{"id":201,"date":"2023-01-19T13:14:03","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbar67.com\/wordpress\/2023\/01\/19\/the-history-of-agile-methods-and-innovations\/"},"modified":"2023-01-19T13:14:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:14:03","slug":"the-history-of-agile-methods-and-innovations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbar67.com\/wordpress\/the-history-of-agile-methods-and-innovations\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Agile Methods and Innovations"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the early 1900s, IT experts could take dozens of years to develop a software<\/a> computer. Then came Agile, and the world of Information Technology became a much, much better place.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The implementation of Agile methodologies has then revolutionised the way software developers and industry leaders design and build products for their clients. Unlike traditional methods, Agile makes the development process faster and easier, and of course less frustrating than before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Image from Pexel<\/em><\/p>\n

But did you know that the origin of Agile started outside of IT? In this brief but detailed history of Agile innovation, we will get to know more about the pioneers of Agile methodologies, the practices that yield a foundation for this approach and how Agile Manifesto was created.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Are you ready to travel back in time and discover the long yet colourful heritage of Agile? Here we go.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1930s: The \u201cPlan-Do-Study-Act\u201d Cycle<\/h2>\n

In the 1930s, the physicist and statistician Walter Shewhart of Bell Telephone Laboratories proposed a series of short Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. PDSA is an iterative and incremental-development methodology and involves a four-stage problem-solving model which is used to improve a process or execute change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The iterative and incremental-development methodology are key practices in Agile. This approach works by breaking projects into pieces instead of delivering them all at once near the completion. It uses user stories and prioritising them continuously, usually a one or two-week cycle called iterations or sprints.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shewart shared PDSA methodology to his mentee, W. Edwards Deming. Deming used PDSA extensively in Japan and was hired to train several Toyota managers. His expertise in the PDSA cycle leads the company to develop the famous Toyota Production System (TPS), which is known as the primary source of \u201clean\u201d thinking that many organisations are still using up to this day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deming published the PDSA cycle in The New Economics in 1993. He also renamed it the \u201cDeming Cycle\u201d. Each stage of the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle comprises the following actions:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Plan<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 plan a change or a test, aimed at improvement<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Do<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 carry out the change or the test (preferably on a small scale)<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0Study<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 study the results. What did we learn? What went wrong?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Act<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 adopt the change or abandon it, or run through the cycle again<\/p>\n

The incremental and iterative development methodologies were also used to create the X-15 hypersonic jet in the 1950s.<\/p>\n

1960\u2019s: Evolutionary Project Management\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Evo, short for Evolutionary Value Delivery, was considered by many Agile experts as the \u201coriginal\u201d agile method. Tom Gilbs originally used it as a project management method back in the 1960s, both personally and through clients. Evo focuses on \u201cdelivering measurable multiple value requirements to stakeholders\u201d and recommends two-week iterations that focus on the delivery of product<\/a> each iteration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The principles of Evo, which are detailed in the Systems Engineering Conference paper, are as follows:<\/p>\n

E1:<\/strong>\u00a0Decompose by performance results and stakeholders;<\/p>\n

E2:<\/strong>\u00a0Do high-risk steps early, learn how \u2018unknowns\u2019 really perform;<\/p>\n

E3:<\/strong>\u00a0Focus on improving your most valuable performance objectives first;<\/p>\n

E4:<\/strong>\u00a0Base your early evolution on existing systems and stakeholders;<\/p>\n

E5:<\/strong>\u00a0Design to cost dynamically;<\/p>\n

E6:<\/strong>\u00a0Design to performance dynamically;<\/p>\n

E7:<\/strong>\u00a0Invest in an open-ended architecture early on;<\/p>\n

E8:<\/strong>\u00a0Motivate your team by rewarding results;<\/p>\n

E9:<\/strong>\u00a0Prioritize changes by value, not place in queue;<\/p>\n

E10:<\/strong>\u00a0Learn fast, change fast, adapt to reality fast.<\/p>\n

1986: The New New Product Development Game<\/h2>\n

In January 1986, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, both University professors, published an article in Harvard Business<\/a> Review called The\u00a0New\u00a0New Product Development Game. In their article, they discussed the analogy of rugby game as a new way of developing produpcts and delivering projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of following the traditional \u201crelay race\u201d approach, where one group passes its completed phase to the next group of functional specialists, they proposed moving towards the team-oriented \u201crugby\u201d approach. According to Takeuchi and Nonaka, the rugby approach is \u201cwhere a team tries to go the whole distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth.\u201d The rugby approach is a holistic method that focuses on six characteristics:<\/p>\n