Agile

The flexibility of thinking allows you to adapt to a changing environment, helps you quickly respond to changes in competitors, as well as monitor and respond to market dynamics.

Agile is a flexible way to manage projects.

It is also called flexible methodology. Flexibility means that the product can change during the creation process. The team responds to the wishes of the user, the client, and the market situation.

Well, in the language of experienced agile trainers, agility is a way of thinking based on common sense.

Agile Manifesto

Agile Manifesto was created 20 years ago but has not lost its relevance. His ideas continue to change the way developers think.

The manifest is based on four values:

1. A working product is more important than detailed documentation.
2. People and interaction are more important than processes and tools.
3. Being ready for change is more important than following a plan.
4. Cooperation with the customer is more important than agreeing on the terms of the contract.

The manifesto states that a company that wants to work flexibly adheres to 12 principles.

These principles determine how the process of working with the customer, working on the product, and working in a team works.

In the first place is a working product, not documents and permits.

The team strives for simplicity and self-organization, which means there is no leader who is responsible for everything and makes decisions. The whole team is responsible for the product and wants to make it better.

The purpose of the development is to benefit the client. Each task offers additional value. No development for the sake of development.

Agile examples

• Collect feedback from customers and users at every stage of work on the product.
• Break your project into tasks and subtasks.
• Change the load on team members when someone drops out, understand the reasons and think about how to do better next time.
• After each stage of work, show the customer a part of the product. The phase lasts 2-3 weeks.
• They change the product at any time when the client’s business or market needs change or user problems are not solved.

Non-agile examples

• Gather customer requirements at the start of a project and see it through to completion.
• The work is going according to plan: three weeks of design, a month of code and layout, and ten days of testing.
• Plan ahead for the workload of team members. You define the scope of tasks at the beginning of the project and do not deviate from it. If someone doesn’t have time, you push back the entire project or adjust the team.
• Show the product to the customer when all work on it is completed. Or you demonstrate the result after each main stage: you made a design – they showed it, you made a layout – they showed it.
• The work is proceeding according to the plan agreed with the client at the beginning of the project. You release the product in the form initially agreed with the customer.

Agile is not a universal tool that will solve all problems at once and help create a breakthrough product.

Spotify and Netflix have been working on Agile from the very beginning, this has helped them become leaders in their niches. Amazon switched to flexible management methods gradually, and this has yielded results. But there are thousands more examples of companies that switched to Agile and closed down.

The methodology is suitable if you have an experienced team. The team consists of professional employees who are ready, if necessary, to pull up newcomers.

PRINCIPLES OF AGILE DEVELOPMENT

1. Working software is developed within 2 weeks to 2 months (shorter deadlines are preferred);
2. The main priority is to continuously and timely meet the needs of customers;
3. It is necessary to constantly analyze the team’s work in order to increase its effectiveness;
4. The principle of simplicity is important, you should not engage in unnecessary work;
5. Project development among motivated employees. Maintaining trusting relationships and a positive atmosphere in the team;
6.  Progress for developers is the creation of working software;
7. Thanks to the flexibility of the processes, sustainable development is possible. This is very important as customers, developers and users need to be able to keep up with the same pace without any time pressure;
8.  The most effective way of communication between employees is through conversation;
9. The coordinated work of users and programmers should be monitored throughout the project.