What is an Agile Group?
The agile group is defined as an association of professionals or individuals who are experts in their individual fields and follow the agile principles and methodology to accomplish the project completion. An agile group comprises 5 to 11 members associated to perform all the necessary activities, whether technical and non-technical related to the project assigned and the task and responsibilities are assigned to them. In the Agile group, a better understanding of services and relationships is established, and thus this understanding helps to improve the services and customer satisfaction. The agile group follows and uses the agile business modelling approach, which is the combination of business processes with agile practices. The agile group is the face of the transformation of business and helps catalyze the organization’s profit.
Different Business Verticals
Below listed are the different business verticals that are grouped together in the agile group:
- Agile Consulting
- Agile Training
- Agile Executive administration
- Agile test Labs
- Agile knowledge management
- Agile communications
- Agile helpdesk support
- Consumer retail services
- Banking, financial services, and insurance
- Information technology-enabled services
Agile groups function on the basis of the following aspects of business development:
- The mindset or bend of the Individuals in the agile group is inclined towards growth and flexibility.
- It focuses on improving the quality of the delivery process.
- Adaptability and adjustment are encouraged in the agile group as the team members have proficient communication skills.
- The organization welcomes and embraces agile business practices and the structure for better performance.
- Consistent and focused on delivering the product to the stakeholders.
- Learning and consistent improvement in each iteration of the agile process.
Traits of an Agile Group
Agile groups are nothing but cross-functional agile teams that have everything to work upon and to deliver the top class service. It has been classified into three main roles, which are:
1. Stakeholder/Owner
The stakeholder or the client is the owner of the product and the one who gives the vision of the product. The product owner is the most important among the roles of the agile group as the stakeholder, or the product owner is the one responsible for providing the vision and mission of the product/project. The product owner decides and gives the green signal for jumping to the next iteration and validates the product developed in each iteration. It is the responsibility of the members to keep the stakeholder updated with the progress of the project so that the product is constantly reviewed in each iteration to meet the client’s expectation, and the stakeholder can take the decision to prioritize the next move of the project.
2. A Scrum Coach
Once the stakeholder has presented the vision on the table in front of the members, comes the scrum master or the agile coach who drafts or outlines the blueprint of the project. The agile coach guides and leads the agile group to accomplish the project and to deliver the product to the client. Apart from drafting the agile project outline, the agile coach supervises the day to day activities and the project progress.
3. Agile group members
The members are the foundation for any agile group or business implementation as the team members are the ones who work for the success of the project and to achieve the goal of the project. The members are a group of teams performing different functions like the architects, front end and back end developers, technicians, quality analysts, software testers, etc. The agile project implementation will collapse without the group embers as the individual members of the group. The agile team members work together to get rid of any obstruction in the way of achieving the target.
The Functioning of the Agile Group
Agile groups are well known for achieving their targets at the fastest rate, and they stand out from other traditional business groups due to the fastest project completion. Flexibility and speed are the paramount qualities of the agile teams, which help these teams to achieve their target and goal. It works upon two types of agile project management techniques, namely Scrum and Kanban agile project management. The scrum master and the stakeholder together are responsible for outlining and assigning the structures and roles to the members before the group members start working on the project.
Agile business practice is an iteration driven methodology that divides the big bulky project into smaller modules or phases, and a working prototype is delivered at the end of each iteration. The working prototype is tested and validated in each iteration, and the improvement actions are listed. These improvement actions are added to the prototype or product in the next iteration to eradicate the flaws and to produce a better version of the product. Daily stand-up meetings are conducted to keep every group member aware of the work done and completed till the last day, which helps to avoid any ambiguity or confusion among the agile group members.
This helps to keep track of the project progress, and each member gets a chance to put their point of view in the meeting if they have a productive plan or suggestion for a better quality of the product. The coach and the agile group embers can share and exchange their views in these meetings, which helps to bring integrity among the group members.
The agile group works together to remove any dependencies in the path of product development and product delivery, as it is crucial to break and get rid of these dependencies. It manages the dependencies to reduce the time taken and to achieve the target or project completion within the estimated timeframe. A self-organized agile group encourages flexible responses and rapid developments to make continuous learning and improvement through each iteration. Over the time period, they have evolved and emerged as the most successful teams for achieving the software project completion and best services with the highest customer satisfaction.
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