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Agile expert and long-time trainer Nick Kramer has compiled answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about what it means to be Agile and what the different frameworks are. As an Agile coach and instructor, Nick teaches his students how to implement Agile and Scrum methodologies into daily project management successfully. Nick brings his tried-and-true practical advice, guidance, and real-world experience into every course he teaches. In this FAQ, Nick discusses what Agile is and breaks down the most popular Agile frameworks.
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Many organizations have adopted Agile, a popular methodology for developing products or projects. Agile is a flexible, iterative, customer-centric approach to delivering value. It emphasizes collaboration, adaptability, short development cycles, and continuous improvement. Agile helps teams to deliver working software to the customer early and often and to respond to change quickly and effectively.
Scrum is an Agile framework that helps teams deliver working software quickly and efficiently. It uses iterative development, where teams work in short cycles called sprints to deliver working software to the customer. Scrum teams are typically made up of:
Kanban is a framework that helps teams visualize their work and manage their workflow. Kanban is based on visualizing work, limiting work-in-progress, and managing flow. Kanban teams typically use a Kanban board to "see" their work. The Kanban board is a diagram of the work the team needs to complete, the ongoing work, and the work the team has finished. Kanban teams also use limits on work-in-progress to ensure they are not overloading themselves. Finally, Kanban teams use metrics to measure their workflow and to find areas for improvement.
XP is a comprehensive framework that improves software quality, flexibility, and maintainability. XP is based on the idea of continuous improvement and the practices of test-driven development, pair programming, refactoring, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. XP teams are typically made up of a small number of developers who work closely together. The XP team uses various practices to improve their software's quality, flexibility, and maintainability.
Scrum@Scale is a scalable framework that extends the popular Scrum and Leans principles to the entire organization, enabling efficient collaboration and communication. Scrum@Scale promotes a decentralized decision-making process, empowering teams the self-organize and adapt quickly. It has 2 interconnected cycles:
This cycle ensures product alignment, and prioritization by emphasizing backlog refinement, stakeholder input, and value delivery. Key roles include the Product Owners, the MetaScrum, and the Executive MetaScrum.
Scrum@Scale enables large-scale Agile transformations by addressing scaling challenges such as dependencies, resource constraints, and communication barriers and fostering innovation, quality, and a customer-centric mindset. Scrum@Scale is the only scaled Scrum framework developed and endorsed by Dr. Jeff Sutherland, built on real-world experiences and proven empirical techniques used by teams and organizations around the globe to help teams accomplish "Twice the work in half the time."
The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a comprehensive, adaptable approach to scaling Agile methodologies across large products or enterprises. It offers a structured system for implementing Lean-Agile practices at the enterprise level. SAFe's four configurations cater to different organizational needs:
SAFe promotes seven core principles derived from Lean, Agile, and Systems Thinking to guide organizations through the transformation process. By integrating these principles, SAFe encourages a culture of collaboration, adaptability, and customer-centricity, resulting in increased productivity, quality, and business outcomes.
Written by Nick Kramer, who brings more than 15 years of real-life Agile experience to every class he creates and teaches. In his career, he has been an Agile Trainer, Agile Coach, Leadership Coach, Scrum Master, and Product Owner who has trained thousands of people to utilize an Agile mindset. He is a firm believer in driving innovation within an organization by harnessing the power of the team through a customer-centric, Design Thinking approach. Nick prides himself on making Agile 'Fun and Simple.' His philosophy is that team members should enjoy coming to work and find creative ways to connect with their organization's value stream.
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