Agile Project Management comes from software development and had its first big breakthrough around the turn of the millennium. Agile approaches have long since developed into a megatrend. Management departments promise themselves digitalization, flexibility, cultural change and interdisciplinary work. The goal is to replace outdated insurance IT systems and conventional, linear project management. They are being replaced by modern IT technologies and architectures as well as agile planning and software processes.
Agile methods are advantageous for project management when requirements change frequently. When planning horizons are short, a lot of leeway for innovation is necessary and the participants have a lot of personal responsibility. Scrum, Design Thinking and Kanban are among the common agile methods. Agile teams lead themselves independently. Communication is a self-organized bottom-up communication. The Agile development method Scrum is the most widely used form of Agile in organizations. The development is organized in iterations, so-called sprints. A prioritized list of requirements is defined at the beginning of each sprint: the so-called product backlog. Based on the backlog, the Agile team draws as many requirements as it can implement in a sprint, according to experience, with a view to priorities. A sprint lasts from one up to a maximum of four weeks. Scrum sees itself primarily as a framework because it creates frameworks for Agile working. Each Scrum team consists of:
- Product Owner
- Management of the product backlog (requirements analysis, writing user stories and operational backlog management).
- Lead responsibility for product deliverables (acceptance of deliverables in the so-called Sprint Review, where deliverables are presented).
- The development team ensures (by representing the customer's interest) that the product value is maximized.
- Scrum Master
- Has a team and process focus.
- Creates the framework conditions for a functioning cooperation within the team.
- Supports the product owner methodically for the most part, but does not take on any coordination with the specialist departments.
- Responsible for the productivity of the project team.
- Team Members
- Self-organizing.
- Customer centric.
- Implement, evaluate and adapt innovations.
- Can make autonomous decisions within a certain framework.
- Consists of developers, business analysts and testers.