Boosting employee productivity has been a top concern of almost every company for decades. New methodologies have offered a number of solutions, but too many organizations are lagging in implementing them.
How Agile Methodologies Increase Employee Productivity
Agile Methodologies can substantially improve worker productivity if it is properly integrated into your workforce. Here are the primary benefits.
1. Using Contractors to Cultivate a More Responsive Workforce
Contractors have always played an important role in many organizations. The biggest benefit they bring to the table is flexibility, which is a virtue that a growing number of companies are taking advantage of.
According to Jim Robinson, a leading field service analyst for Gartner, two out of five field service tasks will be conducted by contractors in 2020. Robinson says this trend is being implemented to cut costs and improve responsiveness:
“Field service organizations are under pressure to optimize costs and shorten lead times, prompting more experimentation with the use of an external workforce.”
2. Minimizing the Need for Revisions and Optimizations in the Later Stages of the Development Process
A number of project managers I have spoken with have made the same observation over the years. Too many teams fail to have a QA process in place during the early stages of the development process. As a result, the final solution doesn’t meet acceptable quality standards by the time it is finalized.
The Agile Methodology emphasizes the need to meet value metrics at every stage of the process. This minimizes the need to overhaul the entire project after a QA assessment at the end of the process. This lifts productivity by cutting waste throughout the process.
3. Emphasizing the Need for Collaboration
Take a look at the four elements of the Agile Manifesto:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
There is a reason that the focus on individuals and interactions is first on the list. Teams are playing an increasingly important role in development.
In the 1990s, it wasn’t uncommon for a single, diva employee to set records on their own. The model has changed remarkably since then. In 2017 and beyond, companies must emphasize the need for team-building.
Agile Methodologies focus on finding new ways to integrate employees to foster greater productivity. Today this is done through integrated technology platforms that bring people in sync and therefore improving productivity significantly. A number of new scheduling technologies have made it easier for companies to forge more cohesive teams.
“Smart, agile workplaces have an unwavering focus on providing constant unification between people, information, and processes. Today’s success depends on connectedness and collaboration — that’s not news. An IBM study from more than five years ago alerted us to the fact that industry outperformers have extensive smart workplace practices in place. But what have we been doing with this knowledge since then? Is it still a trend after such a long time? It is time to catch up and deliver the experience that employees have been asking for: simple, smart, and stretchy.”
4. Minimizing Complexity by Reducing the Scope of Each Project
One of the main focuses of Agile is coordinating much smaller projects. There are a few benefits of this:
- Reducing the ambiguity of a project, thereby minimizing the need for project managers to outline the objectives.
- Minimizing complexity, which reduces the error rate.
- Focusing on smaller teams, which minimizes the risk of oversights on the part of the project manager and client.
The ideal size of a project depends on the complexity and duration of the final development. However, smaller projects tend to be much easier to manage and leave less room for error, which helps team members be more productive.
Companies have deployed programs ranging from corporate social responsibility to working remotely in order to drive productivity, but nothing has been more effective than agile methodologies.
Have you implemented agile into your business?
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This article, "Want More Productive Employees? 4 Ways Agile Methodologies Can Help" was first published on Small Business Trends
Want More Productive Employees? 4 Ways Agile Methodologies Can Help
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