Elements of Agile ID
Agile is an approach to project management within the world of software development that can be directly applied to instructional design. In fact, many L&D teams have adopted this methodology. Whether formal or informal, chances are you will come across some of the feature of Agile methodology when working in instructional design.
Here are a few examples of what that might look like in practice:
Kanban Board - Kanban is a visual framework for dealing with work items. It consists of columns (swim lanes) and cards. Each card has a task that moves through swim lanes as it progresses. Examples of columns include backlog, in progress, in review, etc. Team members can push or pull tasks through the columns.
Stand-Up Meetings - These 15 meeting check-ins give each contributor a chance to share what they’ve accomplished since the last stand-up. Technically, they should be daily, but I’ve only worked on teams that do them weekly. Think of this as a quick status meeting.
Alpha/Beta/Gold iterations - These are phases of development. At each of these stages, the developer has a product ready for review. The Alpha release may not be fully complete but will have functioning interactions and a thorough script, at least, followed by the Beta draft. Gold is the final version that is rolled out after the previous versions have undergone many stages of review and implementation of feedback.
Savvy Starts - The Savvy Start is a kickoff process specific to the SAM Model by Dr. Michael Allen. The focus of this launch meeting should be performance rather than content. SMEs are introduced to your process and a scope is agreed upon by the team. After this meeting, you can begin designing a prototype of your learning solution.
When you combine all of these different elements, what you get is a working product that was developed rapidly. Agile methodology keeps you moving along via constantly communicating and iterating. There are plenty of LinkedIn Learning courses or YouTube videos out there if you want to learn more.
I HIGHLY recommend Megan Torrance’s Agile for Instructional Designers book, which provides practical strategies for implementing an agile approach on your L&D team. It also goes into the big picture: the rationale and some of the underlying values of the system.
Understanding the WHY of agile is just as important as the HOW.
