Volume 10, Number 5

Understanding the Characteristics, Benefits and Challenges of Agile it Project Management:
A Literature Based Perspective

  Authors

Godfred Yaw Koi-Akrofi¹, Joyce Koi-Akrofi² and Henry Akwetey Matey¹, ¹University of Professional Studies, Ghana and ²PMO Department, Vodafone, Ghana

  Abstract

The objectives of this study was to bring out the understanding of the concept of agile IT project management; what it is and what it is not. It was also aimed at comparing the pros and cons of both agile and traditional methods of IT project management in a typical industry setting; the challenges of going purely agile, and so on. It is purely a review of literature of peer reviewed papers sourced mainly from Google Scholar. It was revealed that agile outweigh the traditional methods in terms of benefits, but its implementation poses a lot of challenges due to a number of issues, paramount among them being organizational culture and empowerment of the project team. This has resulted in a number of industries sticking to the traditional methods despite the overwhelming benefits of agile. In another school of thought, the combination of the two paradigms is the way forward.

  Keywords

Project Management, Scrum, Agile, Software, Traditional