Every software team has a process for completing work. Establishing that process as a workflow makes it structured, repeatable, and scalable. When combined with a well-defined project scope, workflows help improve project planning and other project management phases.
Workflows support your decision-making process, help you achieve project objectives more efficiently, and deliver outcomes closely aligned with business needs and goals.
This article defines workflows and their different types, outlines the key phases of effective project management workflows, and offers specific steps and best practices to help you and your teams create efficient project workflows.
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What is a workflow?
A workflow defines a sequence of project tasks from start to finish. Each workflow details roles, processes, and timelines for achieving project objectives.
Types of workflows
Several popular project management methodologies are used in software development, including Agile, DevOps, Kanban, Lean, the Waterfall methodology, and hybrid. Each methodology has its own features and workflows that make it well-suited to particular types of projects and business needs.
Kanban, Lean, Waterfall, and hybrid workflows are particularly popular with manufacturing and service companies. Software developers also use them, but software development uses Agile more than any other methodology, which will be the focus of this article.
The importance of Agile workflows in project management
Agile workflows help development teams achieve and ensure clarity, efficiency, and coordination throughout the entire project life cycle. Workflows help Agile teams meet deadlines consistently, allocate resources effectively, and manage and mitigate risks. These benefits make workflows critical for Agile development and project management.
Phases of an effective project management workflow
A project management workflow typically progresses through the following four phases:
- Initiation: This phase defines project goals, scope, and initial resources.
- Planning: In this phase, the team breaks down tasks, creates schedules, and allocates resources.
- Execution: This phase implements tasks according to the plan and manages team performance.
- Monitoring and control: This phase tracks progress and adjusts to ensure project success and continuous improvement.
How to create an Agile workflow to ensure project success
Agile workflows have five steps that enable effective project management and success: define project goals, break down tasks and milestones, assign tasks and responsibilities, create a timeline and schedule, and monitor progress and adjust.
Define project goals
Outline project objectives, deliverables, and constraints. Collaborate with team members, stakeholders, and business leaders to understand their expectations and optimize aligning your project goals with business needs and goals.
Break down tasks and milestones
Divide the project into manageable tasks and set assertive but achievable milestones for them. Carefully balance the desire to deliver outcomes quickly with available resources. Consider delivering outcomes conforming to anticipated goals and objectives with minimal errors or rework.
Assign tasks and responsibilities
Allocate tasks and assign responsibilities to team members based on skills and availability. Secure accurate and complete information about team member availability. This helps avoid conflicting or overlapping assignments of critical people.
Create a timeline and schedule
Build a detailed timeline with clear deadlines and dependencies. Highlight all known and anticipated potential conflicts or delays.
Monitor progress and adjust
Ensure you have effective workflows and processes to monitor progress, identify issues, and make necessary adjustments to keep your project on track. Where possible and appropriate, include steps that support continuous improvement efforts.
Workflow best practices
Effective workflows enable you to automate and standardize multiple project management tasks and processes. Jira’s automation capabilities can help streamline workflows and supercharge your processes by removing bottlenecks and scaling project operations, making project management more efficient and consistent at your company. You can further enhance the value of your workflows with these best practices:
- Keep things simple. Complex processes are difficult to grasp, implement, and adjust. Here are some recommended workflow states:
- To do: This is for work waiting to begin.
- In progress: The team is working on these items.
- Code review: Finished work awaits review.
- Done: These tasks meet the team's definition of done.
- Awaiting QA: This category is for implemented work and is awaiting a tester review.
- Ready to merge: This is reviewed code that is ready to merge into the main or release branch.
Each state in the workflow doesn't need to be handled by a different person. As an Agile team matures, developers handle more and more of the work, from design to delivery. An autonomous team that can handle heterogeneous work is one of the hallmarks of agility.
- Communicate clearly. Establish frequent, regular communication with your teams. Encourage them to share any information that could affect their ability to keep their effort on track.
- Engage stakeholders. Stakeholders affected by your projects can also affect those efforts. Keep them engaged throughout each project journey, encourage their support, and address their concerns quickly and credibly.
- Improve continuously. Gather feedback from developers and stakeholders. Take careful note of what went well and anything that did not. Use that information to drive incremental adjustments and improvements to those outcomes, workflows, and processes.
Optimize project management workflows with Jira
Effective workflows can provide a firm, flexible foundation for consistently successful Agile development projects and progress toward continuous improvement and delivery. Well-crafted processes can help you and your teams develop, execute, and manage those workflows and maximize their benefits to your business.
Jira workflows can help you and your teams optimize your Agile project management. Jira facilitates task tracking, team collaboration, issue management, and reporting and supports Agile and other project management methodologies.