In the fast-paced world of technology and software development, speed and quality are everything. Today, businesses are constantly looking for ways to deliver new products more efficiently to keep up with competitors in rapidly evolving markets. Enter Agile.
For two decades, teams have turned to Agile to deliver products faster, minimize risk, and drive innovation. Today, Agile is the de facto standard for software development, but its use is far more widespread than its creators could have imagined. From Marketing teams to Operations teams and beyond, organizations across the galaxy are taking an agile approach to collaboration and delivery.
Meanwhile, advances in technology have made Agile more accessible and scalable than ever before. Gone are the days of meeting in person for every Agile ceremony. Remote, hybrid, and distributed teams can be just as successful — if not more — than co-located ones.
Agile is a philosophy that gives teams the power to deliver high value to their customers without the cumbersome elements of a full-blown launch. It started as a reaction against the traditional Waterfall methodology of delivering software, which favors long release cycles over incremental iterations.
Rather than waiting months or years to deliver a full suite of software products, for example, an Agile team delivers work in smaller chunks. This enables teams to collaborate closely with their customers to evaluate a product plan and strategy in real time, making adjustments as needs shift.
Agile is an attractive approach to development and collaboration because it allows teams to:
This template is designed to give all participants an overview of Agile, what it is, and how it compares to Waterfall. Teach your team about:
The origins of Agile
When to use it
Frameworks for putting Agile into action
With a team charter, you can build a shared understanding of how your team will work together. Use it to ensure your team is clear where you’re heading, and to point you in the right direction when your ship veers off course.
Agile ceremonies and team meetings shouldn’t be dull — but you know from experience that it can be tough to keep everyone engaged, excited, and creative. That’s where check-ins, warmups, energizers, and other simple activities come in. When you start a meeting with a no-pressure activity, team members can let their guard down, get in a more creative mindset, and ease into the meeting without abrupt context switching.
Even if everyone on your team can meet in person, you can benefit from going digital-first. Whiteboards and sticky notes are useful, but they’re limiting. Crowding around a physical whiteboard inevitably means people get left out. Not to mention the fact that digitizing chicken scratch from rogue sticky notes is a painstaking process. With a visual collaboration platform like MURAL and a video call solution that records the session, you can streamline collaboration and simplify follow-up.
Even if you’ve mastered in-person facilitation, running virtual meetings requires some new skills. Brush up on the technology you’re using, whether that’s MURAL’s Facilitation Superpowers or simply video call software. Keep an eye on group participation and encourage everyone to contribute — something that’s easier for introverts to do in an online environment. And don’t forget to prepare for the worst-case scenario — create a backup plan in case facilitators lose internet connection or something else goes wrong.
Get tips for remote facilitationWho hasn’t suffered from a case of workshop amnesia? As much as we believe we’ll remember outcomes and next steps, it’s easier said than done. Make sure you follow up after collaboration sessions with a recap of decisions made, next steps, and any artifacts from the meeting.
Agile Scrum is a lightweight framework designed specifically for keeping complex product development and project management on track. Primarily used for Agile product development, but applicable to any activity requiring teamwork, the Scrum framework helps teams communicate, hold each other accountable, and iterate quickly and consistently to deliver results.
Like a rugby team (where Scrum gets its name) trying to take possession of the ball, Scrum encourages teams to work together and learn from their experiences to improve. It's not a prescriptive method, but rather a set of principles and well-defined roles that help teams manage their work — and work more creatively.
Scrum teams are the most common type of Agile team, and a successful mission includes the following crew members:
The product owner looks over the product backlog, defines user stories, and orders the work to be done. They act as an advocate for the customer and other product stakeholders.
The Scrum leader, also called a Scrum master, is an expert responsible for making sure the team adopts Agile values, principles, and practices. They’re Scrum experts, able to guide the team through the process while also fostering positive team dynamics and protecting the team from potential distractions and roadblocks.
Developers are the people who create the product — but they’re not always software developers. For example, if a Marketing team adopts Agile, the developers are the folks who are creating marketing campaigns and materials.
Stakeholders aren’t technically on the Scrum team, but they still have a critical impact on the development process. A stakeholder is someone who has a vested interest in and knowledge of the product — so that includes users, external customers, and internal customers such as designers, marketers, and user researchers.
Unlike most Scrum leaders, Agile coaches work across multiple Scrum teams to develop their skills, foster a collaborative environment, and solve specific challenges. Agile coaches don’t simply advise; they also teach, empowering team members to evaluate potential solutions and understand the “why,” not just the “what.”
While the term might sound a bit intimidating, Scrum ceremonies and their related activities are relatively straightforward. Think of them as meetings designed to align the Scrum team and empower them to be more effective with each increment.
Conducting backlog refinement (sometimes called backlog grooming) ensures your product backlog is up to date and prioritized for future sprint planning.
Product owner
Scrum leader
Key members of the development team
Weekly or biweekly
Don’t push all team members to attend if their time would be better spent working on the current sprint.
It’s tempting to cut corners when it comes to estimating backlog items, but it’s crucial to make sure estimates are realistic.
Use a timer when discussing backlog items, and don’t be afraid to move on from items that are unclear or not well defined.
Use this template to facilitate a backlog refinement session with your team.
Sprint planning allows the development team to review the top priorities from the product backlog, estimate the level of effort involved, and create the sprint backlog.
Development team
Scrum leader
Product owner
Typically biweekly
Scrum leaders cannot be afraid to push back against attempted micro-management from the product owner and individual team members.
Make sure to highlight the action items your team identified during the most recent retrospective so they don’t fall through the cracks.
Use this template to facilitate a sprint planning session with your team.
Daily scrum meetings — also referred to as daily standups — are quick, 15 minute check-ins where all the members of the Agile development team can sync up and raise any blockers they may be experiencing.
Development team
Scrum leader
Product owner
Daily, usually in the morning
Consider whether your team really needs daily scrum meetings. Some (but certainly not all) teams are more effective with less frequent standups.
Set a timer to keep the team on track and avoid monologues from any single team member.
If your team is distributed across time zones, consider implementing asynchronous standups, allowing everyone to contribute on their own time.
The sprint review happens at the end of each sprint with the purpose of aligning key stakeholders outside of the Scrum team and getting their feedback on the deliverables from the sprint.
Development team
Scrum leader
Product owner
Stakeholders
Typically biweekly
Demonstrate the value of the sprint review ceremony to stakeholders so they feel confident in their decision to attend.
Don’t wait until the sprint review to determine whether something meets the definition of done. Loop in the product owner early and often, before the ceremony.
Use sprint reviews to tell the story of what the team has developed, rather than running through a list of tasks they accomplished.
Use this template to facilitate a sprint review with your team.
Retrospectives allow the Development team to reflect on the sprint process: what went well, what didn't, and what actions they can take to improve over the course of the next sprint.
Development team
Scrum leader
Product owner
Typically biweekly
Too often, retrospectives are rushed. Allocate plenty of time to get into the groove and allow folks to open up.
Encourage open communication by demonstrating vulnerability and creating a safe space. What’s said in the retro stays in the retro.
Assign action items to specific individuals and document next steps. Remember: If everyone owns it, then no one does.
Use this template to facilitate a sprint retro with your team.
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Teach your team about Scrum roles, artifacts, and events by using this collaborative exercise to match terms to the proper location on the Scrum framework.
Drag and drop the Roles, Ceremonies, Artifacts, and Inspection Points to their appropriate spot on the Scrum Workflow diagram. Check your work by moving the box to uncover the answers.
Similar to Scrum, Kanban is a framework designed to help teams work more effectively together. Whereas short, structured work timeframes (i.e., sprints) and well-defined roles are the heart and soul of Scrum, Kanban offers a more fluid and continuous workflow. It’s all about helping teams visualize their work and maximize efficiency.
Kanban teams aim to reduce the time it takes to complete a project and they do this by constantly considering how to improve their flow of work. Using Kanban boards, teams create their own columns to organize how projects flow through the necessary stages. They also set WIP (work in progress) limits to stay focused on a limited number of tasks at one time.
Kanban relies on everyone’s participation and leadership, and having regular meetings makes that happen. Keep your team on track by encouraging open communication and ongoing collaboration with the help of these common Kanban meetings.
These short meetings (no more than 15 minutes) are designed to quickly brief everyone on the team’s progress. They keep teams aligned and aware of how everyone’s work is progressing.
Development team
Product owner
Daily, typically in the morning
Set a timer to keep the team on track and avoid monologues from any single team member.
If your team is distributed across time zones, consider implementing asynchronous standups, allowing everyone to contribute on their own time.
Set aside time for your team to prioritize items from the backlog based on impact, urgency, and relevance to product goals.
Development team
Product owner
Typically weekly
Agree on WIP limits for each class of service. Don’t be afraid to reevaluate WIP limits if they’re unrealistic, but otherwise, stick to them.
If your team is used to treating everything as an urgent priority, it will take time to change that mindset. Help them focus on impact and urgency — not on prioritizing the loudest stakeholders or most exciting items.
Use this template to facilitate a prioritization session with your team.
Unlike Scrum retros, Kanban retrospectives are optional and can happen weekly, quarterly, or on an as-needed basis. Hold retrospectives to visualize what's going well, what isn't, and action items to drive incremental improvement.
Development team
Product owner
Varies across teams
Too often, retrospectives are rushed. Allocate plenty of time to get into the groove and allow folks to open up.
Encourage open communication by demonstrating vulnerability and creating a safe space. What’s said in the retro stays in the retro.
Assign action items to specific individuals and document next steps. Remember: If everyone owns it, then no one does.
Use this template to facilitate a Kanban retrospective with your team.
Kanban boards make it easy to track your team's progress and visualize everyone's tasks. Use this template to create transparency and help your team focus on their goals.
Enterprise organizations that want to scale Agile across the company face unique challenges that demand a more prescriptive framework.
That’s where scaled Agile methodologies like SAFe®, or the Scaled Agile Framework, come in. SAFe combines Lean, Agile, and DevOps principles to create a collaborative system that empowers numerous Agile teams to work together across an organization.
Create a visual summary of the goals, features, risks, dependencies, and timelines defined in the program increment plan.
Estimate the capacity of each team to accomplish the tasks in each iteration. You'll need one for each team that participates in the planning.
With MURAL, the possibilities of Agile are infinitely expanded
Share this overview of Agile with teams that are just getting started.
Learn how the world’s oldest consultancy facilitates remote PI planning with their clients.
Learn how Agile Product teams can adjust to a hybrid work style, adapting Agile ceremonies so they work for every team member, no matter where they are.
MURAL® is the leading digital workspace for visual collaboration in the enterprise. Teams depend on the MURAL platform to understand and solve problems and build consensus using visual methods. More than an online whiteboard, the MURAL platform enables innovation at scale by providing a platform for everything from product strategy and planning to leading immersive workshops using Agile and design thinking methodologies. Industry-leading teams at companies including IBM, IDEO, Autodesk, Intuit, GitHub, and Atlassian use the MURAL platform to work together — at any time and from anywhere.
Cprime focuses on helping clients mitigate the risks involved with bringing new ideas to market and accelerates their speed to value. Working as a strategic partner, Cprime's experts ensure a mindful approach to digital transformation that brings together the right blend of people, process, and technology. As the strategic partner of choice for Fortune 100 companies looking to achieve value and agility, they help visionary business leaders exceed against business goals. With key partnership recognitions, including Atlassian Platinum, AWS Advanced, GitLab, and SAFe Gold SPCT partner, their industry-leading solution architects work in synergy with clients to deliver successful digital transformations.
