In 2001, Agile manifesto formally shifted software
development to Agile process model, meanwhile it declared the death of
Waterfall which wrongly assumes that a project can be spec'd ahead of
development. What Agile changed in essence is that it introduced the concept of
Continuous Delivery/Integration - multi-minor releases instead of one major
release. Each of that small release is the product of a small cycle called
Sprint. Sprints are important and as such there are very useful disciplines
to identify them and define them; there
are measures to ensure the execution of a Sprint. Firstly, a Sprint has a
goal that brings value to the business; Secondly, it has a clear done by
putting in a set of testable features. These features are so interrelated
that any portion remains undone then the Sprint is undone. Even though we
focus on Sprints, we also always keep the big picture - the final product in
mind. This is the core spirit of "Continuous Integration/
Improvement".
Now, how to ensure fluid execution of each sprint? The
daily scrum, a tool to achieve what Agile manifesto has said. Proper daily
scrums can keep the team focused, energized, and coordinated. It helps
achieving transparency and connectivity in the team and enforcing
responsibility for each other.
Worthwhile to mention, the role of testing in Agile
is no less important. Let's use the term QA instead of testing, because QA
doesn’t equal to testing, neither equals to Validation, neither equals to
finding bugs - BTW, it is impossible to find all bugs, QA is to improve
the software through continuously finding information/value that
pushes the software closer to the expected product. In this sense, QA is
more like a product delivery specialist. After all, QA is the central
pillar and should be involved from the very beginning of the development
process.
Finally, let’s recite the Agile manifesto:
- Individual & interactions over process &
tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following plan
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