Agile for Dummies — Notes on Chapter 1: Intro to Agile

I recently started reading Agile for Dummies for an introduction into what Agile is. The first chapter was helpful for me and here are some notes that I took about what Agile is and why it’s helpful for software development teams.

Agile: Early delivery of business value, continuous improvement of the project’s product.

Waterfall:

1. Requirements

2. Design

3. Development

4. Integration

5. Testing

6. Deployment

Problem: SCOPE BLOAT

If change is not welcome mid project then stakeholders and project managers will ask for everything they THINK they need, everything they need and everything they MAY need upfront, causing bloated and unecessary software. With Agile, you can introduce changes every sprint.

MANIFESTO for Agile Software Development

We are uncovering better ways of developing

software by doing it and helping others do it.

Through this work we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on

the right, we value the items on the left more.

EMPIRICAL CONTROL METHOD → make decisions based on observed realities. This method requires frequent and firsthand inspection of the work to date.

• Unfettered transparency: Everyone involved in an agile project knows what is going on and how the project is progressing.
• Frequent inspection: The people who are invested in the product and process the most regularly evaluate the product and process.
• Immediate adaptation: Adjustments are made quickly to minimize problems; if an inspection shows that something should change, it is changed immediately.

Break the project into iterations, also called SPRINTS.

Agile emphasizes:

• People
• Communications
• The Product
• Flexibility