The challenges in establishing leadership in an agile software development project

Introduction

Globally, the market conditions are dynamic, the expectations towards those conditions are high which requires the companies to adopt intertwined and dynamic strategies to venture deals with diversified operation structure which is in collaboration with the integrated supply chain. These strategies require the projects to be agile and adaptable to fulfil the business delivery and customer loyalty criteria. The role of agile leaders come into play here as the shortcomings of traditional project management has created the need for the adoption of agile project management. This paper will overlook the leadership in the agile project setting with comparison to the traditional project, also agile leaders and their challenges, and recommendations for the upcoming agile leaders.

Leadership In Agile Project Setting as Compared to Traditional

Traditional project management (TPM) is characterized as the use of information, information, resources, and techniques to meet project needs. Therefore, TPM includes five phases: implementation, preparation, execution, reporting, and monitoring, led by and assisted by the project manager and project team. Besides, project management is concerned with meeting the requirements of scope, time, cost, risk, and quality where different procedures and roles parallel to ensure project progress and execution across the various phases of the project (Snyder, 2014). TPM is based on systematic procedures and methods in which the project manager and the team seek to identify and complete the project at one time, by comprehensive up-front planning; however, in TPM, once the phase is finished, it is anticipated that it will not be reviewed (Hass, 2007).

By comparison, it is difficult to function with the strict and structured approach of TPM for certain forms of projects such as software and IT projects. TPM was considered to be very unproductive in this form of the project because the criteria are ambiguous, immaterial, uncertain and subject to change (Chin, 2004). The field of software and IT has been motivated to create an innovative form of project management, which aligns with software projects' values, ideas, and design. Agile Project Management (APM) was therefore developed for the management of software and IT-related projects in the field of software development. In recent years, APM has also brought too much traction to other sectors as a result of APM's performance in IT and applications (Owen, Koskela, Henrich, & Codinhoto, 2006). APM is a synthesis of TPM principles and versatile, compact, collaborative and adaptable methods for regular changes (Rico & PMP, 2008).  The idea of agile software development approaches has been strongly influenced by APM principles and practices. Despite its arrival recently, APM has the benefit of greater flexibility and cooperation which facilitates its expansion across several sectors, including the public sector (Rico, Sayani, & Sone, 2009). 

There is a specific focus on the collaborative leadership style for APM and specifically in software project management, which in contrast with the traditional leadership style is based on strict control and command (Lee-Kelley & Kin Leong, 2003). In a study by Crowe (2013) APM and TPM demand that project managers, project management and key players work together to ensure they know the status of the project. Besides, any barriers affecting project progress should be eliminated by the Project Manager. APM aims to do so by stressing the values of servant governance that make the project manager a leader rather than a taskmaster. The project manager will encourage the team in forming working relationships, define simple rules and foster cooperation, rather than providing strict guidelines for the team to obey. Servant leaders shouldn't question the team they'd not be able to do something.