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Agile is a set of values and principles for software development (and beyond) that promotes adaptive planning, evolutionary delivery, continuous improvement, and rapid, flexible response to change. Rather than following a rigid, step-by-step plan, Agile teams work in short cycles, delivering small increments of working product and incorporating feedback along the way.
Traditional project management methods — often called Waterfall — assume that requirements can be fully defined up front and that work proceeds in sequential phases: requirements, design, build, test, deploy. In practice, this approach frequently leads to:
Agile addresses these problems by embracing change and delivering value early and often.
| Year | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1986 | Takeuchi & Nonaka publish The New New Product Development Game | Introduced the concept of cross-functional, self-organising teams working in overlapping phases — the inspiration for Scrum |
| 1995 | Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland formalise Scrum | Presented at OOPSLA; Scrum becomes one of the first Agile frameworks |
| 1996 | Kent Beck begins developing Extreme Programming (XP) | Introduced practices like pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous integration |
| 2001 | The Agile Manifesto is published | 17 software practitioners met in Snowbird, Utah and agreed on four values and twelve principles |
| 2010s | Agile scales to enterprises | Frameworks like SAFe, LeSS, and Nexus emerge for large organisations |
| 2020s | Agile beyond software | Marketing, HR, education, and government adopt Agile ways of working |
| Aspect | Waterfall | Agile |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Sequential, phase-based | Iterative and incremental |
| Requirements | Fixed up front | Evolve throughout the project |
| Delivery | Single delivery at the end | Frequent, small deliveries |
| Change | Resisted — change is costly | Welcomed — change is expected |
| Feedback | Late (after build is complete) | Continuous (every iteration) |
| Risk | High — problems discovered late | Low — problems discovered early |
| Customer involvement | Beginning and end | Throughout the project |
| Documentation | Heavy, comprehensive | Lean, just enough |
Work is divided into short cycles called iterations or sprints (typically one to four weeks). Each iteration produces a potentially shippable increment of the product.
Rather than building the entire product and releasing it at once, Agile teams deliver small, valuable pieces of functionality. Each increment builds on the previous one.
Agile relies on three pillars of empiricism:
| Pillar | Description |
|---|---|
| Transparency | All aspects of the process are visible to those responsible for the outcome |
| Inspection | Work and progress are regularly examined to detect problems early |
| Adaptation | When inspection reveals a deviation, the process or product is adjusted immediately |
Agile teams contain all the skills necessary to deliver the product increment — developers, testers, designers, and domain experts work together rather than in separate departments.
| Framework / Method | Key Characteristic |
|---|---|
| Scrum | Time-boxed sprints, defined roles (Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developers), and ceremonies |
| Kanban | Visualise flow, limit work in progress, and optimise throughput |
| Extreme Programming (XP) | Engineering practices — pair programming, TDD, continuous integration, refactoring |
| Lean Software Development | Eliminate waste, amplify learning, decide late, deliver fast |
| Crystal | Lightweight, adaptive methodology family that scales by team size and criticality |
| Feature-Driven Development (FDD) | Model-driven, short iterations focused on feature delivery |
Tip: Scrum and Kanban are the two most widely adopted Agile approaches. This course covers both in depth.
| Misconception | Reality |
|---|---|
| "Agile means no planning" | Agile teams plan frequently — they just plan in shorter horizons |
| "Agile means no documentation" | Agile values working software over comprehensive documentation, but documentation is still created when it adds value |
| "Agile is just Scrum" | Scrum is one Agile framework; Agile encompasses many approaches |
| "Agile only works for software" | Agile principles have been successfully applied in marketing, HR, education, construction, and more |
| "Agile means going fast" | Agile is about delivering value quickly and responding to change, not about cutting corners |
Agile is a mindset and a set of values that prioritise individuals, working products, collaboration, and responsiveness to change. Born from the frustrations of heavyweight, plan-driven methods, Agile has transformed how teams build software and deliver value. Its core ideas — iterative development, incremental delivery, and empirical process control — provide a foundation for every Agile framework, from Scrum to Kanban and beyond. In the next lesson, we will explore the foundational document of the Agile movement: the Agile Manifesto.