Companies nowadays face numerous challenges; organizing your business is not an easy task, especially when being competitive and marketable is mandatory. Adaptability is a very desirable skill, whether you like changes or not. Abilities for changes and innovation are simply the tools to become competitive and marketable. Operation and task delivery in complex systems are also challenging because it’s a part of human nature to consider every task on a list as crucial. Eventually, priorities force you to compare each task to determine how important it really is and how you will achieve this goal and your benefits, reaching maximum efficiency.

A group of software development leaders tried to find a solution for the permanent problems in their industry: lack of time and budget to complete all project requirements. Very often, important projects ended in failure because it turned out they were not applicable at all. But they cost a lot, in terms of human resources, as well as time and money invested. Since it became obvious that traditional methods won’t be able to provide the right solution, because each project follows the same life cycle, which includes five stages: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. Since this approach was primarily oriented on resources, these leaders created a new one in 2001 and they call it Agile.

What is Agile?

Although the Agile Manifesto with Agile Principles was created in 2001 and the base of the approach had been established, Agile ideas appeared a few decades ago. Pioneers were again in software development since they needed a tool to manage and develop large software projects. In the following years, many companies and organizations across the world adopted Agile as an approach, some of them more open to its ideas, some of them less. For sure, Agile exceeded its role and purpose in the software industry.

Agile is an approach designed to help teams provide quick and unpredictable responses to the feedback they receive on their project(s). It’s also the term used to describe different frameworks used in organizing software development emphasizing incremental delivery, collaboration, and continuous learning. It creates opportunities to assess a project’s direction during the development cycle and is people-oriented.

This is the ability to create and respond to change in your environment. Agile helps you become able to adapt quickly to change because change brings uncertainty, but it’s challenging. Often, it presents an opportunity to step forward, and Agile makes your path much easier.

How does Agile work?

Over time, Agile has become an attractive developmental option for all stakeholders. It deals with challenges by fixing time, budget, and quality, and it can also be flexible when it comes to scope. Agile teams can obtain the integrity of their plans and work according to objectives. They avoid the risk of burnout or dysfunction within the team.

The main focuses of Agile are the final product, flexibility, communications, and the expertise of team members. Project management based on Agile is an iterative approach to project management, a process that provides teams with the ability to manage projects by breaking them up into stages called “sprints.” It results in the easy delivery of a working model and successive incremental modifications through several iterations.

Moving away from component teams is difficult but also necessary to adopt an agile project management approach and meet its benefits. Achieving the benefits of Agile requires that people and teams understand what they really mean and how to implement them.


Why apply Agile?

Agile exceeded its first purpose of software development and has been accepted as a better solution to project development in industries and fields that don’t strictly belong to IT. Frameworks under the Agile umbrella assist teams and help them function and maintain focus on rapid delivery. There are many advantages of Agile to implement into practice with a goal to create a successful story:

• Ensures that value is optimized throughout the development process
Agile provided valuable support in optimizing project development activities because of the relationship between stakeholders, the development team, and projects. So, the benefit of Agile will be in the acceleration of business values, as well as ensuring that value continues to maximize itself throughout the complete process of product development.

• Easily adapts to changing requirements
Adapting to changing requirements is identified as one of the key project management challenges for project managers because sometimes you simply cannot avoid them. Agile will help you deal with changes in the best way.

• Assists capable organizations in reducing overall risks
Agile helps developers deal with most of the project pitfalls with schedule predictability, cost, and scope creep in a controlled manner when it comes to development.

• Helps teams and organizations reduce losses and costs
The Agile approach helps teams and organizations in cutting losses and costs, making them more efficient in achieving any of their business goals, such as product and customer/user experience improvement.

• Helps companies deliver high-end and competitive products
Agile breaks down the project into many manageable units called sprints to let the project team focus on high-quality development, collaboration, and testing.

• Helps to deliver projects on time and obtain satisfied customers
Agile helps in understanding what is most important for the client’s business. Therefore, it allows the clients to determine the priority of features and help the team deliver a product to the clients.

• Ensures the improvement of people relations and teamwork
The Agile approach provides multiple opportunities for team engagement and enables continuous improvement, especially with the retrospective as one of the most important practices of Agile, which leads teams to better operations and results with more efficient work.

When are you ready to implement Agile?

Agile might be the magic solution you are looking for, but it won’t create magic by itself. It depends on the way you are implementing it. Agile is not just a method; it is a way of thinking and acting as well, a one-word mindset. It requires leaders, strong individuals able to take responsibility. It also requires team spirit and collaboration, instead of command and control.

Yes, Agile creates uncertainty, but brings clearly defined goals and deadlines. The ability to analyze priorities and change them if needed, without exposure to the high risk of failure. Agile gives products that clients can take to the market and leads to mutual satisfaction, clients and teams. Ongoing change is not always easy and smooth, but Agile appears to be a winning solution.

Agile Serbia is fully aware of the benefits Agile can bring to our clients, improving their business organization and performance, leading them successfully through the transformation process, and improving user experience, resulting in income increment. That’s why we share the benefits and values of Agile with all interested parties, making their business process and organization more efficient.