What is Agile?
Agile refers to the ability to adapt to and create change. Agile is a method of dealing with uncertainty and turbulent environments and ultimately succeeding.
Because was the key word in their approach, the authors of Agile Manifesto chose to call it “Agile”.
It is about understanding the context in which you live, identifying what uncertainties you face, and then figuring out how to adapt.
What is Agile Software Development?
Agile software development goes beyond frameworks like Scrum or Extreme programming.
Agile software development goes beyond practices like pair programming, test driven development, stand ups, planning sessions, sprints, and test-driven.
Agile software development refers to a group of practices and frameworks that are based on the 12 Principles and Manifesto. It’s a good idea to adopt a certain approach to software development.
Agile is different from other software development approaches because it focuses on people and how they interact. Collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams using the appropriate practices in their context is how solutions evolve.
The Agile software development community places a lot of emphasis on collaboration and self-organizing teams.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t managers. This means that each team can decide how to approach the situation on their own.
This means that these teams can be cross-functional. These teams don’t need to have any specific roles. All that is required is that the team has all the necessary skills.
Managers still have a place. Managers ensure that team members possess the necessary skills or are able to obtain them. Managers create the right environment for team members to succeed. Managers tend to be passive and let their teams figure out how to deliver the products. However, they can step in when they cannot resolve problems.
Most organizations and teams focus on practices that facilitate collaboration and organize the work when they start Agile development. But there is another set of key practices that aren’t as often followed, but that should be. These practices are specifically focused on developing software in a way that your team can deal with uncertainty. These technical practices are crucial and should not be overlooked.
Agile: A Brief History
This is how Agile was born, how it got the Agile label, and where it has gone from there. To understand where Agile software development is today, it’s important that we look back at its roots.
Click Here To See The History Of Agile
Agile is a Mindset
Agile is a mindset that is informed by the Agile Manifesto values and principles. These values and principles offer guidance on how you can create and respond to changes and how to handle uncertainty.
The Agile Manifesto’s first sentence could be interpreted as a summary of the entire idea. “We are discovering better ways to develop software by doing it and helping other people do it.”
Try something that you think may work when you are uncertain. Then, ask for feedback and adapt accordingly.
When you do this, keep in mind the principles and values. Your context will guide the frameworks, practices and techniques that you use to collaborate with others and provide value to customers.
What are Agile Methodologies?
What does this say about Agile methodologies? This question can be answered by having a clear definition for methodology.
Alistair Cockburn stated that a methodology is a set of guidelines that a team agrees upon. This means that every team will have their own methodology. It will differ in small and large ways from the methodology of other teams.
Agile methodologies are conventions that a group chooses to adhere to in accordance with Agile values and principles.
You’re probably thinking, “I thought Scrum was Agile methodologies.” Alistair used the term framework for those concepts. These frameworks were certainly born out of a single team’s method, but they were made to be useful for other teams when they were made more general. These frameworks can help a team determine where they start with their methodology but they should not be the team’s method. A team will need to adjust its use of a framework in order to be appropriate within its context.
What about Agile Project Management?
Agile Software Development has become more popular. People involved in software development but not developers sought out ways to apply these Agile ideas in their work.
To address the problems faced by software developers, the Agile Manifesto was created and the 12 Principles were developed by software developers (and a test engineer). Agile can be applied to other activities if it is viewed as a mindset.
Agile is an adjective when you do this. It is how you do something. For the reasons stated above, it does not create a new method.
Ask yourself this question when you are trying to understand Agile project management. Agile Alliance and Project Management Institute combined their efforts to create the Agile practice guide. This resource is available to Agile Alliance members.
Ask yourself this question when you are trying to understand Agile business analysis. The Agile Extension was created by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA). It is available to Agile Alliance members.
What is Business Agility?
These two concepts are an example of an attempt to make Agile more “outside of software.” They have recently led to the Business Agility movement.
People seeking Business Agility should consider the concept of Agile as a mindset. They will ask, “How can we structure and operate our company in a way that allows for change?”
Business agility could be described as the recognition that for employees to adopt an Agile mindset, an entire organization must support it. Agile software development is not truly agile until an organization changes its structure and operations in order to work in uncertain environments.
Key Agile Concepts
Here are some key Agile concepts. More information is available in the glossary Section.
User Stories: The team works with customers or product owners to divide the work into functional units called “user stories.” Each story should contribute to the overall product’s value.
Daily meeting: Every day, the team meets to share information. Each team member briefly describes their contributions and obstacles.
Personas When the project requires it, such as when user experience is a key factor in project outcomes, the team creates detailed, synthetic biographies for fictitious users: these are called “personas”
Group: An Agile “team” is a small group that has been assigned to a single project or effort and almost all of them are working full-time. A few team members may only be part-time contributors or have competing responsibilities.