REFLECTIVE ESSAY

AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Fortunately, I had a reflection paper regarding this topic during my college in my subject

Project Management, and the project team where I belonged, utilized the Agile methodology. I

just need to refocus it. So cordially, Agile project management is a repetitive approach called

iteration to manage a software development projects that focuses on continuous releases and

integrating stakeholder or customer feedbacks with every iteration, which also previously based

on Scrum and Kanban frameworks (Kanban? Ain’t familiar with it).

In layman's terms, this ensures an adaptable, agile, and flexible methodology during the

development and maintenance of the project, which takes at least three months to develop or may

be longer because the developers need often visits to the customer for feedback on the actual

software for a certain part of the system for auditing – the process of audit of projects - before

proceeding to the next phase. However, agile may not be effective as intended if a customer’s

goals are not clear, the entire team (the project manager especially) is inexpert, or if they are not

functioning well in any critical or crucial point and cannot work under significant pressure.

During the development process, agile favors the stakeholders’ goals, but not necessarily the end

RUTH G. LUCIANO, PH.D. 28 May 2020

IT252.IT Project Management
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user's experience. However, developers and project teams should be careful on this

methodology. A poor Agile project management may lead to certainly than not, defective or

much slower progress than could be achieved. Definitely, plan and design a good Agile project

management before doing so. Always bear in mind, even agile itself has varying approaches,

growing concepts and evolving perspectives but it always observes its practices set to enable

collaborative environments. In fact, this methodology has even broadened beyond the IT sector

with agile experts changing their organizations’ legal, operations or marketing departments.

As I had recalled from my previous learning, and to share, I revisited the 12 principles of

Agile methodology, inspired by and supportive of the Agile Manifesto – as guiding practices in

implementing the software development production and much more with agility: (1) Satisfy the

Customer, the highest priority; (2) Welcome Change, the process is a constant change to get

closer to client needs or expectations; (3) Deliver Frequently, the sooner you deliver

incremental software, the faster the feedback and faster you can identify a wrong turn or a

miscommunication with the client; (4) Work Together, collaborative mindset and work tasks

amongst all the stakeholders. (5) Build Projects, provision of self-motivated environment and

support they need, and trust them to get the job done. (6) Face-To-Face Time, Co-location for

osmotic or peripheral but soft communication - where you absorb some part of the conversation

around whether you are actually involved or not, is very important. (7) Measure of Progress,

take focus on the objective of the project making it the primary measure of progress. (8)

Sustainable Development, stakeholders should maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Think

Work/Life Balance. One important result is a better ability to forecast. (9) Continuous

Attention, a solution must also maintain the ability to be updated to keep it on track and current.

(10) Keep It Simple (KIS), the art of maximizing the effectiveness of a facility, cutting
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functionality that unnecessary. (11) Organized Teams, keep them self-organizing teams, who

better to recognize issues before they become real impediments. Lastly, (12) Reflect for

Effectiveness, the Retrospective in every iteration or sprint leads the team to become more

effective, then (re)tunes and (re)adjusts its behavior accordingly.

In the light of what is discussed hereinabove, creating an ideal project teams, advocating

agile methodologies, its practices, principles, increased communication and collaboration in all

phases and be consistent of collaborative exchange are certainly effective if the base truth are

commitment, respect, transparency and trust amongst stakeholders.

References:

a. Atlassian Agile Coach, n.d., How Agile Methodologies Can Work for Your Software Team, Retrieved
March 10, 2017, from https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management
b. Eichhorn, 2017, 12 Principles of Agile Methodology, Retrieved May 28, 2020, from
https://www.cgi.com/us/en-us/life-sciences/blog/12-principles-of-agile-methodologies
c. Mountain Goat Software, n.d., Agile Project Management, Retrieved March 10, 2017, from
https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/agile/agile-project-management
d. Jeffries, 2018, Developers Should Abandon Agile, Retrieved May 28, 2020, from
https://ronjeffries.com/articles/018-01ff/abandon-1/
e. Aharoni, 2014, What is an agile software development methodology in layman’s term at, Retrieved
March 10, 2017, from https://www.quora.com/What-is-an-agile-software-development-methodology-
in-laymans-term
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CLOSURE OF PROJECTS

In a regular flow of software or project development, the team should also prepare to

close a finished project. The Closure of Projects, likewise the Project Closing Process Group, is

equally important but often disregarded and overlooked at the end. But this final phase in the

project life cycle formally closes the project and then reports its overall level of success to the

client. It involves handing over the deliverables to the customer, turning over documentations to

the business, calling off supplier contracts, releasing staff and equipment, and informing

stakeholders of the project closure. After the project closing, a complete Post Implementation

Review determines the project’s success and identify the lessons learned.

According to A Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®

Guide) – 5th Edition, “The Project Closing Process Group consists of those processes performed

to conclude all activities across all Project Management Process Groups to formally complete the

project, phase, or contractual obligations. This process group, when completed, verifies that the

defined processes are completed within all of the Process Groups to close the project of phase, as

appropriate, and formally establishes that the project or project phase is complete” (2013, p. 57).

Hence, Closure of Projects is the combination of the following when applied to a project:

(1) Assurance that all the work has been completed, (2) Assurance that all agreed upon project

management processes have been executed, and (3) Formal recognition of the completion of a

project – every stakeholder agrees that it is already completed.

References:

a. Aziz, 2015, Project Closing: The Small Process Group With Big Impact, Retrieved May 28, 2020,
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/importance-of-closing-process-group-9949
b. Ray, 2019, 5 Steps to Project Closure (Checklist Included), Retrieved May 28, 2020, from
https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/project-closure
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AUDITING OF PROJECTS

As we all know, a well-managed project is a project performed in line with the

constraints of Cost, Quality and Time. First, let’s look closer with the definition from experts.

Auditing of Projects, a.k.a. project audit is a constant process that starts at the

execution phase until the last phase of the project. Project Audit is a formal review of a project,

intended to assess the extent to which project management standards are being upheld. It is a

systematic, often iterative processes of comprehensive scrutiny of a project to determine any

issues, concerns, challenges and opportunities and their provisions, reasons, to develop

recommendations or resolutions about how to address the problems and keep it successful. The

ultimate goal of the audit process is to ensure that the project meets the standards of project

management through investigation and evaluation to capitalize on its success.

Thus, whoever is responsible for performing the audit must be in charge of the designated

authority and issue related recommendations. Such process is intended to complete the

following general objectives: (1) Ensure the quality of products and services, acts as a quality

assurance tool; (2) Ensure the quality of project management, ascertains and satisfies all the

governing standards and policies; (3) Identify the business risk, determines business factors

where risks may reside; (4) Improve project performance, close monitoring of the various phases

of the project life cycle to the improvement of the project team’s performance; (5) Learn,

delivers learning opportunities through assessments of project management expertise.

References:
c. TWPROJECT STAFF, 2019, Project Audit: What It is and How to Perform It, Retrieved May 28,
2020, from https://twproject.com/blog/project-audit-perform/
d. MYMG TEAM, 2011, Project Audit Checklist – The Key Steps of the Audit Process, Retrieved May
28, 2020, from https://mymanagementguide.com/project-audit-checklist-the-key-steps-of-the-audit-
process/