One major goal of every company is to increase its operational efficiency, productivity, and revenue by extension. And so every company seeks to provide value to the insatiable market out there by delivering products and services.
Inevitably, a point is reached where the realization hits home that the traditional business methods are just not sufficient to deliver the type of value required by the current ever-evolving business environment.
To put it succinctly, it is no longer business as usual. Using old methods to create solutions to modern problems is not feasible for businesses to reach their desired future state especially if they want to remain relevant.
While seeking ways to optimize business performance, there are so many buzzwords thrown around. Currently, agile seems to top the list.
For companies that seek to deliver value via modern solutions, is agile the way? And how should companies incorporate agile methodology into their initiatives?
This article shows that agile is more than just a buzzword. It is actually a way of life and a mindset that permeates how an organization operates.
It explains further how agile methodology stands out from traditional project management, the benefits and obstacles to agile adoption, and how agile methodology can be adopted into companies’ initiatives.
What is Agile Methodology?
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word agile? An athlete on a trapeze? The fluid movement of a ballerina? Or perhaps an elephant balanced on a ball?
All of these pictures paint a central theme which is agility. This is an ability to move and change the body’s direction quickly and flexibly, with sharp reflexes and balance.
Agile is therefore the ability to move quickly, be flexible, and adapt to changes. It is an iterative approach to project management and/or software development that helps teams deliver value fast and first.
In the world of projects and software development, agile is a mindset and an umbrella word for a group of methodologies with a central theme of responsiveness to change.
It embodies practices and principles that help businesses stay relevant in a rapidly evolving environment and deliver the one measure of success – value.
Agile delivers value incrementally using a time-boxed approach by seeking continuous feedback from stakeholders and users, and adapting the processes used and future increments based on this feedback.
It is a lightweight methodology that encourages teamwork and collaboration across a set of self-organized generalizing specialists, empowered to deliver value via high-quality software.
Agile as an umbrella word consists of various methodologies. These include Scrum, Kanban, Kaizen, XP, and Lean.
For a successful implementation of any agile methodology, it is critical that the right mindset which is an agile mindset is adopted.
The agile principles are embodied in the agile values and these combine in the holy book of agile – the Agile Manifesto.
The Agile Manifesto Values and Principles
The Agile Manifesto is an effective guide and roadmap to the agile methodology that lays out the core values and principles that help teams get into an agile mindset.
The manifesto lays out 4 major values of agile methodology which are:
1. Individuals and Interactions Over Processes and Tools
This value impresses the fact that although processes and tools are important, the place of face-to-face human interaction can never be over-emphasized.
This is because there is no fool-proof process and agile teams recognize that value is as per the acceptance criteria set by people.
Hence, agile places more value on individuals and actual interactions especially as heavy-weight documentation of processes may eventually be irrelevant.
2. Working Software Over Comprehensive Documentation
This is a core value of agile that emphasizes the ability to accept changes at any point of the product development life cycle and keep things as lightweight as possible.
In Agile development, working software is the most important measure of success and is of higher value than comprehensive documentation as the phrase entails happens to be heavyweight.
While this does not in any way mean that agile projects or initiatives do not have or need documentation, it underscores the principle of “Just Barely Good Enough” documentation that is sufficient for reports for regulatory or compliance purposes.
3. Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiations
With the constant integration of agile into your company’s initiatives, you will come to understand that agile is more people-centric than product-centric.
This is because the critical success factor for any project or initiative lies with the stakeholders who have various levels of commitment to the project.
Value is as described by the customer and is affected by varying dynamic business conditions. Therefore, agile’s focus is on customer collaboration at all points of the project.
Hence from time to time, requirements from customers may change, and most often these changes may not have been envisaged during contract negotiation.
The collaboration of the project team, vendors, and customers is critical for success rather than focusing on a product that fulfills the terms of a contract but offers little value to the stakeholders.
4. Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
This value embodies the fact that changing requirements is welcome in agile development, and not treated as an exception with a cumbersome change control process as in the waterfall methodology.
Whereas traditional project management has a detailed project plan and governance process that suppresses changes, agile responds to change and welcomes it.
This does not mean that agile development has no plan. This method favors the progressive elaboration or the rolling wave planning model, deferring in-depth planning and decisions until concise empirical knowledge is available.
The values in the Agile Manifesto are incorporated in the 12 principles below.
- The highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the 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 for a 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.
These 4 values supplemented with the 12 agile principles embody the agile mindset, and it is this mentality that individuals in your agile team and company must adopt to harness the benefits of the agile methodology.
Common Agile Methodologies
Having covered the basics of the agile mindset, we delve into common methodologies that embody this mindset.
While these methodologies follow the same set of guiding principles of the Agile Manifesto, they have certain specific characteristics that make each of them unique.
It is up to the organization and the team to choose the flavor that suits their system and the particular project for the best outcomes.
The success of a methodology used in a project depends on a variety of factors ranging from the nature of the project, the industry or domain, to the organizational culture and the people involved.
1. Scrum
Scrum is one of the most popular agile methodologies. It is a lightweight framework that focuses on iterative and incremental delivery of value and is based on 3 core pillars – transparency, inspection, and adaptation.
The scrum framework contains roles, artifacts, and events/ceremonies that are geared towards ensuring that value is delivered first and fast.
Scrum Roles
The scrum roles which make up the scrum team include:
Product Owner
The product owner represents the voice of the customers, stakeholders, or organization and defines the features of the product and its priorities based on their overall goals and vision.
Scrum Master
The scrum master is a servant leader focused on ensuring agile adoption within the team and the organization by extension, removing obstacles from the team, and shielding the team from external impediments.
Development Team
The development team in a scrum team is a group of generalizing specialists, self-organizing, and this team is ultimately accountable for the success of the projects.
They are focused on creating value by building potentially shippable products at the end of each sprint from the prioritized product backlog.
Scrum Ceremonies or Events
These are time-boxed events that are essential for transparency and adaptation which are the pillars of the scrum framework. There are 4 main events in scrum which are cocooned in a container event known as a sprint. These events include:
Sprint
A sprint is a time-boxed iteration of 2 to 4 weeks. During a sprint, the development team creates a potentially releasable product increment from the prioritized product backlog.
All scrum events are contained within sprints.
Sprint Planning
This is a scrum event that takes place at the beginning of each sprint. It is time-boxed at 8 hours for sprints of a month duration, and 4 hours for a sprint of 2 weeks.
During sprint planning, the team decides the requirements and features they will work on during the sprint from the prioritized backlog, defines a sprint goal that they plan to achieve, and the roadmap to get it done.
Daily Scrum
The daily scrum is a meeting for the development team held every day preferably at a fixed time and location. This event is time-boxed at 15 minutes.
In this meeting, the developers each give brief updates on their progress, obstacles and challenges, and how to keep the sprint on track towards the sprint goal.
Sprint Review
A sprint review is an event at the end of the sprint where the product increment is reviewed by the team and the stakeholders.
It is an opportunity to review what was learned during the sprint and what could be done differently in the future. It is time-boxed to 4 hours for a month sprint, and 2 hours for a sprint of 2 weeks.
Sprint Retrospective
This is a meeting done by the scrum team at the end of the sprint. The meeting involves retrospecting on the last sprint, what went right, what did not, and how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of processes in subsequent sprints.
This meeting is time-boxed at 3 hours for a month sprint, and 90 minutes for sprint of 2 weeks.
Scrum Artifacts
The scrum framework has 3 main artifacts. These are the product backlog, the sprint backlog, and the increment. These artifacts are essential in guiding the team’s work.
Product Backlog
The product backlog is a prioritized list of features and requirements that make up the product and represents the work to be done to deliver value to the customers or stakeholders.
The product backlog is managed by the product owner and is continuously refined to reflect the business needs as they evolve.
Sprint Backlog
The sprint backlog is a list of features and requirements from the prioritized product backlog that is to be done in a sprint. The sprint backlog is the responsibility of the development team and is used to track the progress of the team.
Increment
The increment is the product that is created during the sprint. It is a usable and releasable version of the product that meets the sprint goal that was defined during sprint planning.
2. Extreme Programming (XP)
This is the second most common agile methodology favored for use in software development. It is most useful when requirements are highly volatile and rapidly changing.
Unlike Scrum, it has a shorter iteration length.
Extreme programming is based on five core values which are offshoots of the Agile Manifesto and principles. These are respect, communication, courage, feedback, and simplicity.
As the name implies, this methodology applies the principles of agile to the extreme.
The 4th agile principle stipulates business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. In XP, the practice of onsite customers holds where customers actually sit with the developers together to give feedback on the go.
Also, from the 8th agile principle that stipulates agile processes promote sustainable development, the sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
An extreme practice of a sustainable pace of a 40-hour work week with slack time to deal with uncertainties that may arise during iterations is favored.
Pair programming, collective code ownership, and continuous integration are other extreme variations of agile principles employed in XP.
3. Kanban
Kanban, in its purest form, is a low-tech, high-touch agile methodology. Derived from two Japanese words kan which means visual and ban which means board, it is an agile methodology that uses visual boards to limit work in progress.
The whole idea of Kanban is to increase throughput by limiting work in progress.
It is based on the following 5 principles that are also offshoots of the agile principles. Visualize work, limit work in progress, manage workflow, make processes explicit, and improve collaboration.
The principles of Kanban could be applied in combination with other agile methodologies. Scrumban which is a combination of scrum and kanban is an example of this combination.
4. Lean Methodology
The lean methodology focuses on eliminating waste and optimizing resources by streamlining business processes.
There are seven possible sources of waste. These are transportation, defect, over-production, over-processing, waiting, inventory, and motion.
Lean is based on 7 principles which are also off-shoot of the agile principles. Eliminate waste, amplify learning, decide as late as possible, deliver as fast as possible, empower the team, build integrity in, and optimize the whole.
As with other agile methodologies, the focus is on the whole team and the delivery of value.
Read Also: 8 Great Ways to Inspire Your Agile Team for Top Productivity
What are the Benefits of Agile Methodology?
For all the hype around it, I am sure you are probably asking what are the benefits of agile and why is it currently the go-to methodology of most companies?
These are some of the ways that agile methodology can transform your development processes.
1. Improved Customer Satisfaction
As highlighted in the first principle of agile, satisfying the customer is the top priority for any agile methodology adopted. Agile seeks to deliver products that will deliver value to this customer and satisfy the business needs.
The agile team reckons that value is as proscribed by the customer and is ready to accept feedback during the course of delivery.
The emphasis on feedback and stakeholder engagement reduces the gulf that traditionally existed between customers’ expectations and the developers’ imagination of this expectations.
In some cases like with XP for example, the customers are often present with the team during delivery to foster a faster feedback loop.
This leads to projects that meet the acceptance criteria and definition of done, and hence customer satisfaction since the value is generated from the user’s perspective.
2. Superior Product Quality
Agile methodologies build quality into products. Various agile practices to ensure value delivery includes code refactoring, continuous integration, pair programming, retrospectives, reviews, and introspective.
These practices ensure continuous focus on technical excellence and good design.
3. Faster Time to Market
Agile focuses on incremental delivery of value and hence adopts a value-based prioritization. This way, value is seen by the customer at the end of every iteration in terms of working software.
In fact, the primary measure of value for the team is working software. And unlike with the waterfall methodology that completes the development of a product at the project end, you have a usable product from sprint 1 with agile.
This way, the business or product owner can market releases from the first sprint and gain a competitive/first-comer advantage rather than waiting until the end of the project.
4. Reduced Risk and Cost of Changes
Agile projects are progressively de-risked by early detection of risks, the inclusion of risk mitigation user stories in the backlog, and prioritizing risk user stories for early iterations.
This ensures that each iteration de-risks the project. Practices like daily communication, iterative delivery, simplicity, and retrospectives reduce risks in agile projects and hence the cost of making changes as risks are identified and mitigated earlier in the delivery.
5. Improved Team Morale
Agile methodologies are centered around motivated, self-organizing teams with a focus on continuous improvement of the team.
The team is in charge of the success of the project and at all times, regular honest and open communication among team members is encouraged.
The team delivers at a constant pace and enjoys work balance, they learn from other team members through osmotic communication and tacit knowledge.
The team performance is visible to all by using low-tech high-touch tools and measured using relevant metrics (never in comparison to another team). Hence, team morale is improved.
6. Continuous Delivery and Improvement
Agile methodologies focus on delivering results fast, learning, improving, and delivering value. A key cycle in Agile is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle of continuous improvement (kaizen).
Agile operates on fail fast, fail forward with emphasis on checking and improving and optimizing the whole process.
How Should Companies Incorporate Agile Methodology Into Their Initiatives?
With the benefits of using an agile approach for managing projects and developing software products, you are probably pondering on ways to incorporate agile into your company’s initiatives and projects.
This may seem like a mountain to climb especially for organizations where every thread of its fabric is dyed in the traditional waterfall project methodology or practice agile in theory but do something else in reality that can not really be classified.
An agile transformation is certainly challenging but entirely possible. These steps will largely help in incorporating an agile mindset into your company.
1. Educate Your Team on Agile
Incorporating agile into your company starts with your team. Ensure that everyone on your team understands the concept of agile as well as its values and principles, as well as agile methodologies, tools, and practices.
This may require workshops and training sessions. As the team adopts the agile mindset and develops products with the methodology, then you can expand this knowledge holistically across the company.
2. Identify Parts of the Company that Could benefit from Agile
It is almost impossible to completely transform your company into an agile-driven one overnight. The agile methodology will not benefit every part of your organization in the same way so do not bother trying.
Consider which parts of your organization would benefit the most from an agile approach, and then start from there.
3. Start Small
As earlier stated, you won’t transform your company overnight. Trying to do that is simply counterproductive, and it is better you start small.
Starting with a small pilot project to test agile practices and see how they work in your organization is often the best way to get started.
This way, you have an opportunity to learn from your experiences and make necessary adjustments before implementing agile more broadly.
Also, one of the best ways to convince others to hop on the agile train with you is by showing them the results of your project from an agile approach.
4. Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement
In order to be truly agile-driven, your company has to be open to new ideas and approaches, as well as be willing to pivot if necessary. There needs to be a mental shift from the old ways to an agile mindset.
This necessitates a continuous improvement culture in which everyone is encouraged to share ideas and suggestions for improving processes and outcomes.
5. Use Agile Tools and Techniques
There are lots of tools and techniques that you need to harness for managing your projects. Agile project management software, daily stand-up meetings, and sprint planning sessions are some of them.
These tools and techniques can assist you in tracking progress, identifying and resolving issues, and staying on track to meet your project objectives.
Using them also helps your team and other employees become more familiar with them.
What Are the Challenges of Implementing Agile methodology?
There are lots of challenges that you will face when trying to incorporate agile into your organization. it certainly will not be smooth sailing and these are some of the challenges you are likely to encounter.
1. Culture Change
Successfully incorporating agile into your organization requires a focus on collaboration, transparency, and flexibility. However, this may be unfamiliar to some teams thus making it difficult for the organization.
Agile requires a shift in culture and mindset and this is not easy, especially for teams used to working with a different approach.
2. Lack of Experience
For teams that have little or no experience with agile, implementing the methodology can be difficult.
Implementing this will require additional training and coaching to get the team members up to speed with agile principles and practices which is basically a foreign language to them.
3. Managing Expectations
Agile involves a lot of collaboration and communication, which can be challenging if team members are not used to working in this way.
It can be difficult to manage expectations, particularly when it comes to scope and timelines, as these may change frequently in an agile environment.
4. Resistance to Change
Resistance to change by team members and employees of the organization is another challenge you are likely to face when trying to transform into an agile-driven organization.
You will likely face mental inertia as the truth is that a lot of people are averse to change. This is especially heightened when they are more used to traditional methods of project management.
It can be difficult to get buy-in and commitment from the team, especially if they are not fully on board with the agile approach, and you will have to employ a lot of your leadership skills to win them over.
5. Teams Members without Appropriate Authority
Agile teams are self-organized and responsible for the success of the project without interference in how they decide to develop the product during sprints.
However, the reality is often a far cry from what is ideal as a lot of times the agile team does not have the authority to be actually self-managing and you will likely find stakeholders becoming obstacles and impediments to the team.
Read Also: 8 Incredible Benefits of Nearshore Agile Software Development for Your Business
Conclusion
Despite these challenges, it is important to focus on the benefits of an agile-driven company and come to the terms with the reality that nothing good comes easy.
To transform your company into an agile-driven one, and reap the benefits, you need to fully learn the agile values, principles, and practices, then follow these steps for incorporating agile into your company’s initiatives, while finding ways to surmount these challenges.
By following these steps, you can begin the process of transforming your company to be agile-driven, and position your organization for greater success.
