SYNOPSIS

As opposed to traditional project management, agile project management is an iterative approach to delivering a project throughout its life cycle. Iterative or agile life cycles are composed of several iterations or incremental steps towards the completion of a project. The aim of the Agile method is to shorten the phases in the development process and increase the level of improvement. Iterative approaches are frequently used in software development projects to promote velocity and adaptability since the benefit of iteration is that one can adjust as one go along rather than following a linear path. With every iteration new features are added to the product, resulting in gradual project growth. With the features being validated early in the development, the chances of delivering a potentially failed product are significantly lower.

One of the aims of an agile or iterative approach is to release benefits throughout the process rather than only at the end. At the core, agile projects should exhibit central values and behaviours of trust, flexibility, empowerment and collaboration. It focuses on working on small batches; visualizing processes to create transparency; collaborative working with the customer, and getting feedback as fast as possible. Each one of the batch is a project in miniature: it has a backlog and consists of design, implementation, testing, and deployment stages within the pre-defined scope of work. This allows the project team to promptly adapt to changing requirements and produce higher-quality products or services with shorter development cycle, continuous feedback and testing to better satisfy customer's needs.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER

Dr. Abd Rahman Abdul Rahim is an Associate Professor at Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics, UTM Kuala Lumpur. He is also an associate lecturer at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. Prior to joining UTM he has worked with two multi-national corporations in the area of manufacturing. He graduated with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and B.Sc. in Engineering Management from University of Evansville USA in 1988. He obtained his MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from Warwick University in 1991 and his PhD from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2006. He also received a Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health in Manufacturing Industries from Worksafe Western Australia in 1998.

He has conducted training with various multi-national and local companies throughout Malaysia in the area of Operations and Production Management, Occupational Safety and Health, Emergency Response Plan, 5-S and Housekeeping, Project Management, Total Productive Maintenance, Poka Yoke, Quality Improvement, Statistical Process Control, ISO 14000, ISO 9000, HACCP, GMP, Production Planning and Control and Method and Time Study. He is also an invited speaker at Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM), Incorporated Society of Planters, (ISP), ALAM, International Business School (IBS), Chemical Engineering Pilot Plant (CEPP), and Business and Advanced Technology Center (BATC), Institut Pembangunan Pengurusan Johor (IPPJ), Prestariang and Pusat Pembangunan Tenaga Industri Johor (Puspatri). He has also conducted training for Sudan Master Technology (SMT) in Khartoum in 2014. He was also an examiner and interviewer for Safety and Health Officer competency certificate (NIOSH).