The Thirdway Group: Agile Project Management for Innovation

This project delves into the application of agile project management principles for effectively managing innovative projects, using The Thirdway Group, a UK-based office design and manufacturing company, as a case study. The project begins with an introduction to agile methodologies and their importance in fostering collaboration, flexibility, and innovation. It then explores the research question: "How agile project management principles can be utilized to manage innovative projects effectively in The Thirdway Group, UK?" The objectives include identifying agile project management principles, evaluating their use in managing innovative projects, and recommending strategies for The Thirdway Group. The literature review examines existing research on project management, agile methodologies, and innovation, highlighting a research gap in the management of innovative projects with agile technology. The research methodology includes a secondary data analysis of relevant articles and books. The project analyzes two articles to support the findings and concludes with recommendations for The Thirdway Group, emphasizing the benefits of agile project management in enhancing their innovative capabilities. The project aims to provide insights into how agile methodologies can be leveraged to drive innovation and improve project outcomes in the context of a real-world business scenario.

Management of Innovative Projects through Agile Project Management Principles
Student Details
9/6/2019

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Agile Project Management...........................................................................................................3
The Thirdway Group....................................................................................................................4
Research Question...........................................................................................................................5
Research Objectives.........................................................................................................................5
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
Research Gap...............................................................................................................................8
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................9
Research Approach......................................................................................................................9
Research strategy.......................................................................................................................10
Research Design.........................................................................................................................10
Data Collection methods............................................................................................................10
Data Analysis Methodology.......................................................................................................11
Ethical Considerations...............................................................................................................11
Data Analysis.................................................................................................................................12
Article One.................................................................................................................................12
Interpretation and Inference of Article One...............................................................................16
Article Two................................................................................................................................16
Interpretation and Inference.......................................................................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................19
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................21
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1. Introduction
Agile is a term, which has used in many ways, like in management of people and products as
well as used with the software. The main aim behind agile term is to get to desired solution by
applying collaborative efforts of cross-functional teams, self-organizational and reviews of
customers or end users (Wells, A., 2014). Popularly agile word is used with software or
technological prospective, with a motive of facilitating the mechanism in such a way that can
bring self-efficacy by involving cross functional teams and customers in productive manner. The
current research project is related to the popular office design and manufacturing organization of
UK that is The Third Way Group. The company is famous for providing creative and most
advanced designs for office structure, design, etc. Very few projects of the company are
undertaken by following the agile project management technique, the aim is to deliver an
effective as well as innovative project by following all requirements of the customer as well as of
the management. The project must be manufactured by considering trust, empowerment,
flexibility and collaboration among developers of the product, management, product as well as
the ultimate consumers of Thirdway group of UK.
Agile Project Management
The process of developing a product with the help of agile project management technology is not
an easy or smooth task.Many companies from a very long time embrace the technique of agile
technology or agile project management (Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017).
It is helping them in increasing their speed of working, responding ability, methodology of
operations, responding ability to markets of the respective products or services of the company,
etc. in earlier time’s people consider the use of agile technology in making the work more joyful
and interesting. In today’s world, the companies now are aiming at agile technology in order to
make more advanced, creative and innovative project in order to gain competitive advantage
over others. Innovation is another term that is must for every organization in this rapidly
changing world to provide competitive edge to others. With agile technology, this crucial factor
of innovation can be considered in effective way by the organizations. The need of agile
technology is mainly created by the presence of competition in this global environment, which
demands the innovation and creativity in the manufacturing or product and challenges various
industries, companies as well as economies. The organizations are in big need of introduction of
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agile technology in their operations, products as well as services.The current research project
aims at analysis of process of agile project management in managing the innovative project of
the organizations.
Many research papers books and websites related to agile project principles are analyzed for this
study (Petković, Ab Hamid, Ćojbašić, and Pavlović, 2014). They all have one thing in common
that the technology work on the principle of self-consistency by involving cross functional teams
of the organization as well as the ultimate customers of the company for which actual product is
being manufactured. These papers and books were related to the basic information about agile
project management, its characteristics, principles, and many more things. They also talked about
the use of technology in manufacturing of product in this fast-changing world. The studies are
not effectively covering the innovation with agile technology. Especially the management of
innovative project with the help of agile technology is not yet been discussed by any research
expert, hence by identifying this research gap an attempt has been made in this project to
research and cover this gap in an effective and efficient manner.
The Thirdway Group
The group is based in London and involved in office build, design, architecture, furniture and
architectural development of the company. The owner of the company is Ben Gillam and in
order to create best environment for their employees they collaborate with their clients and work
accordingly. They tend to have the main tenet is of trust, team, commitment as well as fun. In
order to be successful they believe to have the commitment towards these values of their
company. They offer many services andproducts to their clients;however, they are not following
agile project management technology in full extent. This project is aims at making the company
understand about the importance of agile technology and suggesting them to get it in use for
production of innovative projects (ThirdWay, 2017).
It is the need of today’s economy to bring some changes in their project manufacturing and
service rendering technologies or functions, as the world is growing rapidly and to match the
pace of the world it becomes important for organizations to grab opportunities as fast as they can
from the environment. Agile project management is an opportunity for the organizations to
include in manufacturing of their innovative products as well as in their operations. In this
research project research questions and research objectives are framed as well as secondary
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analysis is conducted regarding management of innovative projects by using effective agile
project management principles. At the end of the paper after making the conclusion, some
efficient suggestions have also been made.
1.1. Research Question
It is considered that a research question is mainly the query that can be answerable by the
researcher after an in-depth analysis of the components related to that query. It is very first step
in any research project (Levitt, 2011). It is initial step as it helps the researcher in getting an idea
about what is going to be researched or the research is going to be based on what prospective and
theories. It helps the researcher in establishing new thoughts, theories, principles, etc.
The research question of this research study is framed by considering all the factors affecting
project management in the market of The Thirdway Group of UK. The question is unique as it is
tried to fill the identified research gap. The research question for this research study is as
follows:
“How agile project management principles can be utilized to manage innovative projects
effectively in The Thirdway Group, UK”
1.2. Objectives of the Research
To fulfill the mentioned question of research of the current study some objectives of the studies
are formulated. Similarly, in this research study also, in above paragraph research question is
mentioned and with respect to that research question, following research objectives of this study
have been established to achieve:
1. To identify various Agile Project Management principles
2. To evaluate the use of agile project management principles in management of innovative
projects
3. To recommend agile project management strategies for innovative product management
in The Thirdway Group, UK
2. Literature review
Research is completely based on the facts and findings present in the economy. The research of
every individual is directly or indirectly is influenced by already present data in the economy
which are ones or more then that analyzed by previous researchers (Jamie A.Gruman & Alan
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M.Saks, 2011). It makes review of them a crucial task for the respective research of an
individual. The review of literature is the word that is used in order to understand the literature,
which has been already done in terms of the respective project. It includes analysis of theories,
principles and concept, which are already discovered by scholars of the respective subject. It is
merely the secondary sources which are used by the researchers in providing the base for their
future or current researches. The literature review of current study aims at reviewing various
research papers as well as other secondary data. Some of the best literature regarding the current
topic is being discussed here by expressing their aims, methods, conclusions as well as
recommendations. Based on that future researchers are also encouraged and the research gap of
current study has been identified.
According to the book of Robert K. Wysocki, (2011), project management is the combination of
some processes as well as some knowledge areas. The writer of the book discussed five process
groups as well as nine knowledge areas that in together help in management of the project. They
used the term PMBOK that is Project Management Body of Knowledge to demonstrate the
influence of selected factor on project management. It shows various tools, techniques and
methods to be adopted for caring out a project in most effective manner. The book also talked
about little bog about the agile project management; however, it used this technology in
demonstrating the benefit of various project planning methods as well as techniques. In two
parts, the book discussed about five process and then knowledge areas in which the techniques
can be applied and results of innovative project development can be obtained. The writer also
used a learning model that can help an organization in understanding the proper way of attaining
effectiveness in manufacturing as well as management of their projects. The book has not talked
about the involvement of employees or teams in the management of the innovative project
development of the organizations. In future researches the researchers can take a dig in this
research gap and work accordingly (Wysocki, 2011).
It is crucial to review as well as understand the technique of project planning as it helps the
companies in making their products and services by following best possible methods and
involvement of efficient cross-functional teams of the organization. According to the research
article of H. Frank Cervone, (2011), an attempt has been made by author in understanding the
agile project planning and managemnt methods and strategies with the help of Scrum. The main
aim of the article is to define and analyze the agile project management technology with the help
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of scrum methodology in order to achieve operational efficiency. The author adopted the
secondary data collection method in collection of required data for the research. The study was
secondary and focused on evaluating previously established results and techniques of the agile
project management. The findings of this research article identified that the use of agile project
management technology with the help of scrum methodology allowed the team of the company
in managing the library projects in digital form by decreasing the overhead expenses of the
company, which was related to the current project (Sunghoon Kim, et al., 2018). It says that with
the help of this agile management technology the company can achieve progress in a very short
span of time, which in turn can help the company in being competitive among others in the
market. The paper talked about use of digital technology in agile management of the projects
however, it has not involved the productive use of employees in the project management as well
as also not talked about the way of making innovative projects or bring creativity in production,
hence future research can consider these factors while researching (Cervone, 2011).
It is talked about that the use of agile word is mainly related to technology or software; however
it is not true as this term just demonstrate the mechanism of conducting an operation effectively
which can be used by any other function smoothly. According to the article of Edivandro C.
Conforto and others, (2014), an attempt is made in order to analyze the use of agile project
management technology in analyzing the mechanism of conducting projects in an effective and
efficient manner with respect to brining innovation in project management. They used the APM
word for Agile Project Management practice in which instead of software analysis, they analyzed
the methods of production and undertaking of projects of a company in effective manner. The
results of the analysis showed that the project management in ordinary sense is not going as
planned by the company hence it is advised to them to use agile project management technique
in order to bring efficiency in their operations. They analyzed the results of primary study
conducted on 19 medium and large sized companies from various industries and making the
innovation of projects as their centerline of research. The study concluded that the selected
companies of various sectors are struggling in using of agile project management technique as
they lack in proper management of their functioning as well as commitment towards work. They
also face the poor management of digital based project management, which is again the part of
agile project management technique. The study suggested that the agile project management is
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just not a single technique and it cannot be achieved in just a night. For the same the companies
needed to work harder and in way that is more productive (Conforto, et. al. 2014).
According to the article of Stephany Bellomo and others, (2014), the use of agile technology is
discussed with respect to architecture. It is related to the design, construction as well as
management of projects of site designing and manufacturing companies in an effective manner.
It is related to the strategies, which can be used by the companies in architecture of their client’s
units. The research article used the phrase “Agile Architecture” in order to demonstrate the
architecture of the projects by the company is conducted by following the agile technology and
the management scheme (Gareth Edwards, et al., 2015). This technology is used by the
companies in producing the agile managed projects for attaining competitive advantage over
others. The research paper analyzed and talked about two concepts that areagile methods and
another is agile project. This research concluded that the both the concepts are related to one
another and in order to achieve efficiency in operations of the company it is required to follow
agile project management techniques by the companies. The study does notcover any company
or a production team. It has not talked about involvement of innovative ideas in the production
methods of the companies to bring innovation in the projects of the companies by using agile
project management technology. Future researches can try to fill this gap and provide some
insights on the topic.
2.1. Research Gap
In above paragraphs some books and research articles related to the literature of the current topic
are analyses in depth. This helped the researcher in analyzing the agile technology in more
effective manner. With the help of this technology, many companies tried to improve their
production level as well as tried to bring efficiency in their projects (Leybourne, and
Sainter,2012). The articles discussed about the agile technology and innovation of projects as
well as use of methods and tools in brining efficiency in management of projects of various
companies from different industries. It has been seen that there very few articles related to
management of innovation in projects with the help of agile technology as well as there is not a
single paper is done on the research question which states the use of agile project management
strategies in bringing innovation in project management. With the help of current research, an
attempt has been made in order to fill this identified research gap. This study mainly focuses on
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the project management techniques as well as mechanism of a UK based company named as The
Thirdway Group, which deals in designing and construction of offices and theirfurniture.
3. Research methodology
Generally, methodology is the word, which is used for planning the series of methods that can be
used by the individual in conducting its task. In terms of research it is the series of continues
steps that in together needed to take by the researcher in accomplishing the research undertaken
by him/her. It involves the systematic theories and methods to reach to the desired results. It is
the main strategy or the plan that a researcher needed to take to carry out the studyin effective as
well as efficient way. Itcomprises of some set methods, whichin togethercan assist researchers in
carrying out their research such as now of the studies, research layout, methods of data
collection, analytics, and ethical concerns (Ogunbiyi, Goulding, and Oladapo, 2014).
In current study in order to analyze, the influence of using of agile project
administrationstrategies in bringing innovations in project management is tried to identify with
the help of some set patterns of secondary research. The methodology adopted was based on
secondary analysis and which in turn can help the researcher in analyzing the established
effective secondary sources in order to reach to desired results of expected research objectives of
this study. The methods adopted by the researcher in conducting this research are described in
the following lines:
3.1. Approach of Research
It is considered the strategy identified by the investigator to comprehend research's aim to select
the methods and methods needed (Oyegoke, 2011). The mixture of certain measures that
demonstrates the research methodology related to the corresponding study (Jackson, 2015). The
research is of three kinds of research methods, which are inductive, deductive as well as
adductive. This study utilizes the inductive research strategy among the research methods since it
does not involve formulating hypotheses and is being tested (Cohen et al., 2013). It is the
mixture of the observation by researchers of certain set facts, theories, principles, etc, which is
related to agile project management strategies in Thirdway Group UK's innovative projects
management. In current research, this approach can help defiantly.
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3.2. Research strategy
The research approach is recognized as a combination of well-defined measures to comprehend
the research scheme by specifying ideas, efforts. The strategy to promote and streamlined the
study process is formulated without involving unidentified facts (Bell et al., 2018). There are
four kinds of research approaches predominantly, a test case, quantitative survey, subjective
survey, and action-oriented study. A qualitative study used in this study is based on this study
approach (Archibald, 2015). After a thorough search of the subject, the present study strategy
can assist the investigator formulate the writing approach to reach the required outcomes.
3.3. Research Design
The research approach is recognized as a combination of well-defined measures by specifying
ideas, efforts to comprehend the research plan. The plan is developed to promote and smooth the
study process without any truths, which are unknown (Bell et al., 2018). The research designs are
of four kinds of a case study, research approaches, qualitative survey, comparative survey, as
well as action-oriented studies. This study approach is focused on a qualitative study used in this
thesis (Archibald, 2015).It defines the statistics as they relate to flexible methods for project
management as well as innovation in project planning of the Thirdway Group. By using agile
approaches to define the scenario of efficient project leadership, the descriptive study design can
assist the scientist (Michel & et al. 2012).
3.4. Methods of Collection of Data
In this part of research methodology, the accumulation of the necessary information for the
research is carried out using two main techniques as well as secondary collection of data. In all
of this, as it varies on what sort of research design, information is gathered from the same or both
sources provided for a study project. First-time information collection is really the primary
source of information collection. It is new in nature that is not approached by any other scientist
for their study. Using a questionnaire, plan, interviews, etc., it can be gathered. Secondary data
collection, on the other hand, is linked to information gathered from sources already accumulated
by scientists in their research; on the other hand, some ideas, values and theories can be
developed on this basis (Best & Kahn, 2016).
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The current study is mainly on secondary data gathering source as it grabbed needed information
linked to learn from multiple, books, journal articles, magazines, websites of UK businesses, etc.
It used the concepts, principles, etc. already founded about the significance and strategic use of
agile project planning in the leadership of distinct businesses from distinct sectors. Use of the
agile project management approaches is studied in the UK's Thirdway Group's strategic planning
bringing technologies. Consideration is given to the wonderful studies carried out by top
academics of these areas, with the motivation for undertaking this research in the best and most
efficient and productive manner.
3.5. Methodology of Analysis of Data
According to the name, data analysis mainly the data assessment method by using distinct
instruments based on the sort of information that is being analyzed. This is achieved to create
choices based on extracting the information needed from the document and making choices as
per the needs (Chambers, 2018). Analysis of information can be performed in two kinds,
descriptive analysis of information and analysis of inferential information. Explanatory data
analysis only analyzes the current facts as, on the other side, empirical data analysis tests the
hypothesis to demonstrate that it is correct or incorrect. Identifying the correct identification
technique is essential as it helps to demonstrate more precise and effective outcomes. In the
research, the information is evaluated using secondary accessible sources linked to the need for
agile project planning and managemnt techniques to manage the UK's Thirdway Group's
innovative initiatives. The collected information based on secondary data is related to primary as
well as well as secondary studies, which are further analyzed by comparing and enforcing the
results on the project management of The Thirdway Group of UK.
3.6. Ethical Considerations
In this research, while undertaking all research processes, all ethical initiatives are considered to
follow the steps made by the scientist. The knowledge from the papers chosen as well as papers
chosen for analysis of data has been used without violating established ethical values (James &
Busher, 2015). There will be no future sharing of private information about the data gathered
with someone else. All private information is used in a manner that any person or organization of
individuals cannot be harmed. By considering different ethical principles, the subject and its
different parameters are also evaluated. The study is evidence of plagiarism, as it is not
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