AGILE WORKFLOW 8 min read

Agile 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Agile

Methodology
31, May 2021

Written by Sean Blake, Head of Marketing

We’re here to talk about agile, and we don’t mean your abilities on a sports
field or in a yoga studio. If you’re new to agile as a methodology, there’s a
lot to learn, but the basics are simple. Agile 101 begins with understanding
that agile can be applied to anything. You can use agile practices to improve
your personal task management, optimize workplace efficiency, or align
software teams around product development.

No matter the application, the concepts remain the same: Agile creates a
continuous improvement mindset that values flexibility, adaptability,
collaboration, and efficiency.

In this post, we’ll cover agile 101 basics, the benefits of agile, popular agile
methodologies, and common mistakes to avoid.

Agile 101: How it compares to traditional

project management

The concept of Agile has evolved, but it really took off and became
popularized in software development. In recent years, the methods and
guiding principles of Agile have expanded into a variety of industries that
want to emphasize continuous improvement and growth.

How does agile compare to traditional project management? In short: It

doesn’t. Agile is just the opposite. One of our favorite ways to compare the
agile approach to classical project management is to think of them as jazz vs.
classical music.

In classical music, a conductor brings a previously composed and organized

piece of music to an orchestra. Then, they dictate what happens and when.
This is very much the same as traditional project management, where the
project manager brings a plan they have conceived on their own to their
team and then proceeds to tell the team how to carry it out. The project
manager lays out the steps and expects the team to follow them to the letter
(or note). 🎼

Jazz, on the other hand, is collaborative. Each band member feeds off of the
other, creating music in a flexible and iterative process — just like the agile
process. The band, like an agile team, experiments together and freely
creates music in the moment. Each iteration is a little bit different, and
hopefully better, than the one that preceded it. 🎷

Project management doesn’t allow for this kind of flexibility. It relies on

following a strict sequential order. Each project element must be completed
before moving on to the next. Just like a waterfall, the flow of work remains
the same from project to project.

Agile is non-linear. It focuses on flexibility, collaboration between team

members, and delivering consistent value to stakeholders. With each
iteration comes new, actionable insights into what’s working, what isn’t, and
what needs to change. It’s a multidimensional way of working that removes
the bottlenecks inherent in traditional project management.

Agile 101: The benefits of agile

There are many benefits to agile practices for software development
projects, as well as many other industries. The general concepts of agile can
be applied to all sorts of situations, and its versatility means it will evolve
with the needs of your team.

Think of it as a methodology you can apply to any of your business processes

for increased collaboration, optimized efficiency, and continuous
improvement.

Agile helps teams and businesses:

Work at optimal efficiency by eliminating waste

Make more effective decisions
Adjust as new information comes in or is discovered
Continually meet stakeholder deliverable deadlines
Focus on adding value for stakeholders and customers
Understand the customer journey
Build superior products
 Understand capacity to ensure no one over or under commits to work
Identify roadblocks before they occur
Spot bottlenecks that could delay work
Collaborate and work better together
Adapt with technological, economic, and cultural changes
Prepare for the unexpected
Establish processes tailored to your needs
Improve morale and happiness
Develop a continuous improvement mindset

Agile 101: Popular methodologies

Now that you have a better understanding of agile 101 basics and the
benefits of agile, let’s discuss some of the most popular agile
methodologies.

Scrum

Scrum is extremely popular in agile software development. It’s a fairly

complicated process for those who are unfamiliar with it, but the basics
revolve around recurring sprints that each focus on completing a set amount
of work.

A Scrum is one sprint lasting 2-4 weeks. At the beginning of the sprint, the
product owner decides which task will move from the main list (product
backlog) to the sprint to-do list (sprint backlog). The development team, led
by a Scrum Master who understands the Scrum process, works to complete
the sprint backlog in the allocated time.

The Scrum team meets for daily Scrums or stand-ups that ensure everyone is
on the page about possible roadblocks and what work is to be completed
next. This process repeats until a product is complete or stakeholders are
fully satisfied. At the end of the sprint, a retrospective is held to help the
team understand what went well and what they can improve upon.

Kanban

Kanban is a fairly simple agile process that is often partially utilized within
other agile methods, such as Scrum. It’s a task management tool designed to
optimize efficiency by visualizing all of the required work and limiting works
in progress. A Kanban workflow visually organizes tasks on Kanban boards so
that work items can move forward smoothly, even as changes and
adjustments are made along the way.

In its simplest form, a Kanban board is three columns (To-Do, Doing, and
Done) that allow work to freely flow from one phase to the next. Trello is an
example of an online Kanban board.

Kanban boards should be placed in an area of the office that’s visible to the
entire team. For virtual teams, this may look like an online resource that
everyone can access. This helps everyone from the top down get on the
same page about action items. If anyone is wondering what’s the most
important task of the day, they simply need to check the Kanban board.

Lean

Lean, along with the five lean principles, originally created by Toyota, is a
guiding mindset that helps teams work more productively, efficiently, and
effectively. It can be applied to various agile and software development
methodologies.

Lean software development is all about improving efficiency by eliminating

waste, such as reducing tasks and activities that don’t add value. It provides
a clear way to scale agile practices across large or growing organizations.

Extreme programming

Extreme programming (XP) is an agile approach centered around improving

software quality and responsiveness while evolving with customer
requirements. The ultimate goal of extreme programming is producing high-
quality results throughout every aspect of the work, not just the final
product.

XP decision-making is based on five values: communication, simplicity,

feedback, courage, and respect. XP’s specifics won’t apply to all situations,
but the general framework can provide value to any team.

Agile 101: Best practices and mistakes to avoid

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To get you started, here are our list of best practices and common agile
mistakes.

Basic agile 101 best practices:

✅ See failures as a learning opportunity.

✅ Embrace change and improve your adaptability skills.

✅ Improve efficiency by eliminating tasks and activities that don’t provide
value.

✅ Continually improve upon your processes.

✅ Allow plans to live, breathe, and adapt.

✅ Use retrospectives to listen, learn, and improve.

✅ Prioritize the customer journey, and make decisions based on customer

needs.

✅ Utilize agile tools and resources.

Common agile mistakes:

❌ Not adapting as new information is revealed or obtained.

❌ Not being on the same page as stakeholders.

❌ Not trusting the team to ideate and develop without supervision.

❌ Sitting down for sprint planning without enough information.

❌ Not incorporating retrospective insights in the following planning

session.

❌ Skipping a retrospective due to lack of time or resources.

❌ Too much testing, or not knowing when the project is actually “done.”

❌ Choosing tools that don’t take a customer-centric approach.

Agile made easy

Whether you apply agile principles to an agile task management system like
a personal Kanban board or use agile to develop working software, the
essence is the same. In basic terms, agile is about continuous improvement.
It’s a methodology, mindset, and way of viewing the world. Agile is flexible,
adaptive, collaborative, and value-driven.

Easy Agile helps teams work better with agile. We design agile apps for Jira
with simple, collaborative, and flexible functionality. From team agility with
Easy Agile TeamRhythm, to scaled agility with Easy Agile Programs, our apps
can help your agile teams work better together, and deliver for your
customers.

Book a 1:1 demo to learn more about our suite of Jira tools, or contact our
team if you have additional questions. We offer a free, 30-day trial, so you
can try out our products before making a commitment.

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