Thursday 10 July 2014

Does Agility Be Present Once You Apply It In Your Project

Currently, if you search for the keyword Agile or Agile related information on the internet, you will be displayed with search result pages displaying all sorts of information referring to Agile - starting from Agile training and coaching to Agile experts offering their "esteemed" views and experience concerning to various Agile frameworks. Lately, it has become very common to see increased versions of Agile appearing in the searches - SAFe, , ScrumButs, Scaled Agile, AgileLive and  Jira Agile - the list is not immense but creditable of being considered - and all of them proclaiming their competence in being "effective", and above all "Agile". It would be brilliant to know more about these versions, but a basic question always keeps on appearing - Is the consumer really following Agile in a factual sense? Are you a strong Agile supporter or a ScrumBut? Perhaps, it would be more worthwhile to determine whether you, or your customer, are in fact following Agile in the first place, letting alone other scaled versions of Agile.

Here is list of check points to facilitate to know if your projects are "Agile" or not.

Is development done out through repetition?
Obviously, the main principle of implementing an “Agile framework” is to promote through product updates in a constant manner. Nobody can claim they're following Agile if their project development process does not support regular product updates at the end of sprints. Additionally to iterative development, agile implementation should also maintain dynamic collaboration - distribution of feedback and information amongst the product owner, scrum master, teams involved and the investors. Iterative development and collaborative nature is strong indication for the “Agile methodology” and is most crucial for organizations to support these features if they state to be Agile.

Can changes be integrated during the product development cycle?
One of the main reasons why people opt for Agile is its capability to include revisions in the product definition even while the product development process is currently continuing. It is a distinctive selling aspect of all “Agile frameworks” and is identical with developing a project while still maintaining its business value - at all times. Regardless of the changes taking place in the market - whether huge or tiny - the project development process should have and retain its

capability to dynamically change the functionality developed and offered by the product features as and when needed. Agile projects should maintain this feature.

Can development be carried out in "snippets" rather than "as a whole"?
Perhaps what makes Agile frameworks so exceptional are their iterative structures supporting daily sprints. Whether scrum or XP, the product development is carried out in the form of on a daily basis. Special events are held to strategize the sprint (the sprint planning meeting) and make certain that proper and acceptable product increments are availed at the end of sprints. The development carried out in "snippets” should consequence into shippable functionality and should also be good enough to the project owners. "Minor sized" consistent development, which is bug free, should have the competence to later integrate in a correct functional manner so as to form the "complete" product 

As on today, IT firms are not just limited to using traditional versions of “Agile” frameworks. There are slight variants, which can be scaled up or down as per the need, and which can be "tailored" to meet the exclusive project development needs of business concerns. It may not be likely to state or define the exact set of parameters which a project management methodology, or framework, should assure to be considered Agile, since Agile is all about "Observing" and "adapting". The main essence of Agile lies in its capacity to change its working and mould itself to suit the specific development related needs as the case may be.

Nevertheless it may be certainly possible to check for some unique features to ascertain whether Agile exists in a project or not.

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