How to be a agile programmer? [closed]

Question

I am a trainee in development sector. My Boss says that i should be an agile programmer.

I went through through the net and found some interesting things about agile programming. Being a newbee how should I start with agile?
What should be my first step in Agile programming?

At present I am in pair programming. But it's not exactly pair programming as I am just watching what my co-developer is doing. I also wish to be an agile developer.
Can you suggest a way for me stepwise?

I wish to develop myself and also my programming skills.

Answer 1

The keyword is Courage.

Courage to estimate and discuss your work

Courage to start work on small stories with insufficient detail

Courage to talk to customers to elaborate said stories

Courage to constructively critique team members code

Courage to review your mistakes (in public) and learn from them

Courage to release "unfinished but good and shippable" code when it already delivers value.

Courage to stick to the agreed team processes when management has a bright idea

Courage to amend agreed processes in team when a better way is found

Courage to deliver high quality code using test driven development and continuous integration.

...

Note: The unfinished part does not mean "low quality", it means satisfying the customer, cleanly implemented, tested, ship-ready. However falling short of the developers idea of perfection, i.e. spring configuration is a bit clunky, some refactoring can be made, some auto configuration, some speed improvement, some corner cases... I found that some developers take the "user story hostage" and keep it unshippable till it is perfect. If it is good, you should let go, better is for the next sprint.

Answer 2

In my organization, all you have to do is declare yourself to be an Agile Programmer. Magically, the need for planning and documentation disappears.