European Structural and Investment Funds, as part of the Europe 2020 strategy, are being regionally accepted and companies identify them as a source of funding for their projects. One such project was of Amphinicy Technologies. After obtaining EU funding, their aim was to redesign and have a modern user-friendly solution developed for their company website. After publishing the tender, they chose Perpetuum mobile as the best solution proposal and the project was officially underway.
As the appointed project manager, the first aim was to dedicate a team and set a project plan with the widely accepted practice of development based on Agile Scrum project methodology. Considering the specific needs of EU-funded projects, which reflect in periodical reporting, documenting the process, and alignment with rules and regulations, a different approach had to be taken by using a hybrid project methodology. Combining the traditional project approach and Agile Scrum, we have developed a specific hybrid to satisfy the given requirements. Therefore, the key project components can be separated into Agile and Traditional:
Agile:
- Scrum framework for managing tasks and delivering work on a regular sprint-oriented schedule with open/in progress/on hold/done workflow
- Sprint planning meetings
- Daily stand-up meetings
- Burndown chart analysis
- Sprint reports
- Time tracking reports
- Workload reports
- Resource management
Traditional:
- Kick-off meeting document
- Functional requirements document
- Project plan (defining project goals and objectives, phases, methodology, internal and external team, risk register, project communication, and reporting)
- Project status report (on a monthly basis)
- Meeting book
For the project, a team of employees was dedicated and the process of team development was to take place. It involved going through the phases of team development based on Tuckman’s model, which can be seen on the graphic below:
Tuckman foresaw five phases of team development that include forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. During the project completion phase, a new phase emerged as necessary to be identified, and that is the evaluation phase. This is an upgrade to the basic five-phase model, as a good practice should encourage organizational change through team evaluation that results in a list of qualities and characteristics of dedicated teams, as well as knowledge transfer on a horizontal basis throughout the organization.
The basis of team development is collaboration and it is vital to mention which tools were utilized to make ease of those processes. For Agile Scrum management, Atlassian Jira was the main platform for defining sprints, epics, versions, and tasks, as well as for reporting based on backlog and sprint reports. Quick communication was utilized through Microsoft Teams, which turned up to be a good choice, especially for dislocated members with whom we collaborated through video call chats. On the other hand, developers and designers used specific tools such as inVision for presenting the design and Zeplin for ease of converting the design to CSS.
After all, organizational and personal vise, we and I were very satisfied with the outcomes of the project and will continue work on polishing internal and external aspects of future projects to mere perfection. Using modern techniques and academic knowledge I am inspired towards suggesting a change in the management process by advancing its predefined steps through out-of-the-box thinking and creativity of youthful and ambitious team members.
