Analysis of Agile Project Management Methods: Scrum and Kanban

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of agile project management methodologies, focusing on Scrum and Kanban frameworks. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the benefits of agile methods, such as increased speed and collaboration. The introduction defines project management and its key elements, emphasizing the role of agile approaches in responding to market trends. The report then delves into the specifics of Scrum, outlining its elements like sprints, daily standups, and retrospectives, along with a visual representation of the Scrum framework. Following this, it explains the Kanban framework, its objectives, and its elements such as work in progress (WIP) limits. The report contrasts these agile methods with traditional project management, detailing their differences in client involvement, development models, and organizational structure. The applicability section illustrates the agile project development lifecycle and its phases, including requirement analysis, planning, and design. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of agile methods in modern project management.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
[Author]
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Executive summary
Agile project management methods are used for increasing the speed, collaboration and
ability to respond according to market trends. The report will provide information about the agile
project management methods and other project management approaches to meet the specification
of the selected project. Agile project management categories into two frameworks like scrum and
kanban. Scrum is considered as the framework as it provides a process for managing the software
development and operation management. The kanban framework of agile project management
not has the backlog and provides a clear vision of things that going to be executed. These
frameworks are also helpful in customer collaboration and development of communication portal
that could be beneficial for the implementation of customized design of software and offering
flexible support for offering the information.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................6
Project methods...................................................................................................................6
Scrum framework............................................................................................................7
Kanban agile project........................................................................................................9
Contrasts methods..............................................................................................................10
Applicability......................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..................................................................................................................16

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List of tables
Table 1: Scrum elements.................................................................................................................7
Table 2: Kanban elements...............................................................................................................8
Table 3: Differences in agile and traditional project management................................................10

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List of figures
Figure 1: Scrum framework.............................................................................................................7
Figure 2: Lifecycle.........................................................................................................................13

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Introduction
Project management is application and process of knowledge, skill, tools, and techniques
that help to meet the specification of the project requirements. The major elements of the project
management approach involve the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and control as
well as the closing of activities. For managing the project, it is essential for the project manager
and team members to have knowledge about the integration, scope, time, cost and quality of the
project to meet the defined objectives (Kerzner, and Kerzner, 2017). There are various types of
project management methodologies are used for managing project operations and functions.
Agile project management methods are used for increasing the speed, collaboration and
ability to respond according to market trends. The agile project management approach is an
iterative approach to managing a software development project that focuses on the needs and
feedback of the customers with every iteration. The report will provide information about the
agile project management methods and other project management approaches to meet the
specification of the selected project. Agile project management categories into two frameworks
like scrum and kanban. The report will discuss the contrast methods and applicability of the
project methods to achieve the standards of a proposed project.
Project methods
The agile project management is used for managing the project operations and activities
according to the standards defined under the categories of project management. The project
management teams are using agile project management methods for the breakdown of big
projects into small functions that are easy to handle and control. The breakdown of the project
into small operations is helpful for maintaining the design phase, testing of tools and quality
assurance. The agile project management enables the project team to release the segments that

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are completed (Špundak, 2014). Continues release of segments of the project is helpful for
successful delivery of the project and maintaining the flow of the operations. For project
management through agile project method, the practices are categorized into two methods such
as continues deployment (CD) and continuous integration (CI). These techniques are helping in
speed up the project functions and quick installation of the project. The project management
team uses different agile terms for managing project that includes the velocity, burn down and
bump up charts for measuring the work and setting the project milestone (Serrador, and Pinto,
2015). However, there are the various project management method used such as waterfall which
is a traditional project management function.
Figure 1: Scrum framework
Scrum framework
The agile project management functions involve the scrum, scrum/XP, custom and
kanban. These project management actions are used for managing IT related projects and

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effective utilization of the resources. The most used project management method of agile is the
scrum. This methodology involves a product owner who contributes to the development and
testing of the products or software (Nicholas, and Steyn, 2017). Scrum is considered as the
framework as it provides a process for managing the software development and operation
management. The scrum management process involves product blocking, sprint planning
meetings, sprint blocking, and 4-week approach.
Table 1: Scrum elements
Sprint
planning
Sprint demo Daily standup Retrospective
Planning of
the project operations
through meetings and
managing the
outcome
Sharing the
data related to
meetings and sprints
Daily 15 mins
meetings for working
on the particular day’s
operations
Proper review
and analysis of
actions and
implementation of
changes in the next
project sprint.
The scrum board is used for managing the information flow and visualization of the
operational work that provided according to the sprint. The proper consideration of meeting and
team involvement is essential for the success of the agile project management method (Layton
and Ostermiller, 2017). In addition to this, the scrum board is helpful for visualizing the steps for
workflow and progress.

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Kanban agile project
This is an element of agile project management method that helps to analyze and meet
the work according to the capacity of the teams. The major objectives of kanban project
management involve fast and possible operations, providing proper time to reacting to the
changes compare to the scrum. Apart from that, the kanban framework of agile project
management not has the backlog and provides a clear vision of things that going to be executed
(Conforto, and Amaral, 2016). The kanban framework involves work that could be managed by
the teams as well as provides the details of the predefined limits of the approach.
Table 2: Kanban elements
List of work Lanes Work in progress
limits
Continues releases
Listing of the tasks
and issues that need to
get done
Use of work streams,
users and projects to
distinguish the tasks
Proper limitations of
work amount and
analysis of team
capacity
Stories of working
and WIP limits that
can be released any
time
These are some major elements that used for developing and managing the approach of
software development. The agile project management framework is helpful for understanding the
capacity, progress of operations, backlog and owner contribution. In spite of that, the estimation
of the project is a very important aspect of the kanban and scrum in project management. The
proper estimation of tasks and team size is useful for analyzing the capacity and developing the
scheduling of the operations. The agile point of view is useful for managing the sprint and team
performance to maintain the flow of operations (Rasnacis, and Berzisa, 2017). The estimation

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practices involve project level planning, release level planning, and sprint level planning. In
addition to this, three levels of layers are used for managing the project operations through the
agile that involves portfolio, program and team layer.
The portfolio is the strategic layer of an agile framework and program layer is used for
integration of team in the multiple complex projects. The objectives of using this agile
framework are to develop and well-defined process, high level of milestone, integration and
proper management of cost and time. These frameworks are also helpful in customer
collaboration and development of communication portal that could be beneficial for the
implementation of customized design of software and offering flexible support for offering the
information. Apart from that, these frameworks are simple, easy to apply and helpful for
managing the operations of the projects (Joslin, and Müller, 2015). The advance planning and
tracking of operations are helping to improve the effectiveness of a project through the agile
project methods.
Contrasts methods
In order to manage the project, there are various types of project management
methodologies are used that involve traditional and waterfall project management functions. The
traditional project management methods have a huge emphasis on the planning and control of the
operations that have a significant impact on the outcome and effectiveness of the project
functions. In the traditional and waterfall project management methods, the decision is based on
the cost and scheduling of the activities for managing the operations (Conforto et al., 2014).
According to analysis, in the traditional approach of project management, the project manager is
highly responsible for planning and success of the project. Apart from that, the team working and
project operation management in traditional approach focused on the team working under the

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direction of the project manager. Following are the major contrasts between agile and traditional
project management methods:
Table 3: Differences in agile and traditional project management
Features Agile project management Traditional project
management
Client involvement High Low
User requirement Only interactive input Define earlier before coding
and implementation
Development model Evolutionary delivery model Lifecycle model
Project scale Small and medium Large
Organizational structure Iterative Liner
Development process Evolutionary delivery model Lifecycle
Development model Flexible Fixed
Architecture Based on current requirements Current and future
requirements (Hoda, and
Murugesan, 2016)
Requirements Have rapid changes Standard
Testing At every iteration Once the coding is done
The agile project methodology provides the variety of responses that help the project
managers to choose this methodology over the traditional methods. In order to manage the highly
complex project, the agile project method is useful as it provides better structure and responsive
tools that helps in increasing the adaptability. The proper situational analysis and scope for

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feedback and changes are managed by the agile project management functions according to risks
and scenario of operational functions (Sohi et al., 2016). The flexibility in project management is
helpful for managing the delivery time. Apart from that, the manager chooses the agile project
management method for managing the quick response for the customers and validation of each
function before starting the project.
In addition to this, the agile project methodology is more beneficial for managing the
project for developing the self-organized functions, delivering the working software frequently
and maintaining the face to face conversation with the stakeholders to meet the specification.
However, there are some loopholes in the agile project management such as planning can be less
concrete, time commitment and less documentation. The project manager is not much interested
in project planning and comprehensive documentation that affect the team building approach and
encourage the team members to commit the activities on time. The final outcome of the agile
project can be different from the determined plan (Schmitz, Mahapatra, and Nerur, 2018). The
reason behind changes in the final outcome of an agile project is flexibility and involvement of
customer feedback. Now, it is the responsibility of the project manager to develop the plan and
manage the functions according to pre-define plan and actions.
Applicability
Agile project management is used for managing and developing software and other
projects according to the needs and requirements of the customer. The agile project development
life cycle is as follows: