Agile methodology:
What it is and
how it can work
for today's
distributed workforce

The Agile methodology is a widely adopted approach to software project management that was born in 2001. Frustrated with the slow pace of software development, a group of 17 software leaders met during a ski trip to revamp the field. They captured their ideas in a document called the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and later that year created the Agile Alliance, a nonprofit organization to disseminate information about Agile.

First popular with development teams, Agile concepts have evolved over time, and with the creation of the Agile Alliance’s Manifesto, the Agile methodology quickly spread across the business world and beyond.  In December 2021, U.S. Air Force Chief Technology Officer Jay Bonci said, "Agile is the way to be responsive to customer needs — it needs to be transparent, quickly pushing capabilities from the core, and the heartbeat of innovation across the Air Force."

Agile was a direct response to the dominant methodology of the time: Waterfall. The Waterfall methodology is highly linear and focuses on forward momentum. Project stages are sequential, progressing from one stage to another in a single series of planned steps and each stage depends on the completion of the previous stage. 

Let’s dig deeper into what are the differences between Agile vs. Waterfall, and which factors and tools should to consider when deciding between the two methodologies?

As the Agile Alliance notes: "Agile is the ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately succeeding in, an uncertain and turbulent environment."

According to Forbes, the methodology emphasizes flexibility and seeks to break projects into smaller units. For example, instead of long weekly meetings, Agile teams often hold short daily stand-up meetings. Larger project tasks are divided into more urgent "sprints;" each sprint tends to be broken down further into four stages: plan, develop, deploy and evaluate.

Instead of top-down control, where a manager directs subordinates to focus on tasks that view the silo in isolation, the Agile collaboration approach forms nimble, cross-functional teams that can be self-organizing and have real decision-making authority, encouraging adaptive planning, flexibility and continual improvement. 

Agile methodology, which is further detailed in the Agile Manifesto and 12 Principles, relies on several systems that divide projects up into manageable segments, such as Scrum and Kanban. For example, Scrum, which is integral to Agile, requires snappy, daily 15-minute meetings to review progress and set priorities for workflows.

This makes Agile different from Waterfall, where each stage depends on the completion of the previous one. In contrast, Agile focuses on simultaneous workflows and flexibility at its core. Each methodology can be beneficial to an organization, depending on the project at hand. It's worth considering the advantages of each methodology.

Agile was originally envisioned for software developers with an emphasis on in-person communication. But because the agile methodology is essentially a mindset that can be applied to any project or organization, the concept has evolved and been widely commandeered. There's now even a Business Agility movement.

Amazon, Apple and Salesforce are among the global companies often cited as embodying Agile. Other major organizations, including British Airways and GE Health, have adopted it for specific projects in the past.

According to an Organize Agile study, around half of all organizations surveyed had been applying Agile practices for over three years. A top reason 83% of respondents referenced was to improve flexibility amid a rapidly changing environment.

Agile does this by focusing specifically on how people work together within, and importantly, outside of an organization, believing that solutions evolve primarily through structured collaboration. The methodology also believes that smaller, engaged groups can more readily take stock of evolving customer needs and adapt more quickly to changing external contexts. In contrast, Waterfall is less flexible and is better suited to projects with strict regulations or where certain preconditions need to be met before further work can be carried out.

According to Forbes, Agile allows for greater budget flexibility, particularly to respond to developments not considered during the planning stage. Agile aims to improve financial results by preempting and avoiding mistakes and repetition and generally speeding up project processes and outcomes.

Waterfall is better suited for less complex projects or those with a clearly defined end goal unlikely to change or be impacted by unforeseen developments. This allows for more defined budget planning but can also mean higher costs should unforeseen developments impact the project.

Stakeholder engagement is a key element of the Agile methodology, with stakeholders included in the project development at every step. One of the 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto states, "Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software." Alternatively, Waterfall doesn't involve the client or project owner during the process once the end goal is established apart from specific check-ins or for deliverables. The course of the project is outlined at the start, meaning client feedback isn't an ongoing part of the process.

In today's remote and distributed working environment, the right technologies are needed to replicate the connectedness that Agile relies upon when in-person meetings aren't possible.

Collaboration tools are vital for Agile methodology to facilitate communication both internally within the organization and externally with partners, suppliers, customers, developers and contractors. For example, Verizon Calling with Microsoft Teams allows companies using Microsoft Teams to expand their calling capabilities outside of their organization so that employees can work with external partners the same as they do with internal colleagues.

The best collaboration tools bring video meetings into conference rooms and huddle spaces for a blended meeting experience and include in-app intelligence to capture the most important discussion points, assign action items and replay meeting highlights to help bolster the effectiveness of each meeting.