Agile is four values and twelve principles found on the Agile Manifesto home page and on the Principles behind the Agile Manifesto page. That’s it. We believe that if an organization of people works together in a way that is aligned to these values and principles that the organization is Agile. We approach all of our teaching, coaching and other consulting from this point of view.
Agile isn’t daily meetings, user stories, continuous integration, product owners or other related activities, artifacts or roles. Agile is a mindset of collaboration to create great products incrementally and iteratively, frequently adjusting based on changes in the world around us and what we learn.
A group of people could work in a way that is Agile with a model of interaction that they invent. In other words, you don’t need Scrum, Extreme Programming, SAFe, Kanban or any other framework to be Agile. However, frameworks certainly help people execute efficiently and consistently.
We created Applied Frameworks because we believe in fulfilling the needs of people and organizations to be more effective and happier in their work to produce great products that meet and exceed their customers’ needs. We believe that an Agile mindset enables us to accomplish WHY we exist.
This year we want to help you and your organization find your most effective and happiest state of execution and hope this is your best year yet. Let’s go!
I think we have made a mistake in relying solely on the Agile Manifesto (titled "Manifesto for Agile Software Development") and its 12 principles to define "agile". We need to get executives to manage their own strategic activities, which are largely NOT software, to use agile methods, so they can adapt rapidly to their chaotic markets (hiring, Lean Startup, marketing, etc.). In that spirit, I tried to capture the characteristics of agility in a set of 5 "agile base patterns". I’m interested to see what you think. http://senexrex.com/are-we-agile. —Dan Greening
Dan,
Applied Frameworks focuses on software-enabled products and services, which drives our perspective on being Agile. I like your base patterns that extend beyond the Manifesto. Perhaps measuring economic progress assesses the "highest priority…to satisfy the customer." Your second base pattern directly aligns to reflecting at regular intervals in more explicit language. Likewise, limiting work in process specifies a way to actually deliver working software in short iterations. I’m interested in understanding the relationship between "collective responsibility" and "self-organizing teams." Your description blends several important concepts including commitment, Product Owner and personal responsibility. The idea of solving systemic problems extends beyond the team in a meaningful way. Overall, the concept of an Agile pattern language offers a potentially valuable framework for organizational Agility.
Thank you for posting a comment.
Jason