software, one of the project management methods which were created in 1975 by Simpact system ltd. Its actual development was in 1989 by central computer and telecommunication agency (Dodd & Wang 2012). One of the forces behind formation of Prince2 was to establish a standard for IT projects in the United Kingdom (UK). Prince2 id the first standards that were developed with the project related to IT in mind. The UK governments are the main authors of the development of this software. However, this software can be also used in non-IT project management process (Tomanek & Juricek 2015). Concepts in Prince2 Prince2 is structured but a very flexible process based project management approach that helps in improving the effectiveness of the project management (Dodd & Wang 2012). The prince2 structure is made up of 4 main elements which are further divided into seven principles, seven processes which are tailored to suit the specific need of the project (Has & Bode 2015). The seven processes are further divided into forty activities. In order to achieve full control in prince 2, the following steps are essential; Project is divided into manageable controllable stages Milestones made are managed in the project Defining organization structure of the project into teams Normally product based planning used in the prince tends to give it a focus on the product of the project (Has & Bode 2015). It further emphasizes change control and quality control techniques. The seven principles include; Continued business justification Learning from experience Role definition and responsibilities Stage management Exception management Product focus Software tailored to suit the project environment These seven principles make a project in prince2 to be more compliance as the principles are scaled down to help in efficient product management. The seven themes include; Business case analysis Organization management Quality checks on the project Project plans Project risk management Project change techniques Project progress management Themes are normally addressed continually in the project and they can overlap and work in parallel only to ensure project success (Has & Bode 2015). The seven processes in Prince 2 include; Starting a project Project initiation Project direction Project controlling stage Managing project stage boundaries Managing product delivery Closing a project The seven themes and principles in prince 2 do interact in managing the seven project processes The activities on the other hand are part of the seven processes and help in defining what needs to be done in the project and by whom (Has & Bode 2015). Risk management using Prince2 Prince2 project management tool provides a well-controlled environment for implementation of risk based response on identifying and project assessment. Most of projects fail due to lack of proper risk management (Saad et al., 2013). Within prince 2 methodology, risk management has three dimensions which includes risk management strategy, that is how risk management will be included in the project management activities, the level of risk tolerance and when is the exception triggered of the risk in the project management. Secondly, risk register as a tool for capturing and maintaining information of identified threats and opportunity within project management (Ghosh et al, 2012). This includes project support that will help in maintaining the risk register on behalf of the project management and the available risk management procedures. In prince2, the risk management process normally recommends five steps which include identification, assessment which is evaluation and estimation, plan, implement and communicate project management process (Saad et al., 2013). The first four steps in prince 2 are sequential with communication step running parallel of each of the four steps. The techniques of identifying risk, risk estimation and risk evaluation techniques and threaten response are running parallel throughout project processes. In the implementation step, the risk owner and the risk evaluator roles are well defined (Saad et al., 2013). The owner is named individual who is responsible for the management, monitoring and control of the perceived risk. Risk evaluator on the other hand is an individual assigned to carry out the risk response actions to respond to a given risk or a set of risks. They always take direction from the risk owner (Ghosh et al, 2012). Distinction between prince2 and agile project management First, prince2 mostly focuses on key risk, where it emphasizes on the major area of risk in the organization while agile is more comprehensive (Hinde 2012).  Prince2 is capable of identifies why projects have failed and aimed at reducing the rate of project failure by removing the reasons for failure through management control and proper use of a given tool and techniques. Agile on the other hand aims to increase project success through the use of processes, techniques and tools. Princes2 on the other hand aims at improving the overall rate of success of a given project (Hinde 2012).  Princes2 mostly emphasizes on the product planning to help in producing quality product or outcome of any given project. Some of the key product based planning used here include product description, product breakdown structure and product flow diagram (Hinde 2012).  However, agile software does not embrace similar approach, but overall organization structure and change adaptability(Saad et al. 2013). In prince2, management technical stages are overcome through overcoming technical tasks while management stages are commitments to stakeholders (Bentley 2015).  Similarly, to agile where the whole project management are committed to the stakeholders who must be there for project success. Business case normally drives prince2 project management software while the customer requirements normally drives project in agile project management software. In most cases, princes2 is more prescriptive but adaptable compared to agile mostly due to the process structure which needs to be followed in prince2 (Bentley 2015).  Benefits of Prince2 In most cases, prince2 is one of the software’s which are tailorable and easy to follow project management methodology. It covers how to organize, control and manage projects with a lot of ease (Burns & Sangster, 2012). It is aimed at enabling successful delivery of the right product which is within time frame and stipulated budget. Project managers have liberty to apply prince2 project management software in any type of project unlike some software’s which are limited to specific types of project. Project manager is able to manage risk, control quality of the project and change project effectiveness as well as make the most challenging situations and opportunities which might come with project management (Burns & Sangster 2012). It is only prince2 software which is capable of providing project managers with controlled start of project, controlled progress of a project and controlled progress of the project. It helps in providing regular review of the project against plan, business case and risks. It is more flexible in the nature of its use and type of the project (Burns & Sangster 2012). Compared with agile, prince2 project developers do not require constant meeting with the management in order to implement this program (Burns & Sangster 2012). It further provides end product users to participates in the project development and decision making process which is very vital for project success or failure. The end users processes are normally subjected to through quality check throughout program development something which most software developers ignores (Saad et al., 2013). Prince2 software’s allows project managers to establish the terms of references of project before the project begins. This is very important as it gives the project managers starting points(Saad et al., 2013). Unlike agile software, prince2 defines structure for delegations and communication, while in agile, managers struggle to fit or to establish their roles in the whole process of project management (Burns & Sangster 2012). Conclusion Since the success of the project majorly relies on the ability of project team capability to use their technical and business knowledge to evaluate and control risk in the business. Prince2, bridge this gap by enabling the management to properly manage the risk involves. The risk of the project must be evaluated in terms of the consequences of those risks which takes place within business(Burns & Sangster 2012). In the process of product development and processes, results are rarely predictable while business changes evaluation in various projects are not done continuously (Murray 2011). Prince 2 project management software’s is a defector standard for project management fully owned by the UK government controlled by office of government commerce and is free to use. It is a non-technical method, independent of the type of project to be used. It is project management approaches that use eight major components, three techniques and process model (Bentley 2015).  Bibliography Ambler, S. 2012 Agile database techniques: Effective strategies for the agile software developer. John Wiley & Sons. Bentley, C. 2015 The PRINCE2 Practitioner: From Practitioner to Professional. Routledge. Burns, J., & Sangster, A. 2012 This project is big enough for both of us!-Managing documentation projects using Scrum and PRINCE2. Communicator-the Journal of the Institute ofScientific and Technical Communicators, 36. Da Silva, T. S., Martin, A., Maurer, F., & Silveira, M. 2011 User-Centered Design and Agile Methods: A Systematic Review. In AGILE (pp. 77-86). Dodd, S., & Wang, Y. 2012 Prince2 And Entrepreneurship: Risk Taking & Risk Management In Two Micro-Sized Restaurants. Ghosh, S., Forrest, D., DiNetta, T., Wolfe, B., & Lambert, D. 2012 Enhance PMBOK® by Comparing it with P2M, ICB, PRINCE2, APM and Scrum Project Management Standards. PM World Today, 14(1), 1-77. Haq, A. N., & Boddu, V. 2015 Analysis of agile supply chain enablers for Indian food processing industries using analytical hierarchy process.International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 29(1), 30-47. Has, A., & Bode, V. 2015 Analysis of agile supply chain enablers for Indian food processing industries using analytical hierarchy process. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 29(1), 30-47. Hinde, D. 2012 PRINCE2 Study Guide. John wiley & sons. 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