Gone are the days of the “big room” experience where project teams gathered for Agile planning sessions. As organizations embrace remote workforces, they are turning to collaboration tools to manage these sessions whether it’s PI (Project Increment) Planning, Scrum, Lean, or Kanban.
Agile planning software recreates the big room experience and secures all planning details in one place. Some tools take it a step further by combining Agile offerings with whiteboarding. With this type of tool, teams can easily visualize and collaborate on any issue, task, or bug. Because this is a virtual workspace, everyone can stay actively engaged in real-time regardless of location.
The Advantage of Agile Approaches
Before we get into the benefits of Agile collaboration tools, we need to define Agile. Agile is the “ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately succeeding in, an uncertain and turbulent environment.”
Agile project management helps reduce waste and increase transparency, while addressing customers’ ever-changing requirements.
Agile practices enable organizations to be more resilient, flexible, and efficient. The word ‘agile’ refers to the ability to move quickly and easily. An Agile approach enables project teams to adapt faster and easier.
There are many Agile frameworks and planning strategies, including:
- Scrum: A framework that can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value. It uses fixed-length iterations of work, called sprints.
- Kanban: A means to design, manage, and improve flow systems for knowledge work. The method also allows organizations to start with their existing workflow and drive evolutionary change.
- Lean Software Development (LSD): A way to optimize development time and resources, eliminate waste, and deliver only what the product needs. The Lean approach is also often referred to as the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) strategy
- Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®): A set of organizational and workflow patterns for implementing agile practices at an enterprise scale.
- PI Planning: A session to determine the overall mission, vision, and plan to align all the teams on the Agile Release Train (ART).
Digital Tools Can Help With Agile Planning
There are many Agile collaboration tools available but, to be successful, they must improve the way people naturally work rather than attempting to change it. The right workspace improves stakeholder accountability through performance visibility. It should also enable real-time feedback and notification alerts on progress.
Creating an engaging digital work environment for your team does not have to be a daunting effort. Look for ones that help you align with your business goals and objectives. You will get things done more effectively, release more features in less time, and stay on budget.
Other benefits of Agile Workspaces include:
- Save Time: Before, after, and during meetings, reduce time wasted between activities and time spent traveling.
- Increase Engagement: Users are encouraged to engage in Workspace activities simultaneously, in real-time, and with the added comfort of using their preferred devices.
- Safe & Secure: Information is saved digitally and protected by passwords, read/write permission settings, and secure servers.
- Reduce Stress: With less of a focus on the logistics of coordinating an in-person session, there is more time focus on the quality of work done.
- Faster Decisions: Working in a single comprehensive Workspace helps align your team for quality collaboration.
- Less Mistakes: No need to worry about the minute-taker losing your information. These notes are saved in the cloud.
How Hoylu Can Help
While many digital solutions are complex technologies that require extensive training and integration periods, some are easy to use. Hoylu collaborated with industry experts in construction, logistics, energy, education, and military to develop a tool that is simple to use and easy to adopt across organizations with remote teams.
Organizations can drive collaboration by leveraging Hoylu Agile Project Management Modules to engage every stakeholder in PI planning, dependency mapping, confidence votes, capacity planning, and other Agile ceremonies.
Leaders can reinvigorate company culture by empowering every stakeholder to fully participate and get up to speed by bringing all relevant context such as sketches, mockups, or other documents into the Hoylu Agile Workspaces.
For more information, get started for free or contact us for a demo today.