Agile

Agile is a dynamic approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with less effort. Agile is a way of thinking and working, according to the Agile Manifesto. Open communication, collaboration, adaptation, and trust among team members are at the core of Agile. Although the project leader or product owner typically prioritizes the work to be done, the team decides how to get it done by self-organizing around specific tasks and responsibilities.

What is Agile methodology?

The traditional approach works in a waterfall construct – each step of the project is done by one team and then passed on to the next group. Agile, on the other hand, calls for collaboration between teams. The main goal of Agile is to focus on delivering a product continuously with strong customer involvement in the process. The idea is that teams work agilely, meaning they adapt quickly and flexibly to changing customer requirements and external conditions. Agile is recommended for projects with varying needs and no clear, specific, and unchangeable vision of the final product. It allows to start without a set of detailed requirements and change them without starting work from scratch. Its main goal is to increase the quality of the product (understood as customer satisfaction and the degree of product refinement) to meet the real needs of the customer and not just the initial requirements.

Principles of Agile

Teams choose agile to respond quickly to changes in the market or customer feedback without derailing annual plans. Scheduling and shipping in small, frequent increments allow the team to gather feedback on each shift and incorporate it into minimal cost plans. Collaboration with customers and teammates is more critical than predetermined rules. And delivering a working solution to a customer problem is more vital than hyper-accurate documentation.

An agile team comes together under a shared vision and then implements that vision in the way that works best for them. Each group sets its standards for quality, usability, and completeness. Their definition of what is done informs how quickly they will complete the work. While this can be intimidating at first, company leaders find that when they put their trust in an agile team, that team has a greater sense of ownership and meets (or exceeds) management’s expectations.

Read more about Agile in the blog posts below.