What Is Agile Methodology, A Guide For Leaders

In the fast-paced digital era, where change is the only constant, organizations are perpetually in a quest to outperform, innovate, and adapt to evolving market dynamics. The pivotal role of "Agile Methodology" emerges as an indispensable catalyst in this scenario, especially in the transformative journey from project to product orientation.

But why is Agile not merely an option, but a mandate in this transformation? The answer lies in its inherent ability to foster a culture of continuous improvement, adaptability, and customer-centricity.

Agile Methodology, with its iterative cycles, feedback loops, and collaborative ethos, not only accelerates product development but also ensures that the end product is finely attuned to customer needs and market demands. It empowers organizations to pivot swiftly, ensuring that product evolution is in harmony with the shifting tides of customer expectations and technological advancements.

As we delve deeper into the realms of Agile, we will explore how its methodologies become the linchpin, ensuring that the transformation from project management to product leadership is seamless, efficient, and, most importantly, value-driven.

Agile is a very empowering process that helps companies design and build the right product. The management process is very beneficial for software companies because it helps them analyze and improve their product throughout their development. This enables companies to produce a highly valuable product so they stay competitive in the market.

Where did Agile come from?

In 2001, a small group of people, tired of the traditional approach to managing software development products, designed the Agile Manifesto. It is a more improved method for managing the progress of software products.

The Agile Manifesto has four important values:

1. The focus should be more on individuals and interactions instead of processes and tools
2. Working software is more important than comprehensive documentation
3. Customer collaboration is more vital than contract negotiation
4. The process should respond to change rather than follow a plan

There are 12 principles of agile software development:

1. Deliver customer satisfaction by delivering valuable software continuously
2. Always accept changes in requirements no matter how early or late the project
3. Deliver software that works within a shorter timescale
4. Both developers and business professionals must work closely together daily throughout the project
5. Information is best transferred between parties in face-to-face conversations
6. Motivate people to build a project by creating an environment of appreciation, trust, and empowerment
7. Working software is the key measure of progress
8. The agile process promotes sustainable development
9. Continuous attention to excellence and quality in technical development and design boosts agility
10. 10 Simplicity is a vital part of effective agile management
11. Self-organized teams produce the best architecture, requirements, and design
12. Teams should reflect through inspection and adaption to be more effective

Different methods of agile promote the values and principles of the manifesto. Scrum and XP are two well-known examples.

The Benefits of Agile Software Development

Top software developers developed agile meetings. After repeatedly experiencing challenges and limitations from traditional waterfall development in real-life products, they wanted to create a more efficient process for analyzing product development. The approach they used addresses the issues regarding the philosophies and processes of traditional methods directly.

Stakeholder Engagement and Satisfaction 

The agile process creates many opportunities throughout each sprint meeting for genuine engagement between the team and the stakeholders. Because the client is actively involved in the entire product, there is a continuous level of collaboration between all parties. This gives the team a chance to fully understand the client’s vision. By delivering high-quality, working software frequently, the stakeholders quickly develop a trusting and authentic relationship with the team. This also further promotes engagement between the client and the team.

Transparency 

The agile approach actively involves the client throughout the entire product including Sprint Planning, review sessions, and new feature builds in the software. Clients, however, must understand that during the transparency of the product, they are seeing a work in progress and not the final product.

Early and Predictable Delivery 

Sprints are held on a fixed schedule of 1 to 4 weeks duration. By using this time-boxed method, predictability is high as new features can be delivered to the stakeholders quickly and frequently. It also allows the team to beta test or release the software sooner if it has sufficient business value.

Predictable Costs and Schedule

Because the Sprints are on a fixed schedule, the costs are limited and predictable and based on the amount of work done. By combining the estimated costs before each Sprint, the client will better understand the approximate costs of each feature. This offers more improved decision-making opportunities when prioritizing the features or adding iterations.

Flexible Prioritization

Scrum methodologies allow more flexibility by prioritizing customer-driven features. The team has more control in managing the shippable units of work with each sprint boundary; making continued progress toward the final product milestone. To get a prompt RIO from the engineering, the work needs to be shipped early to the customers so they will realize the value of the features.

Allows for Change

While the focus should be to deliver the agreed subset of the features of the product, Agile processes create an opportunity to continually reprioritize and refine the product backlog. These changes can be added to the next iteration so the new changes can be introduced within a few weeks.

Focuses on Business Value

The team has a better understanding of what is most important for the client’s business and can deliver features that give the most value to the business.

Focuses on Users 

The user’s stories are commonly used to define the product features as they relate to business-focused acceptance criteria. By focusing on the user’s needs, each feature delivers real value and not just an IT component. It provides a better opportunity to gain valuable feedback through beta testing the software after each Sprint. This provides vital feedback earlier in the product so that changes can be made as needed.

Improves Quality 

The product is broken down into manageable units, making it easier for the team or focus on high-quality development, testing, and collaboration. By creating builds and conducting tests or reviews throughout the iteration, defects, and mismatches can be found and fixed early, improving overall quality.

It gives your team Purpose

Most agile processes focus on creating a shared sense of ownership and goals for all team members. This gives your team purpose rather than creating a false sense of urgency. Purposeful teams are more productive and challenge themselves to be faster and more efficient.

The Business Benefits of Agile

Agile management reduces the common risks that are associated with the delivery, scope, and budget of the product.

It encourages collaboration between the customer and the team; offering mutual benefits in the mitigation of high risks during the development of the software.

In 2009, Dr David F Rico compared Agile with traditional methods of software product management. During his research and synthesis, he analyzed 23 Agile processes, comparing them with 7,500 traditional projects.

He found 20 benefits to Agile products:

• 41% were better in terms of overall business value
• 83% showed quicker time-to-market speeds
• 50% were higher in quality
• 50% were less costly
• 83% were more productive

Agile Methodologies

There are several agile methodologies; all share similar philosophies, characteristics, and practices. However, from the point of implementation, each agile has its practices, terminology, and tactics. Some of the main agile software development methodology components include:

Scrum

Scrum is a management framework with far-reaching abilities to control and manage the iterations and increments in all project types. They are lightweight and can be used with other agile methodologies for various engineering practices. Scrums have grown in popularity within the agile software development community because they are simple and have a proven productivity rate.

Lean and Kanban

1.Lean Software Development

Lean software development is an iteration methodology originally developed by Mary and Tom Poppendieck. Many of the principles and practices in Lean Software Development came from the lean enterprise movement and were first used by big companies like Toyota. This value-based method focuses on giving the customer an efficient “Value Stream” mechanism that delivers value to the product.

The main principles of this methodology are:

• Eliminate waste
• Amplify learning
• Make decisions as late as possible
• Deliver results as quickly as possible
• Empower the team
• Build integrity
• Envision the whole project

By choosing only the features that have real value for the system, prioritizing and delivering them in small batches eliminates waste. Instead, the lean methodology emphasizes on speed and efficiency; relying on rapid, reliable feedback between the customers and programmers. It focuses on the idea that customer requests “pull” the product. The focus is more on the faster and more efficient decision-making abilities of individuals or small teams instead of a hierarchy-controlled method. This methodology concentrates on the efficiencies of its team’s resources, ensuring everyone is as productive as possible always.

2.The Kanban Method 

Organizations use the Kanban method to manage the product’s creation while emphasizing on continued delivery and not overburdening the development team. Like Scrum, Kanban processes are designed to help teams work more efficiently together.

There are three principles:

1. Visualize what you do: see all the items within the context of each other – more informative
2. Limit the amount of work in progress (WIP): balance the flow-based approach so teams are not committed to doing too much work at once
3. Enhance the flow: as soon as one task is finished, start on the next highest job from the backlog

The Kanban method promotes continued collaboration with the client and team. It encourages ongoing learning and improvements to provide the best possible workflow for the team.

Extreme Programming (XP)

Extreme Programming (XP) was originally described by Kent Beck. It is one of the most popular and controversial agile methodologies. XP is a highly disciplined method of continually delivering high-quality software faster. The customer is actively involved with the close-knit team to perform continued planning, testing and rapid feedback to deliver working software frequently. The software should be delivered in intervals everyone to three weeks.

The original XP method is based on four simple values:

1. Simplicity
2. Communication
3. Feedback
4. Courage

It has 12 supporting practices:

1. Planning game
2. Small releases
3. Customer acceptance tests
4. Simple design
5. Pair programming
6. Test-driven development
7. Refactoring
8. Continuous integration
9. Collective code ownership
10. Coding standards
11. Metaphor
12. Sustainable pace

Crystal

Crystal methodology is one of the most lightweight and adaptable approaches in developing software. It is made up of several agile processes including Clear, Crystal Yellow, Crystal Orange, and other uniquely characterized methods. Several factors drive these processes including the size of the team, the criticality of the system, and the priorities of the product.

The Crystal family focuses on the realization that each product has unique characteristics, therefore, the policies and practices must be custom-tailored to accommodate these features.

The Crystal method has several essential tenets including:

• Teamwork
• Communication
• Simplicity
• Reflection
• Frequent adjustments
• Improve processes

This agile process, like other methodologies, promotes early and frequent working software delivery. It encourages high user involvement, adaptability, and eliminations of distractions and bureaucracy.

Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

The Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) originated in 1994 to provide an industry-standard framework for product delivery for what was then known as Rapid Application Development (RAD).

Although it was very popular in the 1990s, the RAD approach developed in an unstructured fashion.

Since its beginning, the DSDM has evolved and matured; it provides a comprehensive foundation in planning, management, execution, and scaling of the agile process and iteration products.

DSDM has six key principles revolving around business needs:

1. Value
2. Active user involvement
3. Empowered teams
4. Frequent delivery
5. Integrated testing
6. Stakeholder collaboration

DSDM uses a “fitness for business purpose” approach for delivery and acceptance criteria. It focuses on the formula: 80% system deployment in 20% time.

Feature-Driven Development (FDD)

Jeff De Luca, along with contributors A.m. Rajashima, Lim Bak Wee, Paul Szego, Jon Kern, and Stephen Palmer developed Feature-Driven Development (FDD). It is a model-driven, short iteration process that begins by first establishing the shape of the agile model.

Iterations on “design by feature, build by feature” are held biweekly. The features appeal to clients because they are small and useful.

The FDD design and development is delivered using these eight practices:

1. Domain object modeling
2. Development of features
3. Component and class ownership
4. Feature teams
5. Inspections
6. Configuration management
7. Regular builds
8. Visibility of progress and results

Agile Process

The agile process breaks a larger software product into several smaller parts that can be developed in increments and iterations. Studies have proven that there is a negative correlation between product size and success (i.e.: the shorter the product, the higher the success rate).

The agile approach reduces the size of the project by creating several smaller products. This iteration approach distinguishes Agile management from other management methods.

Unlike other methods, Agile management uses iterations during the planning and development phases. Each iteration is usually a week long.

During these sessions, the product team and customer team collaborate to prioritize what needs to be added to the iteration. The final result is a working software program delivered quickly to the customer in a production-like environment.

Customers can then test their program and make changes if needed. Many releases are made throughout the process as changes to the program are made. This iteration process is repeated until the project is completed.

General management and Agile

Software programming is a critical component for almost every business today. This means that Agile is an essential process for every type of organization and form of work.

Agile methodologies that incorporate new values, practices, principles, and benefits are a better alternative to the traditional command-and-control style of project management. The agile process is even spreading throughout different industries and functions, including C-suites.

However, while many companies are adopting some Agile processes, they are still operating with a bureaucratic top-down method. In today’s digitally dominant economy, companies need to develop agile management practices. But many companies still struggle with this transition and operate in a command-style culture. This is reflected in the mindset and skills of senior management and is the greatest obstacle companies face today.

Agile Practices

There are many different agile practices; many are not used by agile practitioners. Those who want to convert to using the agile process should understand the different practices to help under how they can apply the practice to their environment. The following examples help illustrate how Agile practices can be applied.

Daily Standup (Stand-Up Meetings)

Daily stand-up meetings are also called Daily Scrum meetings. The Scrum sessions are held daily by the team so they can share pertinent information. These meetings are designed to keep all team members equally informed and updated on the status of the project. The key to each meeting is brevity.

During the daily scrum meetings, each member should answer these three questions:

1. What did I do yesterday?
2. What will I do today?
3. What problems are hindering my progress?

User Stories

A user story is a brief description of the function wanted by the end user. There are three elements to the user story. They are:

1. A written description, planning the story (usually written on a card)
2. A conversation about the story to gain a better understanding
3. A series of tests confirmed the story.

The stories are written from the end user’s perspective and use language that they understand. Stories act as currency between developers and customers; both parties clearly understand them. You can read more about 4 reasons why User Stories are not getting "done".

Automated Testing

Implementing formal and thorough automated testing is a vital part of the agile process. The tests find and eliminate defects at their source to ensure that a working software package is delivered to the customer.

Developers can create the test code under a safety net using a variety of available frameworks while simultaneously developing the software code. This method protects other features while making changes to the software. It is also a faster, more efficient way to find bugs in the program.

Automated Builds

A key principle for Agile methodologies is to have running software at all times. In practice, the only way to do this is by ensuring that all software development is regularly and automatically compiled, built, deployed, and tested. This is usually done many times a day and at least once every time a developer “checks in” code as a main part of the development branch.

Agile Planning: Release, Iteration, and Task

There are three levels of Agile development planning: release, iteration, and task. In the beginning stages, project developers and customers meet to discuss the primary user stories that are needed for the software. The meeting’s initial focus is on the must-have features to estimate and prioritize what needs to be done.

Release planning is a customer-driven planning session. Both customers and developers choose a date for the first product release series. They collaboratively decide what stories to incorporate during each release. The developers focus on the estimated efforts of the story while the customers focus on the story selections. There are a variety of forms of estimate efforts that are determined by the needs and wants of the customer and development teams.

Iteration planning requires collaborative efforts between customers and developers to initiate part of the release plan. During iterations, the customer defines and prioritizes the user stories while the developers estimate how much effort is required to develop each user story. The timeline is much shorter for iterations, taking only weeks instead of months.

Task planning occurs after iteration planning. Stories are broken down into a series of doable steps by the development team. Task lists are developed and posted in the project room so they are visible to all party members. Common tools used during this planning session include post-it notes and whiteboards. Each developer volunteers to perform a task and assign an estimate to it.

Pair Programming

In pair programming, two developers work as a team on one programming task. One person is the Driver, the person who enters the code, while the second person is the navigator, the one who plans the next steps while fitting the code into the whole picture.

One common complaint to pair programming is the waste of human resources to do the task. It should not take two people to do a job that can be done by one person. However, while the programming uses more manpower, the final output justifies the expense.

A recent study has found that pair programming uses 15% more effort but produces 15% fewer defects. While results may vary from case to case, developers often find that the reduction in errors is worth the extra resources used.

Another benefit is that pairing is not required full-time. Teams can establish their own rules and schedules when deciding if it’s better to pair.

Continuous Integration

During continuous integration, development teams input their code into the system several times throughout the day. A series of tests are run before the code is added to make sure it won’t damage other pre-existing tests or functions in the system.

The developer must run all the tests for the system first and fix any problems before integrating the other codes. The more often code is integrated into the software, the quicker and easier it is to merge and spot errors.

Retrospectives

Retrospectives are meetings held at or near the end of a sprint. They give all parties involved a chance to look back and reflect on the work done during the process.

The entire team looks at what went well, what did not, where improvements can be made, and, most importantly, how they can take the lessons that they have learned and turn them into actionable change.

Conclusion

Agile management is an exciting and fascinating approach to software development. By integrating the product developers and customers in the planning and implementing processes, the result is a more rewarding experience for everyone involved.

When Agile programming is done properly, organizations can continually find ways to increase the value to their customers. It gives more meaning to those who are actively working on the product and creates a more positive experience for the customer, producing more generous results for the company.

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