Summary and Conclusion

This section of the study concludes the thesis by providing the executive summary, the next steps of the proposal, the evaluation of the thesis by focusing on the objective and results and relevancy & reliability of the study and lastly presents some final words.

7.1 Executive Summary

The executive summary aims to give an overview of what was achieved in this thesis study.

• The problem statement of this thesis study was; currently at the case company, projects classified as “agile” are not fully working in an agile way, i.e. there is a lack of properly following and implementing established agile principles and frameworks.

• The objective of this thesis was to identify the current strengths and weaknesses of adopting agile methodology in the case company’s agile IT development pro-jects and to use available knowledge and best practices to address weaknesses and challenges.

• This thesis study has presented a case study of current strengths, weaknesses

& challenges based on the current state analysis, which included 16 IT develop-ment projects classified as “agile”.

• Available knowledge and best practices in agile project management were used to propose solutions to identified weaknesses & challenges.

7.2 Next Steps of the Proposal

This study identified the key challenges and weaknesses that the case company is cur-rently facing in agile project management in IT development projects. In the proposal,

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relevant theory was used to suggest improvements that could be done to rectify the iden-tified challenges and weaknesses. The case company found the proposal to be valid.

The next steps regarding the proposal are to;

• expand the scope of this case study to validate if findings can be applied to further projects classified as agile at the case company.

• investigate agile resource management to address identified organizational chal-lenges.

• implement “agile approach” deliverable for IT development projects classified as agile.

The “agile approach” deliverable could be developed and piloted for a handful of projects classified as “agile” at the case company and metrics should be established to follow if agile principles are being adopted better.

7.3 Thesis Evaluation: Objective vs. Results

The objective of this thesis was to analyze the current state of agile project management in the case company and to use relevant theory to propose improvements to the current state. The current state analysis revealed the weaknesses and challenges that the case company is currently facing in their agile project management. The proposal and its val-idation, as presented in chapters 5 and 6, was built in close collaboration with the case company’s representatives and stakeholders. Through the findings of the current state analysis as well as the building of the proposal and its validation, the objective of the thesis was addressed.

When looking at the results of this thesis in the form of the final proposal, the results of the study are aligned with the expectations. The key question, what are the challenges agile projects are currently facing and how could relevant theory be used to improve the current state, is answered in this study. As for the relevancy and reliability of this study, the solutions to the key question as presented in the final proposal should be found rel-evant to the case company and it should be possible to derive tangible benefits from

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them. In addition, the three distinct collections of data, Data 1-3, come from a variety of different sources ensuring the reliability of this study.

7.4 Final Words

Working on this thesis study has been a grand learning experience for me. It has taught me valuable lessons about agile project management as well as about conducting ob-jective and logical research and analysis. It has given me opportunities to further develop myself and my professional skills. I hope the reader of this thesis can understand the passion and commitment that went into writing it and I hope the reader can reap the benefit of my work. Lastly, I would like to thank the people that helped me along the way and made this endeavor possible.

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References

A comparative study of agile methods, people factors, and process factors in relation to project success - Kondo A. H. Litchmore. Capella University – 2016

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(Accessed 20 Jan. 2019)

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https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-is-project-management (Accessed 13 Jan. 2019)

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Agile and lean project management – George Pitagorsky, Project Management Institute 2006

Project management for agile software projects – Stein Dolan, Project Management In-stitute 2007

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The PM role in a lean and agile world – Dave A. Cornelius, Project Management Institute 2014

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