Methodologies & Frameworks

Agile

The Agile Methodology is an extraordinary approach that empowers us to be productive, efficient, and easily adapt to change by working iteratively and delivering value continuously. Project after project, Agile has proven to be the right way of building software products. Digital products inherently grow and change; it's part of their nature. Working agilely gives us the flexibility to make the most of this characteristic, making it an advantage instead of a liability. Self-organized teams are aligned, understand the product phases, priorities, and roles; this has an enormous impact on each value delivery.

Agile Manifesto principles:

• Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.
• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
• Working software is the primary measure of progress.
• Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

Scrum

There's a reason why Scrum started in the software industry and has now spread to countless industries: it truly helps teams become more productive.

The framework follows the agile principles and establishes a set of roles, responsibilities, and events the team should follow to succeed.

Let's explain Scrum briefly. Shooting from the hip, Scrum teams organize their work in Sprints, which are established time periods that go from one week to a month-long. At the beginning of each Sprint, the team plans what increment of the product they'll produce in that period; during the Sprint, they work to build it; and at the end of the Sprint, they review their work and make adaptations for the next Sprint. Scrum teams keep on working on Sprints, iterating on the product.

The Scrum team is made up by:

• The development team: it involves the people working together in the creation of the product increment. They are self-organized.
• The product owner: is "the client's figure in the team," responsible for the work the team has to complete.
• The Scrum Master: ensures Scrum is appropriately used.

Of course, everything mentioned before is just a synopsis of what Scrum is. The framework is robust and offers a very detailed structure. If you're interested in knowing more about it, we strongly recommend reading the complete Scrum Guide, a «must» for Scrum teams.

At Light-it, Scrum is a blueprint that guides the whole company. We don't only use it for product development; we employ it in marketing projects, human resources processes, business development, and more operations. Not to mention the fact that our playbook (yes, the document you're reading right now) is progressively built using Scrum.

OKRS

OKR is a goal management framework created by Google that helps companies align and execute a common strategy. OKR stands for “objectives” and “key results”; companies establish an objective (which marks where to go) and various Key Results (clear and measurable results or symptoms that, if reached, reveal the objective has been achieved).

We started working with OKRs in 2020 and it has been a before and after at the company. It helped our team mature, focus, prioritize, and be more transparent in regards to goals. We establish objectives and key results for each year-quarter, for every sector and each and every person on the team. This has motivated people to achieve their goals, and aligned everyone in the same direction.

Pssst: if you’re one of our teammates, we strongly recommend you to read “Measure What Matters”. You can borrow the book from our Library.