As more businesses move towards an agile approach to their projects and processes, you might be wondering how you can reap the benefits of agile project management.

Agile capabilities can have incredible lasting effects within your business, helping you reach your targets in a more cost-effective, faster manner than ever before while making sure the end product is still of a high-quality. As well as reaching results more quickly, agile project management focuses on improving your company culture to ensure your team can work together seamlessly, collaborating and communicating as smoothly as possible. To help your business achieve this, it might be worth using the resource management software from Prosymmetry. That can help businesses to manage their projects more effectively, so it could be beneficial for some businesses.

As with any good thing, however, going through an agile transformation takes time. So how can you adopt an agile project management approach that benefits your whole team?

Invite your whole organisation to learn together

Although agile is gaining popularity within more and more businesses, the ins and outs of agile processes can seem difficult to understand. The best way to make sure your whole organisation successfully undergoes agile transformation is to implement comprehensive training that actually works. The most effective project management takes place when your whole team is on board with your new processes. Enlisting the help of an experienced agile consultancy like Fractal Systems ensures every individual can learn, understand and implement agile at the same pace. With on the ground support, this kind of close coaching means everyone from a ground level to key stakeholders gain crucial understanding and guidance of agile project management.

Ensure momentum comes from the ground up

Agile project management often fails when support for the project isn’t shared by everyone in your team. No matter how big or small your business is, it’s crucial that every individual in your organisation is motivated by the same goals and the same means of achieving them.

Agile prioritises collaboration and communication, meaning each person, process and department within your business need to be on the same wavelength. Successfully building these values at a grass-roots level ensures that your project never loses momentum. In this way, each element of your organisation is able to stay on track to reach their goals without any bumps in the road.

Clear communication and understanding of goals is essential for smooth workflow. Using business management tools (like NetSuite or something similar) to complete projects would make the processes more streamlined and collaborative. For this purpose, a NetSuite implementation in your operations could be advantageous, as employees will be held accountable for their tasks and there can be more transparency from all sides. With a platform that allows everyone to be on the same page, the momentum is also likely to be kept on track.

Build-in leadership support from the beginning

Although agile transformation can begin with any individual in your organisation, it’s only with full support from your key leadership team that it can really begin to have a tangible impact. Despite agile working gaining traction fast, the majority of more established businesses operate with a waterfall approach, in which a project is completed in linear steps. Because this structure has been traditionally applied by many more organisations within the business world, it can feel difficult for leaders working within waterfall structures to explore a new approach.

By engaging with your leadership team from the very beginning of your agile transformation, you can ensure that the most influential individuals within your organisation are on board. It might be prudent to sit with the leadership team and form strategies for the best way forward. Considering agile team assessments (visit https://tilt365.com/Products/Team-Assessments for more information on that) for both the leadership group as well as any subsequent teams you may build can be beneficial in figuring out the best approach based on individual as well as collective strengths. Not only will this help your business adopt new structures more quickly, but you’ll also be much more likely to gain the full support of teams who follow the guidance of your leadership team too.

Remember that real change takes time

Ultimately, a business-wide transformation has a huge impact on every aspect of your organisation. The majority of agile transformations at enterprise-level can take up to 3-5 years, so don’t be disheartened if you’re not seeing instant change. Implementing a lasting transformation that takes a little longer is far more beneficial than having to repeat the process in the future. Paying close attention to every person, process, technology and structure in your organisation will ensure you can all enjoy the benefits of agile project management sooner rather than later.