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Agile Principles

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Top > Business > Management > Management By Type > Project Management > Project Management Styles > Agile > Agile Principles

A Comprehensive Guide to Agile Project Management

The 12 agile principles

While agile project management is very different from traditional project management, it doesn't have to be daunting to make the switch. Agile project management relies on 12 guiding principles that can help your team move faster together.

1. Customer-first

One of the first principles for groups using agile management is that the "highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery." This means that above all else, the team works to solve problems for the customer, not to build features and tools that are cool but hard to use. This strategy encourages all product decisions to be data-driven from a customer's perspective. It may mean that many team members regularly interact with end users (including with interviews) or have access to data that shows usage.

The agile methodology drastically reduces the time from project initiation to customer feedback. As customers' needs or how they interact with the product change, the team is flexible in responding to these needs to build customer-focused technology. This process creates a feedback loop for continuous improvement.

2. The only thing constant is change

While it may seem radical to change requirements, the agile methodology allows for changing requirements, even late into development.

This principle is closely tied to the first. If the end goal of the team is to serve the end user best, the team must be flexible and able to make changes based on customers' behaviors and needs. Flexibility also allows an organization to capitalize on an emerging technology or new trends and gain competitive advantage.

3. Deliver faster

Instead of annual or semi-annual product updates and patches, agile encourages regular updates when a need is identified or to improve operations. Waiting to do significant releases can bloat the technology and create unforeseen issues, no matter how much it has been tested.

Agile encourages the team to deliver working software frequently within a short time frame. Smaller, more frequent releases allow for regular updates to the technology without huge risk. If something goes out and doesn't work, it requires a slight pullback. The agile methodology also encourages automation to help push out updates continuously.

4. Build cross-functional teams

Agile methodology believes that the most well-thought-out, usable, and sellable technologies require cross-functional teams working towards a shared goal. DevOps (development and operations) and DevSecOps (development, security, and operations) teams work in concert instead of in a linear progression. This allows the business team, the developers, QA, and other essential teams to work together from start to finish.

This change in perspective means all teams have skin in the game and makes it harder to push errors or low-quality tech onto the next team. Rather than making excuses, everyone works together on the same goals.

For cross-functional teams to work, it takes involvement from the top. A third of projects fail because of a lack of participation from senior management.

5. Encourage independent work

Another tenet of agile management is that individuals can stretch their job and learn new skills while working on projects. Because the teams are cross-functional, individuals are exposed to different abilities, roles, and styles. This exposure creates better-rounded workers who can attack problems from different perspectives.

Agile teams are typically self-directed. It takes the right team with a focused goal.

Agile allows managers to (per the Agile Manifesto) "build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done."

6. Meet in person

While this principle may seem strange in the era of increased remote workers, agile management does encourage in-person meetings. This is because many managers believe the most efficient and effective method of conveying information is a face-to-face conversation.

For non-remote teams, this can mean having different team members sitting close together or even creating war rooms of different groups to communicate more effectively. Co-location means faster interactions. Instead of waiting for an email or call to be returned, talk to each other.

This goal can still be accomplished for remote teams. By using tools like Slack or Zoom, you can simulate in-person meetings and find the right answers quickly.

7. Go live

Organizations may have several ways to document the plan and measure success against goals. However, one of the best ways to measure a team's success in agile is via working software. Agile teams don't look at future forecasts to see how they are doing. Instead, live code is the primary measure of progress.

Planning and documentation are great, but without software that does the job, everything else is irrelevant.

8. Sustainable development

While agile development encourages fast releases, it is still vital that the team makes sustainable and scalable code. Because the first principle is to serve the customer, the team must think about creating technology and tools that can be used for the long haul.

The team should also be managed in a way that supports individuals. While long hours may be required for a short time, maintaining overall work-life balance is essential to avoid burnout.

9. Technical excellence

Agile methodology also believes that every member of the team is responsible for continuous attention to technical excellence. Even those without technical ability should QA work and ensure it is being built in a simple and accessible way. While bells and whistles may be nice, an agile methodology believes that good design enhances agility.

Additionally, code should improve with each iteration. Everyone is responsible for providing clear code or instructions throughout the process—not just at the end.

10. Simplify

Agile teams believe that simplicity is essential. There's a saying in agile circles: "maximize the amount of work not done." Eliminate and automate anything you can, and build tools that are straightforward for the end user.

11. Let teams self-organize

"The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams," says the Agile Manifesto. While management is needed for oversight, the best agile teams figure out what needs to be done—and how it gets done—themselves.

12. Take time to reflect

At regular intervals, the best teams reflect on how to become more effective, then adjust accordingly.

Agile teams are introspective and evaluate their efficiency. When they discover a better way, they evolve.

http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

Principles behind the Agile Manifesto

We follow these principles:

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

In fact this is one of the reasons why I’ve almost completely stopped generating written reports (what I refer to as the “big honking report”) for my expert reviews and for usability tests. I finally realized that for most Web teams their ability to find problems greatly exceeds the resources they have available to fix them, so it’s important to stay focused on the most serious problems. Instead of written reports, nowadays I report my findings in a conference call with the entire Web team, which may last for an hour or two. By the end of the call, we’ve all agreed which problems are most important to fix, and how they’re going to fix them.

Use Agile Principles, interactive fixing problems: