Agile Project Tracking And Methodology

For agile-based projects, as well as projects based upon the traditional waterfall approach, the primary objective is to build and deliver the product. However, there are certain differences between agile methodology and traditional software development, namely, a focus on the requirements of the highest level, time needed for producing the requirements and documentation and, describing the project scope.

With an emphasis on these important elements, agile-based projects requires advanced documentation software tools. The high level requirements are formulated in user stories and then represented in a release plan. User stories for the whole project are created on project initiation, and more detailed documentation for sprints is prepared after the start, separately for every next sprint separately. Thus, a development team possesses all necessary documentation without spending much time and effort on creating documentation in advance.

In order to practice agile software for project management, you should adhere to the following set of criteria:

1. All information with associated documentation should be stored in one place and should be easily accessible for all team members involved into software development process.
2. Agile software tools for project management  allow shared plans and meeting schedules for all project authors.
3. Project tracking systems should allow notifications to the project team members for all updates. It should be flexible enough to allow sending notifications to a predefined group of project participants or all team members.
4. Advanced agile software systems allow splitting tasks and prioritizing them. Project tracking systems allow tracking project milestones, sprints and minor tasks.
5. A multi-level system to  facilitate management of tasks within specific projects. It is possible to assign existing team members to newly added tasks, to define their roles and set permissions for groups or individual developers.
6. It is important to have a dashboard representing all activity made in the project for a selected range of time.

Management of software projects in terms of agile methodology means much more than simple planning of a list of taskss. Basing upon the idea of adaptability, flexibility, collaboration and communication, project tracking and management processes require a centralized location of all information related to the project.

It creates a specific development environment for all participants to be informed about changes and progress of the project in a real time mode. Accordingly, there is a need ofor a specific project tracking tool, which facilitates discussions, give-and-take and feedback, and stores all relevant information.