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Question answered in Quora - What core problems does Agile Methodologies solve in Program/Project Ma

The core problem that Agile methodology solves is when the project involves a lot of unknowns. Agile is not the silver bullet for everything. Agile works very well when there is a lot of trial and error needs to done, especially innovation and product development work.

Certain projects won't work well in Agile, for example WMS rollout, this is best done in a waterfall manner because there are so many dependencies. Before you begin configuration or development you need to do an end to end design and that cannot be accommodated in one Agile User story. Agile works really well when you are building capability after capability, meaning feature after feature and especially when you don't know how long will it take to get that feature perfected. It is not just technically building the feature but also sharing that with the user, seeking feedback and then perfecting it, so the user engages with it.

Also Agile works really well when the team is in one place, I am sure people are executing agile across remote teams successfully, but its effectiveness reduces, because you cannot just walk into the other person's cubicle and talk to the person, that is what agile encourages and you are supposed to do, because you need to build a feature as quickly as possible, instead of waiting for the next scheduled meeting or status call or the meeting point.

Where as waterfall approach works really well when everyone knows what needs to be done end to end.

Typically this is known after the design phase of the project. So for product development Agile works well, where as for implementations to Production scenarios Waterfall is still the best approach.

Also check out my book Puga Sankara's Supply Chain Blog - that is a must read before spending Hundreds & Thousands of $$$ on your MBA or Masters Degree to get the best ROI or before starting your Entrepreneurial journey.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Puga Sankara is the CEO and Founder of Smart Gladiator. Smart Gladiator is an ATDC Georgia Tech company, Smart Gladiator's award-winning product LoadProof (https://feature.loadproof.com/loadproof) is an Enterprise Photo Documentation System that is enjoying tremendous traction in the Supply Chain Community. LoadProof (https://feature.loadproof.com/loadproof) is a patent pending Centralized Cloud based Enterprise Photo Documentation System for Supply Chain. It is built on the premise that photos and videos are vital documentation serving as compelling proof of important operations performed in the supply chain within and across organizations. These operations may be related to fulfilling customer orders, meeting contractual obligations, or transferring merchandise across different parties taking part in the Supply Chain operations. LoadProof is as important for your organization as an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) which is an enterprise system of record for critical documents such as Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, Contracts between parties etc. that have tremendous legal ramifications, or a WMS (Warehouse Management System), that holds indispensable information related to orders shipment/fulfilment data. Just like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat have evolved into platforms that enable individuals to showcase how pretty they or their clothes are, LoadProof is a similar Enterprise system of record that holds photos, not so much for show off, but to serve as compelling, unequivocal, thoroughly documented proof, even in the court of law when there is a dispute between organizations while they perform many facets of their functions/operations, as well as for increased visibility and transparency within the Supply Chain. The capabilities of LoadProof are discussed in detail in the next sections of the document below. LoadProof is live in 460+ Sites, 250+ corporates, 13 Countries.There are more testimonials in this link here also https://www.g2.com/products/loadproof/reviews. Learn more here on our YouTube channel,  https://youtube.com/@smartgladiatorloadproof  & also here in LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/smartgladiator/

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