Software has long been a cornerstone of modern computing, bridging the gap between human uses and the hardware we depend on. But while people have always employed software to interact with our digital tools, the technological evolution of the past few decades has seen software applications expand into essentially every aspect of life. Coinciding with the rise of mobile smart technology and internet of things (IoT) devices, these apps are in higher demand than ever before—and software developers sometimes find themselves struggling to keep up. The Agile Methodology is an answer to this surge in demand.
Origins of Agile
Agile was born out of the need to improve the speed and adaptability of software development. In 2001, a group of forward-thinking developers convened in Snowbird, Utah to address the limitations of traditional, linear development methods (often referred to as the ‘waterfall’ approach). This meeting resulted in the Agile Manifesto, a revolutionary document that emphasizes collaboration, flexibility, customer feedback, and iterative progress (also called continuous development). This, in turn, led to the founding of the Agile Alliance, which helped spread the word of the benefits of Agile development and continues to do so today.
What is the Agile Manifesto?
The developers who conceived of the Agile Methodology created the Agile Manifesto to address the inefficiencies of traditional software development processes and to introduce their more flexible and iterative approach. The manifesto was designed to shift the focus from documentation and tools to more human-centric and adaptive aspects of software development. As such, the Manifesto is built around four core values:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Agile stresses the importance of communication and collaboration over rigid adherence to tools and processes.
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
Prioritizing functional software that meets customer needs over extensive written documentation helps ensure that the user experience is always the primary concern.
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
This value highlights the need for continuous customer input and engagement rather than sticking strictly to contract terms.
- Responding to change over following a plan
Plans should support projects, not hinder them. The fourth core value recognizes the importance of being able to adapt to changes rather than rigidly following a set plan.
From these values stem twelve principles which further guide Agile practices:
- Customer satisfaction through early and continuous software delivery
Customers are happier when they receive working software at regular intervals, rather than waiting extended periods between releases.
- Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process
The ability to adapt to changes—even during late development stages—provides a competitive advantage.
- Frequent delivery of working software
Agile requires developers to release software updates at regular intervals, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference for the shorter timescale.
- Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the project
Better decisions are made when the business and technical team are fully aligned.
- Support, trust, and motivate the people involved
Trusted, motivated teams have more freedom to accomplish their tasks and are more likely to deliver high-quality work.
- Enable face-to-face interactions
Communication is more successful when development teams can interact directly to share information, voice concerns, and collaborate on tasks.
- Working software is the primary measure of progress
Delivering functional software to the customer is the ultimate factor that defines progress.
- Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace
Teams should be able to maintain a consistent pace of work indefinitely; Agile is not an attempt to burn-out development teams.
- Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
The constant, iterative approach to development hinges on several key elements, without which enhanced agility is not possible.
- Simplicity is essential
The art of maximizing the amount of work not done relies on simple designs and processes that are maintainable even during sprints.
- Self-organizing teams encourage great architectures, requirements, and designs
Skilled and motivated team members who manage their own workload will achieve better outcomes.
- Regular reflections on how to become more effective, then tuning and adjusting behavior accordingly
Self-improvement, process improvement, and advancing skills are all essential to the Agile process.
Customer benefits
Teams are more responsive to customer needs and requests. They have the ability to provide high-value features to better the customer experience, and they can deliver in quick, short, iterative cycles.
Vendor benefits
Efficiency increases, and there tends to be a focus on the development of high-value features and services. Overhead is decreased and there is a reduction in wasteful effort and time.
Development team benefits
Work from development teams is highly valued and frequently used, which can give the development teams a sense of ownership and enjoyment in the work. Non-productive work is reduced to keep things focused and efficient.
Product manager benefits
Customers are generally happier when product managers ensure that the development work is aligned with customer needs—alignment comes from frequent prioritization of work through the agile process, which maximizes delivery.
Project manager benefits
Tracking projects is easier than a standard waterfall project management model, as project managers can use agile tools like Burndown Charts, task-level tracking, and daily Scrum meetings to monitor a project, catch issues, and address them quickly.
Executive and C-suite benefits
Agile project managers provide substantial visibility into development projects each day—this visibility helps stakeholders and executives adjust strategies based on immediately available information and not speculation about the state of the project.
While Agile offers significant benefits for software development and project management, transitioning to Agile can pose certain challenges. These issues, if not properly addressed, can derail an organization’s attempt at applying the Agile Methodology to optimize their development processes
Resistance to change within the organization
Many organizations face resistance to Agile transformation due to ingrained habits and misguided loyalty to familiar processes. Overcoming this resistance requires clear communication about the benefits of Agile. Involving team members in the transition process can also help foster a sense of ownership and understanding of the new methodologies.
Need for extensive education or training
Agile Methodologies demand a shift in mindset from traditional project management approaches, which can necessitate extensive staff training or education. Organizations can address this by providing continuous learning opportunities and supporting a culture of collaboration and feedback, which are essential for Agile to thrive.
Inadequate leadership participation
The success of Agile implementation often hinges on active leadership involvement. Leaders must not only endorse Agile practices but also actively participate in the Agile process to drive change. This includes offering resources, removing impediments, and aligning the organizational culture with Agile values.
Difficulties scaling
Scaling Agile across multiple teams or the entire organization presents several challenges of its own, particularly in maintaining consistency and effective communication. To address these, organizations often turn to specific frameworks such as Kanban, Scrum, and others. These help provide structured approaches to applying Agile at scale.
Agile frameworks provide structured methods for implementing Agile practices in project management and software development. Each of the following frameworks offer unique processes, roles, and workflows tailored to different organizational needs:
Kanban is a visual framework widely used within Agile and DevOps for the implementation of software development. It utilizes a kanban board, which helps team members develop a clearer understanding of a piece of work and its where it is along the process. The Kanban board displays work at various stages using cards to represent work items and columns to represent each stage of the process—incorporating real-time communication and full transparency within projects. This allows for more flexibility in planning, shorter time cycles, fewer bottlenecks, continuous delivery, and visual metrics.
Scrum
Scrum is a highly structured framework of Agile that involves short cycles, with its ‘sprints’ typically lasting up to four weeks. Each sprint begins with a planning meeting and ends with a review and retrospective. The framework is designed to foster collaboration among team members and more rapidly iterate on product development,
Lean
Lean is an Agile framework derived from lean manufacturing principles and applied to software development. It focuses on maximizing customer value while minimizing waste, thus ensuring efficient processes. Lean emphasizes the importance of optimizing the flow of work and ensuring visibility throughout every process.
Other frameworks
Although the frameworks listed above are some of the most widely employed, they are by no means the only options. Other Agile frameworks include:
- SAFe
- Nexus
- DAD
DevOps is a software development methodology that combines development teams and information technology operations teams—it fosters collaboration to prevent the two teams from working in their own silos. Software is developed, tested, and released more quickly and efficiently. The benefits include continuous integration, continuous deployment, transparency, and automated testing.
Agile is more focused on combining smaller teams to collaborate in order to react quickly to ever-changing needs, whereas DevOps is more focused on the collaboration between development and IT operations roles. Agile sprints can run from days to months, while DevOps is meant to focus on short-term releases that may include several per day.
Both methodologies can work in tandem, as they are complementary processes. An agile methodology helps teams tackle projects rapidly while adapting to changes, and DevOps promotes automated and continuous integration for frequent releases. Both can work to develop and implement technology with great speed while emphasizing customer needs.
There are two questions that must be asked before Agile metrics are reported: will the metric accelerate value delivery, and will it enhance trust? With this in mind, the three types of metrics that are most worth measuring are:
Operational
- Burndown charts
These are visual representations of work left vs. time, helping teams understand if they are on track to complete the work in the sprint.
- Cycle time
This measures how quickly tasks are completed, highlighting process efficiency and team productivity.
- Lead time
Output
Output metrics measure direct, tangible results—the deliverables that must be measured to determine whether the team is meeting expectations in terms of product quality, delivery quantity, etc. Metrics that relate to output include:
- Technical quality
This measures the quality of the software product from a technical perspective, including factors such as the stability, maintainability, and scalability of the software, as well as the adherence to coding standards and best practices.
- Defect measurements
This tracks the number of defects identified, providing further insight into the overall quality of the software.
- Code coverage
This indicates the extent to which the codebase is covered by automated tests, helping ensure critical functions are tested to reduce the likelihood of bugs.
- Number of features
This provides a direct measure of feature delivery rate, which is used to determine team effectiveness and productivity.
- Throughput
This gauges the team’s overall efficiency by measuring the quantity of work completed in a given time frame.
Outcome
Outcome metrics evaluate the overall impact of the Agile project on the business and its customers. These metrics are crucial for understanding the value delivered by the project and for aligning future projects with business objectives.
- Business value
This assesses the contribution of the Agile project to business objectives, such as increased revenue or market share.
- Team morale
This reflects the health and satisfaction of the team, which can directly influence productivity and quality.
- Customer satisfaction
This measures how well the product meets customer needs and expectations—a principal factor in promoting long-term success and customer loyalty.
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a solution to the issue of scaling of agile methodologies to medium and larger businesses. SAFe provides structured guidance on roles, values to uphold, and how to plan and manage the work. The end result is that enterprise businesses are able to employ Agile development at scale. The core values include:
Alignment
Companies should plan and reflect at all levels in the organization to help everyone understand the current state of the business, how to move together, and how to achieve the goals. The synchronization of activities and people help information flow up and down the organization chain, which improves communication and avoids traditional top-down command structures
Built-in quality
Teams at every level get to define the parameters of the project and integrate quality development into each agreement. There are five dimensions for built-in quality: architecture and design quality, code quality, release quality, system quality, and flow.
Leadership
Lean-agile behavior is necessary to help leaders change the system and build an environment that can help workers embrace the core values of SAFe.
Program execution
It’s necessary for teams and programs to deliver quality software and business value regularly.
Transparency
Work must be planned in smaller quantities so that any issues can be identified sooner, which encourages real-time visibility into backlog processes
SAFe provides numerous benefits that enhance organizational agility and delivery capabilities. These include:
Quicker delivery with more accurate planning
By aligning projects and stakeholders around a mutual understanding of the project's objectives and timeline, SAFe allows organizations to plan more accurately and deliver value faster. The iterative planning and feedback cycles ensure that plans are continuously refined and adapted to meet changing needs and conditions.
Immediate work level forecasting
SAFe provides tools and methodologies for forecasting future work levels and project velocities. This approach to resource management helps organizations optimize the use of available resources and ensures that teams are neither overburdened nor underutilized, leading to more efficient project execution.
Friendly user interface
The SAFe framework encourages the use of user-friendly tools that simplify the management of stories, backlogs, and epics across sprints and projects. This accessibility enhances collaboration and communication within teams, making it easier for them to manage their work and maintain productivity.
The ability to deliver applications quickly and reliably is becoming a differentiating factor between successful businesses and those that struggle to keep up. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) enhances this capability through its comprehensive suite of Agile Development tools, designed to connect strategy to execution for an accelerated approach to innovation. Features like Scrum program boards, unified backlogs, and Agile dashboards provide real-time visibility while streamlining the flow from planning to DevOps.
Orchestrate your agile portfolio to maximize value. Integrate agile and traditional workstreams within a single system of record. Manage and track all release train features, epics, and sprint capacities. And through it all, enjoy the advantages of working in a centralized system fully integrated to eliminate data silos and provide a consistent source of truth for your business.