(bright music)
- The Agile methodology was developed out of a need
to address common inefficiencies
of more traditional project management approaches
like the Waterfall method
in the software development industry.
But some types of projects might actually be burdened
by Agile techniques.
There's no rule that says you can only pick one
and stick with it.
So let's break down the basic differences
between Agile and Waterfall processes
and walk through how to combine the best of both methods
using a Gantt chart.
Agile project management focuses on iterations
in which planning, design, implementation,
and testing occur in short periods of time.
Because planning happens
throughout the Agile project life cycle,
decisions can be more reactive.
In software development projects,
bugs can be caught early
and fixed before they grow to become bigger problems.
The premise of this approach is to continuously plan
around the inevitable change requests
as the product evolves.
It's not hard to see how Agile
and Waterfall processes differ from each other.
Here's the Waterfall process for a generic project.
And here's the Agile process for a generic project.
It turns out Gantt charts are still beneficial
for things like meeting deadlines, managing workloads,
and providing project status reports
to clients and stakeholders,
especially if your organization isn't 100% Agile.
These are some of the drawbacks of Agile
that you and your team may encounter
when using a hybrid approach in a traditional organization.
In Agile, a product owner is typically your only stakeholder
and they're heavily involved
in every decision made along the way
as your product evolves.
Unless you're working on an internal team whose single focus
is developing a product,
chances are, you're applying Agile principles
to a project that still has to operate
within a traditional organization.
Expect multiple stakeholders
like executive leadership, department managers,
and subject matter experts to muddy up the process.
In Agile, teams write user stories, not requirements.
The user story format helps the team uncover requirements,
which evolve and emerge as the project progresses.
This may mean the final end product differs
from the original vision.
Those stakeholders should be a part
of the decision-making process along the way.
Setting clear process and role expectations
should reel in any uneasy feelings.
Agile works in iterations to continually improve a product.
While this can be good for business,
it can become frustrating for stakeholders
who expect a hard deadline.
Without a clearly defined scope,
stakeholders may complain
that it seems like the project will never end.
Often, these very same people also request changes
or wanna add features to the product.
Dates are fluid with Agile
and it can be hard to communicate timing to stakeholders.
You're more likely to encounter stakeholders
who need to see a set of milestone dates
than ones who can deal without them.
People love dates and timing estimates.
Agile's great for blue sky ideas you build together.
But if you work in an organization
where leadership wants specifics
about what they'll get when
or where things are in the process,
Agile alone won't deliver.
You need a detailed plan
that shows them how you'll get to that date.
Gantt charts enable you to add structured timelines
to sprint cycles so you can easily update stakeholders
on the status of a project.
For all the things we just listed to not become a problem,
everyone has to be involved from day one.
While that isn't an issue for a project team
that's assigned to a single project,
it usually doesn't work out like that
for external stakeholders.
Often, they're too busy or don't have the expertise.
They simply want the bottom line:
Is the project on track?
Gantt charts can communicate that in seconds.
As project managers, it's our job to steer the project
from inception through completion.
We make decisions
that affect the finished product every day.
Selecting the right approach
for your projects is no different.
Don't get stuck thinking
you have to use one project management method or another.
You should rarely approach two projects the same way,
but you should begin with the same step.
Take all the background information available on the project
and study it.
From this information, determine which components
from both methodologies would work best.
This can be based on the attitudes of stakeholders,
critical dates that must be met,
technical complexity, and team composition.
The most common challenge is stakeholders' focus on timing.
Even if a project lends itself
to naturally assume more Agile-based techniques,
not having milestone dates worries many stakeholders.
An Agile Gantt chart is a project planning tool
that applies a Waterfall model to an Agile project
by mapping sprint tasks and dependencies out
on a visual timeline.
Using a Gantt chart for an Agile project makes it easy
to track progress, manage workloads,
and keep stakeholders up to date on the work.
Once you've decided which Agile techniques to use
in your day-to-day project management,
here are the steps to set up a basic Agile project
with a Gantt chart timeline.
Under each anticipated iteration,
create one task item per feature.
The key deviation from a typical Gantt chart
for a Waterfall-based project
is that this chart relies heavily on dependencies.
For instance, your QA team can't test new features
and functionality if you don't set up
a staging environment first.
So add a finish to start dependency
to connect those two tasks on your Agile Gantt chart.
Throughout the iteration, hold daily standups
as well as planning and review meetings.
From these meetings,
you can determine which features to move
to later iterations.
When these items are moved around in the Gantt chart,
the dates move automatically too.
In this Gantt chart example,
the highlighted item is a task that needs to be moved
to a later sprint.
Here, you can see that the task has been moved down
and the dependencies rearranged.
From your daily standups,
you may determine that two resources
can work on their assigned tasks simultaneously,
but some of the other tasks that are also assigned
will have to move back to accommodate this new addition.
So now, the Gantt chart for Agile sprint
looks something like this.
If your team doesn't wanna work in a Gantt chart,
TeamGantt gives you the option to view and manage tasks
in a Kanban board without having to juggle multiple tools
to tackle the project.
In Board view, cards are tied directly to tasks
on your Gantt chart.
Team members can update and move cards across columns
on your board as work progresses,
and you can rest easier knowing your Agile timeline
always reflects the current status of the project.
Here's what it would look like if we track our sprint tasks
in Board view based on the Agile Gantt chart example
we talked about a minute ago.
You can customize your project board columns
to fit your team or organization's process,
or even create your own custom board
which allows you to manage tasks across multiple projects.
Now that you've seen an example of how to use Gantt charts
to manage your Agile projects,
let's talk about the advantages.
First up, clients and stakeholders.
Clients and stakeholders really need the comfort of a plan.
Here are some benefits of using Gantt charts with clients.
While this setup won't produce the pretty progress chart
scrum masters are used to seeing,
you do have a schedule with concrete dates
that help stakeholders visualize the time and effort
each feature requires.
You can share this with your project team,
internal stakeholders, and clients.
When updated every day following a scrum,
it shows project progress in an intuitive way.
Clients know when to expect components
of the project to be completed
and they know when they'll be expected
to conduct their testing.
There's a clear roadmap
of how we would reach the final product.
Team members will also benefit from using Gantt charts
to manage your Agile projects.
Here are just a few advantages your project team might see.
They can see not only what's expected of them
in the upcoming iteration,
but also an outline of later iterations.
Certain tasks or features maybe moved down
to later sprints or iterations,
but the Agile Gantt format
can also shed light on dependencies.
They can plan for themselves and advise you
on how they'd like to approach implementation.
Testers can rest easy knowing a ballpark timeframe
of when they'll be needed.
They can see from the chart when they're expected to test
and what not to report bugs on.
No two projects are the same,
and this hybrid approach allows you
to customize how you run every project.
You can select techniques that are efficient
and balance your team's preferences
with your client's tendency to prioritize dates.
Use this Gantt backlog combination
to drive conversations with stakeholders
on how they requested changes can affect the overall timing.
It also provides a handy tool you can use
to educate less savvy clients
on design and development processes.
That's it for this video on using Gantt charts
in your Agile projects.
I hope you found it helpful.
If you did, I'd love it if you could return the favor
and hit the like button.
And don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications
so you don't miss any of our videos.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.
(bright music)