Agile
Agile is a family of delivery approaches that build products in short iterations, work closely with users, welcome changing requirements and release usable increments often. It stems from the 2001 Agile Manifesto; Scrum and Kanban are the most used frameworks.
Roles that need it
What it is
Agile is a set of values and principles for delivering work in small, frequent steps. The Agile Manifesto (2001) states four value preferences: individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation, and responding to change over following a plan. The items on the right still have value; the items on the left are valued more.
In practice, agile teams are small and cross-functional. They plan in short cycles, deliver a working increment at the end of each, collect feedback and adjust priorities. Scrum organises this in fixed sprints with defined roles and events. Kanban manages a continuous flow of work with limits on work in progress. Larger organisations use scaling frameworks to coordinate many agile teams.
Why it matters
Finance has moved a large part of its change work to agile, especially digital channels, data platforms and internal tools. The main benefit is earlier feedback: users see a working version after weeks, instead of months, so misunderstandings surface early. Agile also needs adjustments in regulated settings. Fixed regulatory deadlines, controls evidence, segregation of duties and formal sign-offs still apply, so many firms combine agile delivery inside teams with stage gates for funding and go-live.
Worked example
Illustrative numbers. A team builds a new client onboarding screen. Under a waterfall plan, design takes 3 months, build 4 and testing 2, and users first see it in month 9. With two-week sprints, the team ships a basic version to 20 pilot users after 3 sprints (6 weeks). Feedback shows that 40 percent of their time goes on one document upload step. The team reprioritises the backlog and fixes it in sprint 4. By month 6 the screen is live for all users, with the most painful step addressed first.
Who uses it
Product owners own the backlog and decide priorities with stakeholders. Project managers in banking adapt plans and governance to iterative delivery and report progress through burn-up charts and release plans. Business analysts write user stories and acceptance criteria and refine them with the team. Change managers prepare users for frequent releases. Developers, testers and designers deliver the increments.
Common confusions
Agile is often taken to mean no planning or no documentation. Agile teams plan continuously and document what is needed; they avoid large upfront specifications that go stale. Another confusion is to treat agile and Scrum as the same thing: Scrum is one framework that applies agile values. Finally, adopting stand-ups and sprints without empowering a product owner to set priorities tends to produce “agile in name only”.