The Big List of Agile Practices

6 April 2009

Posted in Top Lists

This post is probably going to be hated and loved at the same time. Because, when people talk about agile practices, they can sometimes become very religious. Which means I may be putting my head in a noose with this one.

But who cares. It's worth it. I like living dangerously.

You see, at different occasions I had wanted the availability of a big list of agile practices. But I never found any. All common agile practices are spread out over different methods, and many different sites. That's why I decided to create my own list.

Disclaimer: the list below is definitely incomplete, and probably controversial!

I constructed the list below from practices found on eight different web sites. I ignored some well-known agile concepts like "keep it simple" and "remove waste" because I consider those to be principles, not practices. I also ignored some practices when I had the feeling that they were only listed on one site, and nobody else was using them. While on the other hand, I listed some practices here that some people do not consider to be truly agile. But I included them nonetheless, when I noticed that they are regularly being used in an agile context.

If you disagree with the list, or if you think some practices are missing, please let me know!

You see, I am considering to use this list for a poll on agile practices and how they are being applied. And I hope you're willing to help me in getting this list in order before conducting such a poll.

Thanks already!

Requirements
Product Vision / Vision Statement		SA				JS
Product Backlog		SA	MG
User Stories	Wiki	SA		C2	AM		XP
Use Cases	Wiki			C2	AM		XP
Usage Scenarios					AM
Personas	Wiki				AM
Planning Poker	Wiki
Requirement Prioritization	Wiki				AM
Design
Architectural Spikes / Spike Solutions				C2			XP
Domain Driven Design	Wiki							IXP
Emergent Design / Evolutionary Design	Wiki			C2				IXP
CRC Cards	Wiki				AM		XP
Design by Contract	Wiki
System Metaphor							XP
Construction
Coding Style / Coding Guidelines / Coding Standard	Wiki					JS		IXP
Test Driven Development	Wiki			C2			XP
Behavior Driven Development	Wiki
Pair-Programming / Pairing	Wiki			C2		JS	XP	IXP
Refactoring	Wiki			C2			XP	IXP
Collective Code Ownership				C2		JS	XP	IXP
Daily Builds / Automated Builds / Ten-Minute Builds	Wiki					JS
Continuous Integration	Wiki			C2		JS	XP	IXP
Code Reviews / Peer Reviews	Wiki
Software Metrics / Code Metrics & Analysis	Wiki
Source Control / Version Control	Wiki					JS
Issue Tracking / Bug Tracking	Wiki
Configuration Management	Wiki
Frequent Delivery / Frequent Releases				C2			XP	IXP
Testing
Unit Testing	Wiki						XP
Smoke Testing / Build Verification Test	Wiki
Integration Testing	Wiki
System Testing	Wiki
Exploratory Testing	Wiki
Test Automation	Wiki	SA
Storytesting / Acceptance Criteria / Acceptance Testing	Wiki			C2	AM		XP	IXP
Process
Timeboxing / Fixed Sprints / Fixed Iteration Length	Wiki						XP
Release Planning				C2		JS	XP
Iteration Planning / Planning Game / Sprint Planning	Wiki	SA	MG	C2		JS	XP	IXP
Sprint Backlog		SA	MG
Task Board		SA	MG
Definition of Done / Done Done		SA				JS
Daily Stand-up Meeting / Daily Scrum	Wiki	SA	MG	C2		JS	XP
Velocity							XP
Sprint Review / Iteration Demo		SA	MG			JS
Value Stream Mapping	Wiki
Root Cause Analysis / 5 Whys	Wiki					JS
Burn Down Charts / Burn Up Charts	Wiki	SA	MG
Big Visible Charts / Information Radiators						JS
Retrospective / Reflection Workshop	Wiki	SA				JS		IXP
Organization
Small Team								IXP
Cross-Functional Team	Wiki
Self-Organizing Team / Scrum Team			MG
Colocated Team / Sitting Together / Common Workspace	Wiki	SA		C2		JS		IXP
On-Site Customer / Product Owner		SA	MG	C2		JS
Scrum Master		SA	MG
Sustainable Pace								IXP
Move People Around							XP
Scrum of Scrums		SA