A big challenge for anyone starting a project – whether it's related to software, the development of a new product, or anything else – is ensuring that the execution is done well and that the final delivery is consistent with what was initially proposed. And it was precisely with the aim of facilitating this process that “Agile Methodologies” emerged.  

Maintaining a team, communicating messages clearly, and staying focused on what was defined at the beginning of the project is extremely complex, and goes beyond good management. For this reason, more and more companies are betting on the famous agile methods to make their work even more efficient.

Next, we'll discuss this topic a bit more and, in addition to showing what agile methodologies are, we'll bring their benefits and the main methods that have been used in the daily lives of companies, also helping you to bring them into yours!

What are agile methodologies?

Agile methods, which emerged in the Information Technology industry, are used to solve common problems that almost every organization needs to manage projects: overly long production stages without defined deliverables, lack of clarity and communication between teams, misalignment between the team and client, among others. For this reason, they were quickly adopted in other types of markets and in projects beyond technology.

Agile methods aim to promote a process of project management that encourages regular inspection and adaptation. It's a philosophy that ultimately encourages greater commitment to teamwork, self-organization, frequent communication, customer focus, and value delivery. Above all, agile methods are a set of effective practices designed to enable rapid, high-quality product delivery, with a business approach that aligns project development with customer needs and company goals.

As examples of agile methods, we can mention Scrum, Kanban, XP, among others – which we will discuss in the following paragraphs.

The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is composed of 4 main values, which we can see below:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
• Working software over comprehensive documentation;
• Client collaboration over contract negotiation;
• Respond to change rather than following a plan.

As can be easily perceived, the Agile Manifesto proposes greater flexibility, less bureaucracy, and acceptance of changes along the way. Notice that the manifesto does not deny the formal aspects, it only reaffirms that the more fluid parts of a process should be prioritized.

Types of agile methodology – or so-called frameworks:

Feature-Driven Development

The tasks are broken down into small functionalities, rejecting all work. FDD consists of 5 basic principles:

– Develop a Comprehensive Model

– Build a Feature List

– Plan by Feature

– Detail by Functionality

– Build by Functionality

The advantages of this agile management format stem mainly from the fact that each “feature” is a minimum unit of the total project. This makes each task, description, test, and change always minimalistic, giving agility to the process, and spending less time and human resources.

2. Extreme Programming

Also known as XP, this management style is most common in the software development field. The functionalities of this method are the optimization of quality and responsiveness to client requests, and its principles include:

– Simplicity: Remove functions considered unnecessary

– Feedback: Frequent contact with the client, testing the product and receiving suggestions

– Changes: Constant adaptations to the product until reaching the final stage.

Through constant support from experts, the XP method achieves greater agility in product changes.

3. Scrum

It is a project management framework with an iterative and incremental approach, making it ideal for projects with high complexity and a well-defined objective.

Among all its advantages is the possibility of working with less client involvement. Furthermore, Scrum maintains team motivation and a result more focused on prioritizing quality rather than a reduced deadline.

4. Stack Methodology

This methodology aims to fit various activities or projects into the daily routines of teams, ensuring continuous delivery. Thus, tasks with the greatest impact or return are prioritized, and you optimize both your time and your team's time.

5. Kanban

This Japanese method is used to control production or transport flows in an industry. It uses cards on a whiteboard to visualize and control production or transport flows in an industry.

Currently, Kanban is often used in conjunction with Scrum, as they are two methodologies used in agile software development.

Advantages of Agile Methods for the Team

Fast and frequent deliveries

In summary, teams are subdivided so that each one is responsible for a specific product functionality. In other words, each group has its own goals and responsibilities, which are integrated with other parts at the end of each stage.

This brings advantages in two aspects: focus and the final quality of each delivery.

Product quality

In traditional methods, the client is only heard when the product is finalized, running serious risks of pointing out errors right at implementation and also of contradicting a good part of their minor requirements.

Thus, the customer's expectation tends to be met with unparalleled efficiency.

Schedule and Cost Forecasting

As we will see in the course of the article, agile methods have Sprints as part of the process, but to facilitate the explanation, we will get ahead of ourselves regarding its concept.

Basically, the Sprint is nothing more than a meeting formed by those involved in the project.

This way, the team defines with the client which resources should be prioritized. Based on the Sprint details, both parties analyze if and how many extra iterations will be necessary.

Risk mitigation

This advantage is largely due to the freedom projects have from the numerous restrictions imposed by planning. Assuming the waterfall model was followed, bugs would be detected late and would undoubtedly take longer to fix.

Executing large projects is part of the daily routine for many people, and finding ways to make their processes simpler and more efficient is essential for success.

Now we want to hear from you: what did you think of agile methods? Do you consider them applicable to your company's processes? Comment!