What is Agile methodology?

When you hear the word "Agile", some people instantly think of the SCRUM method, others of "Extreme Programming" and finally some people think it simply boils down to being able to quickly adapt to change.

But what is it really about?

The Agile method does not exist.

This may surprise you to read, but it's the plain truth, because there is no such thing as an Agile method in the strict sense. But there is nevertheless an Agile methodology.

Yes, I know, the nuance may seem slight but it is very important.

A method is a "way" of doing something, whereas methodology is the study of all these methods. You have to see the Agile methodology as a set of values, of rules, that a project team can choose to follow or not.

The most irrefutable proof that the Agile method does not exist is that there are actually many development methods that are described as agile, but which existed before the Agile methodology came into being, for example we can mention:

• SCRUM
• Extreme Programming
• RAD (Rapid Application Development)
• ASD (Adaptive Software Development)
• ...

In 2001, 17 software development experts (including some creators of the methods mentioned above) gathered to find a theme that would unify their methods under common values, and it was at this moment that the Agile Manifesto was written.

The Agile Manifesto

The manifesto therefore summarizes the values drawn from these new application development methods, with the aim of stepping away from the old waterfall design methods.

The Agile methodology intends to value:

• Individuals and their interactions over processes and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

No matter what the name of your working method is or how your team is organized, if the values above are respected, then you are working with a so-called "Agile" method.

If these values are too vague for you, I recommend that you check out the 12 principles that accompany the Agile manifesto which describes the methodology in more concrete terms and situations, directly on the official manifesto website:

https://agilemanifesto.org/iso/fr/principles.html

Agile practices

The name of all the different so-called "Agile" methods is actually a facade for a reality in developers' daily lives: a set of practices implemented and used day after day.

Among these practices, there are some that draw directly from the values of the Agile methodology, such as:

• Pair-programming (to which I dedicated a previous article)
• The use of User Stories
• Continuous Integration
• TDD (Test-Driven Development)
• DDD (Domain Driven Development)
• Refactoring (Reworking the readability and performance of the code)
• and many others...

To discover all of these practices, I invite you to explore each of the so-called agile methods and discover the principles and practices implemented within each method.

Key takeaways

Agile is a methodology, a set of values extracted from several already existing application programming methods and brought together under a common banner.

The most important thing is not simply to say that you "do" agile, but to respect the principles and practices that make up this methodology on a daily basis.