Agile: A Different Way to Manage Teams and Projects

In some time in our lives, whether at school or at work, we have had to work with more than one person. In general groups like these, there are usually different types of people: the bossy one, the obedient one, and the lazy one. Having a group in the first place is a good place to start, but what everyone does is usually hard to figure out. Without a good plan and leadership, then the bossy one might get too bossy, the obedient one wouldn't know what exactly to do, and the lazy one wouldn't actually do some work. There are methods that are great for managing teams and projects. The broad
term for the many different methods available is agile.

You might have heard of different agile methods such as Unified Process, Scrum, and Dynamic Systems Development Method. Back in the day, people got tired of the failing traditional method of managing development projects, so some of those people got together and came up with four important values, known as the agile manifesto:

1) Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2) Working software over comprehensive documentation
3) Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4) Responding to change over following a plan

As they said, in short, "While there is value on the right side, we just value the left side more."

Some of the common key principles of agile include teams have the power to make decisions, requirements change but the time is fixed, and collaboration between the manufacturer and team members is important.

The business world changes as well as the technology. Agile methods tell us to make use of what is available to us, use your time wisely, and start adjusting to the modern world, not the stone age.