Understanding the Agile methodology
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Key Takeaways
- Agile is a flexible, iterative approach to project management that emphasizes collaboration, continuous delivery, and adaptability.
- It values people, customer feedback, and working solutions over rigid processes and documentation.
- Teams tailor Agile practices to their needs, blending frameworks like Scrum and Kanban for optimal results.
- Experiment with Agile practices and regularly review their effectiveness to foster continuous improvement and team collaboration.
What is the Agile methodology?
The Agile methodology is an approach that divides work into phases, emphasizing continuous delivery and improvement. Agile benefits teams by enabling adaptive planning, rapid execution, and ongoing evaluation, leading to more responsive and successful outcomes.
The traditional "waterfall" approach has each team work on a project separately, then hand it off to the next group. On the other hand, agile utilizes collaborative, cross-functional teams, emphasizes open communication, teamwork, adaptability, and trust.
Although the project lead or product owner typically prioritizes the work to be delivered, the team takes the lead on deciding how the work will get done, self-organizing around granular tasks and assignments. Agile isn't defined by a set of ceremonies or specific development techniques.
Instead, agile is a group of methodologies that demonstrate a commitment to tight feedback cycles and continuous improvement. The original Agile Manifesto didn't prescribe two-week iterations or an ideal team size.
It simply laid out a set of core values that put people first. The way you and your team live those values today, whether you do scrum by the book or blend elements of Kanban and XP, is entirely up to you.
Why choose agile?
Teams choose agile methodologies so they can respond to changes in the marketplace or customer feedback quickly, without derailing a year's worth of plans. "Just enough" planning and shipping in small, frequent increments lets your team gather feedback on each change and integrate it into future plans at minimal cost.
But it's not just a numbers game—first and foremost, it's 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 providing hyper-detailed documentation.
An agile team unites under a shared vision, then brings it to life the way they know is best. Each team sets its own standards for quality, usability, and completeness.
Their definition of 'done' then informs how quickly they'll churn out the work. Although it can be scary at first, company leaders find that when they put their trust in an agile team, that team feels a greater sense of ownership and rises to meet (or exceed) expectations.
Agile yesterday, today, and tomorrow
The publication of the Agile Manifesto in 2001 marked the birth of agile as a methodology. Since then, several agile frameworks have emerged, including Scrum, Kanban, Lean, and Extreme Programming (XP).
Each framework embodies the core principles of frequent iteration, continuous learning, and high quality in its own way. Scrum and XP are favored by software development teams, while Kanban is a favorite among service-oriented teams, such as IT or human resources.
Today, many agile teams combine practices from several different frameworks, complemented by practices unique to the team. Some teams adopt some agile rituals like regular stand-ups, retros, and backlogs, while others create a new agile practice like agile marketing teams, who adhere to the Agile Marketing Manifesto.
The agile teams of tomorrow will value their own effectiveness over adherence to doctrine. Openness, trust, and autonomy are emerging as the cultural currency for companies that want to attract the best people and get the most out of them.
Such companies are already proving that practices can vary across teams, as long as they're guided by the right principles.
Atlassian on agile
The way each team practices agile should be unique to their needs and culture. Indeed, no two teams inside Atlassian have identical agile practices.
Although many of our teams organize their work in sprints, estimate in story points, and prioritize their backlogs, we're not die-hard practitioners of Scrum, Kanban, or any other trademarked methodology. Instead, we give each team the autonomy to cherry-pick the practices that will make them most effective.
And we encourage you to take a similar approach.
For example, if you're on a queue-oriented team, such as IT, Kanban provides a solid foundation for your agile practice. However, nothing should stop you from incorporating a few Scrum practices, such as demo sessions with stakeholders or regular retrospectives.
The key to doing agile right is embracing a mindset of continuous improvement. Experiment with different practices and have open, honest discussions about them with your team. Keep the ones that work and discard the ones that don't.
How to use the Agile hub
Because we believe each team must forge their own path to agility, you won't find highly prescriptive information on this site. What you will find, however, is a no-nonsense guide to working iteratively, delivering value to your customers, and embracing continuous improvement.
Read it, discuss it with your team, and make the changes that make sense to you.
You'll also find tutorials on pairing these practices with Jira, our project management tool for high-performing teams. Want to set up a kanban board? Get insights from your team's velocity report? Everything you need is covered in the tutorials.
You're on the right path. Keep going!
Agile Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 5 C's of Agile?
The 5 C's of Agile are Communication, Collaboration, Commitment, Customer, and Continuous Improvement. These principles emphasize open communication, teamwork, dedication to goals, a customer-centric approach, and ongoing reflection to enhance processes. Together, they guide Agile teams in delivering value efficiently and adapting to change.
What are the benefits of Agile?
Agile enables teams to adapt quickly to change, deliver value in small increments, and continuously improve. This approach leads to faster feedback, better collaboration, and more successful project outcomes.
What are the core Values of the Agile Manifesto?
The core values of the Agile Manifesto are: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. These values emphasize people, collaboration, and adaptability.
What are the common agile frameworks?
Common agile frameworks include Scrum, Kanban, Lean, and Extreme Programming (XP). Each framework supports frequent iteration, continuous learning, and high quality in its own way.
Where to find multi-user editable templates for Agile workflows?
You can find multi-user editable templates for agile workflows in the Jira template library. These templates are designed for Agile teams and can be edited to fit your team's unique ways of working.
Where to find ready made project templates for Agile sprints?
Ready-made project templates for Agile sprints are available in Jira’s template library. You’ll find templates specifically designed for Scrum and Kanban boards, sprint planning, and Agile project management. These templates help teams quickly set up projects and workflows tailored to Agile methodologies.
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