The Agile Manifesto is not about a particular process, but rather a set of values that was built on a respect for competence and that brings out the best in people. In this sense, Apple is truly Agile. How?
Apple’s Product Owner
Steve Jobs was the supreme Product Owner in the Scrum terminology. He was the one who designed what would delight the customer.
Keeping teams small
Agile is about doing work in small teams. This is where they have shone.
Apple frequently assigns major projects to small groups. For example, just two engineers wrote the code for converting Apple’s Safari browser for the iPad, a massive undertaking.
Working in short, iterative cycles
Once Apple is done designing, building, and testing a product it starts designing, building, and testing all over again. This “overt rhythm,” in the words of a former Apple engineer, culminates every four to six weeks with a gathering of key employees at a factory in China. An engineering program manager, whose job it is to pull together the various hardware and software engineers who contribute to a product, will typically bring the latest beta version back to Cupertino for senior executives to see—and then get right back on a plane for China to repeat the process.
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