How Can Agile Management Work for Your Research Project?

If you are already ready with a research paper, then there are maximum chances that you must be prepared with a list of things that you will need to do next, and these things must be mentioned in a sequence. This type of approach is known as the waterfall approach, and the main motive behind using this type of approach is to make sure that more significant tasks are being broken into smaller, more achievable tasks. In this type of approach, the person moves to the next step and moves to the next one only after completion.

But you must be aware that research papers change from their original proposal, and things get quite messier than just following a sequence. This is where the waterfall method isn’t that effective. And this is where agile management can help you since it is known in the market for flexibility.

During its 20 years of existence in the market, agile has wholly transformed the software development sector, but that was just the beginning. It is slowly reaching other industries as well.

Understanding the agile project management

In any agile project management, a partial or early stage that can be enhanced at a later stage will always matter more than an ideal result reached only at the end of the project.

For example, if a painter has been asked to draw a picture of a waterfall, then that painter will divide his work into different sections; idea generation, drawing the outlines, coloring, and then finishing touch. But if the customer doesn’t like the painting, then the painter will have to start right from the beginning.

But if there will be an agile painter, he will draw a quick sketch of how the painting will look. The painter will then check the artwork with the customer, and if the customer likes it, the painter will move forward and start adding colors to the picture.

This shows us how an agile approach towards project management can save your time, effort, and money. If you do not just focus on developing a waterfall plan, following it, and then starting from the beginning if anything goes wrong, you will be able to harness the advantages of agile management, especially when it comes down to research paper.

Here is how an agile Ph.D. experimental protocol will look like. You don’t need to follow the same protocol as everyone’s needs will be different, but you will have to consider these steps as a building block of your agile approach.

Splitting the work- Begin with dividing the entire work into smaller tasks that can be achieved with ease.

Service Delivery Review- Fix a meeting with your stakeholders and supervisors and explain to them the goal of your sprint and the time frame.

Sprint execution- Start working and always pay maximum attention to a particular task and deliver work continuously for customer feedback.

Daily Stand-up Meeting- Prepare short, daily meetings with your team and quickly sync progress on the project. Discuss impediments and don’t turn them into status report meetings.

Service Delivery Review- Create a cadence for your team to meet once a week or once a month (depending on your delivery cycle) and discuss the process, measure workflow metrics and look for improvements.

Agile management is one of the best approaches when it comes down to streamlining the approach that you are using for your research paper. Just use this blog post as a guide and use agile management for better results.