What is Agile?

What is Agile?

Term Agile is only a kind of shortcut actually - full name is Agile Software Development. But to make it shorter let's stay with Agile. In general, Agile refers to a group of software development frameworks in most cases based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams and customers (or business representatives).

Agile refers to any development process that is aligned with the concepts of the Agile Manifesto. It promotes adaptive planning, early delivery, continuous improvement, encourages rapid and flexible response to change.

Agile frameworks generally promote a disciplined product management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation with transparency, encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability with set of engineering best practices intended to allows for rapid delivery of high-quality software and a business approach that aligns development teams with customer needs and company goals.

Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto was developed by a group of 14 leading figures in the software industry and reflects their experience of what approaches do and do not work for product development. So, here it is:

"We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."

(more on agilemanifesto.org)

Agile Principles

Principles behind the Agile Manifesto:

  • Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software
  • Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage
  • Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale
  • Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project
  • Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done
  • The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation
  • Working software is the primary measure of progress
  • Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely
  • Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility
  • Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential
  • The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams
  • At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly

(more on agilemanifesto.org)

Agile Frameworks

Scrum or Scrum variants continue to make up more than two-thirds of the frameworks being used. More frameworks you can find on the picutre below. I won't describe all frameworks here - if you're interested please visit my blog to find out more.

(more in VersionOne annual Agile report)

SEE WHY TO BE AGILE