All companies, from the largest to startups, are looking for more efficient ways to manage projects and manage the performance of their teams. Agile methodologies , which have become a “buzzword” in the business world, serve precisely this purpose.
Of course, there are different tools for applying agile methodologies, but they all have something in common: they seek to optimize workflow, team alignment, and, consequently, team performance. Agile methodologies began to be used in software development environments. Over time, however, they began to be applied in the most varied segments.
A study by consultancy PA Consulting shows that nearly 75% of leaders consider organizational agility a strategic priority. No matter the sector in which your company operates, believe me: you can benefit a lot from agile methodologies in the development of both your projects and the team.
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What are agile methodologies?
Agile methodologies are a set of practices and tools that aim to improve the quality, speed and assertiveness of a project. agile performance management is focused on a long planning period and rigid steps from execution to completion of a project.
In this case, it is only after full delivery (which often takes months) that project stakeholders make their comments and improvements are made.Agile methodologies, on the other hand, propose a phased delivery, where it is possible to show the first results already in the first stages of development.
They are also more flexible and adaptable based on preliminary and unforeseen results throughout development.
In practice, the work models proposed by agile methods make companies avoid wasting time and resources and accelerate validations with stakeholders.
The main agile frameworks for project and performance management are:
- Kanban , management that offers a visible board to all members of a team to follow the steps of the workflow
- Scrum , management framework where work is carried out and divided into cycles (fortnightly or monthly), called sprints, where deliveries are made iteratively and incrementally
- Lean Agile , a philosophy suitable for reduced and more objective projects, with a proposal of incremental construction of projects, with smaller deliveries gradually. The focus is on waste reduction and continuous improvement.
7 benefits of agile methodologies for performance management
There are many benefits of agile methodologies for team performance management. Faced with tight deadlines and increasingly lean teams, companies need to maximize work results and ensure more efficiency and productivity for teams.
Performance management with agile methodologies is especially important in the “BANI” world we are living in – Fragile, Anxious, Non-Linear and Incomprehensible.
It is estimated that 1 in 6 companies will fail in the next few years because they cannot keep up with changes in the market.
In this context, teams need to be increasingly adaptable to risks and unforeseen events, without letting them impact team performance and planning.
Check out some benefits of agile methodologies for performance management.
Better contingency management
The pandemic has brought managers and professionals a volatile and unpredictable scenario, where the planning and monitoring of projects need to keep up with the immediate demands of the market and also new strategic guidelines for companies.
Your team must be prepared to implement tests and changes quickly, with impacts that can be greater or lesser on the initial planning.
With agile methodologies, your company can work in shorter planning and execution cycles, having more flexibility and speed to change routes. Your team can also improve the response time to unforeseen events and customer feedback.
All this happens because deliveries happen incrementally and in iterative cycles.
Greater assertiveness
By facilitating smaller, but more frequent and predictable deliveries, agile methodologies allow your team to inspect the delivery of a large project, for example.
This means you can make continuous improvements before full delivery. Thus, workflows are more organized and easier. Business indicators also become more accurate, such as delivery time, customer and employee satisfaction.
Better prioritization and division of tasks
Managers often face challenges in distributing demands and solving complex problems. This can happen due to problems of prioritization or division of tasks – which directly impacts performance management.
Agile methodologies allow greater visibility of team tasks. In the Scrum method, for example, the team jointly plans the Sprint activities and prioritizes the deliverables.
On Kanban boards, in turn, everyone has clear visibility into everyone’s activities. All of this facilitates a fair and realistic distribution of tasks and priorities. The result? Better performance and balance in execution.
More independence and productivity for the team
One of the main assets of agile methodologies is the optimization of professionals’ time. By working with short cycles and quick alignments between teams, they avoid reworks, excessive long meetings and multi-step rework.
In addition, team members are able to work in an integrated manner, but with autonomy to carry out their tasks. Eliminating bureaucracy and better internal communication helps improve delivery speed and overall productivity.
Greater collaboration between teams
Agile methodologies also presuppose collaboration between interdisciplinary teams to achieve common project or business goals.
Unlike traditional work management, in which teams work in silos and where each professional thinks about their own delivery, agile methodologies think about collective goals.
In this way, they encourage recurring communication and optimization of the team’s general processes. Managers of multidisciplinary teams know that the better the team is, the better the overall performance.
More quality in deliveries
When the demands of a team are complex, it can be a challenge to align expectations and focus on the deliverables that really add value to the business. A common principle among all agile methodologies is to focus on delivering the greatest value to the customer and stakeholders.
Instead of seeing a project in a linear way as in traditional methodologies, agile methodologies align development with the needs of the company and customers.
Imagine that a company is developing software, for example. It can start with the most valuable features for the customer, and then build on to others.
The best thing is that you can now validate the development and make corrections little by little, so that, in the final stages of the project, the result is as close to the planned ideal.
Faster validations
Who has never lost in productivity and performance due to the delay or rework when validating something with a client or superior?
This is very common in traditional project management, where an entire project is delivered at once and then it is necessary to review all the deliverables at once.
In agile methodologies, it is common to involve the client several times in the construction of the project – and not just in the final delivery. In the short cycles of agile methods, the stakeholder is able to track small deliveries, allowing for faster work validation.