Agile methodology of software development

What is Agile?

Agile refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development where the requirements and decisions are evolved due to interaction between self-organized cross-functional teams.

Agile methods usually contribute to the orderly process of project management that often predicts checks and adaptation, teamwork, self-organization and reporting. It is the set of innovative projecting methods intended for the fast release of high-quality software and business approach that connects product development to customer needs and company goals. Agile development refers to any processes of development that agree with the Agile Manifesto Concept. The Manifest was designed by a group of fourteen leading figures in the software industry and displays their experience in what approaches promote quality in software development. 

This methodology protects from the risks of spending months or years on the process that might fail due to a small error at an early stage. Instead of this, it is predicted that team employees work directly with customers to understand goals and offer solutions quickly and optimally.

Advantages of Agile methodology

Interaction with interested parties

Agile offers unlimited possibilities for interaction between interested parties and the team - before, after and during each sprint. Letting a customer be involved in every project stage will result in a high level of cooperation between the customer and the team. It will provide more opportunities for understanding the final product. Timely provision of working software increases trust between the involved parties and encourages them to participate in the project more actively.

Transparency

Agile approaches provide a unique opportunity for customers to participate in projects by defining priorities and functions, planning iterations, reviews, and software builds with new functions. However, it also requires customers to understand that they see unfinished work in exchange for the advantage of active participation in planning and development.

Early and predicted release

Due to using the fixed sprint schedule with a period of 1-4 weeks, new functions are provided fast and often with a high level of predictability. It also allows releasing or performing beta-testing of the software earlier than planned, in the case it has value for business.

 Estimated cost and schedule

Because every sprint has a fixed duration, the cost is estimated and limited by the workload performed by a team in the temporary window with the fixed schedule. According to evaluations given before every sprint, the customer can easily understand the approximate cost of every task, which improves the process of making decisions regarding the task priority and the need for additional iterations. 

The possibility of making changes

When the team focuses on providing the agreed function of the product on every iteration, there is a possibility for constant improvement and redistributing of the total number of unfinished product tasks. New or changed elements of uncompleted tasks can be planned on the next iteration, which allows making changes over several weeks.

Focus on business value 

By letting the customer choose the task priority, the team understands what is the most important for the customer and can provide useful functions.

Customer focus

Agile usually uses user stories with acceptance criteria for a software product to define software characteristics. Customer focus makes it possible to provide software beta testing after every sprint gaining valuable feedback at the beginning of the project and giving a chance to make changes as required.

Quality improvement

By dividing the project into managed units, the project team can concentrate on high-quality development, testing and common work. The software quality is improved due to frequent builds and testing every iteration. Such checks contribute to fast finding and correcting defects and early detection of inconsistencies with the expected result.

Agile manifesto

1. People and interaction are more important than processes and tools.
2. A working product over exhaustive documentation.
3. Cooperation with the customer over the agreed conditions of the contract.
4. Changes over following the initial plan are possible.

12 principles of Agile Manifesto

1. The main priority is customer satisfaction due to the timely and continuous software release.
2. Working software development lasts from several weeks to several months. A shorter period is considered the best. 
3. Creating the product around motivated people. Providing the required environment, support and trust in doing the work.
4. Functioning software is an essential measure of progress.
5. The constant attention to technical perfection and good design increase the development speed.
6. The best requirements for the architecture and design appear from self-organized teams.
7. Small changes in the requirements are present even in the late stages of development to ensure the customer's competitive advantages.
8. Users and developers should work together during the whole project.
9. The most important and effective method of communication is personal conversation.
10. Agile processes contribute to sustainable development. Customers, developers and users should be able to support the constant pace for an indefinite period.
11. Simplicity is the art of not doing unnecessary work.
12. It is necessary to analyze the work performed by the team to find how to make it more effective and, accordingly, correct the processes.

Types of agile software development methodologies

Scrum is an Agile method of managing projects used basically for software development. Its goal is to significantly improve labor productivity and provide new software every 2-4 weeks. Scrum methodology includes forming teams with strong communication skills, customer feedback, a large number of users in the products they designed, etc.

Kanban is one of the most popular software development methodologies used by Agile teams today. Same as Scrum, Kanban is a methodology designed to help teams work more effectively.

However, there are some differences.

Differences between Scrum and Kanban

Agile is a powerful methodology for developing software that not only offers benefits for a development team but provides a number of significant business advantages for the customer. Agile helps project groups deal with many common pitfalls in a more controlled manner (for example, schedule unpredictability and the importance of making changes in a project fast). Agile reaches goals in a flexible and business-oriented way by reorganizing and rethinking actions connected with software development.