The benefits of Agile methodologies are enticing. Many businesses gain clear organization of work, better collaboration with stakeholders, and improved predictability of deliverables.

Some of our most widely used Agile methodologies include:

• Agile Scrum Methodology
• Lean Software Development
• Kanban
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Crystal

Agile Scrum Methodology

Scrum is an Agile project management framework that can be used to manage iterative and incremental projects of all types–typically called “sprints”. Scrum focuses on clear deliverables in a short period of time, with frequent re-evaluation of commitments.

For instance, as a team completes a 2-week sprint, it will work with stakeholders to confirm that the deliverables have business value and are helping to achieve goals. Then team may then re-evaluate priorities and plans for the next iterative sprint, committing to new deliverables or actions.

Scrum has gained increasing popularity in recent years due to its simplicity, proven productivity, and ability to incorporate various practices that are promoted by other Agile models.

Lean Software Development

Lean software development is an iterative Agile methodology that focuses on delivering value to customers through a conceptual framework and guiding principles. It has a certain flexibility that allows for efficient and effective teamwork and eliminates waste by only focusing on and prioritizing truly valuable features.

Lean development has 7 guiding principles:

• Eliminate waste
• Build quality in
• Create knowledge
• Defer commitment
• Deliver fast
• Respect people
• Optimize the whole

Following these guiding principles allows a team to delete unneeded activity, which saves time and money. Lean development decreases the time needed to deliver a functional product, since it prepares the development team in the decision-making process. Best of all, Lean development is easily scalable and adaptable to different types of projects.

Kanban

Kanban is a popular Agile framework that is used for software development. This method represents work visually on a Kanban board, with stages such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”

It requires real-time communication of capacity and full transparency of work. Work items are represented visually on a Kanban board, allowing team members to see the state of every piece of work at any time.

The use of a Kanban board offers quick and visual summaries of various tasks and their current statuses. As team members move tickets from swim lane to swim lane, a Kanban board allows transparency into the process of work – who is needed for a current task, what potential bottle necks or road blocks exist, and solutions within the order of processes.

Kanban is based on 3 principles:

• Workflow Automation (visualize what you will do for the day)– Seeing all items planned for the day in context of other tasks helps prioritize and inform
• Limit Work In Progress (WIPS)–Starting and finishing a task before moving on to another one ensures that a team doesn’t commit to too much work at once and end up with half-finished items
• Enhance Flow–When a task is completed, the next highest priority task is started and items are reshuffled in order of priority

We utilize Kanban agile framework to better incorporate transparency into development projects and ensure prioritizations of work.

Extreme Programming (XP)

Extreme Programming, or XP, is an agile software development framework that focuses on speed, continuous delivery, and deliver a higher quality software.

XP is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness and promotes high customer involvement, rapid feedback loops, continuous testing, continuous planning, and close teamwork to deliver working software at very frequent intervals, typically every 1-3 weeks.

This agile methodology includes the customer works closely with the development team to define and prioritize user stories (software features). The development team confers with the customer to determine, plan, and deliver the highest priority user stories. These stories take the form of working and tested software that is delivered on an iteration-by-iteration basis, in order to maximize productivity and support a lightweight framework.

Extreme Programming (XP) is a great choice for project that require rapid adaptation or heavy client involvement to achieve specific results.

Some examples of projects that can benefit from XP include those that:

• Involve new or prototype technology
• Have requirements change rapidly
• Are research projects
• Are small and do not require formal development methods

We utilize XP agile framework to better incorporate speed and flexibility into development projects and ensure customer involvement.

Crystal

Crystal is a family of agile methodologies that are distinguished as being lightweight and adaptable approaches to software development. Crystal focuses on the people involved in development and the team’s interactions while they work on a project.

Crystal variants are based on team sizes and adapt for each project in order to create the best possible software development process, so that the development is more efficient, interpersonal, and symbiotic among team members.

• Crystal Clear refers to small teams (up to 8 people)
• Crystal Yellow refers to small teams (10-20 person teams)
• Crystal Orange refers to small teams (20-50 person teams)
• Crystal Red refers to small teams (50-1,000 person teams)

Crystal’s primary principles are:

• People
• Interactions
• Community
• Skills
• Talent
• Communication

We utilize Crystal agile methodologies to better incorporate teamwork into development projects and ensure adaptability.