THE MANAGEMENT OF AGILE IT PROJECTS

Professionals in the areas of informatics and computing tend to have difficulties when dealing with projects, even more so when we talk about technological projects; Due to the scarce use of good practices to lead them and depending on the type of project (Software, Hardware or Communications and Networks), it will have its own complexity.

In this sense, a specialist in information and communication technologies, must have the necessary skills to lead work teams, around innovation, development and research projects, these skills range from; Leadership, Commitment, Negotiation and Knowledge on the subject, strengths that will make it lead to a successful completion of the project, however, this is not enough, it is necessary to rely on international standards, such as the Project Management Institute (PMI ) and Agile Software Development (Agile Software Development), to manage projects in an agile way and following guidelines that allow effective planning, monitoring and control of project interactions.

Within this framework of ideas, many specialists tend to think that PMI Project Management and Agile Development cannot be complemented, it is understood that the main focus of PMBOK Project Management are processes and tools (artifacts), while that the Agile Methodology relies on individuals and their interactions, that is, in the first we have a progressive or sequential vision and in the second an individual interaction.

The WEB portal PMOInformática.com (2012), made a comparative table between both methodologies. Here are the results.

Activities and Tools PMI vs. Agile Development Activities and Tools:

  Source: http://www.pmoinformatica.com/2012/07/gestion-de-proyectos-pmi-y-el.html 

  Source: http://www.pmoinformatica.com/2012/07/gestion-de-proyectos-pmi-y-el.html

The preceding analysis shows us that the artifacts used by the PMI are commonly used in the initial stages of projects managed through agile methodologies, and that they have integrated change control processes at the end of each interaction or task that is carried out during the life cycle of the project, in this way we can determine that both complement each other.

Ultimately, we can determine that according to the dynamics that the PMO manager defines to apply, to manage a technological project, the processes that are applied from the PMBOK will depend and in turn the change controls according to the agile approach.