Pedro Luiz Martins Cruz
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Shortly after the publication of the Agile Manifesto, many people considered XP synonymous with Agile. Later, this happened with Scrum. However, several other Agile methodologies exist, such as Crystal, Kanban, Flight Levels, SAFe, Unified Flow, and others. Let's dive into the world of Agile methodologies.
April/19/2022 - 19 minutes reading
We have a few criteria to consider when deciding whether a methodology belongs to the Agile group. The first criterion is that the method's creator participated in signing the Agile Manifesto. The second criterion is whether the method follows the same values and principles in the Agile Manifesto.
To clarify these criteria, let's mention the manifesto, and the most important phrase in it is the opening sentence, which many people overlook when explaining the Agile Manifesto: "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it." In other words, we will start with the methodologies that existed during the Agile Manifesto, but we will not stop there, as the search for better ways of working is continuous.
For methodologies created after the manifesto, we will mainly base our analysis on the values described immediately after this phrase and also on the principles of the manifesto.
The Agile Manifesto was signed in February 2001 during a people meeting using lightweight management methods to assist in software development.
Some signatories had created their own methods and succeeded in their projects. At that time, most projects were failing, and they were finding better ways to manage and develop software..
It is important to note that the Agile Manifesto references software development, and its name is The Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Therefore, the following list highlights the significant technical contributions of the signatories to programming and software.
However, we will focus on the methodologies, as they have been applied to various fields of knowledge and have become excellent ways to improve work management.
The signatories have been actively speaking and contributing to knowledge about agility. Additionally, we highlight their contributions and books:
| Signatory | Contribution |
|---|---|
Kent Beck |
Methodology: Extreme Programming - XP (creator) Authored of the following books:
|
Mike Beedle |
Methodology: Scrum (contributed) He held a PhD in Physics He was the CEO of Enterprise Scrum Inc. Co-author of the first Scrum book: Agile Software Development with Scrum Created Enterprise Scrum to scale Scrum |
Arie van Bennekum |
Co-author of the book - Lean Agile Marketing: How to Become Agile and Deliver Marketing Success |
Alistair Cockburn |
Methodology: Crystal (creator), Heart of Agile (creator) PhD in Computer Science Co-founder of the International Consortium for Agile He wrote the following books:
|
Ward Cunningham |
Methodology: Extreme Programming - XP (contributed) MMaster’s in Computer Science Developed the first Wiki Authored the book: The Wiki Way The Wiki Way |
| Martin Fowler | Methodology: Extreme Programming - XP (contributed) Chief Scienist da ThoughtWorks Authored the books::
Maintains the website: martinfowler.com/ |
James Grenning |
He wrote the following book: Test-Driven Development for Embedded C: Building Hihg Quality Embedded Software Created Planning Poker |
| Jim Highsmith | Methodology: Adaptive software development - ASD (creator) Authored the books:
|
Andrew Hunt |
Authored the books:
|
Ron Jeffries |
Methodology: Extreme Programming - XP (contributed) Authored the books:
|
Jon Kern |
Maintains the website: technicaldebt.com/ |
Brian Marick |
Authored the books:
|
Robert C. Martin |
Maintains the website: cleancoder.com Authored the books:
|
Steve Mellor |
Authored the books:
|
Ken Schwaber |
Methodology: Scrum (co-creator) Head da Scrum.org Cofounder da ScrumAlliance Authored the books:
|
Jeff Sutherland |
Methodology: Scrum (co-creator) CEO da Scrum Inc Authored the books:
|
Dave Thomas |
Authored the books:
|
As we can see, the authors of the Agile Manifesto have published several books on technology and programming and created the methods: XP, Scrum, ASD, Crystal, and Heart of Agile.
The most important methodology at the time was XP due to having a published book and an event to promote the method in 2000 in Italy. Its creator is Kent Beck, and he is one of the signatories. XP received contributions from Ward Cunningham and Martin Fowler.
Soon after the Manifesto, many people understood that Agile was XP and XP was Agile, as if they were the same thing, as noted by Gavin in 2003. [1]
Even today, people use XP, but research shows that it is used less in companies. [2]
Scrum received support from several signatories and gained significant visibility to the point where it is now the company's most used methodology [2]. Created by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, it received various contributions over time, with the most significant contributions from Mike Beedle.
Crystal had several versions; the version for small teams was considered lightweight and thus regarded as agile. However, it has not appeared in research as a currently used method. [2]
ASD is a highly conceptual and abstract method, mainly proposing that practices emerge as needed, incredibly encouraging collaboration among all team members. ASD also has not appeared in research as a method currently being used.
FDD is a method created before the Manifesto that follows the same principles. FDD does not incorporate the start of a new project; it assumes that something already exists and then follows an approach of identifying, designing, and implementing new features. It also appears infrequently in research.
Heart of Agile was included on the list as a methodology because signatory Alistair Cockburn created it. Still, he made it as a movement to revive Agile principles in 2015 (15 years after the Manifesto). We included it as a methodology because we see an evolution in the teachings and recognize some guidance as a methodology.
As mentioned earlier, we will also consider methodologies that follow the same principles as the Manifesto. Two exciting characteristics of agile methods are bringing the customer closer and using short delivery cycles to create a significant delivery from this. The following methodologies listed here adhere to these characteristics and the Manifesto's values
The Agile Manifesto has its values described as a decision-making filter:
The Agile Manifesto has its values described as a decision-making filter
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
The structure of the statements, where one thing is valued more than another and thus does not discard the less valued, serves to help decide on more important things.
Therefore, the following methodologies follow this decision-making filter, valuing the items on the left more, even if they also use the items on the right.
Lean was created before the Manifesto and influenced the decision on the principles. During the creation of the Agile Manifesto, Lean was mentioned by its participants, and they considered using the name Lean in the Manifesto. Still, the group ended up preferring the term "agile."
Books that describe the agile methods Scrum and XP often mention Lean. Kent Beck included flow in the second edition of the Extreme Programming book [3], and the Scrum Guide mentions Lean's influence [4]. However, Lean's creation is quite old; it was developed by Toyota as the Toyota Production System and later named Lean by the book The Machine That Changed the World.
We include Lean here as an agile methodology because it shares the same principles as the Manifesto and even inspired the creators of the Agile Manifesto and their methodologies.
Another major driver for considering Lean as an agile method was the book Lean Startup (known as Startup Enxuta in Portuguese) written by Eric Ries [5], which masterfully combines Lean techniques with agile methods and also popularizes the use of MVP.
Kanban was created by David Anderson, and in its early days, the methodology was called Lean Kanban. The Kanban methodology revived many of Lean's industrial model teachings and significantly adapted them for knowledge work management, expanding its use across different fields.
It is currently a very strong methodology in the agile community and has greatly helped adapt agile methods for different companies. Both Kanban and Lean have been ways to diversify management methods beyond software development teams.
The method is often confused with the Kanban board, which is widely used. Besides the board, the Kanban method employs many workflow techniques, detailing the flow and providing extensive management, making it the most adaptable method among those mentioned here.
The Kanban method has evolved significantly, being applicable to teams and services and even scaled across entire organizations. A significant contribution of Kanban was the Kanban Maturity Model, which greatly aids in the corporate vision of using agile methods.
The methodology created by Intel and popularized by use at Google follows the principles of the Agile Manifesto and has an excellent relationship with other agile methods. The OKR approach provides very good organizational strategic alignment using the key feature of agile methods, short cycles while being suitable for the strategic level.
Short cycles used in Scrum and XP are smaller cycles of less than one month, mainly dealing with smaller operational matters. In contrast, OKR deals with objectives and key results from the strategic level down through the organization, proposing 3-month cycles.
Design Thinking appears on the list of agile methodologies due to the characteristics mentioned and some additional ones. Like agile methods, Design Thinking was created to improve product development and use facilitation in its process
Design Thinking is a set of best design practices that has been widely practiced in product and software development. It was included on our list for following the same principles and providing excellent results.
Flight Levels was created by Klaus Leopold and introduced in his book Rethinking Agility. The method uses the terms "operational," "tactical," and "strategic" as levels of applying methods throughout an organization
It primarily uses the Kanban method, but other methods can also be used at each level, creating integration throughout the organization. Each level is called a flight level, which gives the method its name.
Unified Flow is a method created in Brazil with great pride and was a co-creation of the Taller and Objective companies. Both companies scaled agility and created new ways of working to solve the obstacles they encountered, leading to the creation of Unified Flow.
The method definition: Multiple teams handling multiple projects (demands) in a common flow, with a shared backlog and load balancing (pressure).
Leading practices include: Flow Management, Load Management (also called flow pressure), Shared Queues, Knowledge Sharing, and Automation.[6]
SAFe stands for Scaled Agile Framework. It is a method that incorporates other methods to apply to huge organizations with thousands of employees.
A scaling method using Scrum, proposing the use of 8 teams with 8 people or even thousands of people focused on a single product. Its key feature is the synchronization of sprints between teams. It is the scaling methodology supported by ScrumAlliance.
Another scaling method using Scrum, is proposing 3 to 9 Scrum teams working on a single product. Similar to LeSS, it features the synchronization of teams in a single Sprint. It is the scaling methodology supported by Scrum.org.
Scott Ambler and Mark Lines created Disciplined Agile, which has evolved to incorporate many Agile techniques into a single toolkit. Scott Ambler has been its major evangelist. In 2019, PMI acquired the method.
We sought a consistent way to list agile methodologies in this article, but other methods may follow the same principles and values of the Agile Manifesto. Our list included:
We refer to all of these as methods or methodologies to simplify our analysis. Some consider themselves methods, others methodologies, but other terms are also used, such as frameworks, thinking models, and sets of practices. However, they all follow the same principles and values and assist in work management.
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[1] The Agile Umbrella, http://www. featuredrivendevelopment .com/node/531 acessado em 19/04/2022.
[2] State of Agile 2021:https://info.digital.ai/rs/981-LQX-968/images/RE-SA-15th-Annual-State-Of-Agile-Report.pdf;
State of Agile 2020: https://www.qagile.pl/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/14th-annual-state-of-agile-report.pdf;
State of Agile 2019: https://www.duxdiligens.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/13th-annual-state-of-agile-report_7_May_2019.pdf
[3] Kent Beck e Cynthia Andres. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2a edição, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2004.
[4] ScrumGuides: https://scrumguides.org/
[5] Eric Ries. The Lean Startup, Crown Business, 2011.
[6] Unified Flow: https://www.unifiedflow.org/.
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