Guide to Lite Agile — The lightest framework for individual transformation
The Lite Agile Guide contains the elements, steps and tools that serve specific purposes to help individuals adapt the Agile mindset, adapt to change and progress through their changes and transformations.
What is Lite Agile?
Adapted from Scrum, Lite Agile is lightweight and simple framework for individuals to adopt the Agile mindset and adapt to change. As Agile is adopted by teams and organisations, people face challenges to be transparent, communicate, progress to resolve them and achieve their goals.
Lightweight and Simple
Lite Agile is designed for the individual and can be used as a self-coaching framework, without the need of a coach or facilitator.
Introspective for your Mind
Lite Agile enables you to be self-aware and have empathy for yourself and others.
Effective & Proven Tools
Lite Agile uses widely known philosophies and tools from UX, Lean, Agile, Scrum and more.
Container: The Sprint
Similar to Scrum, the Sprint is a container for all other practices and steps, where there is an opportunity for individuals to inspect, adapt and be self-aware.
Sprints are fixed length events (usually every 2 weeks or 1 month) to create consistency, with a new Sprint starting after the end of the previous Sprint.
A Sprint is also meant to be incremental, with positive outcomes and habits integrated into an individual in future Sprints.
It is advisable not to make a Sprint too long as when the time frame is too long, Backlog items may become invalid over time, complexities and risk may increase. A shorter Sprint generates more learning cycles and limits the complexities and risks to a smaller time frame.
A Sprint can be cancelled at anytime by an individual, but only when the Backlog items become obsolete.
Core Practice: Awareness
It is of upmost importance that the individual practicing Lite Agile is self-aware as often as possible. Awareness can be practiced at anytime of a Sprint, which is why it is positioned at the centre of the Lite Agile framework.
Reflect
An individual should self-reflect his situation, thoughts and feelings as much as possible. Self-reflection is the activity of thinking about our own feelings and behaviour, and the reasons that may lie behind them.
Respond
An opposite to responding to situations would be reacting to situations. If an individual is able to take time to reflect, it increases the probabilities of the best response to move forward.
Empathy Map is the recommended tool to use when practicing Awareness.
With an Empathy Map, an individual can understand and visualise what to know about themselves or others in 4 quadrants (Says, Thinks, Does, and Feels).
Learn more about the Empathy Map and how to use it.
Step 1: Inspect
When experiencing a situation, inspection is key to understanding something before working on a potential solution.
Surface
Acknowledge and write down the problems or challenges in an understandable way.
Validate
Distinguish causes from symptoms. Do not jump into conclusions and do your best to identify root causes.
Prioritise
Order and prioritise a list of what is needed to solve a problem or overcome a challenge.
Backlog and Fishbone Diagram (Optional) are the recommended tools to use when practicing Inspect.
With a Backlog, create and groom an ordered list of what is needed for improvement, ordered based on size, detail and priority.
Learn more about the Backlog and how to use it.
With a Fishbone Diagram, brainstorm, find root causes and visualise the cause and effect of events that happened in a structured way.
Learn more about the Fishbone Diagram and how to use it.
Step 2: Act
Once a prioritised backlog is created, an individual can start taking action to solve problems or overcome challenges.
Slice
Break down what is needed to be done from the Backlog into tasks and translate into value and measurable outcomes.
Perform
An individual will work on completing the tasks with focus, without compromising quality.
Kanban Board is the recommended tool to use when practicing Act.
With a Kanban Board, slice the Backlog items and visualise work by using cards to progress them into different stages such as To-do, Doing and Done.
Learn more about the Kanban Board and how to use it.
Step 3: Adapt
Should the quality and outcomes deviate and turn out to be unacceptable, inspection and adaptation is required.
Evaluate
An individual should self-evaluate the completion and quality of his tasks at the end of the current Sprint.
Learn
The most helpful changes to improve an individual’s effectiveness should be identified and turned into action items for the next Sprint.
Retrospective Board and Fishbone Diagram (Optional with more information at Step 1: Inspect) are the recommended tools to use when practicing Adapt.
With a Retrospective Board, improve the quality and effectiveness by inspecting what has happened and creating action items.
Learn more about the Retrospectives and how to conduct one.
Step 4: Integrate
Learnings and improvements learnt should be continuously practiced and mastered into an individual to ensure sustainable transformation.
Practice
Whatever an individual has done that is proven to have positive outcomes should be formed as repetitive habits.
Master
An individual should not settle with current standards and continuously find ways to improve and master his practices.
Sustain
The habits and goals that are accomplished should be monitored to ensure that they become sustained improvements.
Dashboard is the recommended tool to use when practicing Integrate.
It is advised for an individual to have an overview over their habits and goals, however it is also possible to have separate tools and mobile apps for monitoring purposes.
Try out the framework tools for free
I am creating tools to make it easy and convenient to explore and apply the Lite Agile framework.
Lite Toolkit
Lite Toolkit is for you to use self-improvement and productivity tools like the Wheel of Life, Kanban Board and Retrospective Board without signing up, giving away emails or logging in.
Explore Lite Toolkit’s tools here.
GdApp
GdApp is a mobile app for you to input and track your progress and habits, with the objective to gain the analytical insights and visible awareness to change and improve yourself.
Your response and feedback is appreciated
I hope you find this guide useful and should you have any questions or require any support from me, please feel to reach out to me on LinkedIn or Facebook!
