Agile Concepts in Agiloop

Created by Matthew Chartier, Modified on Wed, 1 Jul at 2:45 PM by Matthew Chartier

What is Agile?

Agile is a way of planning, building, and improving software through small, incremental changes rather than trying to deliver everything at once.

Instead of spending months designing and building an entire application before anyone can use it, Agile encourages teams to deliver working software in smaller pieces. Each delivery gives users an opportunity to provide feedback, allowing the team to learn what works, what doesn't, and what should be improved next.

This approach helps reduce risk, adapt to changing requirements, and ensure that development stays focused on delivering real value to users.

Agile is not a specific tool or process—it is a mindset centered on collaboration, continuous delivery, and continuous improvement.

Why Agiloop Uses Agile

Agiloop is built around Agile principles because they align naturally with AI-assisted software development.

Rather than asking AI to generate an entire application in a single prompt, Agiloop breaks work into manageable pieces that are easier to understand, implement, review, and improve. This structured approach helps both human teams and AI assistants produce higher-quality results while keeping everyone aligned on the goals of the product.

The following sections explain the Agile concepts used throughout Agiloop, including Features, Stories, Tasks, Release ("Bundles"), and the Kanban Board.

Breaking Work into Features, Stories, and Tasks

One of Agile's most important concepts is breaking large ideas into progressively smaller pieces.

Features

A Feature is a meaningful capability that delivers value to a user.

Examples include:

User Login
Dashboard
Customer Search
Export Reports
Notifications

A feature should represent something a customer can understand and benefit from.

Features are also the primary level that Agiloop uses for tracking product progress and measuring outcomes.

User Stories

A feature is broken into one or more User Stories.

A story describes a single piece of user value from the user's perspective.

For example:

As a customer, I want to reset my password so I can regain access to my account.

Stories help ensure development remains focused on solving real user needs rather than simply writing code.

Keeping stories small also makes implementation easier for both human developers and AI coding assistants.

Tasks

Each story is then broken into technical Tasks.

Tasks describe the actual work required to implement the story.

Examples:

Create password reset API
Send reset email
Build reset screen
Validate security token
Write automated tests

Tasks are typically assigned to developers (or AI agents) and tracked until complete.

Why This Structure Matters for AI Development

Large language models perform significantly better when given well-defined, focused work.

Instead of asking an AI to:

Build an entire application.

Agiloop asks it to implement a single task within a clearly defined story inside a specific feature.

This provides:

Better implementation quality
More accurate code generation
Easier review
Smaller pull requests
Simpler testing
Reduced risk

It also makes it much easier to understand how individual pieces of work contribute to larger business goals and back to the original intent.

Feature Grouping (Bundles)

Features are grouped into Bundles. A Bundle represents a collection of features that will be managed together. Many development teams refer to these as Releases, Iterations, or Sprints. You are free to group features any way you like. A common planning approach is:

Bundle	Purpose
Now	Features currently being built
Next	Features planned after the current work
Later	Ideas for future releases

This allows teams to prioritize work while maintaining flexibility. As priorities change, features can easily move between bundles without disrupting the rest of the plan.

Tracking Progress with the Kanban Board

Agiloop can display work using a Kanban Board. The Kanban Board provides a visual view of where each feature is in the development process. Although optional, many teams find it helpful for understanding overall project progress at a glance. Agiloop uses a six column layout for this board: Backlog, Ready, In Process, Blocked, Review, and Done.

Backlog

Features that have been identified but are not yet ready for implementation. These items may still require prioritization, refinement, dependencies, or additional planning.

Ready State

Features that are fully defined and ready to begin implementation. Dependencies have been addressed, and the feature is waiting for available development capacity.

In Process State

The feature is actively being implemented. Development work is underway.

Blocked State

Work cannot continue because of an issue that must first be resolved. Blocked work should receive attention quickly so development can continue.

Examples include:

Technical issues or dependencies
Unexpected errors

Review State

Implementation has been completed and is ready for review. Depending on your workflow, this may include:

Human code review
AI-assisted review

Only features that successfully pass review should move forward.

Done State

The feature has been completed and all required reviews have been successfully finished. At this point the feature is considered complete and ready for inclusion in its planned release.

Agile Is a Continuous Loop

Completing development is not the end of Agile—it is the beginning of learning.

Once users begin interacting with new functionality, teams gain valuable insights into how well features are meeting their intended goals. In Agiloop, we use our INSPECT and ITERATE features to accomplish this.

Agiloop extends traditional Agile by helping teams:

Define what should be built.
Implement features using AI-assisted development.
Inspect how features perform in the real world.
Iterate based on actual user behavior and business outcomes.

This continuous feedback loop helps teams build software that improves over time—not just software that ships.