Can you imagine creating multidisciplinary teams within your organization? Can you imagine those teams being able to work more productively, maintain smooth communication, and operate autonomously? Working with agile methodologies not only makes all of that possible, but also allows organizations and teams to adapt to an increasingly complex environment through continuous interaction with the client, all in pursuit of excellence and agility in the development of a product or project.
If you want to learn more about agile methodology and the different tools used to apply it, keep reading!
What Is Agile Methodology?
Agile is a methodology originally designed for software product development in a dynamic and flexible way, although over the years it has gained significant traction in many other types of projects as well.
It is a method that seeks to optimize the responsiveness of work teams during the design and development of a project, with the goal of achieving the flexibility and speed needed to analyze results and adapt the project to the circumstances surrounding it.
Agile methodology, born in 2001, is based on the concept of fluidity, which represents a new way of working and organizing the different phases of a project. That is precisely one of the methodology’s most innovative ideas: breaking each project into small parts called sprints and setting specific deadlines by which each of those parts must be completed, validated, and moved forward to the next stage. The ultimate goal of working this way is to ensure that the project being developed responds perfectly to the client’s needs, especially in environments as dynamic and constantly changing as the one we live in today.
The 4 Values of the Agile Manifesto
This methodology is based on four main principles or values, which I’ve listed below exactly as they originally appear in the Agile Manifesto:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
What the manifesto is really aiming to do with these four principles is to place greater importance and relevance on the concepts on the left side of each statement (the ones shown in bold) than on those on the right:
- first, it makes clear that interactions and the people involved in them are even more important than processes and tools
- second, the fact that the product works correctly is more important than having extensive and detailed documentation about it
- third, ongoing collaboration with the client matters more than contract negotiation
- fourth and finally, it reinforces one of the most important premises of this methodology: responding quickly and efficiently to change is far more important than following a fixed, pre-established plan
One of the main characteristics that, along with the four points above, defines agile methodologies is the goal of involving multidisciplinary teams and giving them enough autonomy to contribute all the knowledge required by the project throughout the different sprints, in order to achieve the highest possible product quality.
For example, an SEO specialist or Digital Analyst can—and should—provide the necessary feedback to the developer or programmer implementing a specific feature about whether that feature aligns with what would be considered an ideal product from the standpoint of user acquisition and conversion. This helps ensure that the product keeps moving in the right direction, which, combined with regular reviews and fast delivery cycles, results in a project that perfectly meets both the original requirements and any additional needs identified along the way.
Another key part of the Agile philosophy lies in the concepts it is based on in order to carry out any project successfully:
Iteration: a recurring time cycle that allows the product to progressively gain value
Inspection: provider and client review the product together and gather feedback on all areas that need improvement
Adaptation: project goals are reviewed to make sure they have not changed; if they have, a process of continuous adaptation and improvement must be carried out so the product fits the current situation
What Are the Benefits of Agile?
Motivation and Productivity
Developing a project under the principles of Agile methodology brings many benefits, both for the client and for the team involved in the project. First, working within a committed team that has a clearly defined goal and a time frame to achieve it leads to a significant improvement in motivation and engagement, which later translates into a real increase in productivity.
Speed, Autonomy, and Costs
In addition, following Agile principles allows the team involved to move faster and work more efficiently throughout the development process, driven by each member’s ability to self-manage and by the smooth communication between them. This also results in savings in both time and cost, since project deadlines are met more rigorously while staying within the estimated development budget.
Product Quality
Finally, dividing the project into different deliverable phases and validating each one through an ongoing process of interaction with the client leads to a higher-quality final product. This is because the product is developed while incorporating all the necessary changes identified throughout the various stages, as well as removing features that prove unnecessary, thereby responding as accurately as possible to the needs that were originally defined.
The 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto
- The highest priority is customer satisfaction through the timely delivery of valuable products that meet their expectations
- Product requirements will change throughout every phase of the project; we should use agile processes to improve the product’s competitive advantage
- We must deliver functional product increments regularly and within short timeframes so that we can pivot easily if changes are needed
- The multidisciplinary team must work together throughout the entire project, involving both technical and business-oriented profiles
- Provide the team with the trust, support, and work environment they need in order to increase their motivation around the project
- The most agile and efficient way to communicate with the rest of the team is face-to-face
- The best indicator that the project is progressing properly is that the software delivered in each phase is functional
- Agile methodologies aim for sustainable development and a steady pace of progress
- To improve project agility, we must pursue quality in design and technical excellence
- Simplicity is essential in this kind of environment
- Team autonomy and self-management will lead to better products
- The team will review every aspect of the project frequently to ensure it adapts to change
Agile Methodology Frameworks
Workspaces, also known as frameworks, are the tools that help us develop our projects using an Agile methodology. There are several frameworks within this method, but the most commonly used are the ones shown below:
Kanban
Its name comes from the combination of two Japanese words: “kan,” meaning visual, and “ban,” meaning card. For that reason, Kanban is a framework for project control based on visual cards, allowing teams to easily see the status of different tasks. Each card displays important information about the project’s development:
Doing: shows which tasks are currently in progress
Done: shows which tasks have already been completed
To do: shows which tasks are still pending
Scrum
This is another framework within Agile methodology. Its main purpose is to encourage interaction between provider and client in order to control and plan the project dynamically. To do that, two different concepts are taken into account:
Product backlog: a prioritized list of a project’s requirements and the goals expected to be achieved through it
Sprint: each of the set time periods used to develop a new feature or a group of features that add value to the product and generate a new deliverable
Lean
In this case, Lean is a new way of managing different production processes in order to eliminate all inefficiencies that do not add value. It is a methodology based on the principles developed through the Toyota Production System (TPS), which has gradually evolved into different applications across sectors such as industry (Lean Management) and startup creation (Lean Startup), among others.
Within this methodology, we can find concepts such as:
Kaizen: continuous improvement of processes through a management system
Just in Time (JIT): based on the concept of producing exactly what is needed, exactly when it is needed, in order to reduce costs
Total Quality Management (TQM): a strategic management system focused on total quality across all work processes
Process reengineering: a philosophy based on continually redesigning a company’s production and operational processes in order to maximize value and minimize the factors that do not contribute to it
As you’ve probably noticed, Agile methodology has helped drive a major shift in the project management paradigm, generating greater efficiency and productivity in work teams, but above all, helping give them autonomy, boost their motivation, and place the client at the center of the entire process in order to define the product that best fits their needs in the shortest possible time and with the greatest cost efficiency in development.
Haven’t you tried working with agile methodologies yet? I hope that after reading this article, you’ll feel inspired to experiment with them—and tell me how it goes!
