Agile Project management methodology has been around for about 20 years, but has really started to gain more and more traction in the past 5 years with a wide range of large organisations that would have typically felt more comfortable with a more traditional waterfall approach.

Today we’re looking at the benefits of utilising an Agile Project Management approach for a website build. The 12 principles of Agile can clearly be seen to benefit these types of projects.

The 12 Agile Principles

1 Satisfy Customers Through Early & Continuous Delivery

Ongoing incremental releases of a website that works and can then be developed, is much better than having a grand vision, which ends up being meticulously planned to the last detail and never actually gets launched!

2 Welcome Changing Requirements, Even Late in the Project

As the project progresses there will be change requests as new requirements become evident, these should be welcomed as they should improve the user experience which is key to the success of your website.

3 Deliver Value Frequently

This principle is key when delivering a new website and links to the first principle. You are far better off delivering working functionality regularly in shorter timeframes than potentially delivering no value for months on end with no visible product.

4 Break the Silos of Your Project

Make sure you encourage cross-functional working and develop a culture that engages all stakeholders. It should also deliver the best possible outcome, in terms of a high-quality website that meets everyone’s requirements.

5 Build Projects Around Motivated Individuals

Get the keen, motivated individuals and empower them to get on with the job and deliver a high functioning website.

6 The Most Effective Way of Communication is Face-to-Face

This is easier said than done in COVID-19 times, although video calls do work. This is a far better approach than hundreds of emails and rafts of documentation being circulated. It helps build the team and delivers a better outcome in terms of understanding.

7 Working Software is the Primary Measure of Progress

This is absolutely key. If the website isn’t functioning as it should as each piece of development is undertaken and testing completed then progress isn’t being made at the desired pace.

8 Maintain a Sustainable Working Pace

This impacts a lot of the other principles in terms of motivation, delivery, etc. It is important to keep things moving forward at a sensible pace and be realistic about what can be achieved in what timeframes.

9 Continuous Excellence Enhances Agility

Another key thing to remember, agile is all about high-quality continuous improvement.

10 Simplicity is Essential

Keep it simple, like anything else in life we can over-complicate and with over-complication comes lack of understanding, over-engineering, increased costs and potentially a more difficult user experience.

11 Self-organizing Teams Generate Most Value

If teams are empowered to organise themselves with support and facilitation from a project manager they work much better to deliver a high-quality website than if they are micro-managed and organised in a more dictatorial fashion.

12 Regularly Reflect and Adjust Your Way of Work to Boost Effectiveness

This does what it says on the tin! It is critical to a project’s success that all team members be given the opportunity to reflect and work out how to be most effective when involved in something like a website design and build project.

The key takeaways for anyone looking to project manage a new website build are to utilise the principles of Agile and ensure that there is an ongoing review and continuous improvement. Websites should be ever-evolving if they are to rank well on Google and exceed user expectations.

Want to avoid agile web development pitfalls when building websites?

Check out our blog on the common pitfalls and how to avoid them.

For more information or help with a website design and build contact us.