II.

WHY AGILE

Introduction
Lesson Introduction
Welcome to the lesson on why Agile has taken the market by storm in
today's digital age.
What We Will Cover In This Lesson
In this lesson, we will focus on the foundational theory behind Agile. We
will discuss:

• The Agile Mindset and how it sets the tone for ‘Being’ Agile versus
just ‘Doing’ Agile
• The Agile Manifesto, and how it is seen as the foundational set of 4
Paired Core Values and 12 Principles that sets the foundation for all
Agile Frameworks
• How Agile differs from the more traditional Waterfall approach to
product development

We will wrap up the lesson with an important discussion on common

misconceptions about Agile.

By the End of the Lesson, You Will Be Able To...

• Explain the Agile Mindset and value-driven delivery benefits of Agile

• Differentiate between Doing Agile and Being Agile
• Explain The Agile Manifesto’s 4 Paired Core Values
• Identify and apply the 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto
• Differentiate between Agile and Waterfall approaches

What We Will Cover In This Lesson

Why Agile
Why Are Organizations Adopting Agile Part 1
So, why are forward-thinking organizations rapidly adopting Agile? And
why are we seeing that global professional bodies such as The Project
Management Institute (PMI) in their PMBOK Guide and The International
Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)’s BABOK Guide, have incorporated and
highlighted the importance of Agile in project management, business
analysis, and other product delivery activities?

In an increasingly interconnected and competitive global marketplace, I

am seeing Agile being leveraged by successful organizations across the
globe to thrive in today’s digital age. Agile enables organizations to
predictably deliver value in a world where we are constantly being
challenged with Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
Organizations that I have seen go through Agile transformation have
benefited from the following:
 • Faster time to market
• Early ROI
• Feedback from Real Customers

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity

Note: You are going to learn more about VUCA later in this lesson.

Why Are Organizations Adopting Agile Part 2

Organizations that go through Agile transformation have also benefited from:

• Build the right products

• Early risk reduction
• Built-in quality
• Culture and morale
Efficiency vs. Effectiveness
Efficiency and effectiveness is a fine balancing act that Agile recommends.
If you’re only focused on going fast, you prioritize efficiency.

If you’re trying to focus on innovation, creativity, and making sure you’re

working on the right thing, you need to focus on effectiveness.

This is often done at the cost of efficiency.

Agile ensures a balanced approach whereby Agile Teams ensure there is a

balance between speed and creativity.

Agile transformations also benefit from:

• Customer Satisfaction
• Alignment
• Emergent Outcomes
• Predictability

Organizations want to use Agile to get there by developing products

better, faster, and cheaper.
Agile Balances Efficiency And Effectiveness
New Terms

• Ambiguity: Ambiguity refers to a lack of clarity, such as not having a

clear understanding of the genuine needs of the customer and end-
users
• Complexity: Complexity exists when there are many interconnected
parts and variables that influence each other
• Muda: Lean principles refer to the Japanese term Muda as waste;
Agile teams focus on the removal of non-value adding tasks that are
seen as Muda
• Product Owner: A business proxy or representative of the business
users who is the Voice of the Customer (VOC)
• Return on Investment (ROI): Return on investment (ROI) is
calculated as the ratio between net profit and cost of investment
over a defined period of time
• Uncertainty: The extent to which an organization can confidently
predict or forecast the future; more uncertainty makes it harder to
predict
• Voice of the Customer: A term used to articulate the steps to
capture customer's needs
• Volatility: Volatility is when there are unexpected or unstable
possibilities that may influence the work being done
• VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity
• WIP (Work in Progress): The work that has been started but not yet
completed

Additional Resources

• The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

How Experts Approach Agile

Thinking About Agile
Agile Is Based on a Systems Thinking Approach and a Growth Mindset

• Agilists adopt a practical and realistic approach to delivering the best

value, and quality, in the shortest sustainable time.
• A Systems Thinking approach, reinforced by a Growth Mindset,
helps Agile experts deliver optimal business value.
• Systems thinking takes a holistic approach in which the Agile Team
looks at the way a system's components interrelate and influence
each other and how these components come together within the
context of larger systems to deliver a solution.
 • In a growth mindset, individuals on a team have the mindset that
their abilities can grow through dedication and hard work.

Systems Thinking + Growth Mindset = Optimal Business Value

New Terms

• Growth Mindset: The mindset that an individual's abilities can grow

through dedication and hard work
• Systems Thinking: A holistic approach that looks at the way a
system's components interrelate and influence each other and how
these components come together within the context of larger
systems to deliver a solution

Additional Resources

• Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne. Tools and Weapons: The Promise
and the Peril of the Digital Age. Penguin, 2019.
In this book, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne share how one of
 the world's largest and most powerful companies leverages Agile
practices to overcome today's challenges in the global marketplace.

The Agile Mindset

What Is the Agile Mindset?
Agile permits teams to flourish in an environment that is increasingly Volatile,
Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, also known as VUCA.

• Volatility is when there are unexpected or unstable possibilities that

may influence the work being done
• Uncertainty refers to the extent to which an organization can
confidently predict or forecast the future
• Complexity exists when there are many interconnected parts and
variables that influence each other
• Ambiguity refers to a lack of clarity, such as not having a clear
understanding of the genuine needs of the customer and end-users

Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity (VUCA)

Business Agility
Agile is a set of principles that guide how we as individuals, as teams and
as organizations think about, as well as act upon, the work that we do.

Business agility is the ability of an organization to:

• Adapt quickly to market changes

• Respond rapidly and flexibly to customer demands that make
business sense
• Adapt and lead change in a productive and cost-effective manner
with no compromise to quality

The Agile Mindset

When we talk about an Agile Mindset, we include:
 • Respect
• Collaboration
• Continuous Improvement
• Iterative Learning Cycles
• Mastery and Ownership
• Focus on Delivering Value
• Adaptability to Change

The Agile Mindset

Doing Agile vs. Being Agile
Some organizations and Agile Teams unfortunately just focus on Doing
Agile. This equates to simply adopting the practices without committing to
or exhibiting agile principles and values.

Being Agile is the foundation that truly elevates individuals, teams, and
organizations to unleash their latent potential to deliver monumental and
focused value.
New Terms

• Agile Mindset: The set of attitudes supporting an agile working

environment
• Being Agile: When an Agile team lives & breathes Agile principles
and values through Agile practices consistently every day
• Business Agility: The ability of an organization to adapt quickly to
market changes, respond rapidly and flexibly to customer demands
that make business sense, as well as adapt and lead change in a
productive and cost-effective manner with no compromise to quality
 • Doing Agile: When an Agile team adopting the practices without
committing to or exhibiting Agile principles and values

Additional Resources

• Gil Broza, The Agile Mind-Set: Making Agile Processes Work, 3P

Vantage Media, 2015.
This book clearly articulates how the missing piece in successfully
transforming organizations to Agile is the Agile Mindset.

Quizzes: The Agile Mindset

Thinking About the Agile Mindset
Exercise: The Agile Mindset
Applying the Agile Mindset
Exercise Scenario: SocialKare.gov
SocialKare.gov was launched to allow citizens of Nunamerica to enroll in
Social Services provided by the government as a result of a devastating
pandemic. Unfortunately, the launch of SocialKare.gov was seen as a
disaster from all project management metrics, as well as by its key
stakeholders’ low satisfaction ratings. Read what happened in
the SocialKare.gov Case Study.

You'll also want to download the Agile Foundations Course Workbook.

This workbook is in a .docx format, which can be used in most word
processing programs including Microsoft Word and Google Docs. To use
the workbook in Google Docs, just upload the workbook to your Google
Drive and open the document using Google Docs.

We will be using this scenario and workbook for most of the exercises in
this course. We will indicate which worksheet you should fill out for each
exercise.
Agile Mindset Anti-Patterns
Is the SocialKare.gov team operating with an Agile Mindset? Review the
Case Study and your notes on the Agile Mindset. What Agile Mindset anti-
patterns do you see at SocialKare.gov? Anti-patterns are practices that
preventing the Agile mindset from being present and make things worse.
Solution: The Agile Mindset
My Solution
The Anti-Patterns I Found:

• The Project Manager did not build an environment of making the

team self-directed and self-organized. As a result, the team did not
get an opportunity to build autonomy and confidence without
relying on the Project Manager to step in to troubleshoot.
• Quality was not built-in iteratively in the product development life
cycle. This resulted in delays in going to production, which frustrated
both the business leadership and the end-users.
 • Interim working solutions were not presented frequently to the
business and end-users for proactive buy-in and feedback. This
resulted in an incomplete set of features going to production.
• Excessive and not so valuable documentation was required by the
project. As a result, the product results were disappointing.
• There was little in the way of ensuring these requirements made
business sense throughout the project life cycle. As a result, the
resource effort put into lower priority requirements ended up
pushing out the higher priority needs.

The Agile Manifesto

What Is the Agile Manifesto?
Up until the late 1990s, a majority of product development followed a
waterfall-style project development life cycle that was based on adhering
to strict processes.

The whole product procedure was process-centric with the goal of

delivering the product successfully rather than focusing on delivering a
successful product. This is what lead 17 experts to get together and
finalize the Agile Manifesto at a meeting in Utah back in 2001.

Up until the late 1990s, a majority of product development followed a

waterfall-style project development life cycle that was based on adhering
to strict processes.

The whole product procedure was process-centric with the goal of

delivering the product successfully rather than focusing on delivering a
successful product. This is what lead 17 experts to get together and
finalize the Agile Manifesto at a meeting in Utah back in 2001.
The 4 Agile Core Values
These were developed by 17 industry experts and finalized in 2001. They
are:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools: Agile

places more importance and emphasis on people and their
interactions over processes and even tools.
 • Working software over comprehensive documentation:
Documentation requires a time and resource commitment that
might be wasteful.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation: Agile
promotes a collaborative outlook when product owners work with
their customers in reaching an agreement on the details of the
product delivery.
• Responding to changes over following a plan: Agile embraces the
change that makes business sense.

Four Paired Core Values

The Agile Manifesto Principles

The Agile Manifesto’s 4 paired core values and its associated 12 guiding principles set a solid
foundation for the various Agile Frameworks that are currently being practiced by successful
organizations in today’s digital age.
The 12 Agile Principles
The Agile Manifesto’s 4 paired core values drive the 12 Agile Principles.
Let's look at the principles in detail.

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early

and continuous delivery of valuable software. The goal of
product development is the development of successful products.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.
Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive
 advantage. Due to the dynamic competitive landscape,
requirements can and will change throughout product development.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to
a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter time scale.
Frequent and iterative delivery of working products provides the
business with practical feedback.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily
throughout the project. The Product Owner and the Agile Team
adopt practices that ensure inclusive and joint practices.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the
environment and support they need, and trust them to get the
job done. Agile leaders build Agile teams with skilled resources who
are willing to work together collaboratively with a growth mindset.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying
information to and within a development team is face-to-face
conversation. For a product development team to succeed its
members must communicate and collaborate effectively.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. The
primary measure of product development should be the delivery of
working product increments, which meet the evolving needs of the
business.
8. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The
sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a
constant pace indefinitely. A highly skilled team simply just cannot
be expected to successfully develop a product by compelling people
to work overtime for extended periods.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design
enhances agility. Built-in quality practices have enormous benefits.
It allows for easier maintenance and scalability of the product.
10. Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not
done - is essential. With the guidance of the Product Owner, Agile
Teams focus on high-value activities, which allows them to focus on
the high business value needs.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge
from self-organizing teams. This is a critical principle of the agile
world to ensure that emerging and effective architectures,
requirements, and designs are built into the product development
life cycle to maximize technical excellence.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become
more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Finding concrete opportunities for improvement is a continual
effort.

The Agile Manifesto

New Terms

• Agile Manifesto: The four paired Core Values and associated 12

Principles that set the foundation for all Agile Frameworks
• Agile Principles: Practical guidance for teams to adopt Agile
• Four Paired Core Values: The part of the Agile Manifesto that
defines the values that establishes what Agile is for teams and
organizations

Additional Resources
The Agile Manifesto is worth exploring in depth. These resources should
help:

• The Agile Manifesto: The original Agile Manifesto crafted by 17

industry leaders in 2001.
• The Agile Manifesto, Explained: Kris Hughes walks through The
Agile Manifesto in detail.

Quizzes: The Agile Manifesto

Thinking About the Agile Manifesto
Exercise: The Agile Manifesto
Applying the Agile Manifesto
Are the Four Paired Core Values from the Agile Manifesto being followed
at SocialKare.gov? Review the SocialKare.gov Case Study and identify the
Core Values and Agile Principles that are missing at SocialKare.gov.
Solution: The Agile Manifesto
My Solution
The Missing Paired Core Values and Principles
At least two of the missing Paired Core Values from The Agile Manifesto at
SocialKare.gov are:

• Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

• Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation

At least four of the missing Agile Principles at SocialKare.gov are:

• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is

essential.
• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and
continuous delivery of valuable software.
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile
processes harness change for the competitive advantage.
• Business people and developers must work together daily
throughout the project.
Agile vs. Waterfall
Comparing Agile to the Waterfall Methodology
Waterfall vs. Agile
The waterfall model is a more stringent and process-driven style where
the project is broken down into project activities through structured
phases, with toll gates established to formally review progress. The focus
is on the work to be done and not on delivering functional vertical slices.

Waterfall “fixes” the scope and estimates time & cost. Agile breaks this
paradigm because Agile “fixes” time & cost and allows the scope to be
flexible.

Agile vs. Waterfall Triangle

The Stacey Diagram
The Stacey Diagram is a popular method to select the appropriate project
or product management style.

Stacey Diagram
Conditions Where Agile May Not Be Helpful:

• Lack of agreement in terms of requirements and process

• No vision and no clear roadmap
• Near certainty on requirements and process upfront

Conditions Where Agile Works Best:

• An environment of complexity and some uncertainty where an

adaptive approach is needed
• With complicated requirements that need iterative cycles to
understand the needs of end-users
New Terms

• Incremental Product Delivery: An approach that utilizes a given

number of steps, which go from start to finish following a linear path
of progression
• Iterative Product Delivery: An approach where product
development is broken into sequences of time-boxed, repeated
cycles called iterations
• Sequential Product Delivery: A process where a defined sequence
of steps must be followed as in the Waterfall approach
• Stacey Diagram: A diagram developed by Ralph Stacey to
categorize the complexity of a project
• Waterfall Methodology: A methodology of product development
that starts by breaking down project tasks into linear sequential
phases or stages where each subsequent stage depends on the
successful delivery of the previous ones

Additional Resources
The topic of Agile versus Waterfall continues to be a topic of keen interest
with practitioners.

• Agile vs Waterfall: What’s the Difference?: In this blog post, Peter

Landau walks through the details of the differences between Agile
and Waterfall.
• Ralph D. Stacey. Complexity and Management. Routledge, 2002.
In this book, Ralph Stacey introduces the Stacey Diagram and
explains where Agile makes more sense.

Quizzes: Agile vs. Waterfall

Thinking About Agile vs. Waterfall
Exercise: Agile vs. Waterfall
Agile vs. Waterfall at SocialKare.gov
The SocialKare.gov team is taking a Waterfall approach to product
development. Review the SocialKare.gov Case Study. Where do you see
weaknesses in using a Waterfall approach rather than an Agile approach?
Solution: Agile vs. Waterfall
My Solution
Waterfall at SocialKare.gov
At least two weaknesses of Waterfall Planning at SocialKare.gov are:

• Thorough documentation and paper trails

• The team lost focus on working solutions, and time was taken
away from valuable product development.
• The testing process started once development was over
• Bugs were found later in development, where they are
expensive to fix.

Misconceptions of Agile
Five Common Misconceptions of Agile
Common Misconceptions of Agile
Here are 5 of the more common Agile misconceptions that should be
avoided keeping the Agile Mindset in focus:

• Scheduling Agile ceremonies makes a team Agile - Holding

ceremonies for the sake of holding ceremonies does not deliver
benefits. Ceremonies must adhere to the core principles of Agile.
• The Facilitator role is just like a traditional Project Manager -
The Facilitator role is different from the Project Manager role. A
Facilitator should be a Servant Leader who assists with whatever the
team needs to forward.
• Large teams are okay - Agile recommends small cross-functional
teams that allow the team to be nimble and powerful.
• The product backlog can be managed like a traditional
requirements document - The backlog should not be a process-
driven document. It should focus on customer value and strategic
objectives.
• Documentation and audit trails for compliance are not
important in Agile - Agile does not mean no documentation -- it
just removes low-value documents and documents what is valuable
to maintain and sustain the product.

Keeping a customer-centric and product-focused thought process is

essential.
Additional Resources
We discussed a few misconceptions about Agile in the video, but there are
many others.

• Top Misconceptions about Agile Software Development: This

article shares a few more misconceptions about Agile.

Exercise: Setting An Agile Mindset

Setting An Agile Mindset at SocialKare.gov
With what you have learned about Agile, how can we help the
SocialKare.gov team develop an Agile Mindset? Review the SocialKare.gov
Case Study and outline three recommended changes to the overall
strategy for SocialKare.gov to set in place a more Agile Mindset. Take into
account The Agile Manifesto in your recommendations and avoid the
negative pitfalls of Waterfall.
Solution: Setting An Agile Mindset
My Solution
Strategies to Bring an Agile Mindset to SocialKare.gov
The three strategies I recommend are:

• Ensuring management commitment. Any successful Agile

transformation initiative requires a serious management
commitment.
• Provide the team autonomy by empowering them. A de-centralized
decision-making model is needed in Agile environments.
• Incorporate Adaptive Planning with relevant buy-in. Adaptive
Planning includes a Product Vision, a Product Roadmap, a Release
Plan, an Iteration Plan, as well as daily updates at the Daily Stand Up.
Lesson Recap
What We Have Learned
In this lesson, we covered some fundamental groundwork for developing
our understanding of Agile. We learned that:

• Agile is a Mindset
• It is essential to be Agile and not just do Agile
• The 4 Paired Core Values in the Agile Manifesto and their associated
12 Principles provide a solid foundation for successful Agile teams
• Agile is a very different approach than the traditional Waterfall
methodology

What We Covered In This Lesson

The purpose of this lesson was to give you an understanding of the
philosophical underpinnings of Agile. You were also introduced to the
value-driven benefits of using Agile for product development. You should
now understand why so many organizations across the globe are excited
about using Agile.
This lesson has also set us up nicely for the next lesson, where we will dive
into the topic of building and evolving successful Agile Teams

Glossary
New Terms In This Lesson
Term Definition
The four paired Core Values and associated 12 Principles that set the
Agile Manifesto
foundation for all Agile Frameworks
Agile Mindset The set of attitudes supporting an agile working environment
Agile Principles Practical guidance for teams to adopt Agile
Ambiguity refers to a lack of clarity, such as not having a clear understanding
Ambiguity
of the genuine needs of the customer and end-users
Anti-patterns are practices that preventing the Agile mindset from being
Anti-patterns
present and make things worse
When an Agile team lives & breathes Agile principles and values through
Being Agile
Agile practices consistently every day
The ability of an organization to adapt quickly to market changes, respond
rapidly and flexibly to customer demands that make business sense, as well as
Business Agility
adapt and lead change in a productive and cost-effective manner with no
compromise to quality
Complexity exists when there are many interconnected parts and variables that
Complexity
influence each other
When an Agile team adopting the practices without committing to or
Doing Agile
exhibiting Agile principles and values
Four Paired Core The part of the Agile Manifesto that defines the values that establishes what
Values Agile is for teams and organizations
The mindset that an individual's abilities can grow through dedication and
Growth Mindset
hard work
Incremental An approach that utilizes a given number of steps, which go from start to
Product Delivery finish following a linear path of progression
Iterative Product An approach where product development is broken into sequences of time-
Delivery boxed, repeated cycles called iterations
Lean principles refer to the Japanese term Muda as waste; Agile teams focus
Muda
on the removal of non-value adding tasks that are seen as Muda
A business proxy or representative of the business users who is the Voice of
Product Owner
the Customer (VOC)
Return on Return on investment (ROI) is calculated as the ratio between net profit and
Investment (ROI) cost of investment over a defined period of time
Sequential A process where a defined sequence of steps must be followed as in the
Product Delivery Waterfall approach
A diagram developed by Ralph Stacey to categorize the complexity of a
Stacey Diagram
project
 Term Definition
A holistic approach that looks at the way a system's components interrelate
Systems
and influence each other and how these components come together within the
Thinking
context of larger systems to deliver a solution
The extent to which an organization can confidently predict or forecast the
Uncertainty
future; more uncertainty makes it harder to predict
Voice of the
A term used to articulate the steps to capture customer's needs
Customer
Volatility is when there are unexpected or unstable possibilities that may
Volatility
influence the work being done
VUCA Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity
A methodology of product development that starts by breaking down project
Waterfall
tasks into linear sequential phases or stages where each subsequent stage
Methodology
depends on the successful delivery of the previous ones
WIP (Work in
The work that has been started but not yet completed
Progress)