Discussion Board
Address the following questions in your responses to your replies. Respond in a pleasant, kind and professional manner:
• What did you learn from the thread?
• What additional questions do you have after reading the thread?
• What clarification do you need regarding the thread?
• How do your recommendations compare to the writer's recommendations?
• What have you learned from others' responses?
• What were the most compelling points from the interaction with your fellow student?
• How did your participation in this discussion affect your opinion and recommendations for this scenario?
• What still needs to be clarified after the discussion with your classmate?
• Refrain from pointing out grammatical or APA errors.
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.
Discussion Board Thread
In today's business world, it is important that organizations use agile approaches in their business environment. Agile is defined as the ability to create and respond to changes quickly. The ability to respond to changes in an organization, is the difference between the success and failure of a project. The agile methodology was developed to provide an alternative method for planning, implementing, and executing projects to produce a more optimal and efficient way of understanding projects. In this discussion board the techniques of the agile methodology are discussed, project selection and project proposals are analyzed.
The agile methodology is an iterative and incremental approach that contributes to its success. The iterative method used permits the restructuring of project during execution and encourages consumer interaction (Serrador & Pinto, 2015). The agile method allows project managers to shift focus from the specifics of each individualized part of the project, to having the ability to implement changes to the project as it occurs and creates more flexibility. A difference between the agile method and traditional approaches is the agile method emphasizes continuous design, flexible scope, embraces uncertainty and customer interaction, and creates a modified project team organization (Serrador & Pinto, 2015). Agile focuses on incremental changes that allows the organization to approach the various stages of design and implementation at a focused rate that allows changes within its processes, which produces success (Fernandez & Fernandez, 2008). The agile method produces business value earlier in the project life cycle, which allows value to be received prior to the conclusion of the project(Fernandez & Fernandez, 2008). Change request are accommodated between increments and discovered through the project to provide incremental solutions (Fernandez & Fernandez, 2008). The change requests enables the project manager to assess and address the problems as they occur, unlike the traditional method that creates a constraint on the entire process when change request are implemented.
In an ideal world, an organization could select an unlimited quantity of projects an organization could perform throughout the life of an organization. However, this is not practical for many organizations because many are constrained by resources, so organizations must choose which project is most beneficial and practical for the organization. There are many approaches that organizations can take to choose the project that is most suitable for the organization's culture and strategic design. To successfully chose a project that benefits the needs of an organization, the organization need to set specific criteria that pertains to the potential projects proposed. There are four steps that can be taken to select a project when there are numerous projects that need completion. The first step is to relate the selection criteria to the corporate strategies, secondly, the project manager needs to consider qualitative benefits and risk of the proposed project, the project manager must reconcile and integrate the needs and desires of the stakeholders, and lastly, the project manager must consider the multi-stage and group decision processes that evaluates each project against the chosen criteria (Huang, Chu, & Chiang, 2008). It is equally important that the persons responsible for making the decision on project selection are informed about all the aspects of the project. The members that are working together to choose the implement project must be diverse and unbiased (Huang, Chu, & Chiang, 2008).
A proposal is a document that includes the proposed approach, schedule, and budget for meeting the project requirements and accomplishing the project scope (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). The purpose of a project proposal is to create and define the project requirements that are used to satisfy the requirements and expectations of the customer, so that the contractor understands and are able perform the stated expectations (Gegic, 2018). The three major sections of a proposal are the technical, management, and cost sections. The technical section is used to convince the customer, the contractor understands their need or problem and can provide services at the lowest rate of risk and provide a beneficial solution (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). The elements of the technical section include: understanding the need, proposing an approach or solution, and states the benefits to the customer (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). The management section is to convey to the customer that the contractor can perform the proposed work and achieve the intended results (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). This section includes the description of major tasks, deliverables, project schedule and organization, related experience, and equipment and facilities that the project may need (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018). The last section of the proposal is cost, which communicates to the customer that the contractor's price for the project is realistic and reasonable. The elements of the cost section will reassure the customer that the cost associated with the project are allocated into a detailed breakdown that is understandable. The elements include: labor, material, equipment, facilities, subcontractors and consultants, travel, documentation, overhead, escalation, reserve, and profit (Gido, Clements, & Baker, 2018).
References
Fernandez, D. J., & Fernandez, J. D. (2008). Agile project management - agilism versus traditional approaches. The Journal of Computer Information Systems, 49(2), 10.
Gegic, M. (2018). Logical framework matrix and project proposal quality. Tehnika, 73(6), 889-896. doi:10.5937/tehnika1806889G
Gido, J., Clements, J., & Baker, R. (2018). Successful project management (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage. SKU: 2110771.
Huang, C., Chu, P., & Chiang, Y. (2008). A fuzzy AHP application in government-sponsored R&D project selection. Omega, 36(6), 1038-1052. doi:10.1016/j.omega.2006.05.003
Serrador, P., & Pinto, J. K. (2015). Does agile work? - A quantitative analysis of agile project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1040-1051. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.01.006.