Delivering a project is the bread and butter of any company. It could be anything from infrastructure for the company itself, to a software deliverable, to a building to construct. Effectively managing the project requires clearly defining the goal of the project, determining the team to work on it, and countless other things. But one of the most important aspects of project development is the methodology used to deliver it.
It is likely no surprise, given the innovative nature of businesses, that numerous project development methodologies have been developed, especially in the field of Information Technology. Today, however, Agile methodology is extremely popular, it’s nearly impossible to have not heard of it in passing, even if you don’t yet know what it is.
About Agile
So? What exactly is Agile, and what makes it so great? Well, simply put, Agile is a development methodology that focuses on flexibility, taking an iterative, incremental approach to development. Agile projects focus on short development periods called sprints, that seek to complete a fully-ready deliverable by the end of it.[1] By determining what the most important features are to a project and focusing on their respective sprints first, a company can ensure that the most desirable features are fully functional and deliverable even if the project as a whole is off schedule, increasing stakeholder satisfaction and possibly saving a derailed project, even when the project requirements change during development.
Principles of Agile
Alright, that probably sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? With that said, what does Agile stand on? What are the core principles that make it the powerful tool that it is? Happy to help- and it turns out the fine folks at Agile Alliance have already put them into a convenient list. [2]
Figure 1
Well, that’s a lot. Let’s dig into it a little further by taking a look at the principles and seeing how Agile upholds them.
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
If the customer isn’t happy, nobody’s happy- a universal truth. One of the worst things that can happen to a project is for it to near completion only for its team to realize they’re not only out of money but don’t have a fully functional deliverable yet. The project is filled with wireframes, unfinished code, and other disasters. If that project was shipped, it’d be a catastrophe. Agile focuses on delivering the project feature by feature, ensuring that the most important components are fully functional and ready for the public the moment they come off the metaphorical press. If the dev team runs out of resources, there’ll still be a project they can show stakeholders.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
The grim reality of software development is that requirements can change, and do change. A lot. Changing requirements can render entire chunks of a project entirely obsolete, and cost much more time and money to fix halfway through development. Agile’s focus on individual features means that developers can cope with changing requirements much more easily. If something changes, they simply determine what needs to be done to deal with it, prioritize it, and focus on it in the next most pertinent sprint.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Some deliverables take more time to complete than others. One feature might be doable in a day, and another might take months. Agile focuses on breaking the overall project into smaller chunks and getting each chunk done and finished in small, iterative sprints. The core idea is to make sure that as much of the important stuff is functional as possible.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Agile emphasizes collaboration and communication between developers. Even if a team member works alone on a sprint, they’ll communicate with their team every day during a short meeting called a Daily Scrum to share how their work is coming along and what they might need assistance with. This way everyone knows what needs to be done to complete their work. Regular sprint reviews keep development open and clear with the project owner and core stakeholders, allowing them to share valuable insight.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
Agile doesn’t give team members time to lose steam. Information is open, support is easily accessible, and people are allowed to apply themselves where they work best. Team members quickly reveal their strengths, and the expertise they have to share can make a huge difference in the well-being of the overall project.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Agile recognizes that phone calls, emails, and memos can be slow, inefficient, and easily filtered out. But worst of all, only the first of these facilitates the open conversation that allows team members to show their skills and expertise. That’s why it focuses so much on short, regular meetings. Each day team members get to discuss their situation, in addition to regular retrospectives and forecasts.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Until a stakeholder has a fully functional product in their hands, your team’s project might as well be a failure already. Agile recognizes the need for functional software overall by focusing on delivering functional features in independent sprints, ensuring customers have a working project as soon as possible, and leaders can direct the team with feedback as early in the process as possible- no more waiting until the end of a project to make changes.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Working on a project can be exhausting. It guzzles resources, time, and energy. Instead of setting far-out, distant goals and deadlines that can seem unreachable, Agile focuses on the short term, what can be delivered now, without working team members to the bone in exhausting crunches. Managed well, an agile project can continue as long as it needs to be completed.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Agile doesn’t deliver perfection, because perfection is unfeasible. Good Agile project managers are always diligently observing development, understanding when a deliverable is good- good enough to build off of without slowing progress or reducing value. By focusing on what is realistic, reasonable, and good, Agile ensures that projects don’t get bogged down in smaller details that swamp development.[4]
Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.
Anyone who’s ever worked on a project knows how easy it is to get distracted. Development brings out the best- and worst in projects. Before too long, your team has lists and lists of possible improvements, imperfections that should be removed, and features the project could benefit from. Agile keeps your team from getting too distracted by focusing on what’s important. What are the minimum features that a project needs to be functional? Once your team has finished what needs to be done, it can improve your project, and it can add to it.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Software development shouldn’t be like herding cats. And it isn’t. Your teams know themselves. The right people on the right teams will know exactly what is needed to accomplish what is needed to succeed. They know where they excel and where they don’t. They will listen and learn from others, gaining a clear understanding of needs and what is available to solve them.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Agile doesn’t hold back from encouraging self-improvement. Daily Scrums, Sprint Reviews, and Sprint Retrospectives ensure that your team is constantly aware of itself, what it needs, and what it has accomplished. This constant communication ensures your team is never left in the dark, always aware of what needs to be done.
Conclusion
It may seem like a lot, but these core principles of Agile are strong tools that if followed, can bring countless projects to success. Agile is a methodology built directly to address the challenges of development, playing off of the strengths of your team and ensuring customer satisfaction as early as possible. With such an impactful methodology, it’s no wonder that teams everywhere are adopting Agile as the trump card in their deck to bring a project to successful completion.
References
[1] GeeksforGeeks. (2024, January 10). Agile Software Development - software engineering. GeeksforGeeks. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-engineering-agile-software-development/
[2] Farmer, T., Musser, H., & Foster, T. (2023, October 18). 12 principles behind the Agile Manifesto: Agile Alliance. Agile Alliance |. https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/12-principles-behind-the-agile-manifesto/
[3] Agile Alliance. (n.d.). Figure 1. www.agilealliance.org. https://www.agilealliance.org/agile101/12-principles-behind-the-agile-manifesto/
[4] Lowell, K.R. (2023). Agile Principle 9: “Continuous Attention to Technical Excellence and Good Design Enhances Agility”. In: Leading Modern Technology Teams in Complex Times. Future of Business and Finance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36429-7_16
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