What is Agile Project Management?

Agile is a time-boxed, iterative approach to software delivery that builds software incrementally from the very beginning of the project instead of trying to deliver everything at once.

How Agile Works?

Agile works by breaking a project down into little bits of user functionalities called User Stories, prioritizing them, and then continuously delivering them in short iterations (in Scrum called Sprints).

Sitting down with your customer you make a list of features they would like to see in their software. We call these things user stories and they become the To-Do list for your project.

Using Agile estimation techniques, you size your stories relative to each other, coming up with a guess as to how long you think each user story will take.

There always seems to be more to do than time allows. So ask your customer to prioritize their list so you get the most important stuff done first, and save the least important for last.

Then you start delivering value. You start at the top. Work your way to the bottom. Building, iterating and getting feedback from your customer as you go.

Update the plan as you go. As you start to deliver value to the product, one of two things are going to happen. You will discover that:

a) You are going fast enough, all is good

b) You have too much to do and not enough time

At this point, you have two choices. You can either a) do less or cut scope (recommended). Or you can b) push out the date and ask for more money.

How is Agile different?

Analysis, design, coding, and testing are continuous activities

You are never done the analysis, design, coding, and testing on an Agile project. So long as there are features to build, and the means to deliver them, these activities continue for the duration of the project.

Development is iterative

Iterative development means starting with something really simple and adding to it incrementally over time.

It means evolving the architecture, accepting that your requirements are going to change, and continuously refining and tweaking your product as you go.

Planning is adaptive

When reality disagrees with their plans, Agilists find it easier to change their plans than reality. They call this adaptive planning.

And while there are many ways to change plans, the preferred way is to flex on the scope.

Roles blur

Roles really blur on Agile projects. When it’s done right, joining an Agile team is a lot like working in a mini-startup. People pitch in and do whatever it takes to make the project successful — regardless of title or role.

Yes, people still have core competencies, and, yes, they generally stick to what they are good at. But on an agile project, narrowly defined roles like analyst, programmer, and tester don’t really exist — at least not in the traditional sense.

Requirements can change

Traditionally change has been unusual on software projects because of its high perceived cost late in the game. Agile challenges this notion and believes the cost of change can be relatively flat.

Through a combination of modern software engineering practices and open and honest planning, Agilsts accept and embrace change even late in the delivery process.