What is a Spike? A Product Managers Software Development Guide

What is an Agile Spike? Understanding its Role in Development Teams

In Agile development, terms like story, sprint, and scrum often dominate conversations. But one term you may come across that is less frequently discussed is the spike. If you've been working in Agile teams for a while, you've likely heard this term mentioned, but what exactly is a spike, and how does it fit into the broader Agile methodology?

In simple terms, a spike is a focused, time-boxed research activity that helps development teams answer key questions, reduce uncertainties, and refine user stories for future work. It's a tool used to gain clarity around a particular problem or technical challenge that prevents the team from moving forward with the planned work.

What Makes a Spike Different?

Unlike regular user stories, which represent deliverable work, a spike is typically non-deliverable in the sense that it doesn’t necessarily produce a finished feature or product increment. Instead, its value lies in providing insights, answers, or a plan of action that allows the team to proceed with confidence in future sprints.

Spikes often come into play when:

1. A story is too large or unclear: Sometimes, a user story is difficult to estimate or too complex to tackle without further investigation. In these cases, a spike allows the team to break the story down into more manageable pieces.

2. The development team is stuck on sizing the story: It’s hard to determine how much effort a story will take if the team doesn't fully understand the scope or the underlying technical challenges. A spike can help resolve this ambiguity.

3. Additional discovery or research is needed: Whether it's a new technology, an unfamiliar API, or a complex algorithm, spikes can be used to explore and assess the unknown before committing to a full implementation.

Spikes as Proof of Concept (POC)

One of the best ways to think about a spike is as a form of Proof of Concept (POC). A POC is an experiment that proves whether a particular approach or technology is viable. Similarly, a spike allows the development team to explore and validate different approaches, technologies, or solutions to inform their work.

For example, if the team is unsure whether a certain software tool or framework will integrate well into the system, a spike might involve testing the tool in isolation to determine its feasibility. This could involve writing a small proof-of-concept application or running tests to gauge performance. Sometimes, spikes may involve no coding at all, if the objective is purely to gather information (e.g., exploring documentation or discussing options with stakeholders).

Time-Boxing the Spike

A key aspect of a spike is that it is time-boxed. This means the team will dedicate a fixed amount of time to complete the research or experimentation (usually a few hours to a few days, depending on the complexity of the issue). The time-boxed nature ensures that the team doesn’t over-invest in discovery and exploration and instead stays focused on moving the project forward.

In practice, spikes are often scheduled as part of a sprint, and once the spike is completed, the team can revisit the original user story with a better understanding of the work needed, and potentially adjust the scope or refine the estimates.

What Happens After a Spike?

Once the spike is completed, the team is better equipped to break down the original user story and move forward with implementation. After all, the insights gained from the spike should help:

• Refine the story’s size: Based on the findings, the team can re-estimate the story and provide a clearer understanding of how long it will take to complete.

• Define the work needed: The spike helps the team clarify the approach, design, and technical requirements necessary to implement the user story.

• Increase confidence: With uncertainties reduced, the team has more confidence in tackling the work in subsequent sprints.

In other words, a spike serves as a way to ensure that the team has the knowledge, tools, and understanding required to execute the work in future iterations, reducing the likelihood of roadblocks or delays down the line.

When Should You Use a Spike?

Spikes should be used judiciously. It’s easy to fall into the trap of using them for every uncertain or unclear task, but this can lead to inefficiency. Ideally, a spike should be used when there’s a real need for exploration or discovery that will significantly impact the team’s ability to deliver. Some examples of when to consider a spike include:

• Exploring a new technology or tool the team hasn’t worked with before.

• Resolving technical debt or investigating existing bugs that are blocking progress.

• Clarifying requirements with stakeholders when user stories are ambiguous or lacking key details.

• Testing assumptions about a solution or design approach to avoid wasted work in later stages of the project.

Agile Values

An Agile Spike is a valuable tool that enables development teams to make informed decisions, reduce uncertainty, and move forward with confidence. It’s essentially a discovery process that provides the team with the knowledge needed to tackle a task or story in the most efficient way possible. While a spike may not produce direct deliverables, it often leads to better planning, more accurate estimates, and a clearer roadmap for the sprint ahead.

As Agile teams continue to embrace flexibility and adaptability, understanding how and when to use spikes will help improve not only the team’s ability to respond to challenges but also its overall efficiency and effectiveness in delivering high-quality products.