How We Applied the Agile Mindset

Agile means “being able to move quickly and easily.” This kind of mindset teaches us how
to use our time more efficiently and effectively – not just in software development, but
generally in decision making. Reading the Agile Principles and Manifesto may seem
straightforward and simple, but in practice - I find it hard to comply because, for the Agile
way to work, it requires a strong sense of team spirit.

It will be a lie if I claim that my team and I worked our way with the Agile mindset at work
because it is harder than I expect it to be. It is not that our team did not collaborate, but
it is safe to say that we lack in most aspects of the Agile Principles and Manifesto. In this
essay, I will share what I think are the things that our group can do better to improve
ourselves as an individual and as a team.

The Agile Manifesto summarizes the whole essence of the 12 Principles - so I will focus
my ideas here.

• Individuals and Interactions - Our team gets along with each other - we are not
the best buddies, but we do respect each other. As far as I observed, we are the
kind of team that relies on the instruction(s) given by our group leader. Though, I
do feel like we want to respect our leader to the point that we do not want to take
the spotlight from them. But with this kind of thinking, it will be hard for us to make
progress - so I think we need to be more confident and be more open to each
other.

• Working Software - Truthfully, most of our members, including myself - were not
able to get a feel of our web application. I think that our mistake here was that we
relied on one person to do the coding for the website, and we even experienced
almost not having a copy of the program because our member who was assigned
to do the coding had been silent for weeks. We just got lucky that they were able
to comply before the deadline. Our team already discussed with this to make sure
that it will not happen again.

• Customer Collaboration - this was also a problem for us because we do not talk
to our client as often as we should. I do believe that it is because of our lack of
progress - knowing that we only rely on one person in doing the program. It is also
 kind of sad that we do not reach out to other people for help, even to our adviser
- we failed to practice that.

• Responding to change - if there is one thing that I am a little confident with my

team, it would be this point. Despite all the mistakes we made last term, we are still
able to pull it off. I do believe that we should learn from the past, and I am grateful
for those experiences.

In summary, we lack a lot of things in implementing the Agile mindset, but I do believe
that as we progress this term – we will be able to grow with it, and be a better individual
and a team.