Importance of agile methodologies in software development
This blog is basically about Agile software development, its benefits, and ways of leveraging it. We are not talking in-depth about coding or technological things. But, the main aim is to how to work together for planning, building, and delivering software. By adopting agile methodologies more effectiveness and professionalism will be added. Agile software is not only beneficial to software developers. All the managers, team leaders, product managers, technical writers, UX designers, and quality analysts can take advantage of it. Specifically for the project management and collaboration practices, agile methods are being practiced. Scrum, Adaptive Software Development (ASD), Lean Development, Extreme Programming, and Crystal are a few among them.
When to use the agile methodologies:
- For installing a new or an enriched feature, the developers get loss only a few days’ works, instead of getting lost for the entire day which leads to working from scratch.
- With the new increments producing at a very fast rate, agile gives the liberty to make frequent changes at a very low costing factor.
- At the start of a new project, a very limited amount of planning is required. The Agile methodologies give full liberty to alter things. With a user mindset, things can be changed until the end. For example, the features can be altered, edit, or completely removed.
- With the leverage of more options, it gives the developers and stakeholders more freedom to choose from distinct options. As there are wide options available for hosting programs and data, the developers will never get stuck over something.
When to use the agile methodologies:
1. Transparency: For minimizing the risk factors, following agile methodologies is the foremost step to delivering timely results. It gives better visibility, and transparency and also increased the adaptability level in a specific project. Things can be cleared and sorted out in an upright way by adopting an agile procedure.
2. Continuous engagement: Depending upon the client’s priority, the work should be taken in order. According to the client’s requirement, the workflow should be planned and systematized. The developers must start with the foremost concerning work that is valuable and precisely concerned to the customer. Coordination among the workers and clients will give more fruitful results.
3. Enhanced quality: For making the workflow in a seamless and streamlined way, proper division and management of work are necessary to adhere. Distributing the work to development, collaboration, and testing sub-divisions is vital. Adjacently, by doing frequent tests and review sessions, better outcomes can be expected. In the early stages of software development, bugs are being found. Hence, it leads to maximized profit after the deployment of software. With the leverage of agile software development practices, the projects are due submitted on time. Plus, it also delivers a seamless experience to the customer.
4. Early and predictable delivery: The new features are quickly delivered and implemented over the software. Therefore, the project delivery date can be easily forecasted. It gives the developers enough time to test the project before actually deploying it to the client.
5. Ease of doing alterations: In every developed software product there is an opportunity for refinement and re-prioritize the product backlog. By accessing the agile methodologies, the developers’ team always needs to stay focused on the product features. With the new iteration, the new backlog items can be altered from the previously installed ones.
By following the agile methodologies, the productivity of a team can be increased up to 16%. The efficiency also gets a hike of 37% on average considering all projects.
