Agile Methodology
Last updated
Last updated
Agile Alliance defines Agile as “the ability to create and respond to change. It is a way of dealing with, and ultimately succeeding in, an uncertain and turbulent environment.”
Agile methodology is a project management approach that allows successful and efficient execution of the project while emphasizing the improvement of a project and team collaboration.
The approach is applicable in software development for flexibility, customer satisfaction, and collaboration.
It refers to the application of a set of principles that functions through an interactive and incremental approach.
The Agile methodology in software development emphasizes the importance of team collaboration and delivering a working product quickly to meet customer needs and expectations.
The Agile software development process is a set of steps to be performed in order.
The importance of sequence is as follows:
Requirements: The companies here gather information on customer’s requirements and prioritize them based on different factors. It is an initial factor to understand the direction of the project and progress.
Planning: Developing a plan is an essential part of delivering the complete software comprising all the features. The plan includes time for the development and delivery of each iteration.
Development: The software development is carried out by the development team while using frequent and rapid iterations.
Testing: It involves software testing to make sure it meets the quality delivered by the organization and expected by the customer
Deployment: Here, the organization serves the ultimate aim, which is to allow usage of the software.
Maintenance: The software is regularly maintained to ensure customers' needs and expectations are met.
To implement the Agile methodology successfully for software development, you need to review the following points:
Communicate with the team and use the Elevator Pitch method.
Find the target customer, statement of need, specific product name and category, its benefits, primary competitive alternative, and final statement of primary differentiation.
The product owner must use the strategy to develop the path to the product or software.
It will include goals and how to achieve them. Every goal will have features, metrics, and other key information.
It includes prioritizing the software features to be launched first, followed by subsequent losses.
It will include 3 to 5 sprints.
The steps shift from macro-level workings to micro-level working, which involves focusing on specific tasks.
Now, the sprints must also be planned to take place with the project managers, product owners, and scrum masters.
The sprint will involve creating a list of backlog items, such as undeveloped features or other components of software, to be completed in the timeframe.
It is essential to get daily updates through a small meeting to be concluded in 10 to 15 minutes.
Team members here will inform us of their previous day's accomplishments, present-day works, and challenges being faced, if any.
Accomplishment of milestones, such as delivery of specific software updates, bug removal or introduction of new software functionality, must be linked with the analysis of previous tasks.
It includes checking the alignment of plans with deliveries.
Here, product owners also reflect on inaccuracies and inefficiencies by finding the associated reasons.
It includes learning from the previous processes and finding the shortcomings.
Here, all the involved members must identify the learnings and scope of improvement by avoiding negative actions in their next task.
Not all projects fit neatly into one category or the other. For the projects that might benefit from elements of both a traditional approach and iterative approach, an Agile-Waterfall hybrid approach can make sense. This could mean, for example, that planning and design are done in Waterfall, but development is carried out in short development cycles, Agile-style.
There are several Agile methodologies and frameworks, each with its own pros and cons. Some are hybrids of multiple methodologies. Scrum is by far the most commonly used Agile methodology; Digital.ai found that 66 percent of Agile adopters used Scrum, with the next most-used methodology being ScrumBan, at 9 percent [1].
Scrum
Kanban
Lean
Crystal
Extreme Programming (XP)
Feature-Driven Development (FDD)
Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
ScrumBan
Agile-Waterfall/Hybrid Agile
Scrum XP Hybrid
Agile scaling methods are used to implement Agile practices across multiple teams or entire organisations. There are several scaling methods, including the following:
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
Scrum of Scrums
Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD)
Large Scale Scrum (LSS or LeSS)
Enterprise Scrum
Lean Management
Agile Portfolio Management (APM)
Nexus
Agile benefits
Agile challenges
Ability to manage changing priorities
Organisations can resist change in adoption
Increased project visibility
Teams may use inconsistent practises
Improved business/IT alignment
Needs support of leadership and management
Delivery speed/time to market
Organisational culture can be at odds with agile values
Project risk reduction & predictability
