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Person 1 Post: (subash)

An agile mindset is about creating and responding to change in uncertain and turbulent environments (Llewellyn, 2019). This is about implementing agility in any project to understand and adapt to a new situation by following the philosophy of the Agile Manifesto. As a result, the agile method is driven by the changes and adaptation to changes which focuses on simplifying everything and customer satisfaction. Although Agile methods have become popular across a wide range of industries, they first appeared and become widely adopted in the software industry. Several methodologies like Scrum and Extreme Programming as an alternative to the traditional command-and-control-style approach. These frameworks were being developed independently of each other. Later, a group of 17 software professionals which mainly included the leaders of these methodologies managed to come together and agreed on a set of common values and principles which led to the creation of the Agile Manifesto. The Agile Manifesto is a document that sets out the key values and principles behind the Agile philosophy and serves to help development teams work more efficiently and sustainably (What is the agile manifesto? n.d.). The agile manifesto includes 4 values and 12 additional principles that form the foundation of the agile way of software development.

The first value is – Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Most of the traditional methodologies are process-oriented. The key project people first develop a process with various roles like analyst, coder, tester, etc. The individuals who do the actual project works are treated as replaceable parts of the process. As such, the process and roles come before the individuals who support the said process and roles. This lowers morale and productivity, and the good people look for a better place to be. The Agile approach, on the other hand, is to reject the assumption that the people involved are replaceable parts of the software development process and foster an environment for people-oriented adaptive processes. Such processes do not need to be imposed on people, instead, they are accepted by people.

The second Agile value is – Working software over comprehensive documentation. The traditional software development methods put more emphasis on planning and documentation. The construction phase cannot start until the completion of the design phase, and the design phase costs a lot and takes a long time as it involves creating the design of the whole product. As such, there is a long wait time, usually until the very late stage of the project, before the customer can see and use the concrete product, and only then can they tell if the features are of any value to their business. Moreover, any changes required at this stage mean a high cost to implement them. As a result of this, the Agile methods emphasize a less documentation-oriented process in which customers are provided a working product with a minimal set of select features as early as possible in the project. With this approach, as the customers are using the product, it is easier and less costly to adapt the product to the business needs of the customers from early on in the project.

The third Agile is – Customer collaboration over contract negotiation. Central to the traditional approach to software development is a contract, which dictates the time, scope, and budget of the project. The success of the project is measured in terms of constraints defined in the contract. As such, both the product development team and the customers are focused on the fulfillment of the contract with much less consideration for whether the product being built will be of any business value. As a response to such practice, the Agile approach emphasizes involving customers in the development process and allowing the scope of the product to vary in a controlled manner. The result of such a process is that the customers provide constant feedback to the team on the released product features, which the team uses to improve the product to maximize its business value.

The fourth value of the Agile method is – Responding to change over following a plan. Most traditional software development methods are based on a fixed plan. All the requirements are gathered, verified, and signed off before the construction of the product could begin. This approach favors sticking to this initial plan and resisting any changes to the requirements during the construction phase. But the fact is that the customers’ business needs keep changing, and the inability to respond to such changes means a less valuable product in terms of current business needs. As a response to this, the Agile method recommends an approach that welcomes and adapts to changes and encourages to regard changes as an opportunity to improve the quality of the product and maximize its value.

Forte and Kloppenborg in The Agile Mindset for Project Management have done a terrific job of grouping the Agile Manifesto’s principal and values into 3 main logical groups. The authors first group the 12 principles under the four values, and then categorize them into 3 logical ideas which are 1.  Satisfy the customer, 2.  Engage the team and 3. Simplify everything (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2017, p. 5). So in short, the agile mindset revolves around simplifying everything, engaging the team heavily in all phases/aspects of the project with a primary focus on the satisfying customer.

Person 2 Post: (Sam)

Agile Principles and Mindset

Agile, in modern days, has been used in many organizations and teams to improve the organizational process and deliver value to the customers as early as possible in the project. Agile is a mindset, a set of beliefs, principles, and a way of thinking driven by the values of the Agile Manifesto and its principles (Llewllyn, 2019). To understand Agile better, one needs to know both the methods and the mindset of Agile practice. However, it is not as easy as said because there is much misconception of how Agile can significantly change complex endeavors (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018). Therefore, before discussing the Agile mindset, we need to understand the Agile Manifesto and its principles. As per the Agile Manifesto, individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to changes are valued more over processes and tools, comprehensive documentation, contract negotiation, and following a plan, respectively (Beck et al., 2001).

In today’s fast-paced corporate environment, teams need to quickly adapt and respond to changes to fulfill customer needs and generate business value. Therefore, individuals and organizations that understand today’s dynamic business world should prepare for any uncertainty, and for that Agile mindset need to be adapted. Previously, teams used to create a plan and follow the plan strictly to meet the deadlines and deliver an end product. However, much has changed in today’s business world. The agile mindset promotes readiness and responses to the changes and helps organizations and teams succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment (Project Management Institute, 2017). These changes usually come from customers, so teams need to collaborate with customers and deliver a demonstration of a working software after every change to ensure that the product is developed as per the customer’s needs. In practice, working software is usually delivered from a couple of weeks to a couple of months with a preference for the shorter timescale. Also, coordination and communication are some of the foundations of the Agile mindset. Clear communication helps individuals convey information effectively within a team, build trust among the team members to get the job done and motivate everyone to work together regularly throughout the process (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018).

Agile is not limited to the software development industry anymore. Since it is a mindset driven by the Agile Manifesto and its principles, it is implemented by industries and projects of any kind to deliver more value early in the project, ensuring customer collaboration and satisfaction. Dr. Robert Johnson of Becker College has identified four human skills that will help individuals adapt and create value in a global society (Quinlan, 2018). Those four human skills are empathy, divergent thinking, entrepreneurial outlook, and social and emotional intelligence (Quinlan, 2018). Empathy is defined as understanding the needs and wants of others. It promotes innovation and creativity (Quinlan, 2018). Divergent thinking is creating something out of nothing. It is about identifying problems that have not been identified and trying to understand where opportunities can be created to solve those problems for business (Quinlan, 2018). The entrepreneurial outlook is understanding out to create value as an employee or as an entrepreneur. Individuals must always understand and try to find opportunities to create and add value to the organization (Quinlan, 2018). Finally, social and emotional intelligence motivates individuals to collaborate with teams to solve problems. Those who work with individuals and teams who are different from themselves make a difference, and it is one of the competitive advantages that can leverage a business in the market (Quinlan, 2018).

In another article, authors Forte and Kloppenborg has listed three simple ideas to promote common understanding and acceptance of the Agile and the ideas are:

1. Satisfy      the customer: Teams      and organizations need to collaborate with customers and take their      feedback early and often to address their needs and changes. It is also crucial for teams to share a vision with customers so that both parties      have a common understanding of the success criteria (Forte &      Kloppenborg, 2018). Therefore, there has to be a continuous collaboration      with customers to deliver a product that frequently creates value to the      customers (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018).

    

2. Engage      the team: It      is crucial to engage the team to encourage collaboration and establish      transparent communication to maintain high visibility about what is going      on in the project and build trust among the team members (Forte &      Kloppenborg, 2018). Furthermore, leaders should discover team and      individual motivators and let them collaborate to motivate the whole team      to discover team members capable of resolving issues through innovative solutions      (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018). Also, teams should practice servant      leadership and promote knowledge sharing (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018).

    

3. Simplify      everything: To      simplify everything, teams need to define and deliver products      incrementally and focus on a sustainable pace that helps to deliver      products frequently (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018). In addition, as the      project goes on, the team needs to refine estimates as the understanding      of the project and resources increases, and they should tailor the project      and team processes accordingly to meet the deadlines (Forte &      Kloppenborg, 2018).  Moreover, reprioritizing as condition changes      and adapting plans to reflect changes through frequent retrospectives help      teams to understand the overall progress and needs for future changes      (Forte & Kloppenborg, 2018).

The Agile mindset is based on the values of the Agile Manifesto and its principles, and helps organizations and teams to innovate products early and more efficiently to deliver business values. Customers are the prime focus, and they are and should be involved throughout the processes through communication to get and take feedback to deliver valuable products. The incremental approach to develop and deliver the product help the teams to work together with the customer, get their feedback on the product, and make adjustments to fulfill the customer needs by the allocated deadline. Also, Agile’s focus on delivering value motivates teams to develop sustainable products which can be changed on the customer’s requests. Although to embrace Agile at an individual and enterprise level, the Agile mindset needs to be genuinely embraced by understanding the Agile Manifesto and its principles.