T.E.A.M. - The 4 key Principles of Aglie

Agility is the key to success in the world of unpredictability, competition, value-driven market, and rapid innovation. However, to incorporate agility into your business operations, product development, corporate strategies etc, one must understand the key principles of agile methodology.

To understand the key principles of agile, we must first understand why is there a need for agile?

Well, the answer lies in the way we used to approach businesses challenges and changes in the past. Far-sightedness used to be the quality of choice and stress was given on identifying the potential risks and opportunities way ahead of the actual execution. In other words, stringent and deep planning was given utmost importance, while the lessons were supposed to be learned at the end of execution, and to feed into the next project as best practices. This approach is very good and still applies to a majority of businesses and business functions, however, the slower pace of adaptation from mistakes, risk of scope creep, and lower perceived value of the final outcome still impact projects and businesses following this approach. To be fair, in the past, such issues related to slower pace, scope creeps, and perceived value variance were perhaps not as important as they are in today's marketplace.

• Slower pace of innovation gives way to competitors in this fast changing technological landscape
• While scope creeps and percieved value variance in a demanding and expensive economy could be potentially fatal for any project

So, how does agile solve these challenges?

Agile follows a relaxed planning process to facilitate execution and to define a primary scope for a change. The focus in an agile methodology is on perceived value of the final output, in other words, it is driven by value rather than an extensive plan. Lessons are not to be learned merely at the end of a project, they are supposed to actively provide feedback at the end of each iteration, to attain an adaptive management approach throughout the lifecycle of a project or change. The scope is always expected to change in an agile project. If the scope is not changing then maybe something is not right in the way the value is driven in each iteration or perhaps the project is in fact a fixed scope project that does not require agile.

Based on the above explanation, let us look at some of the key principles of agile implementations;

Transparency and tolerance management (T)

Agile requires clarity of work and its alignment to the business requirements. This is an on-going task in Agile versus perhaps a one-time operation in a traditional approach. Tolerances around cost, time and scope are blurry in agile at least when viewed with respect to iterations, while quality is given utmost importance. Transparency of work within the team and reporting of the same to the stakeholders is the key to a healthy agile project. Adherence to a repeatable structure is also important to enable transparency e.g. daily standup meetings in SCRUM

Efficiency through empowerment (E)

The emphasis is on the delivery of value and the work is closely monitored to proactively remove impediments, drive innovation, and inculcate a self-sufficiency within the team. An authoritative and or prescriptive management style is like a malignant tumor when it comes to agile. It is very important to let the team communicate and spread constructive vibe on a frequent basis to improve efficiency and value in an agile project.

Adaptation at its core (A)

Learning from mistakes as well as from achievements, quickly, early, during, and after each iteration is a must for the success of an agile project. This makes proactive monitoring and quick decision-making skills of a project manager ever important for agile project managers. Risks must be quickly identified, analyzed and actioned with a clear direction throughout the lifecycle of an agile project.

Micronize and optimize (M)

Fine break down of complex work items into smaller user stories, while understanding the tradeoff between simplification of work items and the associated overheads with each of such work items is a skill that is essential for a manager dealing with agile implementation. Dependencies between work items, their categorization, priority due to their business value etc. are some of the attributes that must be considered during a micronization process in agile approaches.

In conclusion, the 4 key principles of agile are Transparency of work, Efficiency and empowerment of team, proactive and on-going Adaptation, and Micronization of complex work items. These key principles are a must for any agile implementation in a project or organization setting to drive value and eventually realize the desired benefits of a change.