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Agile Methodology in PMP [Exam Notes]

  • Writer: Karthick Kumar Rajappan
    Karthick Kumar Rajappan
  • Feb 23
  • 2 min read

What is Agile?

Agile is a mindset and framework focused on delivering small, incremental value quickly, with continuous customer feedback and flexibility to change.

  • Agile favors collaboration, responding to change, and working solutions over documentation-heavy planning.

  • It is especially suitable for uncertain, fast-changing environments.


Agile Manifesto – 4 Core Values

  • Individuals & interactions over processes & tools

  • Working software over comprehensive documentation

  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

  • Responding to change over following a plan


Agile Principles

  • Customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery  

  • Welcome changing requirements—even late  

  • Deliver working product frequently (2–4 weeks)           

  • Business and dev teams must work together daily        

  • Build projects around motivated individuals     

  • Face-to-face conversation is best         

  • Working products are the primary measure of progress             

  • Sustainable pace of work (no burnout) 

  • Continuous attention to technical excellence   

  • Simplicity is essential   

  • Self-organizing teams create the best results  

  • Regular reflection and adaptation (retrospectives)      

     

Agile Frameworks


Scrum: Iterative and time-boxed (Sprints: usually 2–4 weeks)


Roles:

  • Product Owner: Prioritizes work and defines what to build

  • Scrum Master: Facilitates, removes blockers (NOT a boss)

  • Development Team: Cross-functional, self-organizing


Artifacts:

  • Product Backlog: Full list of features

  • Sprint Backlog: Features selected for this sprint

  • Increment: Completed, shippable product


Events:

  • Sprint Planning: Define what to do this sprint

  • Daily Scrum: 15-min standup meeting

  • Sprint Review: Demo to stakeholders

  • Sprint Retrospective: Discuss how to improve


Kanban

  • Flow-based method with WIP (Work In Progress) limits

  • Uses a Kanban board (To Do, Doing, Done)

  • Visualizes bottlenecks in work processes

  • No time-boxing, no roles defined


Extreme Programming (XP)

  • Focused on software engineering

  • Practices: Test-Driven Development (TDD), pair programming, continuous integration


Agile Practices & Concepts

Term

Meaning

Example

Backlog

Prioritized list of work

Hotel feature list (rooms, spa, gym)

User Story

Requirement from user's perspective

“As a guest, I want mobile check-in”

Story Points

Relative size/effort estimate

Feature A = 3 points, Feature B = 8

Velocity

Work completed in a sprint (e.g. 30 points)

Used to forecast future sprint capacity

Burndown Chart

Tracks remaining work in sprint

Shows if team is on track

Definition of Done

Criteria for completing work

“Tested, approved, documented”

Timeboxing

Fixed length of event (e.g., 2-week sprint)

Keeps team focused and predictable

Servant Leadership

Leadership through support, not control

Scrum Master removes team blockers

Self-Organizing Teams

Teams decide how to deliver

Developer decides tech stack, not manager

Agile in PMP Context: Agile vs Waterfall vs Hybrid

Area

Waterfall (Predictive)

Agile

Hybrid

Scope

Fixed early

Emergent, flexible

Some fixed, some adaptive

Planning

Big upfront

Rolling wave

Mix of both

Changes

Controlled, hard

Welcomed

Allowed selectively

Teams

Structured roles

Cross-functional

Mixed

Delivery

Once, at end

Frequently (sprints)

Core by waterfall, extras by agile

Agile Metrics

Metric

Use

Velocity

Avg. story points completed per sprint

Lead Time

Time from request to delivery

Cycle Time

Time to complete a single item

Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD)

Shows WIP, cycle time, bottlenecks

Escaped Defects

Bugs found by users after release


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