Agile Meaning

What is Agile? What does Agile mean?

Nowadays almost every company, team and business professional claims to be agile, attempting to follow some kind of agile methodology. However in the middle of the whole agile movement the real agile meaning is often lost. What is Agile? What does agile mean? What does it mean to manage projects in an agile way? Or to work in an agile team, delivering a product in an agile fashion? In this article, we bring it back to basics and examine the true agile definition.

Define Agile.

To understand the agile meaning it is best to start by looking at the agile definition.

Agile Definition:

  • To be able to move quickly and easily
  • To be able to think and understand quickly

The Real Agile Meaning.

This basic definition of the word Agile gives us a solid base for understanding the real agile meaning. Doing something in an agile way means making a small change quickly, learning from it, making adjustments to the understanding of the problem and repeating this many times. This is what doing something with agility means:

What to do:

  • Find out where you are
  • Take a small step towards your goal
  • Adjust your understanding based on what you learned
  • Repeat

How to do it:

  • When faced with two or more alternatives that deliver roughly the same value, take the path that makes future change easier.

These few simple steps are really what agile is all about.

Working in an Agile environment.

If you are considering a move to an agile work environment, you will need to understand the agile way of thinking and doing, and the practices that support Agile projects and ways of workings. Our Agile Fundamentals training course is designed to prepare you to work confidently and effectively in an Agile environment.