What is Agility

There are multiple views on Agility.

Highsmith in 2002 explained it as the ability to handle the change in a dynamic environment where Business requirements change very frequently and are ever demanding. If one is able to handle the change, agility is attained which is crucial. He also added that it’s also the ability to make a trade off and balance the flexibility and stability. Requirement change can happen endlessly and we need to match them. There should be a point where an equilibrium is attained between flexibility towards adopting changes to stability of project/product. E.g. if the project is trying to optimize a system and working on some configuration items, there should be a balance between configurable parameters and level of optimization. Over-optimization may make the system less flexible and over configurable items may make the system too flexible to achieve stability

Agile approach is always mistaken for a shortcut and less structured approach. However now it’s more evident with lot more case studies and projects. Agility doesn’t imply that the structure is not there rather it’s a balancing game. Agile teams and projects are more focused and systematic owing to which they have achieved excellence as a team.