Quick Intro to Agile

Agile promises a new set of principles to make your team work more efficiently. Common keywords include standups, sprints, and prototyping.

But what does Agile really mean? Here is a quick intro, free of nonsense and buzzwords.

Definition of Agile

Agile is a set of work principles where processes, methods, collaboration, and delivery are continuously improved and adapted to any changing context.

Agile Explained

The concept “agility” involves the ability to adapt to changing requirements in a fast, flexible, and responsible way.

Felines are the archetype of an agile creature. They prove nimble, swift, and deft when stalking their prey.

This way of functioning—the ability to reach one’s goals and to get out of trouble efficiently—has been made into work principles in order to achieve better results.

Agile stems from software development, and was made popular by the Manifesto for Agile Software Development by the Agile Alliance in 2001.

The world has not experienced shortages of gigantic IT projects gone awry, and Agile emerged as a natural reaction to heavy, slow, expensive, and excessive IT failures.

The main point with Agile should be clear: don’t put all your eggs in the same basket at the same time. Do small steps and deploy continuously, as opposed to the standard waterfall method.

See also: Why Your Digital Experiences Platform Must Be Agile and Flexible »

The Rules of Agile

Agile consists of a set of values and principles, which we collectively can call rules. The Agile Alliance has set up the following value hierarchy, where four pairs were weighed against each other.

Primary values	Secondary values
Individuals and interactions	Processes and tools
Working software	Comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration	Contract negotiation
Responding to change	Following a plan

There are also more hands-on agile guidance to be found, in the form of 12 principles:

1. Achieve customer satisfaction through continuous delivery
2. Welcome changing requirements at any time
3. Deliver a working product frequently
4. Keep a close collaboration between business and developers
5. Motivate individuals with the right environment and tools
6. Emphasize face-to-face conversations
7. Working products are the primary measure of progress
8. Promote work-sustainable development for all involved parties
9. Maintain a continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
10. Simplicity is essential
11. Self-organizing teams provide the best results
12. Regularly perform self-reflection to become more effective

See also: 5 Pitfalls When Changing CMS »

Guidance to Choose Methods and Procedures

Agile is not a methodology. A methodology is a collection of methods, procedures, and rules for a specific discipline. But Agile is, as we have seen, primarily a rule set meant to guide teams in choosing the right methods and procedures for them.

Wrike features a good introduction to Agile methodology frameworks your team can choose within project management, including:

• Scrum: Sprint-based approach where a small team meets regularly to discuss current tasks and obstacles.
• Kanban: Visual representations of tasks, moving through predetermined stages to track progress and identify obstacles.
• Adaptive project framework (APF): Work is done and evaluated in stages.
• Extreme project management (XPM): Plan, budget, and final delivery can be altered to fit changing requirements at any time.
• Extreme programming (XP): Release frequently in short development cycles, improving productivity and introducing checkpoints for implementation of new customer requirements.

As you can see, Agile is an easy to grasp concept. The idea is simply to empower individuals, build functional products, emphasize collaboration, and respond to changing circumstances.

Now get working!

First published 3 June 2020, updated 23 April 2025.