Most of us believe Agile to be a very new concept that came into existence just a few years ago. In fact, however, Agile is a concept that has been evolving and being discussed since the 1950s. It was born out of the belief that when people come together and look beyond the tactical differences in their respective approaches to seek common ground, amazing things can happen.
In 2001, a group of seventeen influential software developers and consultants met together in order to find ways to bring this way of collaborating into their day-to-day work lives. The group, in the end, agreed upon a word to describe the ideas that united their respective approaches: Agile.
Their shared values were documented in the publication: The 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.”
Agile can, therefore, be seen as an approach and a mindset encompassing different methodologies. It’s not a textbook, nor a list of instructions, nor a certification.
The most widely-used Agile methodologies include: Agile Scrum Methodology, Lean and Kanban Software Development, Extreme Programming (XP), Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), and Feature Driven Development (FDD).
In this theme, you will learn how to manage a project using the Scrum Methodology.
To learn more, select one of the topics below.