What Agile skills do you need to have in order to become a great software developer? Based on their combined experience of developing software and helping others do that, the seventeen signatories of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development proclaimed that a great software developer should value:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

But what’s so special about a great software developer? Well, one thing that comes to mind is that they are three times more productive than your average developer, and 10 times more than a bad one. So, what kind of Agile skills great software developers need to have? Below we have a list of 7 fundamental characteristics and Agile skills for you:

Agile Skills: Competency

Every developer needs to be an expert in every area, as Agile teams are cross-functional and rely on multiple individuals’ skills. From Scrum to Kanban, developers must have the specific skills and technologies knowledge involved in a particular project or initiative. Moreover people should possess comprehensive knowledge of the processes used – this can be addressed with a simple workshop led by someone who already knows the process. But in order to be an Agile expert you need to “uncover better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it”, as it’s written in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and with this idea we go to the next Agile skill you need to have…

Continuous learning

Beside being an expert, you also must understand that in this field you must never stop learning. You have to be open to learning new skills — not just from project to project, but also as part of a lifelong learning process. Multi-skilled teams solve problems and achieve goals faster. So, never accept matters as they are. And you should never stop experimenting. 

In order to be a great software developer, you have to be willing to approach projects from different points of view and learn new languages which will help you improve. You need to have a strong love of learning and you have to be curious by nature.

Read also: Agile Methodology and the 5 books you really need to read

Agile Skills: Trust and respect

More often agile development has less certainty around requirements. This means developers need to be able to step up and fill in the gaps rather than implementing things that are unclear or complaining about a lack of clear requirements. Learning how to talk and listen to people, like users, teammates or stakeholders, is essential in this job. 

Trust and respect are vital for the success of every project and for building a strong team. In this area the main objective is to make the team strong enough that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Customer focus & Continuous improving

In this respect, all team members must be focused on one common goal: to deliver the customer an increment of working software in agreed time. But the product development must become customer-centric, with developers getting closer to their customers, understanding their needs, and validating success through actionable feedback. Learn to empathise with customers using user personas, customer journey mapping, in-depth interviews, and usability testing. 

Also, in order to deliver better and better products, the team should focus on continuous adaptations, always improving the process as needed. Remember that the team itself must stop from time to time (for example, every 15 days) to reflect on what is good and what can be improved in the work process.

Agile Skills: Collaboration

Talking, understanding and working with customers is essential. And so is collaborating with your teammates. The good old ability to work in a team is also vital. Work-style, attitude, and interactions with others impact success as much as any technical or professional skill. This requires above all humility. Even the most senior developers have much to learn from other colleagues. And the best team is built when all members are committed to the same values, such as focus, courage, openness, commitment, and respect.

Read also: Scrum vs Kanban: What are the most important differences between these Agile Methodologies

Self organisation & Great at Managing

Collaboration is key to the success of every project, but self organisation has technical benefits as well. In this way, the team selects how much work is believed to be capable for performing the iterations and commits. Great software developers are incredibly reliable. This means that they can always organise themselves in a way that will allow them to finish all of their tasks on time, and that they respect the given deadlines. 

Agile Skills: Decision making

Finally, the best results come when you listen to your costumer, you work closely with your team and when the development team has the freedom to control their own destiny. They should have autonomy in technical matters and define the best way to control versions of code, making builds, deploys, run tests, documenting requirements, etc. 

Keeping in mind organisation vision and good practice, the team has to adopt the methods or processes they think are best. Those involved in development must learn to deal with conflicting situations, ambiguity and frequent changes, because change has to be the new normal.

If you are an Agile enthusiast looking for a job opportunity, we want you to join Ventivo Group. Drop us a line and let’s code the future together.