Introduction
Agile is a modern philosophy of software development that values delivering working software early and often, welcoming change, and working closely with customers. Scrum is the most popular framework that puts Agile ideas into practice using short, fixed-length cycles called sprints. Together they replaced much of the old, rigid, document-heavy "Waterfall" style of building software.
For BCS, Bank IT, and IT-officer exams, this topic is a reliable source of questions: the Agile Manifesto (2001), its 4 values and 12 principles, the 3 Scrum roles, 5 events (ceremonies), 3 artifacts, and terms like sprint, backlog, velocity, burndown chart, timebox. Numbers and names are frequently tested (e.g., "How many principles in the Agile Manifesto?" → 12). This lesson builds the concept from first principles and then drills the exam-critical facts.
Learning objectives
- Explain why Agile emerged and how it differs from Waterfall.
- State the 4 values and know the count of 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto.
- Describe the 3 roles, 5 events, and 3 artifacts of the Scrum framework precisely.
- Define sprint, timebox, product/sprint backlog, increment, Definition of Done.
- Compute and interpret velocity and read a burndown chart.
- Compare Agile with Waterfall and Scrum with Kanban.
- Avoid the common factual traps that appear in MCQs.