The 4 agile methodologies that every agile coach should know
In recent years, to provide a solution to the new technological reality that we are experiencing, a new figure has appeared in those companies that seek to adapt and implement new agile methodologies in their processes. The agile coach is in charge of this transition and, throughout this article, we will describe his role in a company as well as the agile methodologies he needs to know to carry out his role.
As its name suggests, to define an agile coach we must focus on the terms that comprise it.
Good Practices Guide Project Management
The coach part, in the first place, consists of observing what surrounds you, which, taken to a professional level, means observing the different departments that coexist in a company as well as the processes they implement to carry out their functions. Among the functions of a coach we can highlight:
- Collaboration in setting individual or professional goals
- Provide a professional approach
- Motivation among the members of a team as well as their continuous training
- Discovering new skills
Second, the agile part involves the implementation of agile methodologies in each of the processes of a company.
For all these reasons, to perform their duties correctly, every agile coach must know the most used agile methodologies and thus be able to choose the most appropriate in each situation.
Agile methodologies
We will focus on the 4 agile methodologies that are most commonly used.
Scrum
It is one of the main agile methodologies and that an agile coach cannot miss. It is a method to solve complex problems, delivering products that provide the highest possible value. It is a methodology:
Light: It has little theory, it only defines some meetings or ceremonies, the roles, and a few basic principles.
Easy to understand: It is an open methodology, which does not propose complicated nor too specific rules depending on the project.
Difficult to master: The key is to adapt it correctly to the environment and the specific project.
It is based on empirical control processes, that is, knowledge comes from experience, and decisions are made based on the information that is available. Its focus is iterative and incremental.
Iterative: It is about refining and improving the properties of the product as the project progresses.
Incremental: Consists of adding new capabilities or features to the product as the project progresses.
XP (Extreme Programming)
XP (from English "eXtremeProgramming") is a unique agile methodology for software development.
Like Scrum, it considers that changes during the project will be frequent, so much so that you can get to work in 1-day iterations, with daily deliveries and displays of the results, even in shorter periods of time.
Kanban
An agile coach can use a "Kanban" or "TaskBoard" to search for status changes at work, reflecting progress and work in progress.
- This methodology consists of the organization of daily work based on a panel of tasks such as the following:
- Agile coach - Kanban methodology
- Kanban methodology example
- Kanban is a free Japanese translation of "letters." It is designed to prevent overproduction and to ensure that components move from one sub-process to the next in the proper order.
- Small incremental changes should be targeted. The task force must agree that their current circumstances warrant an evolutionary approach to development.
Without the agreement that an evolutionary and incremental approach is the right way forward, then there will be no right environment for a Kanban initiative. The agile coach will take into account that each team member is a leader, in the sense that they are expected to have the initiative to self-manage their work, assign tasks and share this information with the other team members.
Its origin is the Lean Manufacturing Model, that is, applied to manufacturing and production processes "pull": only the product that the customer needs is produced, just when they need it.
The central idea is to maximize customer value and minimize waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A "lean" organization understands customer value and focuses on its key processes to continually increase it.