Critical evaluation of the Use of Agile Project Management Methods

Objectives
This presentation aims at providing a detailed description of Agile Project Management. In the
presentation, the use of Agile techniques in design, analysis, and development of IS application
will be discussed in details.
Background
Information system design has been undergoing a lot of changes. The changes have resulted from
the changing needs of information systems. As a result, IT specialists have continually created
new methods of creating information systems. New methods are developed to solve the
weaknesses of the existing ones. Agile techniques are among the recent methods that are applied
in information system development. Cervone (2011), explains that Agile Project Management
resulted from ideas presented in Takeuchi and Nonaka in 1986. Until 1995, the ideas remained
dormant, until they were introduced by Sutherland and Schwaber. Agile project management was
introduced to eliminate the weaknesses of traditional IT management methods.
Analysis and evaluation
In the modern IT management, managers are applying Agile techniques, not by choice but
chance. As CC Pace (n.d.) posit, todays IT managers are working under pressure to deliver
results, even with reduced IT budgets. IT Project Managers are expected to design and develop
IS applications that create improvements to the lowest point possible. Most of the traditional
methods have proved ineffective in achieving IT quality improvement with reduced expenditure.
Project Managers have no alternative but adopt Agile Project Management, which has proved to
be effective in producing high quality IS applications at reduced costs.
Agile techniques such as SCRUM, Feature-Driven Development, and XP are designed to lower
the cost of change in the application development process. Richard Pharro explains that Agile
project management provides a flexible, yet controlled process, crucial for delivering IT
solutions. Agile brings together peoples knowledge and techniques such as iterative modeling

and development to meet tight project completion timeframes (APMG International, 2011). Even
though there are different techniques used in Agile project management, all Agile projects are
characterized by systematic testing in Agile methods is what makes it preferable over the
traditional methods, where the applications were tested at the end of the project.
The use of Agile project management is essential for improving the quality of IS systems. The
systematic cycles used in Agile project management makes it possible to detect and correct any
application defect it is too late. Unlike the earlier methods when the defects were realized after
the project completion, with Agile less cost are incurred in making corrections to the application
defects. Agile project management also makes it possible to keep incorporating new design in the
course of the project, to suit the customers needs.
Conclusion
The current economical changes indicate that the traditional project management methods have
no place in the modern IT project management. Flexibility and cost efficiency, which is a
necessity in modern business, lacks in the traditional IS application design methods. Agile
project management is a revolution in IT project management. With its flexible design where the
project is assessed periodically and the necessary changes made, both the project manager and
the clients needs are met. The project manager eliminates the changes of having to repeat the
entire project due to defects noted after the project completion, while the client has a chance to
introduce new systems requirements in the middle of the project. Considering that business
resources are limited. Agile techniques are preferred due to their ability to deliver the expected
results under limited budgets.

References
APMG International (2011). Agile Project Management White Paper. Dynamic Systems
Development Method Limited.
CC Pace (n.d.) Agile Project Management. CC Pace Systems. Retrived from
http://www.ccpace.com/asset_files/AgileProjectManagement.pdf
Cervone,H. Frank (2011). Understanding agile project management methods using Scrum.
OCLC System & Services: International digital library perspectives 27(1), pp.18-22.