Agile Methodology Introduction (A Complete Guide)

The Agile methodology (often misconceived as a “methodology”, but truly intended as a way of working) focuses on product, project and software development, which enables them to be flexible, work in a team, and concentrate on the clients or end users. This differ from the waterfall approach, which progresses linearly. The waterfall model, once popular in project management is less effective now for the current landscape. Agile requires work be done incrementally, such that working software or products are produced and delivered frequently for feedback. In this way, parts of the product that have been completed can be accessed and utilised by the stakeholders and the team, which further streamlines the collaborative piece.

In the Agile approach, four areas are established as higher priorities than the others for the project managers: instead of following the guidelines, customer satisfaction through frequent interactions is the focus; delivering valuable products rather than documentation; customer collaboration, rather than contracts; and the last one is to adapt to changes wherever possible rather than follow a fixed plan.

Agile revolves around the feedback aspect and product improvement. Regular input is received from stakeholders and other clients and accommodates any essential changes, ensuring that there is always a common goal that everyone understands. This way, the risks were tremendously reduced, and the chances of the product or project being successful increased because you were developing something based on actual requirements, as opposed to the problems developers sometimes face, which is formulating their requirements.

The principles of team empowerment and collaboration are encouraged in the Agile methodology. At the same time, members of the team are usually cross-functional, self-managing units that have the power to make decisions and modify processes. Daily communication and activities such as stand-up (Daily Scrum) meetings, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives foster accountability and openness among the team members.

More importantly, Agile improves the teams’ productivity by reducing the problems they face, managing the quality of the products and making changes. For this reason, it is embraced across many industries, extending from software development and product design to marketing.

Fundamentals

History

To understand how Agile evolved, one needs to go back to the last decades of the previous century, when a very organised approach to software development, like Waterfall, was largely practiced. The Waterfall model was primarily designed for simple building projects. However, the customer had unrealistic expectations. Sometimes, the customers need to learn what they want, which would be ignored, causing long development times. To tackle such restrictions, developers sought solutions, allowing them to use gradual development approaches. Earlier methodologies like Incremental Development and Rapid Application Development (RAD) had room for rapid responsiveness but needed to be more agile for the fast situation.

The year where things changed was 2001; during that year, 17 software developers and technology practitioners from every corner of the world went up for a vacation at a ski resort in Snowbird, Utah, only, however, to share their frustrating experiences with general methodologies with each other. They were all pioneers in the field, so they formulated the Agile Manifesto to guide them toward success. Kent Beck, Martin Fowler, and Ken Schwaber were in that group. They formulated the manifesto to shift how people approached problems by outlining abstract values and practical principles derived from collaboration and interaction with the customer. From day one, Agile hasn’t been stagnant; it grew, developed, and touched software development and later project management, product development, and marketing.

Agile approaches must be one of the ways known to almost everyone in any area, and frameworks like Scrum, LeSS, and Kanban are being applied in many companies today. The ability of Agile to evolve in its history speaks for itself, especially in modern business, where rapid development and adaptability are the main factors for progress.

Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is a short but powerful document that has impacted software development and project management. Written in 2001 by a group of developers frustrated with traditional methodologies, the manifesto consists of four core values and twelve guiding principles that define the Agile mindset. The manifesto was created to respond to the overly structured and bureaucratic approaches that often stifled creativity and innovation.

The manifesto’s values and principles focus on delivering value through collaboration, adaptability, and continuous feedback. It encourages teams to prioritise people over processes, working software over exhaustive documentation, customer collaboration over rigid contracts, and flexibility over strict plan adherence. These values form the backbone of Agile practices and are designed to help teams navigate complex and dynamic environments.

The Agile Manifesto is not prescriptive and doesn’t provide specific instructions or methodologies. Instead, it offers a set of guiding principles that can be applied in various ways depending on the team’s needs. This flexibility has made Agile an enduring and adaptable framework in software development and finance, healthcare, and education industries.

Principles

Agile is built upon twelve principles described in the Agile Manifesto. These principles strive for flexibility, whether in change, feedback, or the valuable software that must be delivered. One of the basic traits is to be open to evolving requirements even if they are communicated late during the development phase. This is a significant principle as markets change rapidly, be it a customer, a technology, or an application, so change is necessary. 

Another fundamental principle is to complete the software implementation iteratively and incrementally while aiming for shorter iterations. By dividing the work like this, Agile teams focus on adding incrementally new working features or forms while aiming at delivering budding interactivity in a few weeks. This means there is room for constant input from the parties affected and the software evolution’s end users; hence, the dependency will probably not be made early in the project. 

Agile is also meant to promote further development by enabling teams to work constantly but rapidly. Highlights such as burnout and overworking are frowned upon. Instead, eliminating such essentials leaves a constant pressure to deliver value over the long term. Collaboration and technical excellence are also critical in the rules of engagement in a team setup. Teams are in contact with the stakeholders, and a high software standard is maintained through continuous integration, test-driven development, and refactoring, among other strategies.

Core Values

Agile practices are centered around four essential values reinforced in the Agile Manifesto. The central focus of these values is people, dialogue with customers, and change. The first value is ’people and activities,’ which stands for the importance of communication and interactions within a team. The philosophy of Agile is that tools and processes, however useful, cannot be an obstacle to the people doing the work. Instead, the stress is on the conditions that require each team member to be cross-communicative and to have a mutual exchange of thoughts and joint problem-solving.

The second baseline value, higher than the first, is working software over detailed documentation. Less time should be spent on extensive designing and written descriptions and more on developing working products. Of course, this is not to say that there will be no documentation at all, which is essential. What is necessary, however, is to create usable products that work and serve the users’ needs. This principle helps the teams to prevent the tendency to plan needless missions and write unnecessary papers, which will be inapplicable due to their writing time.

The third value, engaging with the customer through collaboration instead of only focusing on contracts, encourages constant interaction with the clients during and after the project. One of the principles of Agile is that communication lines are open because the customer’s needs may change. Finally, working on change rather than the plan accentuates Agile’s agility feature. The ability to change direction quickly is crucial in achieving the desired results.

Importance

The importance of Agile is in its core principles that help to provide guidelines that can adapt to changing conditions while focusing on delivering value. Traditional models, e.g., Waterfall, have difficulties when clear requirements do not exist or are subject to alteration. Agile, on the other hand, is designed to perform in turbulent environments. This is possible due to the focus on short development cycles, getting feedback regularly, and improving the work done. Indeed, such teams can adapt their work as new information comes in.

One of Agile’s key benefits is its ability to reduce risk. By delivering small, functional increments of a product, teams can gather feedback early and often, reducing the likelihood of costly rework. Agile’s iterative approach also helps teams manage scope creep by focusing on the most valuable features first and continuously reprioritising the backlog based on stakeholder feedback.

Another important aspect of Agile is its focus on customer satisfaction. Agile teams work closely with stakeholders throughout the project, ensuring that the final product meets their needs and expectations. This collaborative approach increases transparency and trust between the team and the customer, resulting in higher-quality outcomes. Agile also fosters team empowerment by encouraging self-organisation and decision-making at all levels. This leads to higher morale, better collaboration, and more innovative solutions.

The significant advantage of the Agile approach is the reduction of risk. The risk of expensive corrections is minimised since teams can give customers usable product increments and receive feedback about them in time. The iterative model of Agile facilitates teams in continuously delivering the most valuable items at the earliest. Also, it deals with scope creep in web development projects where functionality not included in the initial project gets added over time without rescheduling deadlines by continuously trading off the least important items with the most essential items and re-prioritising the backlog. 

Customer satisfaction is also another critical dimension of Agile. Clients are involved in the project implementation process, allowing them to observe their product vision becoming a reality. This increases the transparency and trust between the team and their customer, leading to well-built outcomes. Agile also promotes team empowerment by enhancing self-organisation and decision-making processes. This positively impacts morale, teamwork, and the presentation of better creative solutions.

Glossary

It is not enough to know what Agile is; it is equally important to understand the keywords and concepts that make it work. The Product Backlog is a single source of information for the project. The project’s features, tasks, and requirements are listed in the order of priority in the product backlog. The management of the product backlog is the ownership of the Product Owner, who collaborates with stakeholders to determine the most important work that should be included in the backlog. The Sprint is an iteration in building a product, which lasts up to a month (typically shorter to mitigate the risk of going in the wrong direction), whereby a team strives to fulfil several tasks that are derived from the backlog to validate if the product being built is in line with the customer expectation. The Sprint contains multiple events that start with Sprint Planning and end with Sprint Retrospective. Daily Scrum happens every day to check progress toward the Sprint Goal, and a Sprint Review is used to collaborate to gain feedback on what is being built. 

These practices can only be completed with personnel having specific accountabilities. The Scrum Master is the one who ensures that the team adheres to the Agile principles and works towards removing any barriers to progress. User stories, a complementary practice, describe the feature or requirement intended for the end-user more straightforwardly. Very often, it can be articulated as “As a [user], I want [feature] so that [benefit].” These stories help the team to understand the customers eagerly, and the team members try to keep these stories in view while executing the tasks.

The Sprint Retrospective is the last of the events in the Sprint cycle, but it is crucial for the teams to use it for continuous improvement. It encompasses a sign at the end enabling us to analyse the stages of ‘what went well,’ ‘what was bad,’ and ‘what could be improved in the next iteration.’ A burndown chart, another complementary practice, considers the amount of work yet to be done and the time left to complete the work. These concepts and practices are fundamental to any Agile project management that is iterative and self-organising.

Tools

Agile teams employ various applications and tools for work planning, task management, and collaboration. One of the best tools available is JIRA, which has become one of the favourite tools that enables teams to create and manage tasks, track their developments, and visualise workflows. Most Scrum teams’ interest in this tool lies in how it facilitates activities such as sprint planning, backlog, and reporting tasks.

Trello is another tool Agile teams apply, especially the Kanban-following teams. It has a drag-and-drop feature that aids in moving the tasks along columns representing working stages. This aids in revealing the progress made by the teams and eventually zeroing in on the congestion points seen in the processes. Asana is a task management tool commonly used by agile teams since it can handle varied workflows in the software development sectors and non-technical companies.

Jenkins and GitLab are key to continuous integration and deployment. The features of continuous testing and deployment processes in these tools help teams deploy new features and fixes to the system faster and at a lower risk threshold. At the same time, Slack and Microsoft Teams, widely used for communication and several other purposes, assist teams in exchanging and disseminating information in real-time and very effectively. These tools complement each other in pathing the teams’ management of work, organisation of teams, and communication.

Differences

Agile methodologies (often misconceived as a “methodology” but genuinely intended as a way of working) differ significantly from the classical Waterfall methodology. In waterfall, what usually happens is that the subsequent phase cannot commence until the preceding one is finished—defining the requirements, design, development, testing, and so on. Such structured discipline contributes to difficulties whenever modifications in requirements are necessary after development has been started, often causing excessive delays or rework.

Conversely, Agile is an iterative approach with the development accomplished in incremental chunks in sprints or iterations. Sprint includes all the work to create a usable and valuable increment. This allows the team to receive feedback on what has been done before advancing to the next level. This opportunity for adaptability leads Agile teams to deliver a product that is in line with customer expectations, embracing the uncertainty and volatility impacting the needs of the customers or the market.

Agile ways of working emphasise team autonomy and collaboration. The common practice in traditional methodologies is that the project manager undertakes the majority, if not all, of the important decisions while the team simply completes a list of tasks. In Agile, members can self-organise, which implies they have more control over and are responsible for making decisions within their boundaries. Consequently, this enhances the team’s sense of ownership, accountability, and creativity, resulting in better quality outputs.

Frameworks

Scrum

The Scrum framework has been the most used agile framework in the software and IT industry. It has also transcended beyond software development industries and proved its mettle. The core of Scrum is a small team of people working collaboratively to deliver quality products in an iterative & incremental way. The Scrum framework comprises sprints, which are time-bound iterations (maximum of 1 month) when the team collaborates to deliver the next valuable outcome for the product. The Sprint starts with Sprint Planning, where the team collaborates to identify a common goal (Sprint Goal) and the work to be done to achieve the goal. Then, they perform the Daily Scrum to ensure they progress towards achieving the sprint goal. At the end of a sprint, stakeholders are invited to participate in the Sprint Review to inspect the outcome of the sprint and determine future adaptations for the product. The sprint ends with a Sprint Retrospective, where the team identifies improvements for the team to be effective and produce quality outcomes.

The Scrum teams are small and cross-functional, which means that, as a team, they have all the skills needed to create a valuable outcome. Every team member comes with a specific skill required and works together for the whole team’s success. The accountabilities of scrum include the Product Owner, who maintains a product backlog and makes sure that the team is focused on the most valuable items; the Scrum Master, who ensures that the process of continuous inspection and continuous adaptation is followed and any impeding factors are dealt with; and the Developers, whose responsibility is to produce quality solutions through the tasks in the sprint.

One of the defining aspects of Scrum is its insistence on transparency and the drive for constant improvement. All the events in the scrum present an opportunity to improve. Daily Scrum brings the team together to evaluate progress, assess potential obstacles, and decide how to disburse their plans for the day. Similarly, the Sprint Review brings the teams and the necessary stakeholders together to evaluate progress towards the larger goal and take adaptive actions. Sprint Retrospective allows the team to assess their interactions, relationships, processes, etc. This sort of continuing contact helps in the coordination of individuals and eradication of concerns at the earliest. Because Scrum is less prescriptive and allows the teams to organise around its rules and guidelines, it can be adopted well for different contexts, enabling teams to perform effectively and deliver results much quicker.

Kanban

Kanban provides much more freedom than other Agile approaches, such as Scrum, which has fixed roles and sprints. It focuses entirely on making the flow visible and managing WIP to eliminate system flooding or overload. The structure of a Kanban board allows every task that is completed to be moved from the “To Do” column to the “In Progress” column to the “In Progress” column until it makes its way into the “Done” column, which is its final destination.

In Kanban, one of the lean principles is limiting and managing work in progress (WIP). Namely, it means that the team agrees upon a threshold of how many items may stay ‘in the pipeline’ simultaneously, overcoming potential bottlenecks. As it allows continuous delivery, rather than working in sprints or time-boxed iterations, its approach fits the scenarios of frequent changes, or the amount of work coming in is variable.

This fosters the deep-rooted culture of continuous improvement in Kanban due to the process being constantly examined. Teams self-assess their processes and determine their workload to eliminate waste and increase effectiveness. Thus, Kanban is a perfect handrail for such teams, helping them enhance their processes and deliver value after each iteration.

XP

Extreme Programming (XP) is an Agile model that emphasises both technical skills and satisfaction of clients’ needs. XP aims to enhance the quality of programs and adapt to clients’ changing needs. It is most applicable when requirements are unknown or in flux. Key XP practices include pair programming, test-driven development, and continuous integration.

In pair programming, two programmers develop software in turns on one computer. While one writes codes, the other actively reviews the code and provides feedback. This practice minimises errors and creates an opportunity for members to share knowledge. Another core practice in Extreme Programming is test-driven development, which involves writing a test before executing a particular code. This is useful because such code will be written to address the requirements and is less likely to be defective.

XP practitioners also advocate for frequently releasing small, valuable pieces of the product. Since XP promotes steady delivery of consumer value, users receive feedback about the product before further development. Focusing on technical excellence and flexibility makes this software development approach appropriate for teams that wish to enhance the quality of their work processes.

Lean

Lean is an Agile approach that centres on removing waste and providing value in a timely manner. Lean as a concept originated in the manufacturing sector but can now be applied in software development, among other applicable areas. Key Lean principles include maximising value, eliminating waste, and continuous improvement. With a firm application of Lean, the teams will spend their time on productive tasks and outsource the unnecessary ones.

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is one of the lean practices employed to depict the flow of the work or processes and find opportunities to eliminate waste. By mapping the flow out, teams can determine problem areas and start solving them. Lean also provides the provisions for the need for value to be delivered at the earliest. 

The other key aspect of Lean is continuous improvement. Teams are regularly empowered to review their working methods, processes, and tools and strive for better outcomes. This makes the selection of Lean reasonable for organizations that seek to achieve faster processes and bring the required value to their customers in a well-timed manner.

DSDM

The Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) is an Agile method that focuses on the timely and cost-effective delivery of projects while allowing flexibility. DSDM is best suited for projects where time and cost limitations are highly significant, making the development process systematic but flexible. DSDM consists of eight principles: active user participation in the development, frequent product delivery, teamwork, and others.

DSDM helps its users by developing a clear focus for teams using the MoSCoW method, which stands for Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have. As a result, the team can concentrate on the fundamental features that need to be delivered first without being impeded by less important features.

DSDM also includes iterative development with an emphasis placed on incremental delivery. Teams operate in a series of short, timeboxed iterations, and at the end of every such iteration, they present usable products. This allows for constant evaluation and thus ensures that the project aligns with the customer’s needs and expectations. DSDM is suitable for projects stringent on cost, time, and quality because it is structured yet flexible.

FDD

FDD, or Feature Driven Development, is an Agile practice that focuses on the iterative development of software systems. FDD is most effective in situations, especially for large-scale projects, where multiple teams have to organise their work more formally. The framework comprises five central elements: developing an overall model, building a features list, planning by feature, designing by feature, and building by feature.

FDD insists on the criticality of planning and designing before development begins, as features that have been planned and designed already have more clarity about the scope. The features must be divided into several smaller features so the teams can complete one at a time and then move on to the next. This ensures consistent outputs of working functional software and prevents schedule slippage.

FDD furthermore enhances collaboration within the team during implementation. All the team members work on the same feature during the implementation phase, and all development phases are reviewed regularly and sufficiently. Considering the factors of incremental development and collaboration, FDD is suitable for large projects where the need for control and visibility is paramount.

Crystal

Crystal is a family of Agile methodologies that brings more flexibility and adaptability. Unlike other Agile frameworks that prescribe exhaustive practices, Crystal welcomes the teams to customise their processes depending on their projects’ size, complexity, and criticality. For instance, the various “colours” of Crystal, Crystal Clear, Crystal Orange, and Crystal Red are different formalisms of the framework in which more formal processes are instituted for more complex and critical projects.

Communication is one of Crystal’s tenets. This is visible in Crystal’s works, where teams are encouraged to utilise face-to-face communication, which enhances interactions more than any other means of communication. The methodology also stresses the customers being given and asked for software resources regularly, enabling the team to collect opinions and make alterations throughout the project cycle.

Thanks to this emphasis on adaptability, Crystal can be used by diversified teams on projects of any scale, starting with minor hobby tasks and ending with substantial central systems. Due to adaptability, teams are not forced to comply with one application development structure, which allows for achieving desired results within acceptable time frames and resource limits.

Project Management 

Agile project management altered the narrative of traditional project management. It shifted the focus from long-term fixed scope, fixed cost, and fixed time to focus on delivering value in chunks at regular intervals. The regular time intervals are referred to as sprints or iterations.

When Agile came along, project management became hyper-focused on delivering usable and valuable outcomes at the end of each sprint. The team is supposed to get feedback for the completed portion and plan for the next cycle. This iteration model allows Agile teams to be responsive and reduce the risk of shipping a non-relevant product.

Agile insists on collaboration and team empowerment. Such influence changed the definition of a project manager. The variables of the project, the scope, cost, time, and people, are traditionally managed by project managers. With the advent of Agile, the same variables are handled differently by roles such as product owner, developer, and scrum master. This shifted the power and control from project managers to team members. This change in accountability results in increased engagement, higher creativity, productivity, and, therefore, better results for any project.

Software Development

Agile changed how software is developed, allowing teams and organisations to replace the rigid approach with a more incremental one. Before this, teams focused on a waterfall methodology that dominated the development process; that being the case, they had to fully map out the project scope, requirements, and design, then fully develop it and test the outcome before proceeding. This was problematic as it led to longer development cycles, late feedback, and late alterations, which led to additional development costs and time.

With Agile came many ways of iterating software products, which proved reasonably practical for programming teams. This facilitated constant refining so that the customers’ demands were always in sync with what was being developed. Furthermore, Agile assists in improving interactions across the teams and their clients by establishing a clear agenda and regular updates, which include stand-up meetings, sprint reviews, or retrospectives.

Agile practices such as continuous integration and test-driven development (TDD) have become indispensable to today’s industry. Continuous integration ensures that new code is incorporated into the project regularly, which minimises integration problems and allows for quicker launches. Test-driven development ensures that code is written after it has been tested, reducing defects and ensuring compliance with the requisite standards. The combination of these practices and the collaborative and responsive nature of Agile has made it the most dominant methodology (often misconceived as a “methodology” but genuinely intended as a way of working) for development teams around the globe.

Product Development

The application of agile methods is becoming increasingly widespread in product development, which allows teams to create products that meet the needs of customers and the market to a higher degree. Classical approaches to product development usually assume long cycles of research, design, and production processes, after which no or little modifications can be incorporated. This can lead to the end products needing to be updated when brought to the market or needing heavy modification after production.

In contrast, Agile product development aims to create the so-called Minimum Viable Products (MVPs), which are workable product versions with only critical features. MVPs let the teams validate hypotheses, receive feedback, and make changes to the product before developing it in full complexity, hence making a more significant commitment. This evolution-based risk reduction strategy ensures the end product meets the customer’s requirements and is subject to changes according to the feedback acquired during the practical use of the product.

Agile also promotes the involvement of different functions of the business in the product’s development process, as marketing, designing, engineering, and customer support teams are actively involved during the stages of development. This ensures all the product components, including its features, design, and anticipated user experience aimed at the organisation’s objectives, are sufficiently articulated. While encouraging collaborative work and the need to improve constantly, Agile conserves time and resources within the product team to engineer more quality products that have a greater chance of succeeding in the market.

Benefits [Industry-based]

Agile has been known to offer significant benefits in various industries; for example, in manufacturing or design, speed, flexibility, and enhanced collaboration have been critical in performing agile. Within the technology sector, the software development process has seen the evolution of Agile; this allows development teams to add features and upgrade systems more often while maintaining customer expectations and requirements. Organisations like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have effectively integrated Agile for enhanced productivity, improved innovative ideas, and a more robust reactive approach to the dynamics of the competitive environment.

Agile has also enhanced the transformation of operational activities and improved customer experience in the finance industry. Enterprises in the financial sector that have embraced Agile practices can develop new propositions at an improved speed, enter new markets for their propositions more quickly, and assimilate changes as required by any new governing bodies. Agile underpins a working environment of shared efforts and enhanced practices whereby change is welcomed, allowing financial entities to change and remain competitive within a changing landscape.

Similarly, agile has strongly impacted the healthcare sector by improving healthcare delivery and operational complexity. Agile has been successfully applied to create healthcare applications and medical instruments and to manage hospital processes. Healthcare providers implementing an Agile management approach can adapt faster to changes in regulations, accelerate team integration, and enhance patient care quality.

The principles of Agile have been integrated within manufacturing industries in an attempt to improve the production process and quality of the product. Whenever more emphasis is put on enhancement and waste removal, manufacturers can reduce expenses, be more efficient, and offer better products to customers. Since Agile is flexible and manageable, it is applicable in industries where speed, flexibility, and customer satisfaction are critical.

Case Studies

Many case studies have shown the successful use of Agile in various industries. Spanning several sectors, the most potent and influential case of transformational change comes from Spotify, which has reframed the engineering culture of the business to embrace Agile. Spotify created squads, which are cross-functional teams that operate as small companies within the business. They represent different product functions; each team works independently, incrementally adding features. This has helped Spotify grow quickly but has never deviated from its primary focus, customer experience.

Similarly, British Airways can also be quoted as an excellent example in this regard, as it was able to change positions in its IT department using Agile. After leaning towards Agile, the airline increased its delivery capacity by 200%, while the customer base rose, as did the complaints after introducing new products. Thanks to Agile, British Airways improved customer communication and changed its business as needed.

In the public sphere, NASA has employed Agile principles in its software development works—flexibility and responsiveness are essential for such projects. Using Agile, NASA can execute sophisticated projects with indeterminate scopes and timelines, such as off-earth missions. The iterative nature of Agile enables NASA to validate and modify its software repeatedly and at any given time during the projects, thus reducing the eventual failure and assuring that the set objectives of the project are all met.

Such case studies illustrate how Agile can be used in diverse sectors, hence the increased levels of productivity, innovativeness, and customer satisfaction.

Future of Agile

The future of Agile is very promising, with broader applicability being reported in sectors that do not necessarily involve software development. Adopting agile methodologies in non-software development sectors such as education, manufacturing, and government is increasing. Industries will always be faced with new technologies and time-changing consumer demands; hence, Agile’s principles of consistent growth and focus on clientele development will always be relevant.

In the coming years, one of the prominent developments of Agile will be the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) within Agile processes. Discovering solutions using AI and ML can assist companies in decision-making, forecasting, and optimisation to create even more value. AI can, for example, take over the performance of monotonous processes, enabling team members behind the project to concentrate on advanced operational aspects instead.

Agile will grow in integration with other methods, such as the Lean and DevOps approaches, so that even more efficient and streamlined workflows will emerge. In other words, integrated systems that are hugely responsive and efficient can be built by coupling, eliminating waste using ‘Lean’ strategies with the continuous delivery mantra DevOps.

Considering the fact that Agile is evolving, one can also conclude that its core elements will be critical for evolutionary change in business in the future. Time management techniques offered by Agile ways of working will be invaluable when addressing the inevitable complex challenges of the future and maintaining the organisation’s competitiveness in an array of markets.