As a product owner or if you decided to become one, you probably read about Agile software development methodology. If you still hesitate about the viability of its usage or don't understand all terms then this article is for you. In our article, we'll clear up the concept of Agile, what roles are here, the risks, which exist in creating a product and how communication affects on the product. https://www.cleveroad.com/blog/what-is-agile-methodology--the-easiest-explanationwith-real-life-solutions Let's form the Agile methodology principles Before 2001 IT teams all over the world mostly used Waterfall model for the software development, where each stage goes one after another, as a sequence. From requirements analysis, design, construction, testing, production to maintenance. But it all changed with the publishing of Agile Manifesto on the February, 18. The fundamental difference between these approaches lies in priorities the methodologies are built on. Unlike Waterfall Agile values and principles are about: Flexibility - everything can be changed anytime. Focus on people and collaboration, not on instruments. The methodology doesn't require much documentation, so there is no need to spend hours on materials which you might not need if you decided to replace something. Communication between the key players is vital. These doctrines made Agile one of the most appreciated path for mobile and web development as it stands for efficient and deft development process under informal and relaxed working conditions. Everything about our own approach to successful project delivery and how to control it is here Agile team roles, basic definitions and frameworks To understand how it works we need to deal with the main terminology in Agile. As we know - Agile is almost a game and everyone here has a role, lower we define the most important Roles in Agile Depending on the Agile framework and tool, which you chose for your team, you can find lots of different roles like Architecture Owner or Team Lead or Domain Expert. However, lower we will consider basic roles, which are crucial for the development with Agile: Product owner (PO) The role of Product Owner in Agile is crucial, as he/she is not only the initiator of development but also a person with a clear idea of the future product. PO supervises the whole process and discusses every detail with his team. Stakeholders Future users, people who are interested in the product, they will support it or will be involved in development process. Development team (DT) People, who will build the product. It is usually a team of five-seven highly motivated specialists, that can build a working prototype without external help. Basic terms As well as with the roles, there are tonnes of terms in the methodology. Nevertheless, we need to discuss a few of them to grasp the idea of Agile. Agile user stories Explanation of what this feature should do. According to the Agile principles, they can be changed, added or deleted anytime. Capacity To clarify the idea of the Agile development process we should also mention what the Capacity is. In Waterfall model, all user stories are collected and then processed at once, in our case development team processes and releases them as often as possible. The number of the stories one team can handle a week calls the capacity. It's an average number based on past experience of one team, not on the will of stakeholders or Product Owner. Agile frameworks To tell you the truth, we can spend hours talking about frameworks and practices in Agile. You might have heard of XP, SaFE, LeSS and Dad, but if you new in Agile, I
would advise you to read about two the most common and easiest to apply practices: Scrum One of the Agile branches. Scrum teaches us to work with small self-reliant groups instead of large teams, the tasks should also be small and clear, so a group can fulfil it easily and fast. Such tasks form Sprint with fixed length (usually about 2 weeks). After each Sprint PO gets a working prototype with features from a particular sprint. Scrum Master - the main character in Scrum, is an intermediary between the Product Owner and the team. Scrum Master has lots of duties, he has to organise the team(s), he watches what they did and what is necessary to do, explains the wishes of PO and vice versa interprets to the owner what issues the developers have. Kanban Kanban works with cards or stickers for visualisation. Columns help you to see what stage is the task on. The simplest table would have columns To do, In progress and Done. Moving the card you see what time it takes to complete one or another assignment. In future, this data will help you to improve the time and to make predictions about the project duration Kanban - Agile framework Agile includes not only Scrum and Kanban, but these two ways are the most popular and effective ones. There is no right or wrong formula. You can choose any Agile development approach or principle you like and you think is best for your team, or to mix them.