The 12 Processes of Agile:

The Agile style follows 12 core principles, these principles should be applied to every Agile project.

5. Build around and support motivated individuals.

• A team is more successful if the right individuals are in the right positions. A team can benefit even more if those individuals have the right support and space that allows them to maximize their productivity. This also means though that the individuals often need space so they can work well without any distractions, this means no micromanaging and just letting them do their own thing. The manager of the project should focus less on things like micromanaging their workings and instead make sure they have the right resources and space to do their best.

6. The best communication method is face-to-face.

• From the title of this principle alone, you can figure out that remote projects may not be the best projects for agile. Face-to-face is the best method of communication, so all meetings should be in-person best case scenario. This is because face-to-face encapsulates everything outside of our words, like hand motions or facial expressions. A conversation with your friend in person is very different than a text conversation with that same friend. It is also a lot harder to pick up on things like jokes or sarcasm through digital communication. Being there in person makes everything feel more real and everyone is a lot more invested in what is being discussed because they are not in their underwear with their cat three feet away from them. Because this method is preferred, this requires not only developer teams but also the stakeholders to all live close to each other as there will be plenty of in-person meetings.

7. Working software is the primary way to measure your progress.

• From the previous principles, you should know by now that working iterations of your project is a big deal in agile. It is not only something that you send to your stakeholders to know you are at least getting something done, but it is a way to measure how much you have done. In fact, it is considered a far better measurement than things like time spent, how well you have stuck to the plan, or progress reports themselves. Because getting a working deliverable is so important it takes priority over something like documentation. The main goal of agile is to create a working product above all else.

8. Promote sustainable development. Sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

• Essentially what this means is that there should be a consistent workflow throughout the project. The workflow should be consistent enough that there is no need for crashing, crunching, or overtime. Imagine you get assigned homework on Monday and it is due Friday, the homework is a hundred questions of math. You have three main options, the first is to get it all done at once, so you do not have to worry about it, the second choice is to wait until the last day to do it, and the final choice is to do a consistent twenty-five questions a day. The first option sounds good, but it is not optimal because while the homework requirements may not change, a project certainly can so you could do all this work just for the requirements to be changed later on and it is for naught. The second choice is an obvious no, it will leave you working extra hard for work that probably would have been better if you had not procrastinated. The third choice is the best as it creates a consistent flow of work that ensures it will get done on time and you are not doing too much or too little. The rule is essentially saying to work thoughtfully.

9. Attention to technical excellence and good design

• This principle is all about the quality of the product. When the first iteration of the product is done, it works, but it may also not be the best. This principle is about improving not just what the product does but how it does it. An example is a website, the first iteration is up and it runs, but say the register and login process might be a little slow, and it takes a long time to create your account. This issue should not be left by the wayside and it should be solved or improved upon in future renditions.

10. Simplicity is essential.

• This principle is all about maximizing the work you do not have to do. Anything that does not meet the specifications, enhance the customer experience, or increase project outputs should be ignored. This allows for more time to be focused only on what matters.

11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

• A self-organized team is one that can organize and structure itself as need be. It also means they have the freedom to innovate or collaborate when they see fit. This essentially means the team decides what to do for the project when they are working on it and they are not slowed by planning or oversight.

12. The team decides how to improve and adjust at regular intervals.

• A team should regularly convene and discuss how to improve or things that went wrong and how to avoid them. An example should be after the first spring product is delivered, the team meets to review what went wrong and how to mitigate that, and also what went right and how to increase that. They decide that after each day, they relay to a group chat what has been finished so that everyone is on the same page as to what has been completed.

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