Why Is Agile Training Becoming So Popular? | Project Management Training

As the pace of transformation in today’s business world continues to accelerate rapidly, organisations are increasingly required to be able to respond quickly and flexibly to change. Certifications like Agile PM®, Scrum Master and Lean Six Sigma have grown in popularity as businesses have seen the advantages of Agile over more traditional waterfall based methods. There is no doubt now that Agile has fully transitioned from a software development methodology into a full approach to project management. This blog will explore some of the reasons for this.

How Popular Is It?

There is no denying that Agile has grown in popularity over the years. The 2016 Project Management Census by Arras People, which surveyed 2000 project managers around the globe on their leadership habits, found that 25% of respondents used Agile project management methods in their daily activities. In addition, 60% said they’d had some exposure to Agile project management, while just 15% said they hadn’t had any exposure.

Even if they aren’t making the full transition to work solely with Agile project management methods, it’s clear that the majority of project managers are at least becoming familiar with Agile approaches and using them to an extent in their jobs.

What Are The Reasons For This?

There are various reasons why Agile is becoming more widely accepted, like the popular Prince2 qualifications. One of these is that it focuses on business needs. Agile focuses on priority, delivering the features which are of greatest value to the business first. By doing this, businesses are able to have a physical product ready much faster, allowing time to measure the result against the specification and make any changes necessary.

Another reason is time. The typical Agile project consists of two-to-four sprinting work cycles culminating in a comprehensive yet concise review of progress made before the next development phase begins. This is in contrast with regular timescales for conventional project management which can stretch into long weeks, months or even years.

A final reason is that Agile is iterative and incremental, meaning once the product has been created it can be grown and developed in line with project objectives. This approach also allows for a flexible response to change so that the most important tasks can be prioritised and there is time to adapt, should requirements be modified.

Whichever Agile certification you choose, it’s clear that the Agile training approach is providing benefit to projects and businesses worldwide. Official certifications like AgilePM® Foundation and Practitioner will provide a thorough grounding in Agile principles and how best to apply them to projects in order to reap their benefits and enable flexibility.