Agile Project Management in Non-Software Sectors During Turbulent Times

Since 2015, there has been an ongoing war in Yemen that has negatively affected most sectors including the business and microfinance sectors. Social Fund for Development (SFD), the microfinance industry leader in Yemen, sought solutions for enhancing microfinance institutions' (MFIs) capabilities during the current environment turbulence.

Agile Project Management (APM) is a lightweight and flexible way of managing software development projects through short iterative cycles. It is considered a prominent solution for software and non-software innovative institutions to cope with an unstable environment.

This research investigated any possible advantages in adopting APM in the microfinance sector. It sought to answer the following question: How could APM help MFIs during the current turbulent time? Three microfinance pioneers and 11 professionals from all management levels were interviewed for this qualitative research. In addition, three workshop discussions with 22 members of product development teams were held. The study found that adopting APM would help these MFIs to enhance their resilience by bridging the identified gaps and challenges.