Can you be Agile?
This week's article will be about a methodology used in project management called Agile. Although it was originally developed for the software industry, I’ve helped non-software organizations adopt some of these practices and seen amazing results.
What is agile?
Agile is a project management methodology that uses iterative and incremental development cycles or “sprints”, to rapidly identify and adjust for issues and defects, increasing the project’s prospects for success. It requires adaptation and encourages teamwork, since solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.
All these methodologies allow for rapid delivery of high-quality products, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals.
Agile vs. a Dilbert comic
Too many meetings, too many people attending those meetings. And this meetings take forever to organize, sometimes they keep changing because people are away or busy. Then, each person reviews the project, changing someone else’s changes and oftentimes, these people are usually too far away from the product and its customers...Sounds familiar?
In Agile, team members are empowered to make fast decisions and there are fewer approval layers. Decision-making is action-oriented. It is about responding to feedback from customers quickly and to constant changes in the market. More than being prepared to adapt, it is about being proactive enough to experiment ahead of the curve, and really cash out the risk and reward of change.
People first
Agile is about people. As described by the Agile Manifesto:
Authentic human interactions are more important than rigid processes.
Collaborating with customers and teammates is more important than predefined arrangements.
Delivering a working solution to the customer's problem is more important than hyper-detailed documentation.
The principles of agile
There are 12 key principles that still guide agile project management today.
- Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable products
- Welcome changing requirements, even in late development
- Working products are delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
- Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers
- Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted
- Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
- A working product is the primary measure of progress
- Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
- Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential
- Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams
- Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly
When Agile might not work?
As with any other methodology, Agile might not work for some companies. For example, it may fail when teams don’t receive clear goals from the customer, or when individuals don’t work well under significant pressure. It might be harder to implement in larger, more traditional organizations where there’s usually more rigidity in their processes, policies, or teams.
Great examples of Agile in non-software Industries
A/B testing. Creating two or more versions of landing pages, marketing messages and even pricing can provide valuable insight into what drives traffic or sales. You would randomly send half your website visitors to one landing page, with one offer—maybe with a coupon, and the other half to another landing page, with a different offer, or slight variations in wording or design. Then it is about mining your sales data to see how your tests perform and whether pricing or a particular marketing message influences sales. Facebook is a great example, they design-test features live by exposing a small group of users to the new features and if they see good results, the feature is rolled out to the rest of the users.
Food trucks. For the restaurant industry, food trucks are an excellent way to put a toe in the water without a major commitment. No lease, no permanent location, and no large staff or infrastructure to support, they offer a perfect way to proof a concept before rolling it out. You can see how well different menus work, think of mobile labs that allow you to test demand in different neighborhoods. See some restaurants that started as food trucks: Korilla BBQ (NYC), Curry Up Now (San Francisco), The Peached Tortilla (Austin, TX).
Amazon. I find this last example quite interesting since they gave their employees the freedom between joining small teams and agile practices or the choice to continue working as they have been. Slowly employees started to join these practices and today most of the company use Agile methodologies.
