To
counter these aforementioned issues, Agile Methodology of Development should be adopted. It is an inherently “iterative” approach that assess the direction throughout the
development lifecycle, known as Sprints, at the end of
which it effectively delivers a potential software product. Further, as teams
can develop software at the same time they’re gathering requirements, “analysis
paralysis” is less likely to impede them from making progress. Moreover,
stakeholders have frequent opportunities to regulate the release of the product
that is relevant and useful in the real world.
So
with this methodology, every aspect of development — from requirements to design — is continually revisited and so it is easy to change the product under
development as there’s much more flexibility. Furthermore,
it reduces development costs and time to market.
Five Key Business Benefits of Agile
#Building the Right Product: With Improved Quality, Visibility &
Predictability
It’s
quite common (in more traditional software projects) to deliver a “successful”
project in terms of IT to later find that the product is not at par with the expectations. While with agile it could never happen as the emphasis is completely
on building the right product.
Stakeholders
tend to believe they know what they want as they specify high-level
requirements for an IT or software-intensive product. However, the fact is they
are mostly unable to imagine the problem accurately or it simply changes with
time. Sometimes the technology is not quite as promised or the product does not
actually work the way the stakeholder intended. So even though they thought
they described their requirements clearly, most of the time, when they see the
finished product it often does not quite solve the problem.
In
such a situation, if agile development practices are used, using several short,
time-boxed iterations a product could be devised that delivers the minimal
functionality with high quality i.e. enough to get the job done. This approach makes
it possible to demonstrate the product to stakeholders in the early stages and
often enables them to decide that it meet their needs or not.
Agile
methods can even help IT projects achieve release predictability as they are eradicate
the problems such as - not able to use/learn the new technology; unclear
requirements; or simply because the customers changed their minds after the development
was nearly finished.
#Enhanced Business Engagement/Customer Satisfaction
Another
most important benefit of using agile development is that it fosters positive,
engaging and long-term working relationships.
Such
are the principles of agile development that it encourage a cooperative
collaborative approach wherein active ‘user’ involvement is asked for
throughout the product’s development. This provides excellent visibility, both
of the project’s progress and of the product itself, which in turn helps to
ensure that expectations of key stakeholders are effectively addressed.
All
that, along with the high visibility of the product and its developmental progress,
and the flexibility to change when the change is needed, create much better
business engagement and customer satisfaction.
#Risk Management
With
agile practices, both early and parallel risk assessment and reduction could be
prioritized.
The
clear visibility in agile development helps to ensure that it is easier to
respond to change.
Small
incremental releases are made visible to the product owner and product team and
any necessary decisions are taken at the earliest possible opportunity, while
there’s still time to make a slight difference.
For
risk areas where there might be multiple solutions and all the teams cannot
agree on the right alleyway, multi-set development is considered. Herein
multiple teams work in parallel on solving the same problem with different
solutions and it most likely bring key decisions forward.
#Cost Control
When
agile is used, the scope of the product and its features keep evolving. However,
the cost could be controlled and fixed budget be allocated because the timescales
are fixed.
#Rewarding Experience
In
the agile paradigm, instead of big specs, requirements are discussed in
workshops; instead of lengthy status reports, collaboration happens around a task-board
discussing progress. Similarly, it is discussed what’s right for the product,
project and the team instead of making long project plans and change management
committees.
This kind of cooperation and collaboration make agile
development much more enjoyable for most people. It is a rewarding approach wherein
everyone involved remains highly motivated and delivers high performance.
Conclusion
Agile
development emphasizes on teamwork and calls for much more commitment and
effort from everyone involved. So it can help companies and empower teams to
continuously re-plan their release to optimize its value throughout
development and allowing them to be as competitive as possible in the marketplace.
Indeed, advantages that agile methodology of development offers are compelling.
0 comments:
Post a Comment