Agile - what is it?

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

New foreign words are increasingly breaking into our lives. Agile was no exception. What it is? In a nutshell, agile is an approach that is opposed to the traditional waterfall approach of designing products and services.

From history

In February 2001, in the mountains of Utah at The Lodge at Snowbird ski resort, 17 people gathered for the purpose of networking, sports skiing fun and trying to come up with something unifying. Agile manifesto was developed there. There were representatives of various approaches who wanted to find an alternative to the heavy processes of software development based on documentation. By the end of the meeting, it was determined that the manifesto included 4 values, 12 principles and no practice.

The essence of the approach

This approach is typical, first of all, for the IT industry. The classical approach stipulates that the approved plan for creating a product cannot change or stop until the moment of its creation.

The basis of this approach is the classic example of product quality management used at the Toyota plant, given in all textbooks on the subject, when anyan employee could stop production in order to make a rationalization proposal or prevent marriage.

In many companies, the project development team works in different departments and often comes into conflict with each other, which does not lead to positive results for the product under development.

Agile technology allows you to involve all developers of a software product, while all employees retain their inherent functions. With this approach, the team of employees comes to understand that they are working towards one common goal, which is to create a quality IT product for their customers.

When using this approach, it is necessary to create a team of like-minded people who can work effectively and competitively in market conditions.

Coming to agile traditional business

Traditional businesses are starting to move towards this approach. A typical example is the introduction of agile in Sberbank. According to G. Gref, Sberbank is 0.1 part of the IT market in Russia. He says that they have created the largest IT infrastructure in the world, but have realized that they are not competitive. According to him, those who do not master Agile today will not be able to be competitive tomorrow. In order to implement an agile system in a company, you first need to change yourself.

Banks today do not have a developed structure of innovation, which is more typical for microfinance organizations, the essence of whichlies in the fact that they lend out money at crazy interest rates and make a profit much higher than banks. These organizations are very flexible, they can reshape their business, carve out niches in new markets, and they can also crowd out classic banks.

This approach is typical for other business areas. So, mobile operators are starting to deal with payment systems, Airbnb has changed the approach to hotels in the tourism business, Uber has done the same in the field of passenger transportation.

Flexible management in agile

The cascade approach involves planning for at least a year. This changes when using the agile method. What does it give? With the traditional approach, any dynamics can lead to paralysis of the project. When using the agile methodology, an infrastructure is built that flexibly responds to changing requirements and customer requests during the development process. Agile planning must be accompanied by an understanding and analysis of all business processes of the organization. Agile management must be accompanied by the ability to develop, refine and adapt to the specifics of a particular company.

There is an agile manifesto, which is essentially a set of rules designed to facilitate orientation in agile management methods.

This approach is to minimize risks and increase profits, despite the fact that the conditions of existence are different from stable ones. Often you have to work in a crisis, but nevertheless you need to strive to reduce risks to zero, and profits shouldstrive for infinity.

Approach Manifesto

There are three main principles of agile that were originally called values:

1. You need to be able to work with people, you need to search for, nurture and manage talent.
2. There should be a well-defined set of business communications with partner companies and customers.
3. Dynamic management must be implemented. What is it in agile? In relation to the approach under consideration, this means that it is necessary to be mobile in a changing environment.

In relation to software, there was originally another value: more important than extensive documentation, working software.

Principles

In 2001, 12 Agile principles stood out:

1. Main priority is customer satisfaction through the delivery of working software.
2. Dynamics should be observed at all stages of software development.
3. Favour short delivery intervals for working software.
4. Developers and customers must be on the same team for the life of the project.
5. Projects should be built around motivated people who need to be given an environment, support and trust.
6. The most effective way to convey information is direct communication.
7. The main measure of progress is working software.
8. Agile processes should be carried out at the same speed.
9. Especial attention must be paid to good design and technical excellence.
10. Maximizework can be done with simplicity.
11. The very best in software is created by self-organizing teams.
12. Periodically, teams should increase their efficiency and improve their workflow at regular intervals.

Features of the approach

Agile mode implies the ability to pay special attention to the formation of teams, to work not for a long period, but for the short term. Using this methodology, a feedback system is provided so that adjustments can be made very quickly.

As a result of applying this approach, internal communication improves, the number of conflicts within the organization decreases, and the efficiency of project implementation increases.

Earlier, an analyst wrote a document and demanded that the templates set by him be followed. Documents were transferred from department to department, from each of them they returned to the analyst with some suggestions and comments, then they were transferred to the next departments, etc. There was a lot of communication, but mostly on paper. The result was that software developers were constantly late, testers made a lot of mistakes.

Agile methodology believes that human interaction is more important than processes and documentation. Here it is already assumed that the analyst will hold a meeting where they will talk about the new feature being implemented and where testers and developers will express their comments and suggestions. Here, professionals will be identified who can give practical advice on testing andimplementation. After that, the analyst will write detailed documentation and quickly contact the customer to clarify the requirements. At the same time, developers can hold a parallel meeting where they can discuss how the new feature will affect the functionality of the software, and testers can evaluate what needs to be fixed. In this way, the team will form a common vision. Details will be implemented with high quality documentation as feedback has been provided.

Agile technology in education

Initially Agile was formed as a project management methodology in relation to software development. However, G. Gref's statement about agile at Sberbank, namely, the part where he says that everyone should become agile, made it possible to apply this initially highly specialized approach both to education and to the economy as a whole.

At school, the student should receive knowledge that is relevant at the time of his education. In the process of education, not only teachers and parents should participate, but also the child himself. This teamwork can be achieved by introducing Agile into education.

The introduction of flexible management into the school will allow it to become some kind of innovation center. The idea of using the agile principle in education has found the greatest distribution in the West. This technology should be introduced from below, only in this case global transformations of the educational system are possible.

In the case of the American school, teachers admit that the education system has reached an impasse due to the fact that there is no suitablemethodology that would allow it to develop dynamically further. S. Peha claims that such a methodology exists and is called agile.

It is based on people, dynamics and learning, so this approach can be implemented at school. The agile manifesto talks about software development, but after analyzing it, we can say that it is universal in nature, which allows it to be applied to the education system. The state education system has a lot of priorities that conflict with each other.

School staff can be compared to middle managers who are under pressure from both below and above. When following the principles of agile, the decisions of educators become more balanced.

In modern conditions, the school is perceived as a kind of corporation, the life of which is connected with the implementation of a number of rules. Therefore, the needs of the individual in school are secondary. Tools and processes come first.

Administrations of educational institutions poorly take into account the human factor, applying a documented approach to the distribution of available resources, school management, decision-making about the fate of children, and management of interpersonal relationships.

The use of agile mode in the school allows the implementation of a person-centred approach aimed primarily at the development of the organization, which allows to increase the degree of organizational discipline.

Methods and didactic material are important in a modern school, and what students learn is secondary. Training ends in our country with surrenderUSE, in America - final testing. All students are molded into one size fits all, trained for tests, the true goal of teaching is not achieved.

No one denies the fact that students need high grades, but the assimilation of the material improves with a creative approach to the learning process and taking into account the individual characteristics of students. Higher organizations are considered to be the customers of the education system in modern schools, although the real customers should be children and their parents.

Schools are constantly compromising, negotiating, but lacking the true collaboration that comes with an agile approach. What does it give? Various decisions are made by some committees, the ideas of the majority are introduced, the will of the minority is suppressed. Thus, a compromise is reached, but this is the worst option possible.

The building of the educational system has essentially remained unchanged for a long period of time. They are trying to increase control in the educational system through the use of more and more detailed planning.

Planning means trying to predict the future, but it does not give you the opportunity to influence it. Therefore, in most cases, this results in wasted time, and projects conceived by top education managers gradually fail.

The correct response to dynamics is quick maneuvering, which is what the agile methodology suggests.

The principles of agile in education are the same as those typical for software developers, with those features that relate tolearning:

1. Meaningful learning to meet the needs of students and their families is the highest priority.
2. Meaningful learning should be done in short but frequent cycles.
3. School staff, students and parents must work together to make meaningful learning accessible to all.
4. The study project should be created by motivated professionals, for whose work it is necessary to create the appropriate conditions.
5. The main indicator of progress is mastering the material, and not just memorizing it, the so-called meaningful learning.
6. The pace of learning must be maintained at all times.
7. Study design flexibility must be maintained through close attention to design quality and engineering excellence.

Other principles sound the same as software developers.

Coaching

Coaching is a partnership-based process to stimulate the creativity and thinking of clients to reach their fullest professional and personal potential.

What is agile coaching? The content of this concept includes mentoring and mentoring. Processes include professional coaching and facilitation (management style that does not go beyond the self-organization of the system under management). In addition, age coaching includes different types of skills: business, technical and transformation skills. This also includes Agile and Lean practice.(lean manufacturing).

In conclusion

What is agile? This is an approach that was originally aimed at effectively completing software development processes by forming conflict-free teams. Later, this approach began to be transferred in general to companies and to individual processes, in particular, to education. When implementing agile methods, the direct emphasis is on communication between developers and customers. Using these methods reduces the amount of documentation used.