What is agile?
Agile is a form of project management practice to make incremental progress toward goals. It started with software development teams, but many industries now use this work management style.
Using this technique, a team completes work in short cycles with continuous feedback from stakeholders. Unlike a traditional project management approach, the agile process emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and reflection.
Many agile methodologies exist, including scrum and kanban. Companies employing a kanban-style workflow need a visual way for team members to track project steps. The visual aid can come in the form of a tangible kanban board or interactive kanban project management software. Software platforms have the added benefit of allowing teams to track metrics like lead and cycle time.
Types of agile methodologies
Agile is an overarching philosophy with a set of values and principles that guide a project team. Agile organizations choose from various methodologies or frameworks that govern a team’s day-to-day processes. Three popular options are:
- Scrum. It is the most commonly used agile framework to create a product or meet a goal in a one-to-four-week segment called a sprint. With the guidance of a scrum master, the group holds four different types of check-in meetings to plan, share progress, discuss accomplishments, and reflect.
- Kanban. Kanban breaks down big goals into smaller tasks. These tasks are displayed on a kanban board with three columns: “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” Each task is on its card on the kanban board and moves to the column to the right as a team member makes progress with it.
- Scrumban. As its name suggests, scrumban is a combination of scrum and kanban. Originally designed as a transitional phase for teams moving from one methodology to the other, many groups find the scrumban approach working well for them indefinitely. Scrumban uses the iterative process and the sprint structure from scrum, along with elements of kanban, like a visual board with individual task cards, called a scrumban board.
Benefits of agile
Agile has become popular in software development and project management as an alternative to more rigid, traditional approaches. Companies that use agile appreciate its:
- Flexibility. One of the guiding principles of agile is responding to change rather than strictly following the original plan. Since agile companies break large projects into smaller parts, it’s easier to change gears at any project phase. This strategy keeps large organizations more nimble – quicker to adapt to changes in plans or external factors.
- Faster time to market. Agile teams constantly reflect and iterate, which helps them optimize their workflow and decrease products’ time to market (TTM), the length of time from the conception of a product or feature to its rollout to customers.
- Better collaboration. Unlike traditional project management, which relies on top-down leadership, agile features a highly collaborative process. Team members take collective responsibility to collaborate to solve problems. In scrum, a scrum master facilitates communication and resolves conflicts.
- Reduced risk. Since an agile team completes work in short cycles, a company doesn’t have to spend large sums of money or commit to complex logistics.
- Higher customer satisfaction rates. Teams that use agile frequently present works-in-progress to the customer, who then provides feedback. Teams gain clarity on the customer's values and prioritize tasks accordingly.
Agile best practices
Agile helps product and project teams bring higher-quality goods or services to market sooner. To get the most out of agile, companies should focus on the following:
- Building teams that work together well. Some individuals work better together than others. Departments should strategically create agile teams based on the skills each member offers and then frequently evaluate the effectiveness of these groupings. Companies may want to consider team-building exercises or agile training to build trust or communication skills if a team experiences conflict.
- Keeping the customer top of mind. One of the primary values of agile is a customer-centric mentality. An agile team must collaborate with customers throughout the process to get feedback, ask questions, and understand desired outcomes. For example, a product team should consider user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX) to increase satisfaction and loyalty.
- Prioritizing in-person communication. Agile teams meet daily to discuss issues, clarify expectations, and reflect on efforts. For best results, these meetings, and any other conversations that need to happen, are held face-to-face so that individuals can read their team members’ visual cues. Even in situations where development team members are working remotely, they should opt for video conferencing instead of phone conversations.
Look at these project collaboration tools to take your teamwork to the next level.
Kelly Fiorini
Kelly Fiorini is a freelance writer for G2. After ten years as a teacher, Kelly now creates content for mostly B2B SaaS clients. In her free time, she’s usually reading, spilling coffee, walking her dogs, and trying to keep her plants alive. Kelly received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Notre Dame and her Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Louisville.
