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What is Agile Methodology?
What is Agile Methodology, and Why Is It Useful?
Agile is a general term that can refer to any development methodology. But in this article, we will be talking about the Agile Methodology. Agile methodology has been around for over three decades and has become increasingly popular in recent years. Agile methodology is an iterative and incremental approach to software development that gives teams the flexibility to respond quickly to feedback and change requirements while staying on budget and schedule. This article discusses how agile methodology benefits both software development teams and their clients.
Who is agile for?
Agile methodology is for anyone who wants to deliver an engaged, high-quality product that meets the needs of their customers. That includes software developers, product managers, graphic designers, business analysts, testers and more. It’s also fIt’sny company that wants to maximize its return on investment by delivering what the customer wants promptly.
What are the advantages of using agile?
As mentioned, agile methodology gives teams the flexibility to respond quickly to feedback and change requirements. When teams can make changes rapidly, there is less risk of working on features that may not be needed or desired by the customer.
Agile also offers several other advantages for both software development teams and their clients. One of the significant benefits of agile is that it improves communication between team members and stakeholders. Stakeholders can provide feedback instantly without having to wait for a set deadline. If any problems arise, stakeholders can give immediate feedback to be resolved right away. Agile also allows developers to work on what they enjoy most instead of what they are good at. This helps them stay motivated and produce higher quality work than if they were forced to work on something they don’t enjoy agile, iterative approach saves money by reducing waste due to rework and change requests during a project’s phase.
When should agile be used?
Agile has many benefits, but it is best used for software development projects that have less-known or unclear requirements. The reason is that with agile, the customer can provide feedback at any time, enabling the team to change their direction easily. The agile methodology also works well for projects where there are a lot of unknowns.
Agile should not be used when you have clear expectations because it requires flexibility and constant communication between team members and stakeholders. If you know what you want your project to do, you should consider another methodology.
How does agile teamwork?
An agile team meets regularly and sets goals for the next iteration (a set period). Each iteration is typically 2-4 weeks long, and each team member has a specific task to accomplish during that iteration. For example, one week, John may work on designing the user interface while Jane writes some code for it. After that iteration is done, they switch tasks and go back to the beginning with another iteration.
Agile best practices
Some of the benefits of agile methodology for development teams include:
- The ability to deliver working software quickly after each iteration or sprint.
- The ability to release working software iteratively so that the client can test it.
- They are establishing a shared understanding between team members and their clients.
- Indicating how long each piece of work will take to complete.
- We create a sense of urgency among the team members, which helps them work more effectively.
Focus on quality, not quantity
One of the most significant benefits of Agile is that it encourages teams to focus on quality, not quantity. It may have been a long time since you were in school, but this isn’t a new concept. Your teacher would tell you to work hard and give your best effort in school because you only get better by trying your hardest.
The same idea applies to software development. The people creating the software want it to be as good as possible, not just get something out there quickly. And suppose the developers try their best and end up taking more time than they originally planned for. In that case, they take that extra time to make their product one of the best on the market rather than rushing through the process and releasing a product that has errors and glitches. This way, both the team and their client can be happy with how things turn out in the end.
The importance of collaboration
One of the main benefits agile methodology offers is that it encourages collaboration—the Agile methodology centres around a team effort to create a product. Rather than being seen as “the boss,” “the team “is seen as a facilitator or coach who facilitates collaboration between team members. This collaborative environment promotes creative problem solving and reduces politics within development teams by eliminating hierarchy.
Speed and agility are essential to success
Software development teams are getting more agile by adopting Agile methodology. The ability to quickly respond to feedback and change requirements is vital for success in the software industry. Agile methodology offers this flexibility with an iterative and incremental approach. But it does not provide this flexibility without being structured. It is structured so that it can be scaled up or down as needed, depending on the needs of the team and their client.
This flexible structure allows software development teams to work with clients who are uncertain about what they need, are updating their needs over time, or have vague deadlines. On the other hand, if a client is clear about their needs from the start, they may want to use a different methodology that requires less negotiation between them and the development team.
One of the most common misconceptions about Agile methodology is that it only works for small projects. But this couldn’t be far from the truth! Software development teams can adopt an agile approach whether they are working on small projects, large projects, or somewhere in between
The agile methodology gives software development teams more freedom when developing software because fewer rules govern how to build something best practice wise.
An example of where agile methodology would be helpful would be making a game using the Unity 3D game engine.
Unity 3D has pre-defined components which dictate how things should look, but there’s a station to customize them within Unity 3D, which means you can mix design patterns depending on your needs.
Similar to CRM Dynamics 365 from Microsoft. It is a built ready to use application with configurable pre-made power apps. However, in most cases, if not all the cases, customisation is essential as organizations have different needs and other apps integrations internally and externally therefore a need to customise with an agile team is needed. It will then plugin from the allowed customizable area into the main core area of Dynamics 365.
Conclusion
There are many different ways to approach software development, but agile is one of the most popular. For many organizations, agile offers a faster, more efficient way to create products that are more in line with the needs of their customers. But it’s not for everyone. If you’re considering an agile project, it’s crucial to assess your organization’s needs before deciding.
BDD Source and Further Reading
