What is Agile? A complete guide to Agile methodology
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What is Agile methodology?
Agile methodology is an iterative and incremental approach to software development that prioritizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction. It emphasizes adaptive planning, continuous feedback, and the delivery of small, functional increments of a product in short time frames known as iterations or sprints.
Agile promotes close collaboration among cross-functional teams, including developers, testers, and stakeholders, fostering a shared sense of responsibility and enabling quick responses to changing requirements.
The methodology values customer feedback throughout the development process, allowing for adjustments to be made in real-time, ultimately resulting in a more responsive and customer-centric approach to software development. Agile frameworks, such as Scrum and Kanban, provide specific structures and practices to implement these principles effectively.
The importance of Agile methodology
Agile development methodology is important because it assists the development teams in completing projects both on time and on budget. It also aids in improving communication between the development team and the product or service owner. Additionally, Agile development methodology can aid in reducing the risks associated with complex projects by developing and implementing solutions in a phased manner.
Agile methodology development is a crucial framework for completing all types of projects, from software development projects to marketing campaigns. Agile practitioners will:
Break complex projects into individual tasks, called sprints.
Produce projects more efficiently and in a less time-consuming manner.
Involve all stakeholders and collaborators in a way conducive to total success.
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5 main phases of the Agile process?
Envisioning:
Scope definition: Identify the overall goals and objectives of the project.
Define initial features: Outline the high-level features and functionalities.
Create a project vision: Establish a clear vision for the project and its outcomes.
Speculating:
User stories and backlog creation: Break down features into user stories and create a prioritized backlog.
Iteration planning: Plan the work for the upcoming iterations or sprints.
Estimation: Estimate the effort required for each user story or task.
Exploring:
Iterative development: Implement features in short cycles or iterations.
Continuous integration: Regularly integrate code changes into a shared repository.
Testing: Conduct testing throughout the development process.
Adapting:
Review and feedback: Hold regular reviews or demos to gather feedback.
Retrospective: Reflect on the iteration's successes and areas for improvement.
Adjustment of plans: Adapt plans and priorities based on feedback and insights.
Closing:
Product release: Deliver a potentially shippable product or increment at the end of the iteration.
Customer feedback: Gather feedback from stakeholders and end-users.
Retrospective and lessons learned: Conduct a final retrospective to capture lessons learned for future improvements.
What are the 4 pillars of Agile?
The four pillars or values of Agile methodology are:
Individuals and interactions above processes and tools - The Agile Manifesto explains that while processes and tools are important, the people behind the processes are even more valuable. Organizing the right group of individuals on your software team is vital to success. The best available tools in the right hands are valuable.
Working software over comprehensive documentation – It is about exhibiting just enough documentation to operate your product and run your organization responsibly. In short, it is finding the right balance between working software and the need for extensive notes and credentials.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation – Is a reminder that it is more essential for a development team to accept some flexibility to please a customer, and to seek a collaborative solution to issues that might occur during product development, rather than to adhering to a rigid project contract.
Responding to change by following a plan - On Agile projects, the adeptness to not only respond to but welcome change is the most powerful tool, but the team still maintains a vision and a roadmap that guides their direction. The Agile Manifesto addresses this by prioritizing adaptability and customer collaboration over rigorous adherence to a plan. This approach allows for continuous realignment with your customer’s evolving needs in a dynamic business environment. Agile methodology fosters the understanding that the initial approach might need adjusting.
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What are the 12 Agile methodology principles?
Continuously deliver - Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the early and constant conveyance of valuable software. In short, the team must share early, repeat frequently, and continuously listen to your market.
Adjust to change - Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes exploit change for the customer’s competitive advantage. Agile principles support observing changing markets, customer needs, competitive threats and altering course when necessary.
Mini-releases - Deliver working software frequently, from several weeks to several months, with an inclination to the shorter timescale. Agile philosophy favors breaking a product’s development into lesser elements and releasing those components frequently. By using an Agile approach and building in more frequent mini releases of your product, you can speed up the product’s overall development.
Communicate daily - Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Communication is critical to any project or team’s success, and Agile principles mandate that it is a daily event.
Empowering autonomy - Build projects around motivated individuals. Provide the team with the environment and support they need and have confidence they will get the job done. A key part of the Agile philosophy is empowering individuals and teams through trust and autonomy. Once the work has started, there is no place in Agile for hand holding or micromanaging team members.
Face-to-face conversation - Face-to-face conversation is the most efficient and effective method of communicating updates and information to and within a development team. Effective communication with developers means taking these conversations out of Slack and email and favoring more human interaction, preferably face-to-face but video conference calls can be Plan B.
Working software - Working software is the primary measure of progress. Perfect, in-depth documentation is secondary to working software. This mindset pushes to get products to the market quickly as opposed to letting documentation or an “it’s not complete until it’s perfect” stance become a roadblock.
Sustainable development - Agile processes foster sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to sustain a constant pace indefinitely. Agile principles encourage us to be mindful of the fact that a rapid release schedule can be taxing on a development team. The idea is to set realistic, clear expectations and keep morale high.
Attention to technical excellence and design - Continuous attention to technical excellence and superior design enhances agility. While the Agile philosophy promotes shorter cycles and more frequent releases, it also emphasizes the importance of keeping things organized and well-constructed.
Simplicity – The ability to maximize the amount of work not done is essential. The Agile methodology approach encourages the application of the 80/20 rule. This translates to doing the things that will deliver the most impact first.
Flatter management style - The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. Agile principles propose the use of self-organizing teams which work with a “flatter” management style where decisions are made by the group rather than by a singular manager or management team.
Always learning - At regular intervals, the team reflects on becoming more effective, then modifies and alters its behavior accordingly. There is no place for “this is the way we have always done it.” Just like we are always learning new things about our customers and markets, we are also learning from the processes we are using to learn those things.
Types of Agile methodologies
Agile methodology refers to the approach and best practices for organizing projects based on the values and beliefs detailed in the Agile Manifesto. However, there is no one right way to implement Agile, and many distinct types of frameworks have been developed. They include:
Kanban methodology
Kanban methodology is an Agile methodology created by an engineer at Toyota Motor Corporation, the largest automobile manufacturer in the world, as an alternative to obtain a more efficient manufacturing process. It is about day-to-day workflows and processes. It is an ingenuous, visual way of managing projects that enables teams to see the progress so far and what is coming up next. Kanban projects are primarily managed through a project board, which segments tasks into three columns: “To Do,” “Doing,” and “Done.” Kanban employs an assembly line model to move work through a queue. It identifies a backlog of project tasks the team needs to finish and instead of proceeding in sprints, the team simply takes the next highest-priority chore in the queue. Many project management software solutions employ Kanban board integrations, which teams can use to plot out a task’s advancement from start to finish. The primary benefit of this methodology is the amplified transparency, allowing team leaders to distinctly see which tasks are assigned to which team members and what is yet to be completed to generate considerable progress.
Scrum is one of the most popular Agile methodologies (as performed by Agile teams), as it can bond team members together with a sharp focus and an efficient, collaborative approach to task implementation. It is like Kanban in many ways. Scrum typically uses a Scrum board, much like the Kanban board, and groups tasks into columns based on progress. Unlike Kanban, Scrum focuses on breaking a project down into sprints and focuses on planning and managing one sprint at a time.
Three key roles in a scrum team are:
Product owner: A person that speaks on behalf of the customers, sponsors, or stakeholders. They are available throughout the development process to review finished work, prioritize project requirements, and answer questions. They function as a go-between to secure input from the end users with questions from the team.
Scrum master: The Scrum master leads the development team, coach’s others on the Scrum methodology, keeps the team focused on its goals and heads the Scrum meetings.
Development team: The team usually consists of a few people who do the work that the product owner plans, prioritizes, and monitors.
With scrum methodology you would first assign a Scrum leader and product owner, who have a direct sway over the rest of the team. This assigned leadership leads the team and spearheads projects and completes them over a short space of time through a series of sprints. Sprints are the Scrum way of dividing projects into smaller iterations that can last between one and four weeks each. Bringing team members together from different departments, these sprints help you channel a collective focus to your projects. Scrum also channels a robust set of principles and activities that dictate how you work. These include:
Sprint planning: Planning sessions to identify the purpose behind your sprints.
Roles: Assigns key roles in the Scrum process.
Product backlog: A list of tasks arranged according to priority level.
Extreme programming (XP)
Extreme programming (XP) was designed for Agile software development projects. It concentrates on continuous development and customer delivery and uses intervals or sprints, comparable to Scrum methodology. XP’s values are communication, simplicity, feedback, courage, and respect. It aims to supply team members with continuous, early feedback so they can quickly course correct. Like Scrum, XP engages with user stories. The team builds a release schedule from these user stories and designates the work required to meet that schedule. However, XP also has twelve supporting processes detailed specifically for software developers:
Planning game
Small releases
Customer acceptance tests
Simple design
Pair programming
Test-driven development
Refactoring
Continuous integration
Collective code ownership
Coding standards
Metaphor
Sustainable pace
Extreme Programming puts the customer at the center of everything the team does. In XP, teams can profoundly engage the end users and employ the feedback they get to deliver the best possible product.
Feature-driven development (FDD)
Feature-driven development (FDD) is yet another Agile framework. This method entails forming a software model every two weeks and creating a development and design plan for each model feature. It has more rigorous documentation requirements than XP, so it is better for teams with advanced design and planning abilities. FDD breaks projects down into five basic activities:
Develop an overall model
Build a feature list
Plan by feature
Design by feature
Build by feature
As its name suggests, FDD organizes software development around making progress on features. However, features in the FDD context are not necessarily product features in the commonly understood sense. They are, rather, more like the user stories in Scrum.
A feature in FDD could refer to a small task or process a client or user wishes to complete like “View all open tasks,” or “Pay an online bill.”
Dynamic systems development methodology (DSDM)
Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) was born out of the need for a common industry framework to deliver software more rapidly. Rework is to be expected, and any development changes that occur must be reversible. Like Scrum, XP, and FDD, DSDM uses sprints. DSDM plans work in fixed time periods (timeboxes), unlike Agile Scrum sprints. The aim is to deliver a usable software product at the end of each timebox (iteration).
This framework follows eight fundamental principles:
Focus on the business needs
Deliver on time
Collaborate
Never compromise quality
Build incrementally from firm foundations
Develop iteratively
Communicate continuously and clearly
Demonstrate control
What are the benefits of using Agile?
The benefits of Agile practices are wide-ranging. They include:
Flexibility and adaptability:
Agile allows for changes and adjustments to be made throughout the development process.
It enables teams to respond quickly to changing requirements and customer feedback.
Customer satisfaction:
Continuous collaboration with stakeholders ensures that the product aligns with customer needs and expectations.
Regular feedback loops help in delivering a product that better meets customer requirements.
Faster time-to-market:
Iterative and incremental development in Agile results in quicker delivery of smaller, functional increments of the product.
Prioritization of features ensures that high-value items are addressed early in the development process.
Improved quality:
Continuous testing and integration practices in Agile contribute to better product quality.
Early detection and resolution of issues lead to a more robust end product.
Enhanced team collaboration:
Agile promotes frequent communication and collaboration among team members.
Cross-functional teams work closely together, fostering a sense of shared responsibility.
Increased transparency:
Regular meetings, such as daily stand-ups and sprint reviews, enhance transparency into the project's progress.
Project status, challenges, and accomplishments are visible to all team members and stakeholders.
Risk management:
Agile's iterative approach allows for the identification and mitigation of risks throughout the development process.
Regular retrospectives provide opportunities for teams to learn from experiences and improve.
Continuous improvement:
Agile encourages a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
Retrospectives at the end of each iteration promote reflection and adjustment of processes for better efficiency.
Cost control:
Agile's focus on delivering value early and frequently helps manage costs effectively.
The ability to reprioritize and adjust scope allows for better control over the budget.
Adaptive planning:
Agile planning is responsive to change, and plans are adjusted based on feedback and evolving requirements.
The emphasis is on delivering the most valuable features with the available resources.
Employee morale:
Empowering teams to make decisions and giving them a sense of ownership can boost morale.
Agile methodologies often lead to a more positive and engaging work environment.
How can you implement Agile (or lean) methodologies in your projects?
Implementing Agile methodologies into projects, especially in the context of change management, IT project management, Agile in IT Service Management (ITSM), and Agile in ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), involves several key considerations:
Cultural Shift: Introduce a cultural shift by fostering collaboration, open communication, and a mindset of continuous improvement. This may involve training and workshops to help teams adapt to the Agile mindset.
Leadership Support: Ensure strong leadership support for the Agile transformation. Leaders should actively promote Agile values, provide resources, and champion the cultural change.
Agile Framework Selection: Choose an Agile framework that aligns with the project's requirements. Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming (XP) are popular choices. Tailor the framework to suit the organization's needs.
Iterative Planning: Emphasize iterative planning, with regular reassessment and adaptation of project plans. Use techniques like backlog refinement, sprint planning, and release planning to prioritize and schedule work.
Agile in IT service management (ITSM):
Service Backlog: Create a service backlog, similar to a product backlog, to manage service-related work. Prioritize tasks based on customer needs and business value.
Incident and Problem Management: Apply Agile principles to incident and problem management, focusing on quick resolution, continuous improvement, and customer feedback to enhance service quality.
Service Lifecycle Mapping: Align Agile practices with the ITIL service lifecycle stages, such as Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement (CSI).
Change Management Integration: Seamlessly integrate Agile change management practices with ITIL's Change Management process to ensure efficient handling of changes while maintaining service stability.
Collaboration and communication:
Cross-Functional Teams: Form cross-functional teams with members possessing diverse skills to promote collaboration and shared accountability.
Daily Stand-ups: Conduct daily stand-up meetings to facilitate communication, identify impediments, and keep team members informed about progress.
Continuous improvement:
Retrospectives: Regularly hold retrospectives to reflect on the team's performance, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes to enhance efficiency.
Feedback Loops: Establish continuous feedback loops with stakeholders, customers, and team members to incorporate insights and make adjustments as needed.
Training and support:
Training Programs: Provide comprehensive Agile training programs for team members, project managers, and key stakeholders to ensure a common understanding of Agile principles and practices.
Coaching and support: Offer ongoing coaching and support to teams as they transition to Agile methodologies, addressing challenges and reinforcing Agile values.
By integrating these considerations, organizations can successfully implement Agile methodologies, fostering adaptability, collaboration, and customer satisfaction in their projects, while aligning with ITSM and ITIL practices.
General steps to implementing Agile
1. Assess the current state:
Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the organization's current processes, culture, and project management practices. Identify existing challenges, strengths, and areas where Agile principles could be beneficial.
Engage key stakeholders, including leadership, project managers, and team members, to understand their perspectives and gain buy-in for the Agile transformation.
2. Create a clear vision and strategy:
Develop a clear vision for Agile adoption, outlining the expected benefits and aligning them with the organization's overall goals.
Establish a strategy that includes the selection of an appropriate Agile framework (e.g., Scrum, Kanban), a roadmap for implementation, and a plan for change management. Clearly communicate the vision and strategy to all stakeholders.
3. Provide training and support:
Implement a robust training program to educate teams, managers, and leaders about Agile principles, practices, and the chosen framework.
Offer ongoing coaching and support to help teams apply Agile concepts in their day-to-day work. This may include hiring Agile coaches or leveraging internal expertise to guide teams through the transition.
4. Pilot Agile teams:
Select one or more pilot projects or teams to implement Agile methodologies initially. This allows the organization to learn from real-world experiences, identify challenges, and refine Agile practices before scaling the approach across the entire organization.
Encourage open communication within the pilot teams, fostering a culture of transparency and continuous improvement.
5. Scale Agile across the organization:
Based on the lessons learned from the pilot phase, scale Agile practices gradually across the organization. This may involve expanding Agile teams, incorporating Agile practices into other departments, and standardizing Agile processes.
Establish communities of practice and forums for knowledge sharing to facilitate collaboration and continuous learning.
Monitor and measure the impact of Agile adoption using key performance indicators (KPIs) related to project delivery, customer satisfaction, and team productivity.
Conclusion
The agile methodology is a group of values, principles, and techniques designed to guide and improve how software development teams collaborate to deliver new applications and updates. It values Individuals and interactions over processes and tools and working software over comprehensive documentation.
The pace of change in today’s business world is getting faster and more intense, which unleashes a demand for projects that can be completed more rapidly and on a stingier budget. To that end, the number of prolonged projects is declining, and more organizations are examining the implementation of Agile project management to help meet these escalating industry demands.
Rapid technology changes have driven many organizations to re-evaluate traditional methods of project management to stay competitive, prompting the adoption of Agile project management. According to the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Pulse of the Profession® report, 71% of organizations reported using Agile methods for their projects sometimes, often, or always.
Regardless of which Agile methodology a team follows, the four pillars of the approach are:
People interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change by following a plan
The best way to convey how the agile methodology works is to compare it to the more traditional Waterfall methodology.
The Waterfall methodology or model is a sequential development process that flows comparable to a waterfall through each phase of a project including analysis, design, development, and testing, with each phase completed before the next phase starts. The waterfall method is typically more sequential, less flexible, requires detailed planning, and involves less continuous customer interaction. A good example is to visualize how a painting contractor cannot start their work until the walls have been built.
Agile methodology is an approach that prioritizes cross-functional collaboration and continuous improvement. It splits projects into smaller phases and guides teams through sequences of planning, execution, mini-deliveries, and evaluation. The main purpose of the agile approach to project management is to ensure that development teams complete projects on time and within budget. The process drives improved communication between the development team and the product owner. Thus, reducing the risks associated with a business undertaking complex projects to change.
Waterfall may be better when a project must meet strict regulations, is more sequential, requires deliverables for each phase before proceeding to the next one, and has a long project timeline. Agile is better suited for teams that need to move fast, experimenting with direction, communicating often on the journey, and do not know how the final project will look before they start.