The Challenges and Gaps in Agile Project Management: A Study in I.T. Project Consultant Companies

1. Introduction

The most essential and crucial part of the research paper is well evaluated in this chapter. Agile project management considers to be the most critical aspect in the context of the modern day’s business project management approach. This research report broadly defines the challenges and gaps associated with the project management approach especially on the IT project consultancy firms. In addressing the attributed research objectives and goals, this report identifies mixed approach of research methodologies which include qualitative and quantitative approach the research methodology defines the approaches of collecting data as regards the relevancy of the topic. While collecting primary data a comprehensive and inclusive questionnaire has been formulated for the better understanding of the every aspect related to the identification of the research objectives and goals. This chapter provides the analytical results based on the primary research of questions using the SPSS software for better understanding of the responses as regards the research topic.

Considering the adopted approach of qualitative and quantitative data collection methodologies, this chapter provides the in depth real world understanding of ‘the challenges and gaps in the agile project management in IT companies’. The sampling of the primary research methodologies includes the questionnaire of the selected firms of the IT projects consultancy which have used the agile approach in the project management. The collected responses from the selected participants are proved to be very effective in the context of analyzing the contextual questions of the research paper. This research contains five relevant questions which include consider being the most important aspect for the research paper in understanding the gap and challenges for agile project management in the IT consultancy project. The collected responses of questionaries’ are framed and module in the SPSS software for the better statistical analysis of data in the form of graphs, charts and diacritic statistics. Since the research focused on the identification of gap and challenges of the agile project management in the IT consultancy organizations, the results of the collected relevant data proves to be very effective for the overall research paper validity and reliability. The primary analysis has been framed into three phases for the description of agile involvement of participants, description of agile project, role of team in agile project management.

2. Primary analysis

Descriptive analysis

Considering the gathered responses from 100 IT professionals who work as a team management, this research analysis provides the detailed overview of the challenges and gaps associated with the agile team management. Based on the analysis about 30% of the respondents have agreed about the immediate initiation of project, while 38.2% of the respondents agree about based on the resource availability.  A detailed overview of the project initiation and effect of several variables are shown in the below table.

Table 1: Agile project initiation

(Source: SPSS)

The ‘descriptive analysis’ as regards the demographic profile of the participants in the research questionnaire is evaluated based on primary data collection procedures. The descriptive analysis of the participants’ company type, role in the team, average team size, year of experience and project requirement changes are analyzed which is show in the below graph.

Figure 1: Participant company type preference

(Source: SPSS)

The figure illustrates that most of the participants belong to the project company types which proves to be the demonstrating aspect for the occupation and roles as regards agile project management. The descriptive analysis further demonstrates that about 41% of the participants in the questionnaire sampling belong to Product Company, about 39% belong to Project Company and rest to the hybrid company.

Figure 2: Role of the participants

(Source: SPSS)

Again defining the role in the team, the analysis of the responses from the questionnaire suggests that majority of participants related to product owner or Scrum master. About 40% of the participants contributed as a Scrum master, 26% respondents project manager and rest to other dedicated roles such as business analyst, developer, team lead, project manager and director.

Figure 3: Average team size of the participant

(Source: SPSS)

The figure shows the result of the analysis of the average team size based on the responses from the primary research questionnaire. The result illustrates that about 34.2% have been identified as team range ‘5-10 members’ , 27.9% belong to ‘10-20 members ‘, about 29.7% to ‘3-5 members’ of team  members.

Figure 4: Years of experience of the participants

(Source: SPSS)

The descriptive analysis further demonstrates the diversified experiences of the participants. About 21 percent participants shows the on job experience in the IT team management which is about ‘10-15 years’, and 20% demonstrates about ‘7-10 years’.

Figure 5: Frequency of client meeting

(Source: SPSS)

The descriptive analysis further demonstrates the participated respondent’s meetings approaches in the team development. The analysis shows that about 45 % of the respondents allow meetings about ‘once in 2 week’, while 24 % approaches to the ‘daily basis’ frequency of client meetings, 15 % go thorough ‘weekly’ basis approach of client interaction and about 13.% at ‘other end of the milestone’.

Figure 6: Satisfaction level of agile team

(Source: SPSS)

The above figure shows the satisfaction level of the agile team manager with the team performance. The analysis from the frequency analysis of provides the figure of significant level of satisfaction with the team and job as regards agile project management from the gathered responses (Kalenda et al. 2018). About 46% of the respondents showed level 4 and 30% about level 5 satisfaction in the context of team and job delivery.

Figure 7: Difficulty level of tasks

(Source: SPSS)

The frequency analysis even illustrates the level of difficulties of tasks assigned to the participants. About 53 participants responded to the level 3 of difficulty as per assigned tasks, while 30 responded have been seen in level 4 of difficulties. So considering the provided result of the frequency analysis. It can be most of the project manager in the IT agile team development proved to be very challenging and difficult.

Correlation analysis

The primary analysis further evaluates the correlation between clarity of the project, product backlog, difficulties of tasks and level of challenges in understanding the gap and challenges of the agile project management. The below correlation table well explains the relation between different variables. A detailed analysis is presented in the following-

Table 2: Correlation analysis

(Source: SPSS)

Based on the primary data collected from the questionaries’ from the participants, the following correlation output is being drawn from the correlation analysis. The table shows the correlation between the four variables. From the above table it can be stated that the all these variables have a strong positive correlations the Pearson correlation values .The correlation is being run to find the significant at alpha(0.05).In this regard the multiple correlation is being performed for better connections of data with the variables. As per Pearson correlation analysis the relation of the dependent and independent variables of the project is well significant in the overall analysis (Gupta and Gupta, 2022). There is a significant degree of correlation in the four variables for understanding the agile project management. While defining the result of the correlation analysis, the result shows the value of (.225, .234, and .413) in the context of product backlog, level of difficulty, and level of challenges. The result itself provides the positive or directional correlation approach. So this means the variable changes broadly effect on the dependent and independent variables. Since the ‘p value’ is bigger than ‘0.05’ and the significance of is about 37% so the significance relation between the all the four variables.

The primary analysis has further demonstrates the covariance analysis using the univariate analysis of variance. The covariance analysis provides the univariate analysis of the two variance of agile methodology and satisfaction of team job. The result shows the weighted least square regression with the adjusted R square (.020).the standard deviation of the methodological approach of Kanban accounts as 1.91 which demonstrates the most agile project methodological approach in modern organizations. There is a significant correlation between the variables of ‘team satisfaction’ and ‘applied agile methodology’.

Regression analysis

The primary analysis of the questionaries’ based on the questionnaires are well explained with the outcome of the variables such effectiveness of agile meetings, satisfactions of customer end product.  As using the linear regression model. The first model of interest depending on the variables is being the model summary. The below table provides the detailed overview of the R, R square , adjusted R square and the standard error estimation for the determination of the regression model in the provided data of determining the variables.

Table 3: Regression model summary

(Source: SPSS)

Based the model summary, R value represents .246 which accounts a significant level of prediction. The R square value which is presented as .060 well explains the variability level of dependent variable of challenge in the project which is about 60%. The standard error in the regression analysis test results as 1.32 which fits in the measuring of the precision of the model. So in the case of the dependent variables of level of challenges in the project is well predicted with the effectiveness of the agile team meetings.

Table 4: ANOVA for the level of challenges in the agile project

(Source: SPSS)

The F ratio of the analysis using the ANOVA tests provides the detailed overview of the variability level of the dependent variables over the independent for the prediction. In the given test the independent variable statistically proves to be very effective in the prediction of the dependent variable. The example of F (2,101) =3.246, p (0.001) which is less than .05 shows that the regression model of the analysis fits with the provided data. So considering the analysis using the ANOVA model proves to be very reliable in terms of linking with level of challenges of the agile project and the effectiveness of team meeting in the context of customer satisfaction of end product.

Table 5: Coefficient analysis

(Source: SPSS)

In the given test result of coefficient the corresponding t-value and p-value are well demarcated as ‘t’ and ‘Sig’ columns of the above table. In the given example of the tests, ‘satisfaction of customer with the end product’ shows p (.082) <0.05 and ‘effectiveness of agile team meetings’ shows p (.271) <0.05. In the context of the analysis of the dependent variable of the challenges of the agile project, this model shows that ‘satisfaction of customer with end product’ and ‘effective agile meeting’ adds substantial attribution to the agile project management.

Figure 8: Scatter plot for the residual output

(Source: SPSS)

The above figure shows the residual regression standardized scatter plot depending on the output of the linear regression analysis of the primary data. The variation of residuals standardized regression values of dependent variables is best fit for the predicted values.

3. Discussion on findings

Considering the overall analysis of the findings of the gathered from the primary data from 110 respondents from the relevant IT companies, this research results proves to be a reliable source for the future research as regards the understanding of the challenges and gaps associated with the agile project management. This report provides the detailed overview of the research methodological analysis using the primary approach of data analysis using the selective tool of SPSS for better understanding of the in depth responses from the various questionaries’ of selected IT organizations. The primary collected data from the formulated questionaries’ are effectively utilized based on the statistical methods of regression, correlation covariance, and ANOVA tests in related to the project objectives of finding the gap and challenges of agile project management in the IT consultancy organization. This discussion of the findings of the results of the primary data analysis provides the relevancy and congruity in association with the research objectives. This chapter provides a detailed analysis of various statistical tools using regression, correlation, covariance, and ANOVA tests. This approach of the statistical analysis of the collective data provides the illustrative outcomes of the overall research questions.

Analysis of factors that influence on the agile project team management

The detailed analysis of the various aspects of related to the multiple variables of the agile team management considers to be the effective element for the determination of the challenges and gaps associated with the agile team development. In the context of the relation to the research objectives and questions all the necessary analysis are performed for the better demarcation of the significance of the results and findings resulted from the statistical description of components. The descriptive analysis of the primary data provided from the responses of the participants of the questionnaires broadly focuses on the company type, role in the team, team size, and level of experiences and frequency of meetings of the IT professionals in the relevant organization (Bott and Mesmer, 2020). The analysis provides the contextual result of the findings of the data analysis which indicates that about 48.8% of the responders are from the product company, while 44.1% of them from project company. Most of the responders are associated as a role of project manager which is about 40.5%. This discussion even provides the detailed approach of the required methodology of as regards the agile project management. Even the frequency of client meeting, the frequency of project changes, and average rate of project success of the team management is also broadly presented in the descriptive analysis.

The correlation analysis of the primary data of the IT professionals is also performed for the better understanding of the  primary analysis further evaluates the correlation between clarity of the project, product backlog, difficulties of tasks and level of challenges in understanding the gap and challenges of the agile project management. Based on the analysis of the correlation approach of the research, it is well demarcated that the difficulties of the tasks assigned to the team members significantly effect on the agile project management. Even the level of challenges and the complexity of project and the satisfaction level of end customers are broadly defined with the contextual correlation establishment.

Challenges associated with the agile team management

The covariance analysis of the available data provides the types of variation in the context of the evaluation of the challenges and gaps associated with the agile project team management. The detailed discussion of the dependent and independent variation is well presented considering the satisfaction of the team and job, suitability of team size, methodology adoption, clearly of objectives, and challenges of the team management.

The significance and suitability of agile project management in firms. 

The regression analysis reveals the factors that have an impact on agile project management. The primary analysis of the questionnaires is conducted based on the variables of effectiveness of agile meetings and customer satisfaction with the end product (Bergman, 2018). This is done using a linear regression model. The first model of interest is the model summary, which provides a detailed overview of the ‘R, R-square, adjusted R-square, and standard error estimation’ for determining the regression model in the provided data. Therefore, the analysis using the ANOVA model proves to be very dependable in terms of connecting the level of challenges of the agile project and the effectiveness of team meetings to customer satisfaction with the end product.

4. Conclusion

In summarizing the overall findings and results of the detailed analysis of the gathered primary data from the framed questionnaire of the relevant IT professionals, this research report proves to be the most contextual evidence of the extensive and comprehensive approach towards the understanding of the challenges and gaps associated with the agile project team management. The crucial part of the research paper is thoroughly examined in this chapter. Agile project management is considered to be the most vital aspect of the modern business project management approach. This research report defines the challenges and gaps related to the project management approach, particularly in IT project consultancy firms. To achieve the research objectives and goals, this report employs a statistical analysis approach of primary data analysis with the support of technical tool. This chapter presents the analytical results based on the primary research questions, using SPSS software for a better understanding of the responses to the research topic. The outputs of the various tests such as regression, correlation, covariance, and ANOVA prove to be the most important aspect as regards the research objectives to validate the research questions. Considering the real world in depth analysis of the IT professional participation in the data analysis will contribute to the understanding of the challenges and gaps associated with the agile project team management.

4.1 Introduction

This research paper in understanding the gap and challenges of agile project management in the IT consultancy provides the detailed systematic approaches. This chapter finalizes the overall outcomes of the research approaches, methodologies and findings. This section further provides the linkage of the research objectives with the findings based on the adopted approaches of statistical in depth analysis. In the context of the research objective and goals of enhancing the field of agile project management by the adaptation of comprehensive agile methods and practices, this research paper examines the real world in depth understanding with the primary approach of questionnaires to the selected IT project management companies. With the inclusive and comprehensive primary analysis of the data and responses from various participants, the findings of the analysis will be the most contextual aspect for the future project management industry.

By analyzing primary data, insights into real-world experiences will be gained, and since this is a relatively under-researched area, valuable information will be obtained to aid decision-making in the industry. Furthermore, the findings of this study will be beneficial for the project management field as it will provide additional knowledge and comprehension of the difficulties and gaps in agile project management. This study will make use of in-depth analysis to identify the common challenges and gaps faced by practitioners of agile project management.

The primary beneficiaries of this study will include top management, individual professionals, and project management teams, and the challenges and gaps will be categorized according to the dimensions of people, management, organization, process, tools, and technology. While previous studies in this field have mainly focused on challenges during the transition phase, this study aims to improve upon this by also focusing on challenges and gaps post-implementation of agile methods. Additionally, the study will provide fundamental knowledge on the implementation of scrum in multi-project environments, which is also an important aspect to consider.

4.2 Linking with objectives

The detailed analysis of the primary methodologies and the findings of the collected data from the responses, a relative discussion of the research objectives and findings is presented. Considering the statistical approach of the analysis, this study effectively linkages the outcomes and results of the primary data analysis with the research objectives and questions.

What are the defining guidelines for an agile team?

The detailed discussion based on the systematic approach of analysis and literature review, this report demonstrates the defining criteria of an agile team and project manager. The resort evaluating the detailed analysis based on the statistical approach demonstrates the basic criteria for demarcating as an agile team project which include the clarity of objectives, elaboration of the product backlog, meetings and communication, and the suitability of the team size. Even the level of credibility, supportiveness, motivation, and reliability are also construct in the creation of agile team project management.

What are the contextual factors of agile project team?

The analysis of the primary data from the industry participants provides the detailed understanding of the key factors related to the building of the agile project team. The APM team management includes the flexible and interactive approaches of implementation for better team development in the changing business environment (Behrens et al. 2021). Considering the detailed statistical analysis, this report provides various contextual evidences that proves the detrimental factors for the agile team building especially in the IT organizations which include expertise of the team, communication, flexibility, trust, empowerment and roles and responsibilities and size of the agile team. The variation of one factors broadly effect on the performance of the overall project management which constitute in the agility of the organizations culture.

What are the challenges that agile team management face?

The detailed analysis of the research questionnaires using the primary collected data from the real world IT professionals provides the insights of the challenges and gaps in the context of applying agile project management. The analysis suggests a few of the challenges associated with the agile project management which include scheduling the project tasks, team monitoring, knowledge management, people oriented rather than plan based, and cultural differences.

What is the contextual role of the leader in the agile team development?

The primary research questions are strategically formulated for getting the real in world depth understanding of the IT companies related to the agile project management. The analysis has illustrated the various contextual role of leaders in the team development for getting the collaborative approach. Leaders consider to be the most crucial aspect for the maintaining the agility in the project delivery (Andrei et al. 2019). The findings of the primary analysis using various parameters suggest that creating a culture of business that supports agility must be led by a strong leaders. The agile approach of project management is broadly associated with the multitude of beneficiaries which include organization, teams, customers and stakeholders. The detailed analysis of the statistical approach of the research provides the contextual evidence of the role and responsibilities of a leader in the formation of agile team especially in the IT companies.

Do companies need to rely always on the agile team project management?

The detailed analysis of the primary data from the conducted research questions and responses from the participants provides the beneficial aspects as regards the agile project management methods. Considering the contextual research topic of finding the challenges and gaps of managing project, this research paper develops the necessary and demand for the paradigm shift to the traditional approaches of the project management especially in the IT consultancy companies. The agile project management relies broadly on the interactive approach of project planning and development which underlines the emphasis is on the project specifications to the changing project environment. So based on the analysis of the various implications of agile project management can be identified for the overall organizational management to the dynamic nature of the changing business environment. So every companies must focus on the agile project management in the defining of product offerings as per the customer orientation and preferences.

4.3 Future research scope 

This research paper is a plan for the establishment of the most effective agile team project management exploring the multidimensional aspects of challenges and gaps associated with the agile tem development. In the context of the research objectives, this research approaches to the real world in depth understanding of the IT companies. The research methodology and gathered information through the questionnaire provides a broader idea of the agile project management in gaining the greater benefits. Considering the limitations of the research conduct, there could be more inclusive approach as regards the involvement of larger participants of the relevant industry. According to the detailed literature review this research report outlines the theoretical approach which needs to be better evaluated the contextual relevancy of the agile project team development. Considering the research study approach future approaches as regards the identification of challenges and gaps of the agile project management should incorporate expansion of generalizability, examination of variables, incorporation of new methods, investigation of analysis, exploration of long term effect and development of new instrument of new research instrument. The acceptance and effectiveness of the research findings and outcomes may can be helpful in the agile project management benefiting the overall team performance. With the successful implementation of the suggested recommendations would be beneficial for the IT companies in gaining the project efficiency.

4.4 Recommendations

Considering the overall discussion of the research topic ‘Agile project management’ in the contextual changing business environment specially in the IT companies, this research study further identifies the scope of improvement for the future research on determining the ‘agile project management challenges and gaps’. As regards the procedures and systematic progress that the research has initiated this report further recommends the on the overall research orientation as regards the comparative analysis using various analytical tools. While the main focus of the research is to get the practical knowledge and understanding as regards the challenges and gaps associated with the agile project management, this research analysis proves to be more relevant considering the real world in depth responses of IT professionals (Aleinikova et al.2020). Most of the existing research work provide the theoretical approach, the research has inked the issue of agile team management with the industry and organizational development context. Through the primary data collection and analysis, this study identifies the main challenges IT companies encounter while forming the agile project team. Based on the overall analysis, this research even formulates recommendations for organizations in building agile team management with the integration of change model in the different business context.

The detailed analysis supports the need for the organizational changes for the supporting transformation of the agile team management. In this regard IT companies should have internal and external agile coaching facility for providing the explanation and definition of the approach. Again the analytical approach of the study even demonstrates the main challenges as regards the leadership traits of the agile team management. In this regard a leader should impart Scrum master approach for fostering the motivated and well defined sprint objectives to the team members. In identifying the best practices of the structure and management practices of the agile project team management in the IT companies , this research further demonstrates the need for the dynamic organizational team building assigning the team based performance encouraging the teamwork and communication.

4.5 Conclusion

The detailed summarization of the overall research approach has been presented in this chapter with the contextual analysis of the systematic approach in identifying the challenges and gaps of the agile project management in the changing IT companies. This research elaborately evaluates the strategical approach of the analysis of the research questions based on the primary data collection and analysis. The questionaries’ with the linkage of the research objectives broadly illustrates the research goal of identifying of ‘challenges and gaps of agile project management’. The research thesis is broadly divided into various sections illustrating on the research aspects. The literature review outlines the detailing of the applicable IT project management methodologies in association with the expected challenges that proves to be the success factor for the agile project management practices in modern business environment. The methodological approach of the necessary information as regards the facilitation of the research study is broadly discussed in the methodological section of the study. Even the reliability, ethical issues and validity of the research outcomes are strategically discussed while considering the research objectives and goals. The findings of the collected data are presented in the context of the analytical framework with the detailed presentation in the graphical way. In this regard, the primary collected data and information from the research questionnaire is analyzed with the use of statistical tool of SPSS. Based on the findings and outcomes of the primary data related to the agile project management in IT companies,  this study even summarizes the overall research proceedings with the possible implications, limitations and future considerations of further research in the topic of agile project management. Further the recommendations have been suggested based on the outcomes and findings of the detailed analysis of the primary research approaches that will be the guiding principles for the future research on the topic of ‘agile project management in the IT consultancy’.

5. Reference list

Aleinikova, O., Kravchenko, S., Hurochkina, V., Zvonar, V., Brechko, O., & Buryk, Z., 2020. Project management technologies in public administration. Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, 23(5), (564-576).

Andrei, B.-A., Casu-Pop, A.-C., Gheorghe, S.-C., & Boiangiu, C.-A. (2019). A Study On Using Waterfall And Agile Methods In Software Project Management. Journal of Information Systems & Operations Management, 125–135. ABI/INFORM Collection

Behrens, A., Ofori, M., Noteboom, C. and Bishop, D., 2021. A systematic literature review: how agile is agile project management? Issues in Information Systems, 22(3).

Bergmann, T., & Karwowski, W., 2018. Agile project management and project success: A literature review. In International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 405-414). Springer, Cham.

Bott, M. and Mesmer, B., 2020. An analysis of theories supporting agile scrum and the use of scrum in systems engineering. Engineering Management Journal, 32(2), pp.76-85.

Gupta, A. and Gupta, N., 2022. Research methodology. SBPD Publications.

Kalenda, M., Hyna, P., & Rossi, B. (2018). Scaling agile in large organizations: Practices, challenges, and success factors. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 30(10), e1954.

Kuo-Wen, W. U., & Wen-Hsiang, L. A. I. (2022). AHP analysis of key success factors for enterprise transformation; From the viewpoint of project management process. Journal of Social and Administrative Sciences, 9(1), 22-45.

Marnada, P., Raharjo, T., Hardian, B. and Prasetyo, A., 2022. Agile project management challenge in handling scope and change: A systematic literature review. Procedia Computer Science, 197, pp.290-300.

6. Appendices

Appendix1: Univariate analysis of variance

(Source: SPSS)

Appendix 2: Covariance tests of variances

(Source: SPSS)

Appendix 3: Challenges in faced during the agile project management

(Source: SPSS)

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