Managing time and allocating resources effectively in agile projects

Agile project management is becoming more and more popular. However, the benefits of using this methodology can only truly be felt if you are managing your time efficiently and allocating recourses effectively on a day to day basis. For instance, you need to avoid multi-tasking, which consumes extensive energy, and you need to stay away from long-term double burdens. But, how can you achieve this? Here are four tips that should give you a helping hand in making sure you don’t waste any time or resources on your next agile project…

1. Stop multitasking

Single tasking is the way forward because multi-tasking will ruin your productivity levels. It simply does not work. No, not even for women! The human brain is designed to concentrate on one thing at one moment. It is not designed to efficiently juggle several different things at once. What happens is that we end up jumping between different tasks, rather than focusing all our effort on getting one thing done.

1. Take an agile project management training course

One of the easiest ways to manage resources and time better is to look for one of the a professionally recognised project management certification based on the agile approach. APM project management courses are one such example. This will help you to become familiar with various tactics, techniques and technologies you can use to improve your management and allocation of resources and time. It will also make you feel more confident when delivering Agile projects, and it gives your CV a good boost in the process too.

1. Use timeboxing to make project peak times more predictable

Timeboxing is a simple method that can be used to combat multitasking. There is no need to juggle a million different tasks in the workplace. In fact, when you do this, you are unlikely to get anything done. So, how does timeboxing help? Timeboxing ensures there is a timeframe that has been clearly defined for a project task. The project team will, therefore, achieve the best result that is possible within this timeframe. Therefore, as opposed to working towards a particular objective, you are actually working towards a time period. This is beneficial because it stops team members from getting bogged down and prioritising things that don’t really matter.

1. Communicate expectations

Last but not least, communication is of paramount importance in any project team. It is one of the most critical ingredients, but it is often where a lot of project managers go wrong. If you are not clear about roles and responsibilities, and how they fit into the bigger picture, you may experience a lack of commitment on your team. This is because team members struggle to see how they fit in and why their role is important.

So there you have it; four tips you can use to help you improve resource allocation and time management when working on agile projects. If you follow the advice that has been provided, you should notice a difference. But, don’t expect everything to turn gold overnight – such changes take a bit of time to get used to, but they will be worth it.