Definitions of agile and agility

Definitions of Agile Software Development and Agility!Maarit Laanti 26 June 2013!

Outline of this Presentation!

1.  Does it matter how we define things?!2.  How Agile Principles define Agile software development!3.  How agile gurus define agile software development and

agility?!

!

DOES IT MATTER HOW WE DEFINE THINGS?!

The beginning!

< Da Big Cheese> Agile, huh. So tell me what are the main benefits of this method.

Image © Graphics Factory.com

A response!

< Par/cipant Observer > 1.  Accelerated @me-‐to-‐

market 2.  Increased produc@vity 3.  Reduced number of

soGware defects 4.  Reduced cost 5.  Increased morale *)

*) Version One State of Agile Survey hNp://www.versionone.com/pdf/StateofAgileDevelopmentSurvey.pdf Image © Graphics Factory.com

An action!

< Da Big Cheese>

Sounds good. Tim -‐ your call. Let’s be agile

now.


A conclusion!

< Tim> Agile?

Time-‐to-‐market?

Produc@vity? Yep, how?


An explanation! < Par/cipant Observer > ….Agile Manifesto… …Agile Principles…. …Agile Prac4ces… …. Extreme Programming… …Scrum…. …Con4nuous Integra4on… …Test Automa4on…. ….Lean thinking…. …Scaled agile…. …Tools…. …Kanban… …Improvement…. … Training…. ….People…


Confusion!

< Tim> Gibberish.

Team, tell me what you think!


Agile is…?!

Agile architecture!

People!

Collabora/on!

Jenkins

What do we have for

lunch?

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Define it!!< Tim>

Sounds like a wish list of all good

things. Agile can’t be all

that! Can we take it into use if we do not understand fully

what it is?


TESTING UNDERSTANDING!

CAT? - Are the different definitions just different views to same thing?!

Arc@c CAT

Pussycat Siamese cat KiNy cat

Big cat

CAT

People may have different perceptions what agile is!

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable

software.

Customer sa@sfac@on

Early deliveries Con@nuous delivery Value

1st Agile Principle:

Emphasis in Agile Principles!

Do we fully understand what agile is?!

When a new paradigm emerges, the best !we can do is to understand it in terms of !existing paradigms. When cars were !invented, our great-grandfathers called them ”horseless carriages”, and worried that cars would scare the horses. But after 20 years or so, people realized that cars had properties that transcended carriages. They came to appreciate that it was time to drop that obsolete metaphor and understand cars on their own terms.!…!We should stop designing software systems as if they were cars or TV sets.!!Paul G. Bassett: Framing Software Reuse – Lessons from the real world. Yourdon Press Computing Series 1997.!

”

ANALYSIS OF AGILE DEVELOPMENT / AGILITY DEFINITIONS…!

Custo

mer s

atisfa

ction

/ driv

en

Conti

nuou

s deli

very

Value

Early

/ Fre

quen

t deli

verie

s

Adap

tabilit

y / F

lexibi

lity

Comp

etitiv

enes

s

Custo

mer s

atisfa

ction

/ben

efit

Colla

bora

tion

Motiv

ated i

ndivi

duals

Good

envir

onme

nt

Supp

ort

Trus

t

Effic

iency

Comm

unica

tion

Meas

ure p

rogr

ess v

ia de

liver

ables

Susta

inabil

ity

Peop

le

Focu

s on t

echn

ical e

xcell

ence

Good

desig

n as e

nable

r of a

gility

Simp

licity

Optim

ize w

ork

Self-o

rgan

izatio

n Bu

ilt-in

impr

ovem

ent o

f effic

iency

and

beha

vior

Stee

rable

/ in-

contr

ol

Rule-

base

d

Profi

tabilit

y

Spee

d

Resp

onsiv

enes

s

Agile Principles x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x Cockburn 2001 x x x x x

Highsmith 2002 x x x Anderson 2003 x Larman 2003 x x x Schuh 2004 x x x Lyytinen 2006 x x Suibramaniam 2005 x x x x IEEE 2007 x Wikipedia 2007 DOI 2005 x x x x x Wikipedia 2010 x Poppendieck 2010 Larman 2009 Larman 2010 Appelo 2011

Leffingwell 2011 Cohn 2009 x x

Empo

werm

ent

Chan

ge

Feed

back

Innov

ation

s / in

nova

titive

ness

Itera

tive /

non-

sequ

entia

l

Incre

menta

l

Less

proc

ess-d

riven

Cost-

cons

cious

/ low

-cost

Conc

eptua

l fram

ewor

k / sy

stem

deve

lopme

nt fra

me

Maxim

ize R

OI

Deliv

ery a

ccur

acy /

pred

ictab

ility

Proa

ctivit

y

Antic

ipatio

n

Relia

bility

Situa

tiona

lity

Cros

s-fun

ction

al

Evolu

tiona

ry

Tech

nical

prac

tices

Effec

tiven

ess

Syste

ms im

prov

emen

t

Conte

xt-sp

ecific

Busin

ess b

enefi

ts

Non-

tradit

ional

High

-qua

lity

Meets

user

need

s

Proc

ess

Prod

uctiv

ity

Visib

ility

Agile Principles Cockburn 2001 Highsmith 2002 Anderson 2003 Larman 2003 Schuh 2004 x x x Lyytinen 2006 x Suibramaniam 2005 x x x x IEEE 2007 x Wikipedia 2007 x x DOI 2005 x x x x x x x Wikipedia 2010 x x x x Poppendieck 2010 x x x Larman 2009 x Larman 2010 x Appelo 2011 x Leffingwell 2011 x x x Cohn 2009 x x x x x x x x x

Categorizing agile definitions!

1.  A null definition (agile is agile; differing from all the previous and succeeding definitions) !–  Larman’s 2009 recursive definition that agile is agile and a list of

negative statements about what it is not, which contradicts almost all of the succeeding definitions of Agile Software Development and agility. !

2.  Traditional!–  Cohn’s 2009 definition as a negative statement of what it is not also

aligned himself with the previously discussed (positive) aspects. !3.  Set of practices!

–  Agile as a set of practices that should be used together with Systems Thinking. !

4.  Context-specific !–  Agile as a context-specific set of processes and practices which

may vary as the problem that we are solving varies, rooted in complexity theories.!

Reflec/ve prac//oner

Our understanding of “agile” is evolving over time!

IN (ANY) ORGANIZATION, THERE ARE PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING!!

Learning Ladders

The industry response is certifications!

Thanks!!

My ques/ons to you: 1.  How much do the missing

common understanding & lack of sharing same concepts hamper the aNempts to use the agile methods?

2.   Is there anything to speed up the learning of new concepts? As community of researchers, how can we help?

Par/cipant Observer


Definitions of agile and agility

Technology

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