Agile means:
- ‘Agile’ means small teams, working collectively and collaboratively, with this mission:
- To deliver frequent, incremental releases of innovative functions and features, prioritized for need and affordability;
- Evolved iteratively from a vision according to user reflection and feedback;
- And produced at the best possible value.(*)
Agile ideas to keep in mind
- Requirements are too important to be left to the beginning; they must be evolved with user interaction and interpretation as all the implications come into view
- Process emerges to fit the circumstances; control metrics are empirically determined, not defined by historical performance in the manner of Six Sigma (**)
- Planning is very important but following the plan is not as important as satisfying the customer
Agile works better when...
- Agile is the better method when requirements are changing, unknown, or unknowable until seen (I won't know it until I see it).
- Agile methods are best when in situations of fewer than a handful of small teams, typically fewer than 50 developers
- Agile methods work better in-house than through the constraint of a contract
- Agile works better with co-located teams than though the cultural translation and limited communications channel of a virtual team
(**) Six Sigma is a ‘defined control’ methodology consisting of a multi-step problem identification practice and a defect control standard formally stated as requiring less than 3.4 million defects outside control limits per million opportunities. The actual control limits are determined by analysis and by historical measurements
(*) In this posting, innovate functions and features encompasses product base, product, system, deliverables, and outcomes; these terms are frequently used interchangeably.
They all refer to whatever it is that the user or customer owns or uses at the conclusion of the project. The projects applicable to Agile methods are software intensive, but may have many and complex hardware components.
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