Agile - what sorcery is this?

You'll need 8 minutes to read through this blog post.

Agile. So what kind of dark magic is this thing that everyone is talking about? I won't give you an academic definition, instead, I will give you what I believe Agile is.

Agile is a popular word recently. It's connected with the technology startups, and with software development. Some describe agile as a modern project management framework, oriented on incremental growth. It's in a contradiction to a waterfall project management. Some will use a word agile equal with a word SCRUM. Unfortunately Agile is neither of these.

Starting with a Wikipedia definition, we can read:

Agile software development is an approach to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through a collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customers/end users.

Now, doesn't this sound great? It does, and one can't disagree with this statement. Yet, the statement implies that "Agile" connects with software development. For sure, this is where Agile has been battlefield tested most. For sure, this is where Agile proved to work well - but it's not only dedicated to software development.

Agile is something bigger and yet much simpler. It comes from the Agile Manifesto, which was a result of a meeting that took place on February 11-13, 2001 between 17 people. The group that named themselves Agile Alliance, contain some legendary Software Engineers (Robert C. Martin, Martin Fowler) or SCRUM creators (Jeff Sutherland, Ken Schwaber). During the meeting, the Agile Alliance focused on finding a better way to build software. The results they came up with is what we call "Agile Manifesto" (https://agilemanifesto.org/).

I won't quote all the points from the manifesto. If you're interested in reading more about the manifesto, please follow the link above. For a time being I want you to remember the most important point:

Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools

This is exactly why I like to think about Agile as a mindset. It's so simple, and yet so hard. It's the heart of Agility. If there's one thing I would like you to take away from this blog post - it would be: "Agile is about People and collaboration before anything else". All other points from the manifesto are important, of course - but with this one correctly "implemented" in place all other things will follow (using common sense!).

So Agile is about a cultural change that various companies try to adopt. It's a change that gets people to work together on solving various problems, in the best possible way. It means building the right products, at the right time, for the right people. I deliberately use word "products" as Agile will fit most kind of businesses out there. It's true that agile originate from software production. Yet, nowadays we've seen a successful usage in all different kind of industries.

An important aspect of Agile is that it focuses on the Team. One that is both "cross-functional" and "self-organising". Cross-functional means that the Team has all the skills required to build a final product. From the beginning till the very end. The Fellowship of the Ring is a good example of such a team. It's cross-functional because within the Team we have all these different talents:

• a bowman (Legolas)
• a wizard (Gandalf)
• a swordsman and a potential king (Aragorn)
• a rider (Boromir)
• a dwarf (Gimli)
• 4 useless chaps (Frodo, Samwise, Meriadok, Peregrin) 

Joking of course! The hobbits also have some unique skills which others don't have. All these skills together give a higher chance of destroying the ring, than Gandalf or Legolas himself (no matter how great he was). Or a team of just Gandalf alike or just Legolas alike.

Self-organisation means that the Team was given a space to make their own decisions. First of all, they decided to split into smaller groups. They have simply divided a big piece of work into smaller elements. Small enough so they could understand exactly what needs to be done. Better understanding meant better prioritisation. That lead to eventually splitting the team into smaller sub-teams. They also decided to take different approaches and routes to the same destination. They all been a part of a bigger puzzle - where all elements had to work. This is exactly what Agile does so great! It helps us to understand what we need to do, and then to get there step by step. 

Back from the Middle Earth. Agile is often confused with methodologies that are the implementation of agile principles. I won't describe them here (it would take ages), but for your profit, I will name them so you can tell the difference (and maybe dig a bit more about the topic). 

Methodologies that are the implementations of Agile Manifesto in some way or another are:

• SCRUM
• Kanban
• Toyota Production System
• Lean Startup
• XP

There are also a couple of heavy-weight implementations that are more "managed":

• SAFe
• LeSS

From these the one that is most common and for sure mostly implemented in the world is SCRUM. SCRUM is a good way to start your agile journey. It's very light-weight, yet well structured so easy to use.

I don't want to talk about the methodologies though, as this is a very wide topic. I'm working on a further blog post that would focus on 'getting started with Agile'.

So there you go! I hope that Agile is not as scary anymore. Hopefully what you've read here is interesting enough to seek more about the topic. Remember that Agile can also change the way you and your team work!

Finally, a list of bullet points and interesting comments about Agile in general:

• Agile focuses on people, collaborating together and trying to build great products
• Agile focuses on dividing extensive work into smaller chunks
• Agile is about prioritising what is really important and what brings the highest value
• Agile is about transparency, it makes all work within the system visible to everyone 
• Agile is about reacting to change and as the work is divided into small chunks it's always easier to change
• Agile puts people in the centre of the universe! It empowers people to do their best on a daily basis to bring the highest value to the organization
• Agile is about becoming better in what we do, day in and day out
• "Agile doesn't fix your problems, but it makes them visible" - quote by Tomasz
• "Agile is not a destination that you seek, it's a journey that never ends" - thanks, Helen!

If you still have some questions, feel free to contact me through LinkedIn. With my next blog post, I'll write about how to get started with Agile, no matter of the role you're in, or the product you're working on.

Piotr