Agile
Agile is a project management and software development approach that breaks work into small, iterative cycles called sprints, enabling teams to adapt quickly to changing requirements and deliver value continuously.
Agile is a set of values and principles for software development that prioritizes flexibility, collaboration, and continuous delivery. Instead of planning an entire project upfront and delivering it all at the end (the "waterfall" approach), Agile breaks work into short iterations (typically 1-4 weeks) called sprints, delivering usable pieces of the product at the end of each sprint.
Common Agile frameworks include Scrum (with defined roles like Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development Team, plus ceremonies like daily standups, sprint planning, and retrospectives) and Kanban (visualizing work on a board with columns representing different stages, focusing on limiting work-in-progress). Agile works well because software development is inherently uncertain.
In practice
- A software company switched from waterfall to Agile and reduced their average time-to-market for new features from 6 months to 6 weeks
- A marketing agency uses Kanban boards to manage client projects, limiting work-in-progress to 3 items per designer, which reduced delivery time by 35% and improved quality
- A startup uses 2-week sprints: at the end of each sprint, they demo the new features to beta users and use the feedback to plan the next sprint
- A corporate IT team adopted Scrum for their internal tools development, holding daily 15-minute standups that improved team communication and reduced project delays by 40%
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