Demystifying the hype around Agile

It is improbable that you would not have heard the word agile. Agile is not a new term in business. Various executives and practitioners are using the agile approach in their everyday work. So what is Agile? Is it a framework or a strategy, or a process? Is it restricted to IT and software?

Agile is a mindset that empowers adaptability and visibility into processes.?It has grown outside IT and expanding to other areas within an organization like Operations, Marketing, Sales, and HR. While Agile prefers face-to-face interactions; however with the current pandemic, there has been a shift towards distributed Agile teams.

As mentioned earlier, agile is a mindset. So, here are some of the popular agile methodologies:

• Scrum
• Kanban
• Extreme programming (XP)
• Crystal
• Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
• Feature-Driven Development (FDD)

Some of the top Agile techniques are:

• Daily Standup
• Sprint Planning
• Sprint Review
• Retrospectives

Why are companies moving towards Agile?

• Cost: Agile way of working helps in reducing project cost
• Speed: Speed to reach the market and launch the MVP
• Customer Satisfaction: With the customer being at the forefront of every phase, customer feedback helps minimize the gap between expectations and actuals, increasing customer satisfaction.
• Visibility: There is improved project visibility which supports better decision making and risk reduction

But many companies still find it challenging to use Agile in their processes.?Some of the top challenges are:

• Organization culture: The mindset of resistance to change and hierarchy of an organization or a team restrict the capability to adapt and scale Agile.
• Inconsistency: When it comes to following the processes, teams show inconsistency.
• Lack of training/knowledge: Lack of understanding of principles and tools can hamper the Agile way of working.

Measuring Agile

Whenever we think of another approach, there is always a question of measuring. Top management wants metrics to compare and decide. The success of Agile can be measured by customer satisfaction, budget vs. actual costs, and speed to delivery.

If you are starting in this domain, some of the Agile project management tools you can check out are:

• Excel
• Jira
• MS Project
• Google Docs
• Leankit

Hope you have a basic understanding of Agile after reading this blog and you are now ready to explore more on your own. Happy reading!