What does the term “agile” mean? Agile is a mentality rather than just a management approach. it is a way of thinking.
Agile offers a variety of methodologies that you can work with, apply, and comprehend.
The most essential aspect of learning agile is to “be agile,” which refers to implementing agile in the proper way rather than “do agile,”
which refers to doing agile inefficiently.
The history of Agile
In February 2001, 17 software and methodology experts arranged a meeting in Snowbird, Utah, to discuss and develop a new methodology for
management.
They look for a strategy that primarily emphasizes accepting change, supporting incremental deliverables, and offering improved on-time
feedback.
This new management approach is typical of sectors that largely rely on software development, such as telecommunications and the
automotive sector.
Following this discussion, they produced the Agile Manifesto as a summary of their ideas.
Agile Manifesto
Experts reached a consensus on a manifesto, they aimed to develop a collection of core values and guidelines for project leaders as opposed
to a strict hierarchy of steps that must be taken. They focused primarily on the flexible working methodology that considers the
circumstances of each project.
The Agile Manifesto instructs us to manage projects from a value-based viewpoint, not as a series of rules telling us what to do
and what not to do.
These leaders wrote it in a straightforward, concise, and understandable manner, it serves as the foundation for most practices
now in use, such as Scrum, XP, and Lean…
The Agile Manifesto is made up of four core values and twelve guiding principles, each of which will be stated in a beautifully brief
sentence of just seven words.
The four core values of Agile
Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
Our first value is how to engage with people and collaborate with them to complete the task at hand, rather than the procedures and equipment used to carry it out.
Although we make an effort to direct the team’s focus on humans, this does not imply that the processes and tools are not necessary, people are the project’s key contributors.
This implies that managing people must take up more of your time than setting up processes and tools.
Working Software (Systems) Over Comprehensive Documentation
The deliverable is the main emphasis of this value. Comprehensive documentation for a project that failed to meet its objectives is meaningless.
Before generating the accompanying documentation for this business case, the most crucial stage is to develop a functioning system that complies with business values.
This means that you must initially concentrate on the goal, service, or primary output of the project before writing the necessary project documentation.
Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation
In terms of this value, working with customers to find the best solution takes precedence over the terms of the contract.
To reach an agreement with the client, the team leader can renegotiate the terms of the contract.
Flexible contract models should be adopted to deal with potential changes in deliverables in the context of agile projects, where quick
changes in business trends may affect the project’s final outputs.
In order to establish a trustworthy relationship with customers throughout the project, leaders must be flexible in how they interact with clients and how they handle their requests, even when the request to change is late in the project’s timeline.
Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
Change is the subject of the fourth and final core value. Any project will experience changes, and in an agile environment, we encourage them
whenever they occur.
Agile projects are often built on inadequate initial plans due to insufficient information about the project.
This doesn’t mean skipping the planning stage or even spending less time on it; rather, it means being prepared to respond to changes even
in the project’s late stages.
For instance, in software projects, the rapid rate of change made it difficult to include it in the original design.
To Conclude: Leaders are aware that the original plans were created early in the project with a lot of information lacking or the scope
being unclear, so change is inevitable.
This means that all agile projects have a lot of changes, and we therefore must deal with them.
The most seven benefits of using agile
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- This methodology can sustain excellent product quality by using regular testing.
- Customers are constantly involved in all stages of the project, which results in a remarkably high level of final result satisfaction.
- Because of effective face-to-face communication, transparency, and regular meetings, managers have superior control over the project.
- Working over short time frames (“2 weeks to 2 months”) reduces or even eliminates project risks.
- Agile teams are very flexible because the project is broken up into manageable pieces and detailed in the product backlog, which is reviewed at the beginning of each sprint or iteration.
- Team morale is always high because the team leader keeps shielding them from any external interference.
- Agile projects are dependent on self-organized teams, which are more successful than conventional ones since they depend on trust, learning, collaboration, and professionalism in handling conflict.
This article covered the definitions and history of agile, the agile manifesto, and
the agile core values. In next post, we’ll go over agile principles.
Sources: PMI