Agile methodology is an iterative approach to project management that focuses on breaking down large projects into more manageable tasks, which are completed in short iterations throughout the project life cycle. Teams that adopt the Agile methodology are able to complete work faster, adapt to changing project requirements, and optimize their workflow.
As the name suggests, the Agile allows teams to be better equipped to quickly change direction and focus. Software companies and marketing agencies are especially aware of the tendency for changes from project stakeholders to happen from week-to-week. The Agile methodology allows teams to re-evaluate the work they are doing and adjust in given increments to make sure that as the work and customer landscape changes, the focus also changes for the team.
If you’re new to the Agile project management, it might look at first like a complex and difficult-to-manage system. But, whether you realize it or not, you’re already doing many of the things Agile requires. With a few tweaks, you’ll be on your way to shorter development cycles and smaller, more frequent product releases.
Who uses Agile project management?
We can use Agile in all Industries. But it is familiar in software development, the Agile approach to project management is quickly being adapted by more than just IT teams. Marketers, universities, the military, and even the automotive industry are also looking at the Agile methodology and other Agile frameworks to deliver innovative products in uncertain environments. Many organizations can benefit from Agile project management, and it’s simple to set up and utilize.
In the software world, when a decision to build or further develop an existing technology is made, the end product may be hard to define. Agile allows for that ambiguity because of its flexibility to change direction on a project as work moves into the future.
While you can take advantage of Agile software, books, or Agile coaches, each Agile team is unique, and understanding the basics can help you put together an Agile methodology that works for you and your team.
What are the 4 core values of Agile?
The Agile Manifesto outlines 4 Core Values and 12 Guiding Principles which serve as a North Star for any team adopting an Agile methodology.
The 4 Core Values of Agile are:
1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
As sophisticated as technology gets, the human element will always serve as an important role in any kind of project management. Relying too heavily on processes and tools results in an inability to adapt to changing circumstances.
2. Working software over comprehensive documentation
As important as documentation is, working software is more. This value is all about giving the developers exactly what they need to get the job done, without overloading them.
3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Your customers are one of your most powerful assets. Whether internal or external customers, involving them throughout the process can help to ensure that the end product meets their needs more effectively.
4. Responding to change over following a plan
This value is one of the biggest departures from traditional project management. Historically, change was seen as an expense, and one to be avoided. Agile allows for continuous change throughout the life of any given project. Each sprint provides an opportunity for review and course correction.
What are the 12 principles of Agile?
Agile methodologies can be as diverse and unique as each individual team, but the 12 Principles of Agile should always guide your decisions and product development.
Key components of Agile project management:
User stories
Put simply, a user story is a high-level definition of a work request. It contains just enough information so the team can produce a reasonable estimate of the effort required to accomplish the request. This short, simple description is written from the user’s perspective and focuses on outlining what your client wants (their goals) and why.
Sprints
Sprints are a short iteration, usually between one to three weeks to complete, where teams work on tasks determined in the sprint planning meeting. As you move forward, the idea is to continuously repeat these sprints until your product is feature ready. Once the sprint is over, you review the product see what is and isn’t working, make adjustments, and begin another sprint to improve the product or service.
Stand-up meetings
Daily stand-up meetings (under 10 minutes), also known as “daily Scrum meetings,” are a great way to ensure everyone is on track and informed. These daily interactions are known as “stand up” because the participants are required to stay standing, helping to keep the meetings short and to the point.
Agile board
An Agile board helps your team track the progress of your project. This can be a whiteboard with sticky notes, a simple Kanban board, or a function within your project management software.
Backlog
As project requests are added through your intake system, they become outstanding stories in the backlog. During Agile planning sessions, your team will estimate story points to each task. During sprint planning, stories in the backlog are moved into the sprint to be completed during the iteration. Managing your backlog is a vital role for project managers in an Agile environment.
Agile team roles:
Different Agile methodologies may require specific team roles to adhere to the framework, or may not require any specified roles. Though individual Agile implementation may not require all of these roles, here are a few common roles that you may find:
Scrum Master: The Scrum Master ensures that each sprint stays on track and helps to remove or resolve any issues or challenges that may come up. They are the team’s advocate.
Product owner: The role of the product owner is to define the goals of each sprint, manage and prioritize the team backlog, and be the voice of the customer or internal stakeholder.
Team members: The people on this team are the ones who execute the work in each sprint. These teams, usually of three to seven people, can be composed of different specialties and strengths, or they can be teams of people with the same job roles.
Stakeholders: This is an informational role only. The stakeholders should be kept up-to-date on the product and sprint goals, have the opportunity to review and approve work during a sprint, and provide feedback during the sprint retrospective.
Each Agile methodology has its own unique list of team members and roles, and while the titles may change, there are a few universal role characteristics that most Agile team structures should have:
What are the 6 steps in the Agile methodology?
The goal of Agile is to produce shorter development cycles and more frequent product releases than traditional waterfall project management. This shorter time frame enables project teams to react to changes in the client’s needs more effectively.
As we said before, you can use a few different Agile frameworks—Scrum and Kanban are two of the most common. But each Agile methodology will follow the same basic process, which includes:
1. Project planning
Like with any project, before beginning your team should understand the end goal, the value to the organization or client, and how it will be achieved.
You can develop a project scope here, but remember that the purpose of using Agile project management is to be able to address changes and additions to the project easily, so the project scope shouldn’t be seen as unchangeable.
2. Product roadmap creation
A roadmap is a breakdown of the features that will make up the final product. This is a crucial component of the planning stage of Agile, because your team will build these individual features during each sprint.
At this point, you will also develop a product backlog, which is a list of all the features and deliverables that will make up the final product. When you plan sprints later on, your team will pull tasks from this backlog.
3. Release planning
In traditional waterfall project management, there is one implementation date that comes after an entire project has been developed. When using Agile, however, your project uses shorter development cycles (called sprints) with features released at the end of each cycle.
Before kicking off the project, you’ll make a high-level plan for feature releases and at the beginning of each sprint, you’ll revisit and reassess the release plan for that feature.
4. Sprint planning
Before each sprint begins, the stakeholders need to hold a sprint planning meeting to determine what will be accomplished by each person during that sprint, how it will be achieved, and assess the task load. It’s important to share the load evenly among team members so they can accomplish their assigned tasks during the sprint.
You’ll also need to visually document your workflow for team transparency, shared understanding within the team, and identifying and removing bottlenecks.
5. Daily stand-ups
To help your team accomplish their tasks during each sprint and assess whether any changes need to be made, hold short daily stand-up meetings. During these meetings, each team member will briefly talk about what they accomplished the day before and what they will be working on that day.
These daily meetings should be only 15 minutes long. They aren’t meant to be extended problem-solving sessions or a chance to talk about general news items. Some teams will even hold these meetings standing up to keep it brief.
6. Sprint review and retrospective
After the end of each sprint, your team will hold two meetings: first, you will hold a sprint review with the project stakeholders to show them the finished product. This is an important part of keeping open communication with stakeholders. An in-person or video conference meeting allows both groups to build a relationship and discuss product issues that arise.
Second, you will have a sprint retrospective meeting with your stakeholders to discuss what went well during the sprint, what could have been better, whether the task load was too heavy or too light for each member, and what was accomplished during the sprint.
If your team is new to Agile project management, don’t skip this essential meeting. It helps you gauge how much your team can tackle during each sprint and the most efficient sprint length for future projects.
Transitioning to Agile project management
Once you feel comfortable moving forward with Agile, you’ll want to start by educating your Agile teams on how they will transition into their new roles, when they will begin having daily stand-up meetings, and how they will transition their current work into the Agile methodology.
After you establish transition steps and make sure everyone is comfortable with the new style of work, you’ll want to monitor and track their progress and success.
If they are struggling to run at the same velocity as before, what may be causing those issues? If the team isn’t updating stories with their current status, have those statuses been clearly defined?
Tracking a new Agile team’s progress or success will be very beneficial to giving it confidence in the changes. In addition, having these Agile metrics will help justify the benefits of transitioning a team to Agile when in higher-level meetings.
Finally, it’s important to provide your team and new Scrum Masters with a form that outlines helpful questions to ask during daily stand-ups and the iteration retrospectives. This provides some excellent documentation for future reviews of processes. It will also allow for the team to identify areas that need improvement and help it answer questions it may not think to talk about if it is new to Agile.