What is Agile

Welcome back. In this video, we're going to learn about what is Agile. Agile was created because of the disadvantages of the Waterfall method. In 2001, a group of 17 of some of the best software development leaders had a meeting in which they discussed better ways of developing software. As a result of their meeting, they agreed on a set of values and principles which are known as the Agile Manifesto. This manifesto provides the basis or foundation of what is known as Agile today. They also created an organization by the name of Agile Alliance with the goal of promoting the use of Agile across the industry. So what exactly is Agile used for? Agile is an alternative approach to managing projects. It was specially created for managing projects in fast paced and constantly changing environments. While Agile became famous for its usage in IT and software development, its popularity is rapidly spreading beyond to other industries, including consulting, automotive, construction and finance, to name a few. So you can think of Agile as a flexible approach to project management. This is because it allows project teams to quickly adapt to situations and to make changes in order to ensure the success of the project. Furthermore, it also allows you to develop working software early in the project's life and deliver it into the hands of the customer so that they can check if it is according to their requirements, according to the Agile Alliance. Agile is the ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with and ultimately succeeding in an uncertain and turbulent environment. Next, let's learn about what are the values of Agile. There are four very important values of Agile, which are listed in the Agile Manifesto. Let's discuss each of them one by one. So the values include individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration and response to change. First Agile emphasizes individuals and interactions, and it recognizes the importance of good working relationships. It encourages team members to have face to face and direct communication between one another instead of relying too much on strict processes and tools which are usually used on projects. This helps them solve problems faster and become more effective as a team. Secondly, Agile focuses on developing working software as early as possible, which usually means at the end of every sprint. Excessive documentation can slow down project teams, so therefore, instead of writing out detailed documentation about the project, you are instead encouraged to focus on creating the product. So by quickly delivering an actual working piece of the product, the customer ends up being more satisfied because this way they can check early on if the product fulfills their requirements or not. Furthermore, Agile sets a high priority for customer collaboration. You are encouraged to work closely with the customer right from the start and then throughout the rest of the project. The project team regularly involves the customer while making the product and asks for feedback in every sprint. The last and most important value of Agile is response to change. Agile and Scrum are able to respond to changes quickly. It is important to realize that projects are not that straightforward anymore. Changes can come from anywhere and at any time. Let's say that you're working on a project in which you're developing a new product. For example, you could consider that you're developing a new software or you could be developing a new sports car. So think about what changes can happen while you're working on your project. Your competitor might launch a new product with better features and at a lower price. Your industry might shift to using a new product development technology, making the older one obsolete. Your customer might come to you in the middle of the project and say that they want to change the direction of the project, or they might want to add several new features. All these changes in the environment would make it necessary for you to be able to react quickly and implement changes of your own. Because if you don't, your project might get outdated. It is important to keep up with the pace of today's fast moving world. And that is why Agile and Scrum not only expect but also welcome changes to happen at any time on the project. And this is why Agile and Scrum teams are small, flexible and talented enough to take the project into a different direction at any time. But the question is how are they able to adapt so quickly to changes? The secret lies in the sprint. Sprints are considered as the heart of Agile and Scrum, and this is what makes them unique. According to the Scrum guide, a sprint is a timebox of one month or less, during which a done, usable and potentially releasable product increment is created. In simple words, sprints are used for building a product by breaking it down into small pieces. Sprints are completed within a time limit. One month sprints are the most common, although this duration can be shorter as well. For example, two weeks or one week. Each print will have a goal which tells you what you are making. It will also have a plan which guides you on how to do the work to complete your goal. Next, let's learn about how a sprint works. In Scrum and Agile, you start a sprint by dividing a large project into many small projects. These small projects are known as sprints. They may also be considered as an iteration or a cycle of work. This is a very important point. Products will be developed over multiple sprints and you would make your way from one sprint to the other in order to create the product. So in each sprint you will complete different features of the product. So what's happening here is that you're basically creating a certain chunk of the features of the product and you're not making the entire product in one single sprint. You're basically breaking down a bigger product into its several features, and then you're creating those features in batches per sprint. Once all the features have been completed, the work will be finished and the product will be ready. Next, let's look at an example for how a project is completed through sprints. So consider that you're working on a software project in which you have to make a messaging application like WhatsApp or Skype. So as you can see here, all the features of the product are in this list at the top, which is also known as the product backlog. And the bottom of the screen shows you the different sprints which will take place in this project. Within each of these prints, you can see the features being developed. So what you would do is that you would take the features from the list over here and develop them across each of the different sprints. In order to create the application, we would have to make a number of different features, which would include text messages, voice call, video call, image attachments, document attachments, add contacts. So these are all the features that we need to develop in order to make the product. As we discussed earlier, you would divide the work into multiple sprints. In this example, the work has been divided into three sprints, each of which are one month long. And there are a total of six items. So you are completing two features of the product per sprint. For example, in the first sprint you would make the text messages and the voice call features. In the second sprint, you are completing the video call and the image attachment features. In the third sprint, you are making the document attachment and add contacts features. So after you're done with the third sprint, you will have completed all the features of the product, which also means that the work will be completed and the product will be ready. Lastly, there are several advantages to using sprints on a project. Towards the end of every sprint, the project team and the customer can review the product and update and fine tune the project plan. So you can use this opportunity to make changes, include new product features and to correct any mistakes. Because sprints are timeboxed to one month or lesser. This means you would be showing your product to customers much earlier and more frequently compared to a traditional approach like waterfall. So the customer gets an early opportunity to check if the product fulfills their requirements. If it doesn't meet their needs or if the customer has new ideas and wants you to make a different product, you would still be able to quickly pivot and change the direction of the project, starting with the next sprint. All right. Good job. In the next video, we're going to learn about what is Scrum.