Please provide insight on how to improve upon the agile project management methodology from the reading below - support your response, thoughts, and opinion by adding a minimum of two references. To conclude, prompt a question at the end.

Software development is prominent in organizations all over the world, and for them to be created it requires a lot of difficult decision making and it requires the collaboration of many individuals and users to create something that brings value to the clients and organizations (Colomo-Palacios, Casado-Lumbreras,Soto-Acosta & Garcia-Crespo, 2013).

When it comes to software development, I would approach it with an agile methodology. I find that this methodology tackles just enough work at one time and ensure that it is exactly what the product owner wants, it gives them the opportunity to test and ok the product before it is released into a live environment, and to me that eliminates time wasted and dissatisfaction since everyone has the opportunity to work on these hands on and in the moment.

With a software development project, Agile methodology would have a team composed of the Project Manager, product owners and the team of analyst, programmers, engineers etc who will deliver the work. As a PM I would manage a backlog list of product owner request and begin assigning the work to a sprint of two -three weeks according to the time the team has decided the work will take. We would have a daily stand up to make sure everyone is on task, and to identify any blockers the core team is facing so we can successfully develop a product the product owners can test through UAT. Upon approval we would release the enhancement or updates and then do it all over again on the next sprint with a new set of product owners requests.

In my opinion the fact that difficult decisions need to be made when creating a software product is what make Agile the best methodology to address this challenge since every part of a software can be broken down into parts and decisions can be made based of those pieces that will eventually come together and make more sense down the line. According to Colomo-Palacios, Casado-Lumbreras,Soto-Acosta & Garcia-Crespo, 2013 they mention that manager face emotional consequences from having to make tough decisions when creating a product. To this I think that working closely with a team daily creates a place of trust and the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other, this may alleviate the anxiety that comes with being the person who has to think of all the requirements that would make a software product successful and of value, and that it meets all the needs it's intended to.

In conclusion, I think that I would approach a software product with an agile methodology to ensure communication and to stay on top of the challenges that the project team may face, as well as the needs of the product owners, this methodology will make the team work closely and creating a place of trust and support that may help the anxieties that come around decision making in the process of creating a product that will be found valuable and meet the needs of it's users.

References

Colomo-Palacios, R., Casado-Lumbreras, C., Soto-Acosta, P., & Garca-Crespo, . (2013). Decisions in software development projects management. An exploratory study. Behaviour & Information Technology, 32(11), 1077-1085.