Mastering Agile Principles and Tools

Question: Discuss about the Mastering Agile for Principles and Tools. Answer: Introduction: The project management triangle is also called triple constraint or the Iron Triangle. The project management triangle is the model of constraints of the project management. The managers use the project management triangle to analyze or to understand the difficulties that arise due to the execution or the implementation of the project. All the projects no matter what their size is have constraints. There are basically three constraints in the project management that includes Time, Scope and Cost. The statistics below can help us understand the change in role of the Project manger over the period of time: There are one in six projects that have average cost overrun of 200% and a schedule overrun of 70% About one third projects are only closed according to the time and budget. According to the study of IBM only 40% projects are able to meet the budget, quality and schedule About 50% of the project management offices shut down between the periods of three years.(Chandra Page1, 2016) Time, The activities of the project could either take shorter time or longer time for the completion. There are number of factors on which the completion of the task depends. The factors include Experience, number of people working on the project and the skills. Time is not under the control of anybody and it is one of the crucial factors. There are various adverse affects on the project if the project fails to meet the deadlines. Scope, the outcome of the project undertaken is looked in to by the scope. There are various lists of deliverables that are consisted in the scope of the project. The manager who is successful knows very well how to manage the scope and the change in the scope of the project that impacts the cost and the time of the project(Dabson Page20., 2004). Cost, one of the most important factors for both the organization and the project manager is the cost of the project. They both are required to undertake the estimated cost when undertaking the project. It is ensured by the budget that the projects are implemented and developed below a certain cost. There are times when the project manager is required to allocate additional resources so that the deadlines can be met(Tonquist Page50., 2009). The listing of the milestones, deliverables and activities of the project are known as scheduling. The elements on the scheduling can be related closely to the work breakdown structure elements and contract data requirement list. There are various tools and techniques in the project management that includes the following. Some of the tools and techniques of the project management are: Gantt Charts, It is basically a horizontal bar chart that is used for the scheduling of the project. All the tasks and the activities in the Gantt chart are depicted over a block of time and the actual performance of the activity is recorded in the real time as compared to the planned activities(Cobb, 2015).The Gantt chart has many uses as a tool. Some of the uses of the Gantt chart are: The scale of the project can be planned The estimation of the resources requirements can be planned It can help in the graphical illustrations for the scheduling of the tasks The specific projects can be planned and coordinated It is very good for the small projects Network analysis or the critical path analysis, it is often argued that the Gantt Charts are not very successful when the projects are lengthy and complex. There is lot of interdependency in the large project over the various small tasks as for example there are some activities that cannot be started unless the other activities are completed. The network analysis helps in displaying the sequence and the timing of each and every activity in more logical manner(Adel Al Khattab Page734-743., 2007). PERT analysis or Project Evaluation and Review Techniques, the better estimation of the project is given by the PERT technique. It helps in accounting for the uncertainty for predicting the duration of the tasks. Under this the project manager estimates the best, worse and the most probable duration of the time for an activity of the project so that the average completion time can be determined(Cacioppe Page335345., 2000).This can very well be done by assigning the probabilities to the estimates and then calculating the expected value. Resource Histogram is a column or the chart bar that shows the number of resources that are assigned to the project over a period of time. The resource histograms are presented as the bar charts and are one of the effective tool for the planning of the resources and the coordination of the project staff. Risk Management, it is basically the management of the risk that can affects adversely the various projects due to which the different projects can fail. Risk management is the process under which the project manager tries to minimize the risks involved in the project. There are various tasks that are considered by the project manager. Various models like the PESTLE and SLEPT analysis are used to analyze the risk for example there are various risks involved in the project that includes the economic risk, technological risks, legal, political and social risks. The risk management process helps in the identification of the controllable and uncontrollable risk and after the identification of the various risks the project manager implements various strategies for controlling the risks involved in the project(Crawford Page309-319., 2003). Another tool that is being widely used by the project manger is the budgeting process; basically a budget is a forecast or a plan of action. Budgetary planning is very important as it creates a budget which becomes the part of the planning process and then budgetary control helps in the comparison of the budgetary results with that of the actual results so that the variances if any could be overcome on time(Gray Page103-109., 2003). One of the important tools that is being used by the project manager is Work breakdown structure (WHS). This tool is very useful as it can be used to delegate and allocate the responsibility so that various activities and tasks can be accomplished, moreover the sequence and the timing can be scheduled so that the effectiveness could be improved. The budgetary control further helps in managing the risks and the financial exception reporting. Conclusion: The project management triangle is very important for the project manager as it helps in knowing the three main constraints of the project that includes the Time, cost and scope of the project. It is very often seen that the project management is represented as a triangle, it is required that the proper balance is kept between the triple constraints so that there is no compromise with the quality of the project. There are various projects in different sphere of markets, business and segments. There are myriad types, complexity and sizes of the projects. Project management has become a crucial part of every business and all the organizations are required to manage the projects in a proper manner. There are various challenges that are faced by the three constraints of the project management and to face those challenges there are various tools and techniques available. All the tools and techniques that are available with the various project mangers shall be incorporated in a proper mann er. All the pros and cons of the different tools shall be taken in to consideration before adapting a particular tool or technique as one technique may prove out to be beneficial for one project and the same could be non beneficial for the other project. Hence proper securitization of the various tools and techniques is one of the important things that shall not be overlooked by the project managers at any cost if they want their projects to be successful. Bibliography Adel Al Khattab, J. A. (2007). Managerial perceptions of political risk in international projects. International Journal of Project Management , 734-743. Cacioppe, R. (2000). Leadership moment by moment. Leadership Organization Development Journal , 335345. Cobb, C. (2015). The Project Manager's Guide to Mastering Agile: Principles and Tools . Wiley. Crawford, N. M. (2003). Approaches to project management in Africa: implications for international development projects. . International Journal of Project Management , 309-319. Dabson, M. (2004). The Triple Constraints in Project Management. Gray, R. J. (2003). Organisational climate and project success . International Journal of Project Management , 103-109 . Newell, M., Grashina, M. (2004). The Project Management Question and Answer Book - Page 8. New York. Tonquist, J. (2009). Project management - Page 58. Renate Nelson.