Agile Methodology

• Introduction
• What is Agile Methodology?
• Agile Definition
• Agile Model
• What is the Agile Manifesto?
• Agile Manifesto Values
• Agile Manifesto Principles
• Agile vs Waterfall: What differentiates agile from the waterfall methodology?
• Agile Project Management Principles
• Roles in Agile Methodology
• Agile methodology Frameworks
• What is Agile Software Development?
• Agile Methodology Best Practices
• Application of Agile methodology
• Benefits of Agile
• Disadvanatges of Agile
• Agile Project Management
• Agile Process
  1. Extreme Programming
  2. Scrum
  3. Dynamic Software Development Method
  4. Feature-Driven Development
  5. Crystal Method
  6. Lean Method
  7. Kanban Method
• Kanban vs Scrum
• Important FAQs on Agile Methodology
• Conclusion

Introduction

Over the past 20 years, agile methods have significantly increased the success rates and smoothened the software development process with improved quality, uplifted the motivation, and enhanced the productivity of IT teams. The agile methodology involves innovative principles and practices to follow across a broad range of industries.

Before getting into the “How” of agile, let’s understand the “What” of agile.

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile methodology is one of the simplest and most effective processes for transforming a business requirement into a software solution. 

Agile software development is a collection of iterative software development approaches in which requirements and solutions emerge from cooperation among self-organizing cross-functional teams. Agile techniques or Agile procedures often support a disciplined project management methodology that fosters regular inspection and adaptation and leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization, and accountability. It also requires a set of engineering best practices to ensure the speedy delivery of high-quality software and a business strategy that connects development with customer needs and company objectives. Agile development requires that all development processes should be aligned with the concepts of the Agile Manifesto.

Agile fundamentally follows the five Ds in its core values:

a.) Define – State the nature of the problem

b.) Design – Initial solution landscape

c.) Develop – Develop the solution 

d.) Demonstrate – Demo of module

e.) Deliver – Deliver the module for testing

The above is repeated iteratively till the final software product is delivered.

Agile Definition

“Be Agile, instead of being fragile”

In simple words, Agile means the ability to move quickly and easily, i.e. making a small change quickly, learning from it, making the required adjustments according to the requirement, and repeating the process as many times as required. To put this into the perspective of software development, agile methodology refers to the software development methodologies which revolve around the fundamental idea of iterative development where the solution evolves through the collaboration between self-organized cross-functional teams.

Almost every information technology organization today seems to practice the principles of Agile in software development. Agile software development takes the view that cross-functional teams should start with simple, predictable, and more probable approximations to the final requirement and then continue to increase the details of the requirements throughout the complete software development life cycle.

Agile Model

The agile model is a type of incremental model that is developed in rapid cycles. The agile process breaks tasks into smaller iterations or incremental releases that do not need long-term planning. Each iteration typically lasts from one to four weeks and is tested to ensure its quality. 

The project planning and scope include the number of iterations and the duration of each iteration in advance. A team of professionals that manage the entire development cycle and ensure that the project is delivered on time handles each iteration. 

The main phases involved in the agile model include –

• Requirement gathering phase – This phase involves defining the requirements to properly plan the project well in advance. The project feasibility and technical requirements can be evaluated based on this knowledge.
• Design phase -After identifying the project requirements, work with the stakeholders to show them the scope of the project and new features using a high-level flow diagram. 
• Iteration phase -Also known as the Construction phase, the iteration phase means beginning the project, which involves various stages of development. Developers start working on deploying a working project.
• Testing phase -The testing phase involves quality assurance of the product and its performance. 
• Deployment phase -In this phase, the team deploys a product for the user’s work environment.
• Feedback phase -It is the last phase of the agile model process in which feedback is given to the team. The team leader ensures that they are working through that feedback. 

What is the Agile Manifesto?

A group wrote the Agile Manifesto of seventeen prominent software industry figures in 2001, and it reflects their knowledge of what approaches work and don’t work in software development. The 17 leaders who came up with the Manifesto are: Kent Beck, Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, James Grenning, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Steve Mellor, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, and Dave Thomas.

The Manifesto reads:

“We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work, we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

Agile Manifesto Values

The Agile Manifesto comprises 4 core values and 12 supporting principles that guide the Agile software development process. The four ideals are applied differently in each Agile approach, but all software developers rely on them to drive the creation and delivery of high-quality, working software.

1. Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

It’s easy to see why people are valued higher than processes or tools because it’s people who respond to company needs and drive the development process. When development is driven by procedure or tools, the team is less adaptable to change and less likely to meet the client’s expectations. The distinction between valuing individuals and processes can be clearly seen in communication. Individual communication is fluid and can occur whenever there is a need, whereas communication has to be scheduled in the case of processes and requires specified content.

2. Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation

Historically, a significant amount of time was spent documenting the product in preparation for development and eventual delivery. Each requires its own set of technical specifications, technical requirements, technical prospectus, interface design documents, test plans, documentation plans, and approvals. The list was vast, which often contributed to the lengthy development delays. Agile does not eliminate documentation; rather, it simplifies it so that the developer has all they need to complete the task without getting bogged down in details. Agile uses user stories to document requirements, and they are enough for a software developer to start working on a new function.

The Agile Manifesto places a high priority on documentation, but it places an even higher value on working software.

3. Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation

Negotiation is when the customer and the product manager work out the delivery details, with the possibility of renegotiating the details along the route. Collaboration is a completely different ball game. Customers negotiate the product requirements, often in great detail, before any work begins via development methodologies like Waterfall. This meant that the customer was involved in the development process before it started and after it was finished, but not through most of it. The Agile Manifesto outlines a client who is involved and interacts with the development team throughout the process. This makes it much easier for developers to match the customer’s requirements. Although agile methodologies may include the client at regular intervals for periodic demos, a project might just as easily include an end-user as a daily member of the team who attends all meetings and ensures the product fulfills the customer’s business needs.

4. Responding to Change over Following a Plan

The change was seen as an expense in traditional software development. Thus, it was avoided. The goal was to create precise, complicated plans with a defined set of features and everything having the same priority as everything else and a huge number of various dependencies on delivering in a specific order so that the team could move on to the next puzzle piece.

Because agile iterations are brief, priorities can be adjusted from iteration to iteration, and new features can be added in the following iteration. Changes, according to Agile, always improve a project, i.e., they give new value.

The concept of Method Tailoring is perhaps the best example of Agile’s constructive approach to change. Agile approaches allow the Agile team to change the process to fit the team instead of the other way around.

Agile Manifesto Principles 

Agile Manifesto has Twelve Principles which are the guiding principles for the methodologies that are included under the “The Agile Movement.” They describe a work environment where change is welcomed and the client is the center of attention. They also demonstrate the Agile Manifesto’s aim, which is to bring development in line with business demands, as expressed by Alistair Cockburn, one of the signatories of The Agile Manifesto.

The twelve principles of agile development are:

1. Customer satisfaction through early and continuous software delivery – Customers are more satisfied when they obtain working software regularly rather than wait for long lengths of time between releases.
2. Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process – This provides with the ability to avoid delays when a requirement or feature request modifications.
3. Frequent delivery of working software – Scrum allows for this since the team works in software sprints or iterations, which ensures that working software is delivered consistently.
4. Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the project – Better decisions are made when the business and technical team are aligned. This also reduces the number of changes in the software.
5. Support, trust, and motivate the people involved – Unhappy teams are less likely to do their best work than motivated ones.
6. Enable face-to-face interactions – Effective communication can be achieved when development teams are near each other.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress – Delivering functional software to the customer is the ultimate factor that measures progress and success.
8. Agile processes to support a consistent development pace – Teams set a tempo at which they can produce functioning software that is repeatable and maintainable, and they stick to it with each release.
9. Attention to technical detail and design enhances agility – The proper talents and smart design guarantee that the team can keep up with the pace, develop the product regularly, and adapt to change.
10. Simplicity – Develop just enough to get the job done for right now so that it can be delivered swiftly and efficiently.
11. Self-organizing teams encourage great architectures, requirements, and designs – Quality goods are delivered by skilled and motivated team members who have decision-making authority, take responsibility, regularly interact with other team members, and exchange ideas.
12. Regular reflections on how to become more effective – Team members may operate more effectively by improving their self-awareness, improving their processes, and learning new skills and methods.

Agile’s goal is to connect development with business demands, and it has shown to be successful. Customers are at the center of agile initiatives, which promote consumer input and engagement. As a result, Agile has evolved into an encompassing vision of software development throughout the software industry and a separate business.

Agile vs Waterfall

How is Agile Methodology different from Waterfall Methodology?

Agile Model	Waterfall Model
Incremental Approach	Sequential Design
Highly Flexible	Very Rigid
Test Plan gets reviewed after each sprint	Test Plan is rarely discussed in the test phase
Collection of many different projects	Focuses on one single project
Divided into sprints	Divided into phases

Agile Project Management Principles

Agile project management principles were introduced to make software engineering and development more flexible and efficient. More than 95% of the organizations across the globe practice Agile in their business practices such that it has become the industry standard for project management.

The Modern-day agile approach was officially launched in 2001. With a clear vision of its flexibility, lightweight and team-oriented software development approach, professionals mapped out AGILE Manifesto for Software development which focussed on:

“Uncovering better ways of software development”

Below are the fundamental principles of the modern agile approach:

Individuals and interactions over the processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan.

Since Agile is an iterative approach to software engineering, unlike the linear waterfall model, agile projects consist of smaller cycles called Sprints.

Each sprint is a mini project with a backlog and consists of all the phases in agile like Define, Design, Develop, Demonstrate and Deliver. Once the sprint cycle is completed, a small module of the entire software product is ready for delivery, and the above process is repeated, which results in the gradual growth of the product. Following this approach reduces the chance of product failure to a great extent, so most organizations across the globe follow the agile approach in their practices.

Below are the following aspects of the agile process:

a.) Flexibility: The requirements and scope of work change as per business needs.

b.) Work-Breakdown: The product is developed in modules in small cycles (Sprints)

c.) Improvements: Learning from the past mistakes to make the final product better

d.) Client Collaboration: Provide detailed info on any change in requirements or accept the team’s suggestions throughout the sprints.

Roles in Agile Methodology

Agile methodology is used extensively in software development. It begins with a vision statement and a multidisciplinary team that works on values and the scope of problems to be addressed to fulfill that vision. There are several roles in the process of agile methodology, as the workflow requires a coordinated team handling different tasks. However, three main roles of an agile team working in a scrum include –

The Product owner 

The product owner is often an internal stakeholder or key executive who is essentially the voice of the customer. The main role of the product owner is to work on the idea and instill a vision for the end product.

The product visions are based on customers’ requirements and the values or strategies required to address them. For instance, Google’s initial vision must be to enable its users to use the internet to get information about a product by searching the web pages using a relevant keyword. That is what product owners do. They are the captain of the ship. 

They understand the business requirement from the point of view of stakeholders. He also possesses the necessary skills to communicate the long-term vision to its team so that the appropriate action plan is in progress and overall work aligns with the expectations of the end-user or customer.

The key responsibilities of a product owner include –

• Breaking the product vision into user stories to tell exactly who the target customer is and work with the development team to turn that vision into reality 
• Management of scrum backlog by changing the priority of the backlog items as per the requirement of work
• Stakeholder management, especially working on stakeholder feedback and add the backlog items to the list selected for work 
• Release management to ensure that the project iteration translates into value for customers 
• Communication with business executives’ development team and partners. 

The Team Lead/ Scrum master 

The Scrum master is the project lead or project manager who oversees the entire process, mentors the team members, and gives necessary feedback from time to time. The Scrum Master works as per the instructions of the product owner to ensure that the tasks are performed correctly and fit the project delivery schedule.

The scrum master is responsible for managing day-to-day functions and ensure team coordination to support the project progress. 

The role of scrum master involves –

• maintaining the daily scrum board 
• ensure communication and coordination between team members
• coaching team members
• handling day to day administrative tasks and take initiatives 
• ensure that the task gets completed on time 
• manage external coordination with the product owner and the organization 
• ensure proper implementation of the Scrum framework 
• optimize backlog 

The software development team/ Team Members 

The team members within the software development team have different responsibilities than those in a traditional development team. The teams are multidisciplinary and adept at taking on cross-functional responsibilities. The diverse team of people possesses varied skills required to transform the vision into a tangible product for the customer. 

Not every member of the development team may be an engineer and may include people from different domains depending on the type of software project, such as –

• Programmer
• Tester
• Videographers 
• Copy-Writers
• Analysts 
• Product designer
• UX specialists

The team works in unison by collaborating and making sure each member is aligned on the software development at the required pace. The team members should be self-sufficient and possess the necessary soft skills so that if any error occurs, the team is capable of taking appropriate solutions. 

The team members are required to communicate the progress of the project to the product owner and peers during regular Daily Scrum meetings coordinated by the Scrum Master. The product owner may share feedback for the same so that the development team may incorporate necessary changes in future sprints.

Agile methodology Frameworks

Agile is an umbrella term used to represent several incremental software approaches and philosophies with a focus on satisfying the customers. The agile framework is based on the agile philosophy or approach that provides specifics on specific agile-development practices. In simple words, the variations in the software development processes result in agile frameworks. 

These frameworks can also be referred to as methodologies or processes. These form the basis of agile transformation and are often used by agile teams as a starting point. The elements within the frameworks are later customized to meet the unique development needs.

Various organizations use many popular agile frameworks. These include –

• Scrum
• The crystal method
• Disciplined Agile 
• Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
• Lean Software Development (LSD)
• Feature Driven Development (FDD)
• Rapid Application Development (RAD)
• Kanban 
• Scrumban 

Each agile framework comes with its own pros and cons. With so many different agile frameworks to choose from, the decision is influenced by the following factors –

• Size of the company
• Team structure
• Requirements of stakeholders
• Availability of resources
• Size of the product portfolio 

The agile framework that works for one organization may not work for the other. So it requires a bit of experimentation to decide on the right agile framework to meet your specific requirements. 

Scrum is the most popular and widely used agile framework. Scrum works on a delivery cadence called Sprint and includes the following –

• Planning and identifying sprint priorities
• commitment to the delivery of work that can be done in sprint’s duration
• daily stand-up meetings to communicate progress 

Scrum has two primary roles to fill – the Scrum Master and Product Owner. The Scrum Master is responsible for following the agile framework, guiding, and managing the Scrum team to ensure the development of the product. The product owner is the first subject matter expert of the project and keeps track of the stakeholders’ expectations while communicating the product vision to the scrum team. 

Kanban is another lightweight, agile framework used popularly by many organizations in addition to Scrum. 

What is Agile Software Development?

Agile software development includes the way organizations plan, devise, test, and release software. It includes approaches used to describe software development for a clean delivery of entire software or applications.

The agile software development process can be divided into six steps –

• Concept -It starts with the identification of business opportunities in a project along with the estimation of time and effort required to complete it. 
• Inception -It starts with establishing funding and team members and discussing project requirements in the initial phase of the project. It also defines the timeline for each sprint and overall project delivery.
• Iteration -Iteration or construction start as soon as team members start working on the project. The development relies on the completion of individual iterations; builds upon each other with an intended completion time that aligns with the product launch. It also involves undergoing quality assurance and taking feedback from the stakeholders.
• Release -It involves final quality testing and finalizing the system documentation to release the final iteration.
• Production -It focuses on the ongoing support required to run the software smoothly until the product retirement is planned.
• Retirement -The final step involves notifying users about a new release or product migration. If the system becomes outdated, then it is replaced with a new model or is retired if it goes against the business model. 

There are different agile software development methods such as Scrum, Kanban, Test-driven development, extreme programming, and scaled agile framework, to name a few. These have specific features that make them suitable for different situations. In general, different agile software methodologies adhere to the same basic principles such as –

• Customer collaboration 
• Adapting to change
• Regular interactions over tools or processes
• Working software 

Agile Methodology Best Practices

The Agile approach, which is based on an iterative framework, relies on the interaction of self-organizing teams of individuals with the cross-functional skill sets needed to build tested, working software. Test-driven development, code refactoring, continuous integration, simple code design, pair programming, a shared codebase, and a single coding standard are some programming methods. These are most widely used to contribute to the software’s quality, adaptability, and long-term viability. Some of the skills required to maintain an efficient and effective interaction on Agile teams are:

1. Collaborate with the customer.

When a client’s criteria are met, expectations are met, and wishes and needs are met, the customer is satisfied. Apart from mindreading, software engineers have devised a number of methods for determining what the client wants and delivering it. In the past, teams would gather user needs at one end of the funnel and then deliver the product at the other, with little to no client contact in between. An Agile team communicates with the client on a near-constant basis, clarifying expectations, collaborating on fixes, and communicating previously unconsidered possibilities.

This constant connection between the team and the client fosters innovation and improves quality. By cooperating on meeting their expectations, the best teams limit the danger of consumers returning with too many modifications. They come up with a better method to make the product accomplish what people want it to do when they work together. It may not perform exactly how the client had envisioned, but it will do so more inventively and long-term.

2. Work together daily

According to the Agile Alliance, a major mistake among Agile teams is equating a group of people working together with a “team.” When teams and teamwork operate together as a cohesive entity, they contribute to successful initiatives. Organizational science researchers have recognized six aspects of teamwork quality:

• Communication
• Coordination
• Contributions from all team members which is balanced
• Mutual assistance 
• Effort 
• Cohesion

There is a link between the quality of teamwork, team performance, and project success. Agile teams work on the idea that when people rely on each other, they achieve more than when they rely on the processes and technologies that are the bedrock of software development. Collaboration empowers and encourages teams to take the creative risks that lead to breakthrough software. Simple teamwork is arguably the most crucial skill in the language of Agile best practices, aside from collaboration.

3. Build projects around motivated individuals

It requires a lot of desire to push through a long development cycle and finish the job correctly. Agile teams are enthusiastic about their work, committed to the team’s mission, and supportive of one another. Agile teams develop a fast-paced and predictable work rhythm when there is trust and respect among colleagues. It’s not easy to create an environment where this may happen. The most productive teams operate in an open office environment, where the individual who has the solution is only a few steps away. An Agile floor design facilitates team collaboration, encourages spontaneous thinking, and keeps the team’s activities on track. Team members can use individual workplaces for quiet time.

 Teams that work together to generate value quickly belong together. Reassignment or redistribution of members is the fastest way to eliminate motivation. When teams stick together from one iteration to the next, they develop and learn. Except for the rare job rotation that brings new abilities, it is commonly recognized Agile best practice to keep teams together. If the team’s composition changes, the process of coming up to speed has to start all over again.

4. Convey information face to face

Agile team members prefer face-to-face contact while working through a difficult challenge with a teammate or reporting on the day’s successes at a daily meeting. Progress is slowed or halted when information is lost in an overflowing email box or voice message queue. The daily meeting is a period when the entire team gets together to discuss any concerns that may create delays. This quick face-to-face meeting necessitates team members’ presence and candor. Some professionals struggle with admitting they have a problem and trusting their teammates to rally behind them. Face-to-face communication creates channels and fosters trust, ensuring the Agile method’s long-term viability.

Global teams confront several obstacles, including geographical isolation of working groups or people and time zone variations that restrict team members’ availability. Using videoconferencing services, FaceTime mobile devices, or cloud-based collaboration software to create a virtual room is a viable alternative to in-person talks. Conference calls, phone calls, and group text messaging are all inadequate replacements in most cases.

5. Form self-organizing teams

Self-organizing teams decide how they will carry out the task and who will be in charge of what. They split the job into tasks that can be performed each day and into increments that can be finished within each iteration. Management does not assign duties or keep an eye on them. The team has been tasked with making the best judgments possible. To make this arrangement work, each team member must have faith in their job and be willing to persevere through the toughest and most irritating obstacles. Teams as a whole share responsibility and accountability and should move beyond their respective positions to work together to solve problems. If the outcome falls short of expectations, the team adapts and learns. Management does not second-guess or criticize employees.

Agile teams across the company use their flexibility to be self-organizing and pick their own procedures and tools, which may differ from those used by other teams or the organization. The organization may offer the tools, but it does not have the authority to control how they are utilized. If they aren’t utilizing the same toolset, in the same way, communicating and working with people in various business divisions, office locations, or time zones might be difficult. Choosing a collaboration platform eliminates communication obstacles and streamlines the work-organization process.

6. Reflect how teams can become more effective

Agile teams evaluate their performance regularly and look for ways to improve. They are, in reality, committed to ongoing progress. Teams are open to mentoring and coaching as individuals and as a group, but they don’t respond well to management’s command and control style, according to one Agile coach. Agile teams seek to solve problems independently. The retrospective, which is generally held soon after development iteration, is one set time for reflection. Members of the team discuss what went well and what went wrong and then brainstorm ways to enhance the process for the next time. During a Scrum team retrospective, each team member proposes something the team should start, halt, or reconsider a process. 

The most productive teams pay attention to this reflection and make changes to their conduct as a result. Teams accumulate their own set of Agile best practices over time, contributing to their velocity — the amount of work a team can effectively finish in a two-week iteration.

Application of Agile methodology

You’ll be shocked to learn that Agile methods are gaining traction in various fields other than information technology. These ideas may be used for engineering and other non-software product design and construction tasks. Agile techniques are used in any activities with high levels of innovation and unpredictability that need the use of project management tools.

Automobiles, medical equipment, medicines, food, clothes, computers, and music are all examples of non-software goods that can benefit from Agile techniques. Agile methods may be used in avionics and nuclear contexts, which may surprise you. In the sphere of IT infrastructure installations and migrations, there is a continuous growth in the usage of Agile techniques. These approaches are also prominent in general management, including those that rely on risk, finance, company strategy, and governance. All of these departments use the terms of Business Agility and Agile Business Management Principles. Agile concepts can improve general organizational management, including factors such as personal autonomy and employee engagement.

Benefits of Agile

There are a plethora of benefits of agile methodology that makes it reliable and successful amongst project managers. A study indicates that around 71% of organizations use agile, and projects with agile methodologies are 28% more successful. (Source)

Let us look at the top benefits offered by Agile –

• Superior quality -The ability to track tasks on a daily basis allow everyone from stakeholders to the project leaders to know the progress of the project. This also allows the development team to prioritize and focus on key aspects to achieve the business goals faster. With the customer remaining involved throughout the development process and teams continually improving and implementing the feedback, the end-product comes out with superior and unmatched quality.  
• Higher accuracy -Sprints work as a guide for better planning and more control over the project due to its transparency. The quality-control features, use of advanced reporting tools, and feedback integration ensure higher overall accuracy.  
• Improved customer satisfaction -Agile requires the customer to be thoroughly involved throughout the process, and teams are more responsive to the development requests. This means that you deliver more value to the customer, unlike the traditional framework in which the customer was only involved until the planning phase. 

The product owner can capitalize on the opportunity and enjoy the first-mover advantage. By keeping the customer in the loop, you will gain his trust and make sure that he comes back to you for future projects as well. 

• Improved project predictability -The transparency of the agile framework enables managers to have better control over the project, and predicting risks becomes easier. Within the agile framework, there are many ways to review the projects, identify and reduce risks for smooth project completion. For example, Sprint backlogs and burn-down charts within the Scrum methodology allow managers to predict risks and plan accordingly. Since the work is divided into small sprints, it can be salvaged in the future without putting the entire project at risk.  
• Enhanced productivity -Agile offers high productivity by reducing non-productive tasks and errors. The resources can be used effectively, especially by breaking into iterations which ensures productivity throughout.   
• Relevance of metrics -Estimation of time and cost are some of the key metrics used in the agile framework. This makes measuring project accuracy and completion highly accurate, unlike in the traditional waterfall methodology. Agile makes it easier to measure other important metrics such as lead time, team performance, cycle time, etc. that helps avoid pitfalls and improve the product quality without extra costs. 
• Highly flexible -Agile empowers the managers, stakeholders, and development teams with unparalleled flexibility. The project is worked in small sprints, which are both flexible and manageable enough to implement desired changes, even on short notice. The flexibility for using the agile framework is what makes it a preferred choice of dynamic organizations. 
• High visibility -Agile offers higher visibility into the development process from inception to completion. Stakeholders and product owners can use this visibility to provide feedback as the product develops, leaving less speculation.  

Disadvantages of Agile

Whether you are thinking of adopting an agile framework or are already on the agile journey, it is important to know about its common pitfalls so that you can avoid them to make your project a success. Here are they –

• Uneven engagement – Switching to an agile framework means every individual is engaged in the active development process. Once an operation is completed, the proactive engagement may drop that could limit the agile model. Thus, if the deliverables are not clear, the developers might focus on the wrong areas within the development environment, which may increase the turnaround time.     
• Requires more time and commitment -Numerous face-to-face conversations and interactions between testers, developers, and customers occur on a daily basis, which can become overly time-consuming and demanding of one’s energy.
• Lack of documentation -The development team is provided with a prototype or vision of the final product. However, often the initial onboarding process is not clear for less-experienced team members. The lack of documentation of features and software requirements is often less detailed at the beginning, which may create misunderstandings. Therefore, it is good practice to let senior team members oversee the initial phase to ensure that there are no difficulties. 
• Assuming agile is simple and quick -Choosing an agile process for a certain project can be tricky as it is not ‘one size fits all.’ Even though agile is efficient and faster than the traditional methodologies, it does not mean that it is quick to implement. It is crucial to be aware of agile methodologies and factors that go into its implementation before assuming that it is easy or simple. 
• Lack of clear milestones – Assuming that the customer’s needs are ever-changing, it can affect the goal-setting. In the absence of clear KPIs and deliverables presented to the development team, members cannot work in a streamlined way, and the project may fall off track easily. 
• Scraping the project amidst development -It is important to stay open-minded as agile steers you in the direction of product development. Some even use the term ‘pilot project’  for the initial project. But it often comes at a risk of taking the project less seriously as a pilot project or scrapping it mid-development phase, which goes against the principles of agile methodology. 
• Lack of resources or manpower -Agile framework requires as many team members as any methodology, and the same goes for the resources. Therefore, it is important to have proper manpower and resources ready who have varied skills and are able to interchange assignments and adapt as per the evolving workflow. 
• Less predictability -It requires a big commitment to make the end product a success. If the client participation is less than usual, it can affect the software quality and success of the project. In addition, team members new to the agile framework often adhere to poor practices and poor decision-making. These factors influence the predictability of success and reflect poorly on the development team.

Agile Project Management

Agile project management is an incremental method to project delivery that takes place across the course of the project’s life cycle. Iterative or agile life cycles are made up of numerous iterations or incremental phases that lead to a project’s conclusion. Because iteration allows you to modify as you go rather than following a linear route, iterative techniques are widely employed in software development projects to enhance velocity and flexibility. An agile or iterative approach aims to deliver benefits throughout the process rather than just at the end. Trust, flexibility, empowerment, and collaboration should all be central values and behaviors in agile projects.

Five essential attributes that form the building blocks of Agile Project Management are:

1. Transparency
2. Customer focus
3. Adaptability
4. Effective Leadership or Sense of Ownership
5. Continuous Improvement

The Agile project delivery process may be broken down into the following stages:

1. Envision – for customers, establish a high-level product/service vision and identify who will be engaged in the project.
2. Speculate – this is a continuation of the “Envision” phase, in which teams gather the broad initial requirements for a product/service and build an iteration plan based on the vision.
3. Explore – work on project deliverables with an emphasis on flow to receive customer input as soon as feasible.
4. Adapt – review the findings that have been given and make any required adjustments based on the current situation.
5. Close – bring the project to a close and disseminate significant results.

Agile Process

Considering the business view, Agility is the ability of an organization to act smartly and quickly in advance to benefit from the changing environment to gain benefits. Some of the popular agile processes are briefly described as under:

Extreme Programming

The aim of extreme programming (XP) is to improve the software product’s quality and responsiveness to changing customer’s requirements.

XP improves the quality of software in the following five manners:

• Planning: The project is divided into iterations, and at each iteration, planning is started, user stories are defined, and release planning is done to create a release schedule to make frequent releases with small features.
• Managing: Each team member is given dedicated work followed by daily stand-up meetings to measure the project velocity.
• Designing: Breakdown of tasks and testing framework is finalised
• Coding: It is started as per the standard principles and the required functionality, followed by proper unit testing and the end of iteration review.
• Testing: After all, the code should be unit tested before it can be released. 

Scrum

Agile is a subset of Scrum. It is the most frequently used and lightweight, agile development process framework.

A “process framework” is a collection of practices that must be followed in order for a process to follow the framework’s guidelines. (For example, the Scrum process framework necessitates the usage of Sprints, the XP framework necessitates pair programming, and so on.) 

The term “lightweight” refers to the process’ overhead being maintained as low as possible in order to optimize the amount of productive time available for getting valuable work done.

Specific principles and behaviors, split into the three categories of Roles, Artifacts, and Time Boxes, distinguish the Scrum process from other agile processes. 

• Scrum Roles: A Product Owner, a Scrum Master, and the Development Team are the three positions that make up the scrum team.

1. In a scrum team, the Product Owner chooses what needs to be developed. This individual has a thorough understanding of the market and company requirements and a vision and ownership of the product’s return on investment (ROI) or value delivered. Unlike conventional delivery, this individual is a member of the team that delivers the product.
2. The Scrum Master’s primary duty is to ensure that all team members fully understand and implement Scrum. The Scrum Master should be aware of their team’s various skill sets and organize them appropriately by placing the right sheep in the proper flock. A Scrum Master’s job is to manage the team to not get off track and waste time and energy. Instead of enforcing agile techniques on the team, the Scrum Master should operate as a “servant leader.” Scrum Master should lead by example, demonstrating team assets and scrum ideals in real life.
3. In scrum, the Development team is the group that possesses all of the capabilities required to complete the backlog items. This is not your typical team; it is devoted, focused, and driven to succeed. It is a self-organizing group that collaborates, contributes its unique talents and experience, and is fully devoted to achieving the goal.

• Scrum Artifacts: Scrum prioritizes the delivery of functioning software at the conclusion of each sprint above detailed documentation. This isn’t to say that there isn’t any documentation. Rather than monitoring, the documentation is intended to facilitate cooperation and interactions.

A functioning program is constantly used to track progress. In scrum, documentation is limited to three primary artifacts: Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and Increment.

• Scrum Events or Time Boxes: All scrum activities are timed, allowing teams to go over their present work and apply what they’ve learned in future sprints.

Scrum is most commonly used to manage large software and product development projects utilizing iterative and incremental methods. In comparison to traditional “waterfall” methods, Scrum dramatically enhances productivity and lowers time to benefits. Scrum procedures allow businesses to respond quickly to changing needs and deliver a product that fulfills changing business objectives. The organization benefits from an agile Scrum process since it assists it in achieving goals like

1. Improving the quality of the deliverables
2. Improving the ability to deal with change (and expect the changes)
3. Make estimates that are more accurate while taking less time to create
4. Get a better handle on the project’s timetable and status.

Dynamic Software Development Method

In 1995, the DSDM Consortium, which comprised a group of software engineers and suppliers, developed an Agile methodology called Dynamic Software Development Method (DSDM) to create a structure for Rapid Application Development approaches. DSDM introduced a set of eight principles that have benefited large organizations and software firms like American Express, Oracle, Logica, British Airways with their project deliveries by combining the ideas of object-oriented programming and project management. The DSDM principles not only allowed the companies mentioned above’ teams to keep to project deadlines, but they also assured that deliveries were made on time and under budget.

Here are the eight DSDM principles that have offered “a way of working” to all teams that have adopted them.

1. Putting the customer’s needs first
2. On-time project completion
3. End-user engagement is constant and intense.
4. It is impossible to compromise on quality.
5. Aim to build slowly and steadily, relying on solid foundations.
6. Continual development attempts
7. Maintain regular and clear communication with all parties involved, including team members, stakeholders, company representatives, and others.
8. Demonstrate a high level of project management expertise.

The DSDM philosophy’s main selling point is that it not only aids in the discovery of software goods. They may also be found in non-IT projects, such as government projects, where these concepts are used in conjunction with the PRINCE2 methodology.

Feature-driven development (FDD)

As the name suggests, this process organizes the software development process in such a manner that it focuses primarily on development around making progress on the features. FDD was first applied in the year 1977 on a Singapore-based institution.

Lifecycle of FDD

1. Develop the overall model
2. Build a list of features
3. Plan a feature-wise development process
4. Design by feature
5. Build by feature

FDD follows a simple 5-step development process that allows rapid development of the product. It will enable large teams to progress feature-wise with continuous delivery. But having said that, this process is not flawless because this process doesn’t work that well with smaller projects, and the success of a project is highly dependent on the senior leads and programmers.

Crystal Method

One of the most flexible and lightweight, agile methodologies is crystal methodology. It was developed by Alistair Cockburn as he was given a task to develop a framework for software product development while working at IBM.

It places focus on people over processes, i.e., to empower people to find their solutions as per the project rather than being restricted over rigid methodologies.

Unlike other frameworks like scrum, which have a rigid process, crystal recognizes that different teams will perform differently depending upon the team size, project type, criticality and priority in the project and encourages users to adapt the process depending upon the situation. For instance, a small team can keep itself aligned, while a large team may sometimes deviate and require a more structured approach.

Based on how many people there are in the project, teams are characterized by color, also known as crystal family:

a.) Crystal Clear – Teams with less than eight members

b.) Crystal yellow – Teams with team size ranging from 10 to 20 people

c.) Crystal orange – Teams with team sizes ranging from 20 to 50 people

b.) Crystal yellow – Teams with team size ranging from 50 to 100 people

Crystal Method has several essentials, which are also called crystal properties:

a.) Teamwork – It encourages team members to work as a team instead of as individuals and also concentrates on giving tasks to team members.

b.) Communication – It is one of the most essential aspects of any project. Without the proper communication channel, a project cannot be successfully implemented.

c.) Simple – Project documentation should be simple and free from ambiguity.

d.) Frequent delivery – The team should be able to deliver the code regularly to the end-users.

While there are a lot of advantages of using Crystal agile frameworks like teams communicating directly, which reduces the management overhead and adaptability with groups of different sizes, there are a few disadvantages too like:

• Lack of structure can sometimes slow down the productivity
• It can lead to confusion and loss of the correct project trajectory.

Lean Method

This method was pioneered by Toyota, a Japanese automotive company, as a way to reduce manufacturing waste. From there, it took velocity and was adapted by different other industries.

“Lean development means removing all the unnecessary things”

It aims at removing the unnecessary fat from software engineering practices. Lean software development consists of 7 principles that aim for quicker delivery with efficiency in productivity:

• Eliminating waste: 
  • Lean methodology is designed on the fundamental foundation of reducing waste. It can be achieved by removing unnecessary code, unnecessary delays, maintaining the priority list, code quality and standards, efficient communication.
• Build Quality In: 
  • The idea is not to reduce the defects from the defect log but to avoid creating defects in the first place.
  • Write minimal code
• Create knowledge:
  • Lean Software development originated from lean manufacturing, where the goal is simplified, standardised production with minimal modifications and from there, the concept of “Create Knowledge” was introduced.
  • To put this in the perspective of software development, it involves validation of architecture, early release with the minimum feature set to customers. In this modular architecture, new features can be easily accommodated.
• Defer Commitment:
  • This process encourages managing unforeseen hurdles in the software development cycles by leaving room for improvement until all the related if’s and but’s are answered.
  • It helps in managing the uncertainty in the complete cycle.
• Before time delivery:
  • It follows the principle of MVP (minimum viable product), and the overall philosophy revolves around building quickly with little features and making the product go live as soon as possible.
• Team Respect:
  • It keeps a healthy environment and collaborative atmosphere by keeping the project in good balance.
• Optimisation:
  • Lean software development opposes that and stands for focusing on the value stream as a whole. That way, there are fewer delays, disruptions and mis-communications.

Also, the Lean agile methodology creates an atmosphere for flexible software development for its people who actually make it work.

Kanban Method

Kanban is a famous framework for implementing agile along with the DevOps framework. In kanban, there are cards called kanban that move on a board-like structure from the start till the end. It used stages in SDLC (Software development life cycle) that represent the state a particular feature is in. 

It manages the flow of features so that the number of features entering the process match those being completed.

Unlike other agile methodologies, kanban is not iterative in nature, and instead of short iteration like in Scrum, kanban has one large development cycle.

Kanban is often referred to as:

“Not iterative but incremental”

Kanban projects have WIP (Work in progress), which is a measure of capacity which allows teams to work efficiently. It usually consists of the following column items in the kanban board:

• Backlog
• Planned
• In-Progress
• Developed
• Unit Testing
• Regression Testing
• Completed

Kanban vs Scrum comparison

Kanban	Scrum
No pre-defined roles for the team.	Each team member has a pre-defined role.
Continuous development and delivery	Sprint based deliveries
Priority is defined.	Priority is optional.
New items cannot be added to the ongoing iteration.	New items can be added based on the available capacity.
Kanban is incremental in nature.	Scrum is iterative in nature.

Important FAQs on Agile Methodology:

How have organizations successfully adopted agile?

Organizations have adopted agile through different phases, also known as “waves of agile adoption.” Agile methodology has successfully become a vital part of our ever-evolving IT industry, and now even non-IT companies have started embracing it. 

The first wave of agile adoption was adopted by small-scale high-tech organizations and later by large MNCs leading to a positive impact on their businesses.    

How do I amplify the impact of agile?

With so many organizations racing to adopt agile, the impact of agile translates to the desired outcomes of successful agile transformation. The agile impact framework includes these four key metrics –

• customer satisfaction
• operational performance 
• employee engagement 
• financial performance 

Organizations can measure the agile impact by measuring how agile teams deliver value to the customer and improve it over time. It can also be done by comparing the new values created by agile teams with the value from traditional waterfall work. When measured, these lead to the creation of actionable insights such as customer satisfaction score, employee engagement score, deployment lead time, FTE cost reduction, etc. Improvement in these values helps to amplify the impact of agile. 

How do I deal with distributed teams in agile?

Agile is a lot of work, especially in a distributed environment. Here are a few hacks to make it a lot easier –

• Distribute work more evenly and maintain transparent task allocation.
• Recruit self-sufficient and motivated individuals who are committed to the vision and have a high level of commitment.
• Try to form co-located teams and let them devise ways to share the work.
• Invest in collaboration technology that makes teamwork more efficient.
• Time zone differences may lead to delays and make work harder. Daily stand-up meetings can help uncover potential roadblocks and help reduce dependencies. 
• Establish ground rules for teams working in remote locations.
• Regular feedback from the product owner enables the proper flow of information and ensures that the team is in sync with the product vision.  

How does agile relate to DevOps?

Agile and DevOps both began as ways to improve the software development process. While agile prioritized working software over rigid processes, DevOps focussed on the development and production. While each of them shares a fundamental idea, they target different stakeholders with different business goals. Each addresses different yet crucial parts of software development, with agile setting the stage for DevOps. Agile offers teams a way to build software faster, while DevOps offers teams to deploy often and focus on quality. 

How does agile save you money?

Agile processes are highly cost-effective. Aside from its quality assurance and scope optimization, it also helps save on cost. It does so by focussing only on the development of what is needed to save time and allowing businesses to get more revenue. The quality of deliverables is ensured at the end of the iteration. By encouraging compartmentalization of work, it shortens the completion time. The focus on high-priority works ensures that the delivery of agile is faster. Additionally, information transparency and communication ensure faster product delivery so that the time saved is money saved. 

Agile has a reduced risk of failures, and with narrower time frames, further uncertainties are eliminated. This means that the wastage of resources is minimized or reduced drastically, thus minimizing the overall cost.

Conclusion

Agile methodology is not just a single method or a process followed for software development. There are many different methods under one umbrella. Agile methods have proven their value and mettle by increasing profits by 35+ percentage and revenue by 30+ percentage on average compared to companies that don’t practice agile methods.

Software is a very fast-paced industry, and agile allows higher flexibility, agility, simplicity with increased productivity and helps in delivering cutting-edge products.

With this, we come to an end to the concept of Agile Methodology. If you have any queries regarding this, please let us know in the comments.

Do check out the blog on Agile Interview Questions so that you could brush up on your agile skills and gear up for an Interview.

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