12.0 Learning Objectives and Overview

Overview

In the previous chapters, we discussed all the project management concepts and methods by mostly referring to the waterfall (predictive, traditional) project management approach implicitly or explicitly. Although all these concepts and methods apply to agile (adaptive) projects, agile projects are developed on evolving requirements accompanied by planning, which is less comprehensive than the waterfall approach. Rather, the planning in the agile approach is spread throughout the projects over separate iterations, sprints, or timeboxes. Each short iteration allows the project team to refine the requirements based on uncertainties, risks, technological changes, and stakeholder expectations and concerns. This chapter will first discuss the historical background of agile project frameworks and methods and their key principles. Then, it will describe the factors to consider when adopting an agile approach, identify the elements of an agile environment, and elaborate on the most common agile methods and scaling frameworks, focusing on the Scrum framework since it is the most used agile method in organizations. Finally, this chapter will address the recent trends in agile project management according to the State of Agile Reports by Digital.ai ^[1].