Agile is all about flexibility, but that does not mean teams work without organization. To stay aligned, productive, and continuously improve, Agile teams follow structured routines called ceremonies. These ceremonies provide opportunities to plan work, track progress, and reflect on how to get better.
In Agile, measuring success isn't just about counting completed tasks - it's about ensuring teams continuously improve while delivering value. Without metrics, teams might feel like they're making progress, but they wouldn’t have clear evidence of what's working and what isn't. The right metrics give teams visibility into their workflow, highlight areas for improvement, and help them make better decisions. But Agile isn't about chasing numbers - metrics should support improvement, not dictate behavior.
Criteria is a framework-agnostic PHP package that simplifies the use of the criteria pattern for filtering, sorting, and paginating data. It helps separate query logic from repositories, making the codebase easier to maintain and extend over time. By using Criteria, developers can handle complex querying needs without spreading filter logic across different parts of the application.
Guard clauses are a practical way to write cleaner functions by handling the unwanted cases first. Instead of nesting your entire function inside a stack of if conditions, you check for the early exits up front - returning or throwing as needed - and move on. It's a habit that keeps code flatter and easier to read. The structure becomes simpler, and it’s immediately clear what the function does and under what conditions it doesn’t even bother.
Agile teams are designed to be flexible and collaborative, but that does not mean everyone does everything. To stay effective, Agile teams rely on well-defined roles that help organize work, support decision-making, and keep projects moving forward. While different Agile frameworks may use slightly different role names, three key responsibilities exist in almost every Agile team: the product owner, the development team, and the scrum master.
