10 Benefits of Agile Project Management for Startups

The Agile methodology is rooted in the 2001 ”Manifesto for Agile Software Development,” the first document to outline the principles of what we know now as Agile. The methodology has since been adapted across disciplines despite being made initially for software development. 

Today, agile sets itself apart as the preferred approach in project management, owing to its flexible and adaptable nature. It balances priorities while giving equal weight to efficient organization, risk management, and flexible adaptation.

What is agile project management?

Agile project management is characterized by an iterative approach that divides a project into sprints, allowing for maximum collaboration, adaptability, testing, and, most importantly—quick execution.

Among the core principles of Agile project management that remain consistent with the original Manifesto’s principles are:

• Customer satisfaction
• Flexibility
• Quick delivery
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Quality
• Continuous improvement

The Agile approach to project management stands in contrast to classic project management, characterized by rigid structures and less room for flexibility. For this reason, classic project management styles can often yield to the pressure of more complex tasks and dynamic conditions. 

Agile project management is mainly characterized by incremental delivery and continuous improvement, making it a more suitable model for startups and modern workplaces. Projects that have proven to be fertile ground for agile are those with a high level of complexity and need further exploration, feedback, and learning.

In any project, the goal of an Agile project manager is to create an efficient, practical process that can quickly respond to change. While structure remains important (i.e. timeless, assignments, and goals), Agile tries to avoid the “process bloat” or fixation on rigid timelines and workflows. 

Importance of agile in startups

Agile is especially important in startups since their main focus is still on promoting their product and getting the word out to their target market. The startup product is generally unproven and untested—and thus requires funding, investments, and sales during the early stages.

Agile specializes in enabling the production of working products in iterations. So, in case working iterations can’t be produced in time for a pitch meeting, for example, Agile dictates that demonstrative mock-ups be created instead of just presenting the product idea through a deck. 

This way, clients and investors can experience and use a working product, even if it’s still in its earlier stages—and see its potential and utility early on. By Agile principles, this working product is a far more valuable and powerful sales driver than a vague concept illustrated and outlined on paper.

Agile also facilitates the quick implementation of ideas through short production cycles, allowing quick testing. This helps in acquiring feedback that will inform business-critical decisions in startups. 

Additionally, Agile works well within startups because smaller terms generally work under pressure, especially when working on a new product. Agile embraces a more collaborative, cross-functional makeup instead of micromanaging and extremely hierarchical leadership styles. This allows each team member to feel valued, empowered, and trusted enough to deliver high-quality output, improving working relations and boosting overall productivity.

Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash

It’s worth mentioning, however, that startups tend to benefit more from Agile when it’s adopted early on rather than later on as the business scales. Assimilating agile project management methods from the beginning makes Agile a core element of business operations and not just a framework to be imposed on already-existing workflows later on.

Different types of methodologies for Agile project management

Here’s a quick rundown of some Agile project management methodologies:

Extreme programming (XP)

Designed for software development projects, XP prioritizes continuous development and customer delivery through sprints or intervals. Because it’s specific to software development, XP has 12 processes that underpin the methodology:

• Planning game: The main planning process

• Simple design: XP focuses on a simple design and can be refined through each stage
• Test-driven development: XP developers start with test cases first to know what works so that programmers only have to write code that passes the tests
• Code standard: Coding standards are defined early on to ensure consistency across code and coding elements throughout the development process
• Refactoring: Refers to the process of improving overall code quality and removing extraneous details
• Pair programming: The practice of two programmers working simultaneously on different aspects of the code to ensure its quality
• Collective code ownership: In XP, project success and failure are collective—so all bugs and issues can be resolved by any team member because everyone knows the ins and outs of the project
• Continuous integration: The code created from pair programming is regularly integrated into the project to ensure cohesiveness
• Small release: Refers to the practice of releasing small chunks of code that serve as Minimum Viable Product (MVP) at frequent intervals
• System metaphor: Refers to the use of simple naming conventions to facilitate easier coding, such as “take order” for an order-taking app
• Onsite customer: This is the product owner, someone who is responsible for defining the vision, user stories, and other major project elements
• Sustainable pace: Refers to the customer-centric practice embodied by XP

Scrum

The Scrum board methodology breaks a project into “sprints,” or smaller stages with achievable goals. Scrum focuses on planning and managing one sprint at a time, lasting anywhere between one to four weeks each. This way, teams working on a sprint are brought together with a common goal in mind and can focus on specific tasks. 

This methodology uses Scrum board, which groups tasks into progress-based columns. It also assigns a Scrum leader and product owner designated to spearhead projects through a series of sprints. 

Kanban

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Kanban focuses on providing a simplified, visual way to manage projects and gauge progress. Kanban project management uses a Kanban board, which segments tasks into “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Complete.” (Although, the system can use any number and variety of stages.)

Although relatively simple, the Kanban methodology promotes transparency and accountability, allowing team leaders to track from start to finish. Unlike Scrum, Kanban doesn’t use sprints but focuses on task status and prioritizes flexibility across roles and team structures.

Benefits of Agile project management tools for startups

Agile project management can be beneficial to startups in several ways:

Adaptability to change

Agile project management promotes adaptive planning and relies on self-organizing teams. This means that project managers can adjust priorities, project scope, and direction whenever needed. The common causes for such adjustments run the gamut from changes in the market to customer feedback and immediate business value. 

Customer-centric approach

The customer is always at the center of any Agile method, as opposed to only in the planning phase in traditional methods. This allows room for change according to their needs or feedback at every step, reducing unnecessary back-and-forth later. 

Optimized resource allocation

Agile methodology manages and allocates resources in a flexible and adaptive manner. Mainly because it uses an iterative approach, which encourages frequent reassessments, Agile project management allows for adjustments in resource allocation depending on feedback and/or progress. Agile’s collaborative nature also encourages open communication, so startup teams can cooperate to ensure adequate resources are available when needed. 

Incremental value prioritization

Regardless of the specific methodology, Agile approaches break down large complex undertakings into smaller, more manageable segments. Throughout these tasks and sprints, Agile project teams deliver products of incremental value—meaning that each successive version of the product is a usable version. Then, each succeeding version builds upon the previous one by adding functionalities in the next sprints. 

Transparency and accountability

Agile methodologies are big on project visibility and transparency across the board, allowing your team members, project managers, and stakeholders to get a clear picture of project progress at all times. This facilitates better communication and smoother collaboration across teams, allowing members to immediately spot lapses, gaps, or delays that need to be remedied. 

Collaborative workflow enhancement

Agile operates on the assumption that each team member is a valuable member of the team and is capable of doing their job well. Equal effort is thus expected from all team members to complete each sprint, fostering teamwork and furthering trust between team members.

Additionally, internal and external communication is critical in Agile, especially since crucial and time-sensitive information always needs to be relayed to consumers and stakeholders promptly. 

Effective risk mitigation

An Agile approach to project management also considerably reduces project risks. This is because the iterative approach applied to most projects encourages constant improvement and risk assessment at each stage. 

Feedback loops are also an essential part of Agile. These create a venue for issues and errors to be identified and addressed promptly—leading to effective and timely risk management. Lastly, Agile always produces a working product or MVP through each sprint, so the chances of the project completely failing are significantly reduced. 

Accelerated time-to-market

This is one of the most critical advantages of Agile. Agile project management allows startups to leverage opportunities and enjoy the first-mover advantage. 

And because projects are delivered incrementally, you can quickly respond to market changes and improve the product as needed. The iterative approach also enables timely product delivery, given that sprints are completed within weeks. 

Continuous improvement and learning

As a startup, one of your key focus areas will be to try and gain a competitive advantage by strengthening your product. By its iterative nature, Agile encourages continuous improvement and learning. It allows you to review progress constantly and identify and correct issues as they arise. 

This also allows startup teams to learn from their mistakes and avoid repeating them during the next sprints.

Enhanced innovation

Innovation is crucial for startups.

Agile fosters collaboration and feedback, allowing ideas to flow freely. This means your team can experiment and solve problems with creative and out-of-the-box solutions. Agile eliminates silos between teams, which lets your project managers uncover new ways of working across various disciplines.

Conclusion

Agile project management uses a customer-centric, iterative approach to complex tasks. This makes it the perfect fit for startups. It gives you a fast-paced, manageable, and efficient way of working that delivers a Minimum Viable Product at each stage.

Another key feature of Agile is flexibility. This allows teams to collaborate, experiment, and innovate—all of which can be deeply valuable to startups looking to secure funding and deliver quality products ahead of competitors.

[Header photo by airfocus on Unsplash]