Agile is an approach to building software that focuses on delivering value in small increments, getting feedback quickly, and improving continuously. It is not a rigid process or a set of ceremonies you “do” on a schedule.
In practice, Agile teams create visibility (boards/backlogs), align on priorities, limit work in progress, ship frequently, and learn from what happens in production and in retrospectives.
Agile in one line
Deliver something useful, learn from feedback, and adjust—repeatedly.
1. What Agile Is (And What It Isn’t)
- Agile is: iterative delivery + fast feedback loops.
- Agile is: transparency in work and priorities.
- Agile is: continuous improvement (team + process).
- Agile is not: “no planning” or “no documentation”.
- Agile is not: micromanagement via standups and velocity.
2. Values and Principles (In Plain English)
The core idea is to prioritize outcomes and learning over rigid plans:
- People and collaboration matter more than tools.
- Working software matters more than big documents.
- Customer feedback matters more than locked scope.
- Adapting to change matters more than sticking to a plan.
3. Scrum vs Kanban: Which to Use
- Scrum: timeboxed sprints, sprint goal, planning and review cadence.
- Kanban: continuous flow, WIP limits, focus on lead/cycle time.
- Hybrid: common in real teams (e.g., sprints + WIP limits).
Quick selection rule
If you need a predictable cadence for stakeholder reviews, start with Scrum. If you handle frequent inbound work and want flow efficiency, start with Kanban.
4. Roles and Responsibilities
- Product Owner / Product Lead: prioritizes value and clarifies outcomes.
- Team: delivers increments and owns quality.
- Scrum Master / Agile Coach: helps the system improve and removes blockers.
- Stakeholders: provide feedback and constraints early.
5. Core Artifacts: Backlog, Board, DoD
- Backlog: ordered list of work that creates value.
- Board: visual workflow (To Do → In Progress → Done).
- Definition of Done (DoD): shared quality bar.
DoD warning
If “done” means “merged” but not tested or deployed, you will accumulate hidden work and delivery will slow down.
6. Scrum Ceremonies (Or Lightweight Alternatives)
- Daily sync: coordinate work and unblock (not status theater).
- Planning: pick a goal and a realistic set of work.
- Review/demo: show working software and get feedback.
- Retro: improve process with concrete actions.
- Refinement: keep backlog items ready and understood.
7. User Stories and Acceptance Criteria
Common story template:
As a <type of user>
I want <some capability>
So that <some benefit>Add acceptance criteria to reduce ambiguity (examples, edge cases, constraints).
Acceptance criteria example
“Given invalid credentials, when a user signs in, then show an error and do not create a session. Log the attempt without storing the password.”
8. Estimation: Story Points vs Time
- Story points: relative effort/complexity/uncertainty.
- Time estimates: can be useful for planning dates, but often less reliable.
- Best practice: keep items small and reduce uncertainty rather than over-estimating.
9. Backlog Refinement and Planning
- Refinement: clarify scope, split large items, identify risks and dependencies.
- Planning: choose a goal, then select items that support it.
- Capacity: account for interrupts, on-call, meetings, and tech debt.
Small stories win
Smaller items create faster feedback and more accurate forecasting than trying to estimate large, fuzzy work.
10. Useful Metrics (Without Gaming)
- Lead time: request → delivered.
- Cycle time: started → done.
- Throughput: items completed per time period.
- Quality signals: defect rate, incidents, rollback frequency.
Metric anti-pattern
If metrics are used to rank individuals, people will optimize for the metric instead of the outcome. Use metrics to improve the system.
11. Common Agile Pitfalls (And Fixes)
- Ceremony overload: too many meetings. Fix: shorten and focus on outcomes.
- No refinement: work enters sprints unready. Fix: invest in backlog health weekly.
- Overcommitment: constant spillover. Fix: plan by capacity and reduce WIP.
- Invisible work: interrupts and bugs not tracked. Fix: put all work on the board.
- Weak feedback: reviews without real stakeholders. Fix: invite users and decision-makers.
12. Agile Team Checklist
- Priorities: one ordered backlog with clear ownership.
- Visibility: a board that reflects reality (including bugs/interrupts).
- Quality bar: a Definition of Done the team respects.
- Small work items: stories split to reduce uncertainty.
- Feedback loop: regular demos with actionable feedback.
- Improvement: retros with 1–3 actions tracked to completion.
- Flow control: WIP limits or explicit capacity planning.
- Metrics: used to improve the system, not punish people.
13. FAQ: Agile Basics
Is Agile the same as Scrum?
No. Agile is a broader approach; Scrum is one framework teams use to apply Agile principles.
Do we need sprints to be Agile?
Not necessarily. Many teams use a Kanban-style flow and still operate Agile. What matters is delivery, feedback, and improvement.
How do we handle urgent work?
Make it visible on the board, reserve capacity, and set explicit policies for interrupts so they don’t silently destroy plans.
How long should a sprint be?
Common sprint lengths are 1–2 weeks. Shorter sprints create faster feedback but increase planning overhead.
What’s the fastest Agile improvement?
Put all work on the board, limit WIP, and run retros that produce specific actions you actually follow up on.
Key Agile terms (quick glossary)
- Backlog
- Ordered list of work items that deliver value.
- User story
- A short description of value from a user’s perspective plus acceptance criteria.
- Acceptance criteria
- Conditions that must be true for a story to be considered done.
- Definition of Done (DoD)
- Shared quality standard for “done” (tests, review, deploy, docs, etc.).
- WIP limit
- A cap on how many items can be in progress at once to improve flow.
- Lead time
- Time from request to delivery.
- Cycle time
- Time from starting work to completing it.
- Retrospective
- A regular meeting to improve how the team works, with actionable outcomes.
Worth reading
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