Agile

Agile describes a way of working in short cycles, changing course based on what the team learns in each cycle instead of following a plan fixed at the start. The word applies to a team, a practice, a project or a whole organization. Its current meaning comes from the Agile Manifesto, written in 2001 by seventeen software developers.

The four values of the Agile Manifesto

The manifesto states four preferences:

• individuals and interactions over processes and tools
• working software over comprehensive documentation
• customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• responding to change over following a plan

The authors add that processes, documentation, contracts and plans still have value, but less than the first term of each pair. Twelve principles complete these values, among them delivering working software frequently and welcoming changing requirements, even late in a project.

Agile team, agile organization

A team is called agile when it works in iterations, shows its results often and adjusts its way of working in retrospectives. Scrum, Kanban and the other frameworks that put this into practice make up the family of agile methods.

Outside software, an agile organization can change its priorities and its structure quickly, because the people closest to the work make most decisions without waiting for approval. Holacracy and sociocracy change the structure itself in small iterations: roles and rules are revised in regular meetings.

The label is easy to claim. Plenty of companies hold daily stand-ups while every real decision still goes up the hierarchy. To judge whether a team is agile, look at who can change the plan and how often they do.