IT and Big Data projects can be complex and are often ambiguous by nature. In the case of Big Data projects, hypotheses about the information contained within the data are either proved or rejected, with new hypotheses subsequently arising. Similarly, assumptions regarding project requirements are often built into IT projects and stacked on top of one another in advance.
Yet, despite its complex nature, there has been a growing interest in Big Data. In fact, according to Forbes, more than half (53 percent) of all companies are now adopting Big Data analytics, compared with less than one-fifth (17 percent) back in 2015. Nevertheless, 70 percent of Big Data projects in the UK fail to realize their full potential.
In order to improve success rates, it is important for organizations to adopt a more fluid methodology, which allows them to roll with the punches. In this article, we explore the agile approach to IT and Big Data project management and explain how investment in agile project management training for project leaders can benefit your organization.
Understanding Agility
First, it is important to define precisely what is meant by an ‘agile’ project management methodology. Although broad in scope and difficult to summarise succinctly, the focus tends to be on adopting an incremental approach to testing hypotheses or assumptions early on, allowing them to be verified before any inaccuracies or errors can cause major disruption. For this reason, it is sometimes viewed as a means of reducing risk exposure.
It is a cross-functional, collaborative strategy, based on teams working to continually test products, data, and conclusions. With regards to IT projects, the focus is on creating software that is free from bugs or defects, and this is achieved by building minimally viable products, testing them, and refining them based on feedback.
“By delivering the work in small increments of working – even production-ready – software, those assumptions are all validated early on,” explains Gino Marckx, writing for Epam. “All code, design, architecture, and requirements are validated every time a new increment is delivered. It also allows projects to learn from the feedback.”
Benefits of the Agile Approach
The primary benefit of adopting an agile methodology is the fluidity it provides. Crucially, this enables projects to seamlessly adapt to changing assumptions, hypotheses and requirements. In the most extreme circumstances, this can allow IT and Big Data projects to change direction entirely, without having to start over. However, more typically, it allows for smaller changes to be made, and for these changes to be made easily and early.
A high-quality agile project management training programme or DevOps course can allow project leaders and their businesses to adapt to unexpected changes in the budget, or to sudden changes in consumer expectations, without the entire project becoming de-railed. It can, therefore, reduce risk and result in lower overall project costs.
As Mayank Kumar points out in an article for ISO MAG, an agile approach can be especially beneficial for Big Data projects, because it allows analysts to gain valuable insights quickly, even from large datasets. Moreover, the approach promotes collaboration between different departments and increases transparency.
The Agile Approach in Action
The concept of agile project management has become mainstream, with one of the most significant adopters being Google. Indeed, Google gave a presentation at the recent Agile Business Conference in London, sharing the insights gained during ‘Project Aristotle’ – an initiative designed to help the company understand team effectiveness.
It was found, for example, that one of the single most important dynamics of a successful team is a concept known as ‘psychological safety’. Essentially, this refers to a sense among team members that they are free to take risks, ask questions, make mistakes and challenge convention without suffering negative consequences. Clearly, the agile approach can help with this, because it allows projects to adapt to experimentation more easily.
The company also makes use of an internal process, known as ‘Dogfooding’, which involves Google employees making use of their own products. This fits in with the agile approach to project management because the staff using the products can test them and validate all coding and assumptions prior to them being released to the market.
As a result, failures can be identified, corrected and learned from much earlier in the project’s life cycle, and changes, improvements or adaptations can be made without causing as much disruption.
The Final Word
IT and Big Data projects are usually complicated and reliant on assumptions, or the continual testing hypotheses. If a particular hypothesis is disproved, another will often take its place, and this requires an approach that allows for real flexibility, experimentation, questioning, and other unexpected changes to occur as seamlessly as possible.
A quality DevOps course with a focus on the agile approach to project management can help project managers, directors, analysts, and other leaders to implement a more fluid methodology, based on cross-functional collaboration and testing hypotheses earlier in the project life cycle. In turn, this leads to less disruption, lower risk, and reduced project costs; all with a view to developing projects that are free from defects or other issues.
High school student in the class
The post The Benefit of Using the Agile Approach in IT and Big Data Projects appeared first on Tweak Your Biz.
source https://tweakyourbiz.com/business/agile-management/technology-approach
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