What techniques can you use to ensure Agile principles are followed in your project?

My answer: Verify first that agile principles, methods, and approaches are beneficial in a given project situation. If they are, promote them to the team. If not, change to other methods. It's not always a good idea to apply agile methods. In project situations driven by discovery and creativity (actually, discovery in the team's brains), agile methods, with their very short planning horizons, are generally beneficial. These are the project situations when "the way is made by walking." (Machado) A weakness of agile methods is their inability to generate predictability and order. Then mid-term planning, such as Rolling Wave or long-term planning ("Waterfall"), may be much better. When the approach is right, sticking to principles is easy.

Agile isn’t just for tech teams. It's a mindset. Imagine planning a family vacation. Instead of setting every detail in stone from the outset, you might start with a broad idea: "We want to visit the mountains." As you gather feedback from family members, the plan evolves, maybe you decide on cabin stays over camping, or hiking over skiing. Just as in Agile, the trip plan remains adaptable, valuing everyone's feedback to ensure a memorable experience for all.

Regularly revisit and validate your vision against emerging requirements, market shifts, and stakeholder feedback. This iterative approach ensures your vision remains a dynamic and relevant guide, fostering adaptability and responsiveness within your Agile framework.

Actively engaging the stakeholders during the different iterations can be a key distinguisher in an agile project. Periodic collaboration with the stakeholders or updating the progress to the customers may help in preventing any deviations, shared understanding of assumptions and also prevent any "gulf of evaluation".

To ensure that Agile principles are followed in your project, prioritize clear objectives, empower cross-functional teams, maintain a well-prioritized product backlog, and conduct regular sprint cycles with iterative development. Implement daily standup meetings, engage in continuous inspection and adaptation, and foster close collaboration with customers. Embrace change, respond to feedback, and emphasize delivering value in each sprint. Educate and train your team in Agile practices, use visual project management tools, and continuously measure progress and quality. By embracing these techniques, you can cultivate an Agile project environment that encourages adaptability, collaboration, and a relentless focus on customer value.

Instead of merely reacting to changing requirements, proactively structure your backlog to reflect long-term strategic objectives. Prioritize features based not only on immediate needs but also on their contribution to overarching project goals.

To me a backlog is nothing but a break up of 'functional requirements specifications' (FRS). A product backlog includes user stories, bug fixes and relevant tasks. User stories is 'non formal' way of expressing the feature of the product as easy as understandable to the development team, compared to the 'formal' way of writing requirements in FRS. It has to be presented from the viewpoint of the end user or customer.

To adapt to change, it's essential to maintain a backlog of features, requirements, or tasks you want to deliver in your project. This backlog is a dynamic and prioritized list that reflects the current needs and expectations of your customers and stakeholders. Think of it as having a list of places to visit on your trip, where you can rearrange or add destinations as you go. Tools like product backlogs, user story maps, or storyboards help you create and manage your backlog efficiently. With a well-maintained backlog, you're ready to embrace change and adjust your project to meet evolving needs.

Backlogs are not created by me and techniques, you need a good product owner that can optimize business values, you need good dev team as well. That is really advance even tho it is one of the first steps. If you have a backlog then yu should be happy :)

?? Creating a Backlog is your baseline. However, this baseline is more dynamic than conventional ones. This dynamism gives you flexibility - even in Hardware Development Projects - so that you can adapt yourself to changing environments. ??Tip: After creating your backlog, refinements, and maintenance are vital activities. Do not miss them.

The 'kano' model is one perception of prioritization of tasks in an agile project. It is a theory based on the customer satisfaction for a product development. This model was created by Dr. Noriaki Kano in 1980 at the Tokyo University of Science. It helps in prioritizing features based on customer needs and satisfaction. A product should eliminate the features or ideas that may annoy a customer. This framework can help in deciding the required features to satisfy a customer, product.

Go beyond traditional prioritization frameworks and embrace a value-centric approach. Prioritize tasks not just based on urgency but on their potential impact and value to end-users and stakeholders.

In the fast-paced world of Agile, not all tasks are created equal. Tackling this, prioritisation becomes the linchpin for successful project delivery. It's not merely about ticking off tasks but discerning which ones propel a project forward most effectively. Utilising methodologies like MoSCoW, Kano, or RICE, teams can sift through their backlogs, discerning what's critical from what's nice-to-have. This ensures the most pressing and value-generating activities take precedence, directly aligning development efforts with business objectives. With this strategic approach, Agile teams can maximise value, ensure stakeholder satisfaction, and adeptly navigate the ever-evolving landscape of project requirements.

As an Agile Practitioner /Scrum Master / Project Manager you need to be familiar with all of the different prioritization techniques that could be applied to effort. Which will be used? That's typically a team decision or dependent on platform function. Prioritization in theory is done with the team using the tools learned such as MoSCoW, Kano, Pairwise techniques. In practice, the business value is typically represented by the Business Analyst or the RA who works with the team, PM, Product Managers and Product Owners to provide insights on what is being considered "high priority". Be flexible. Collaborate. Use the retrospective to adjust if needed.

In Agile, delivering value quickly is like optimizing your travel itinerary. To achieve this, prioritize tasks based on importance, urgency, and feasibility, just as you'd decide which places to visit first. Tools like MoSCoW, Kano, or RICE help you focus on tasks with the highest impact, similar to tools helping you choose the most important tourist attractions during a trip.

In Agile, working in sprints is like taking small, manageable steps in your journey. A sprint is a set time frame, typically one to four weeks, during which you complete a defined set of tasks from your backlog and produce something that's ready to ship. Just as you plan your journey in stages, working in sprints allows you to deliver value regularly, test your assumptions, and learn from your experiences. Tools like sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and burndown charts help you manage and make the most of your sprints, much like a travel itinerary and checklists keep your journey organized.

In the pulsating rhythm of Agile, sprints serve as its heartbeat. These fixed timeframes, typically spanning one to four weeks, drive teams to transform selected backlog items into tangible outputs. More than just a time-boxed effort, sprints encapsulate the essence of Agile: delivering incremental value while embracing adaptability. Tools like sprint planning meetings, daily stand-ups, and burndown charts are not mere procedures but instruments that orchestrate the sprint's rhythm. They guide teams to maintain focus, foster collaboration, and ensure transparency. With each sprint's culmination, not only is a deliverable born, but the team also garners invaluable insights, further honing their Agile prowess.

In my experience, most iterations (sprints) are 10 business days. This cadence is the heartbeat of the team. Every scrum ceremony or project event takes place within the sprint, so time management, personnel capacity management, and communication are key elements to achieving high output iterations. How we practice for example: Daily Standup: Daily at 0930 Backlog refinement sessions: Tuesdays at 1030 (1hr) Iteration Planning: Thursdays (4hr) Iteration Demo: Wed (1-2hr) Iteration Retro: Wed (1-2hr) (Same day) We do our best to stack events that make sense, share a capacity calendar and track our KPIs on a shared dashboard. We also account for "Work Life Balance" as a key metric post-sprint during our retro.

One of the most important and unique Agile principles is "Responding to Change over Following a Plan." This principle emphasizes the value of adaptability and flexibility in the Agile approach. It means that while having a plan is essential, being open to and responsive to change is even more critical. Key points related to this principle include: Embracing Change: Customer-Centric: Iterative and Incremental Development: Minimizing Waste: Agile minimizes the waste of time and resources on unnecessary or outdated features. This principle sets Agile apart from traditional, plan-driven methodologies and highlights its emphasis on customer satisfaction, flexibility, and a dynamic, responsive approach to project and product development.

I'm a huge supporter of adapting Scrum to fit the needs of your team. The Scrum Guide outlines all the moving parts; from the necessary lines of communication, to the roles needed to manage the process. Ultimately, it's about meeting the needs of your team and project timelines, and Scrum works for both!

Reviews allow the customer and various stakeholders to view the work that was completed during the sprint and provide feedback in real-time. This provides validation to the team that they are delivering the increment as intended or that adjustments need to be made. The goal of the sprint is to continually add value to the project/product, to do that the team must have clear requirements. The Product Owner partners with the customer to obtain the project/product requirements and break them down into user stories that are worked within the sprint. The Product Owner verifies that the increment meets the acceptance criteria and is ready to show the customer.

In the Agile world, feedback is the compass that ensures a project remains aligned with user needs and market realities. Each sprint concludes not just with a product increment but also with a vital feedback loop. Gathering feedback post-sprint is akin to charting unexplored territories, helping teams discern what resonated, what missed the mark, and areas that promise greater value. Tools like sprint reviews and retrospectives become platforms for this dialogue, acting as crucibles where feedback is distilled into actionable insights. It's more than course correction; it's about fostering a culture where continuous learning and improvement are at the project's core.

Agile is all about frequent response and intelligent catering to change. Agile change management is a breath of fresh air in the world of organizational change. It's about flexibility and collaboration. We break changes into smaller, manageable steps and get feedback as we go. Transparency is crucial, and we empower our teams to be part of the process. Visual tools help us track progress, and change champions keep everyone on board. It's a dynamic, agile approach that fits today's fast-paced world.

On an Agile team, it is important to discuss what needs to change and why. Most teams institute a change control board (CCB), which is a team of stakeholders that will review approve, deny, or defer proposed changes. Change happens on every project/product it is important to be aware of changes and take the time to assess how they impact you and your team. Normalizing change is important but it is also vital to ensure that changes go through the proper channels and are communicated to everyone impacted.

Remeber agile is an adjective, so all seremonies from SCRUM etc. may in fact make your team less agile. Start with agile principles, make your own structures and use only the tools you need to work as agile as possible. Mob-methods seem to challenge a teams agility in a good way.

The best way to get people to adopt "Agile" principles is to let them see the value of Agile principles. If Agile methodologies are not yielding value, not only should you not use them, but if you do use them, you are going to risk damaging the team's morale. Agile is not a panacea. It is a toolset that will work for a lot of situations, but it you are not seeing results, then forcing it is not the answer. Every team works differently and sometimes going full Agile just won't work for the organization. Use the parts of Agile methodologies that work for your team and adjust the ones that don't. Results are what matter, and don't forget that destroying your team in pursuit of a project goal is also a result (that should be avoided).

In some cases, adhering too strictly to Agile principles can hinder project progress. Instead of emphasizing Agile principles, consider a more hybrid approach. Blend elements of traditional project management methodologies with Agile practices to strike a balance between flexibility and structure. This approach allows for incorporation of essential project management controls while still embracing Agile concepts like iterative development and customer collaboration. By adapting Agile principles to suit the specific needs of your project, you can achieve a more pragmatic and effective project management strategy.

The article provides valuable insights on how to successfully implement Agile principles in project management, emphasizing the importance of clear vision, adaptive practices, and customer-centric approaches

Create a team agreement. A team agreement will allow the team to discuss how they would like to work. What timebox is the sprint? How decisions are made? It can also include team member roles, the definition of ready (DOR) and the definition of done (DOD), how the stories are sized, etc. The team agrees to the concepts in the team agreement and uses it as a guide to ensure that everyone knows what is expected of them. The team agreement is a living document that is revisited as people join and/or offboard the team.