Agile Project Management and Project Risks Improvements: Pros and Cons

Abstract

This report discusses improving Project Risk Management in agile projects in different sectors in the UAE and explores if adopting a hybrid approach can deliver better results in project risk management in an agile environment. Also, it was aimed to understand if enhancement of project risk management for agile projects will have a positive impact on project success. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected for this report. Data was collected through qualitative interviews, observations and surveys. The research was conducted in Al Dhafra Municipality, DEWA, Etisalat & Abu Dhabi Government. The findings identified risks like Organizational risk, Process risk, Business risk, Technology risk and Monitoring and analysis risk. It was also found that while all projects contain some risk, using agile projects or hybrid projects can reduce the risk in comparison to a waterfall. The underlying reason was that splitting the project into smaller pieces reduces risk and fulfills quality requirements easily. The research recommended using customer vision, selecting the right approach for project selection, having an experienced project manager and team, customer involvement, organizational policy support for an agile approach, having a supportive culture and using analytical tools. The research suffered from the limitation that only 4 organizations could be used, which may limit the scope of applicability of the findings to diverse settings.