Organizations using the agile project management methodology are aware of its advantages in transforming their business processes. By incorporating the agile mindset, organizations have become more responsive to change. They involve their customers at all stages of project management and use their feedback to deliver products that add value to the entire business operation. Agile Marketing and Agile PMO is the modern take on the traditional form of marketing and project management techniques. Both help organizations in delivering products and services in a more structured approach using agile principles and techniques.
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What is Agile Marketing?
Agile Marketing is the incorporation of the agile framework in the marketing department of the organization. It transforms the traditional marketing techniques like the funnel model and makes it more agile. The process of agile marketing involves planning, managing, and evaluating the marketing activity using the agile methodology. Historical marketing activities have become outdated with the evolution of the digital era. So, there was a need for evolving the marketing sector using modern methodologies as well. This led to the formation of agile marketing.
Agile Marketing Manifesto
Like the Agile Manifesto that provides the guidelines for agile project management and software development with four values and twelve principles of agile manifesto, agile marketing has a manifesto. The Agile Marketing Manifesto guides agile marketers to carry out their various roles diligently. Here are the seven principles of the agile marketing manifesto:
- Responding to change over following a fixed plan.
- Customer-focused approach over silos and hierarchy.
- Making flexible plans over rigid planning.
- Allowing small experiments over a few static predictions.
- Adaptive and iterative strategy over fixed ones.
- Importance of learning over opinions and conventions.
- Structured and self-organized teams get the work done.
Agile marketers follow these 7 principles to conduct their day-to-day operations. They employ the agile mindset of completing tasks in sprints. Agile marketing teams also conduct regular meetings to discuss the team’s progress, milestones, and results. These meetings are exactly like the Scrum meetings in agile project management, where team members can discuss the obstacles, they are facing to get the job done.
Using the Kanban methodology, agile marketers can visualize the tasks to complete the project on schedule. Kanban is known to help project managers manage and monitor the workflow using tools like work in progress limits (WIP). It helps in collaboration with cross-functional teams and improves the marketing process. The agile marketing team can use Kanban boards to match their progress with the software or project development team’s progress. This helps in transparency between different departments of the organization and results in the successful delivery of the software or project.
What is Agile PMO?
Organizations that adopt the project management methodology create a PMO (Project Management Office) to manage and monitor its successful adoption. An agile PMO is a modern version of the traditional project management office. The main purpose of an agile PMO is to adapt quickly to change and clear obstacles that were not possible using the regular PMO. The roles and responsibilities of an agile PMO are almost similar to a traditional one with minor differences like decentralization of planning, budgeting, control, and resource allocation.
The agile PMO promotes collaboration between the project or software development team and the marketing team. Unlike the traditional top-down approach of a regular PMO, agile PMO gives importance to the users. The agile PMO offers support and guidance to the Product Owner and Scrum Master. It acts as a consultant and improves coordination between the various departments of the organization.
Agile Marketing and the Role of Agile PMO
In the organizational structure, the agile PMO supports the agile marketing team by helping them collaborate effectively with other teams of the organization. The agile PMO focuses on solving problems that may arise due to confusion between cross-functional teams. Their roles are different from that of the project managers and agile practitioners who focus on the three constraints of project delivery – planning, scheduling, and budgeting. An agile PMO of an organization emphasizes the importance of building self-organized teams.
Conclusion
The agile framework can be adopted in every department of the organization just like agile marketing. It helps make the business more adaptable and responsive to uncertainty. Creating an agile PMO requires efficient planning and a structured approach which can be achieved through gaining knowledge and skills in agile project management. Aspiring agile practitioners and project managers can use the PMI-ACP Training Course and Project Management Office(PMO) Fundamentals Certification Training to gain the required knowledge and expertise in creating a successful Agile PMO. By completing the training and earning the PMI-ACP Certification, they will be able to help the marketing team of their organization as well.
