Companies need software competency so that they can deliver a great digital experience to their users, and the Agile process model is one of the best ways to do that. Nowadays, most technologies used by organizations practice Agile and its methodology for the process of software development. This blog talks in detail about Agile and Agile architecture so that you can learn about the basics and consider implementing them in your company. The topics that we will discuss in this blog are listed below:
Table of Contents:
What is Agile?
Agile is a popular technology that allows you to build and respond to changes. It is a collection of several principles that are used in the field of project management and software development. This practice works on the continuous iteration of testing and development for the complete Agile software development lifecycle of a given business project.
Rather than making big changes at work, Agile aims to help teams work toward small achievable goals, which proves to be successful in delivering customers what they need easily without having to set big, unattainable goals. Agile requires professionals to continuously evaluate several plans, requirements, and results, and this allows them to respond to necessary changes easily and quickly.
Core Values of Agile
Before reading about the principles followed by Agile, let’s check out some core values of Agile that are mentioned in the Agile Manifesto:
- Individuals and interactions over tools and processes
- Working product over comprehensive documents
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to changes over following a plan
If you want to know more about Agile, you must check out the YouTube video below:
What is Agile Methodology?
In simple terms, Agile methodology in the field of project management is the process of managing a given business project, which is defined by using collaboration and iterations at regular intervals so that it meets the requirements of a particular customer. Agile uses various methods or frameworks, such as Scrum, Kanban, and Extreme Programming, that can be implemented in the project to make it successful.
Life Cycle of Agile Methodology
Agile delivers working software in small, usable parts called iterations or sprints. Here’s a breakdown of the Agile life cycle:
Phase 1: Requirements Gathering
In this step, the job is to identify the high-level business needs, to interact with the stakeholders, and to have check on the requirements of the product.
Phase 2: Iteration Planning
From the full list of features, the team picks a few important tasks to work on them first. They decide how they will build these and also, plan their tasks accordingly.
Phase 3: Creating a Basic Design
Before jumping into the actual coding part, the team works on a simple plan, and an idea of how the project will look. It is not very detailed, but is enough to get started.
Phase 4: Building the Features
The team starts writing the code to build the features they have planned in the previous steps. They work together and have a regular analysis of how things are going.
Phase 5: Testing While Building
As each feature is built, they are tested to check if it is working properly and doesn’t break anything else. If required then the fixes are done.
Phase 6: Sharing the Work
Once the selected features are ready and they are working, the team presents them to the customer or stakeholders to get their feedback. If everything looks fine, it can be released for customers to use.
Phase 7: Taking Feedback
The customer gives feedback on what was the good part, what they liked, what needs to be changed and also what can be improved. The team notes down all suggestions.
Phase 8: Reflecting and Improving
The team discuss among themselves how they have worked. They discuss what went well, what could’ve been better, and also how to improve the mistakes.
What are the 12 Agile Principles?
1. Focus on customer satisfaction
The first priority of Agile is to ensure customer satisfaction via quick and continuous delivery of necessary products.
2. Accept changes
It is important to address the changes in requirements, even if they are introduced late in the development process. Agile implements changes to help companies gain a competitive advantage over their rivals.
3. Deliver work frequently
The product needs to be delivered frequently, keeping in mind the shortest timescale for customer preference.
4. Work as a team
The development team and the business team must work together for the entire duration of a given project.
5. Work with a motivated team
While working with a team, ensure that the team members are trusted, motivated, and have faith in the project. You must also create an environment where the team members can work with each other and receive the support required.
6. Have face-to-face interactions with the team
Having face-to-face conversations and interactions with team members is among the most effective methods for communicating and conveying the required information.
7. Focus on the working product
The significant measure that shows progress is the working software; it indicates the progress toward the final result.
8. Ensure sustainable development
Agile methods can promote sustainability when developers, sponsors, and users are able to maintain a regular and constant pace.
9. Enhance agility
The agility of the product can be enhanced by providing regular attention to the technical details and design.
10. Have simplicity
It is important to have simplicity in your product to waste minimal time, use most of the time efficiently, and get the work done.
11. Maintain a self-organizing team
The best type of design and architecture can only be achieved through a team consisting of self-organizing members.
12. Reflect and update
The team reflects on making the product more effective regularly. The team further adjusts and makes improvements in the features of the product.
Types of Agile Methodology
There are numerous Agile methodologies that are used by most companies. A few of them are explained briefly below:
1. Scrum
Scrum is a framework used by team members to form a hypothesis, put it to the test, look back and reflect on it, and make necessary changes. This framework also allows professionals to adopt practices from other frameworks as per requirements. It makes the project move ahead through short-term work blocks called sprints. These sprints are often limited to an interval of two weeks.
2. Kanban
The Kanban framework helps in designing, managing, and making improvements in the flow of the system. Kanban allows companies to get a visual of their workflow and the work that is pending and needs to be done.
3. Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming allows team members to develop high-quality software that makes improvements in the overall work quality. It helps in developing software using specific engineering practices. Extreme Programming is of significant use when teams are dealing with the risk that comes with handling new changes that might have been caused because of various reasons.
4. Lean
Lean consists of a varied range of principles and tools that identify and eliminate waste to help speed up the development process. The Lean software development framework helps in maximizing value and minimizing waste. Most industries that produce waste during SDLC use Lean to reduce it.
5. Crystal
Crystal is an Agile framework that manages interactions with customers instead of focusing on processes and tools. Crystal works on the dynamic and unique nature of the project and is responsible for streamlining tasks to make optimized improvements. It helps improve a team’s strength concerning continuous integration, communication, and so on.
Agile Software Development
Agile software development is a compiled set of practices and frameworks based on the core principles and values mentioned in the Agile Manifesto. Agile methodology is one of the best ways to approach software development compared to other available methods. One feature that makes the Agile methodology unique is that it requires team members to work together. Moreover, results are achieved through the collaboration of cross-functional, self-organizing teams.
Just because the teams are self-organizing does not mean that they do not require managers; they do. Managers ensure that the team members have the necessary skills required by the project; managers also offer and facilitate the required environment for the project. Generally, managers allow team members to identify how to deliver the product without interfering, but whenever team members have trouble coming up with solutions that can resolve the issue at hand, managers step in.
Now that you have read enough about Agile, its principles and core values, and its role in the field of software development, let us take a look at the various types of Agile methodologies that help in software development.
What is Agile Project Management?
Agile Project Management way of managing projects, especially Product Management. Unlike traditional methods that have a fixed plan from start to end till the time we finish our project, Agile breaks the work into smaller parts and completes it in a step-by-step manner. The team works in short cycles, regularly feedback progress, and making the changes based upon the feedback. It is more focused on teamwork, and regular communication with the customer.
The aim is to be flexible, solve problems on time, and keep improving the product throughout the project.
Agile Software Testing
Agile Software Testing is a testing process that follows the principles of Agile development. Instead of waiting till the end of the project to do the testing of everything, testing in Agile happens continuously throughout the development process. Testers work along with the developers and stakeholders from the very start of the project. As new features are built, they are tested to check if they are working correctly. This helps in finding bugs at an early stage and improving the quality of the product. It also allows changes based on the feedback.
Agile Methodology Advantage and Disadvantage
Advantages of Agile Manifesto
- Flexible and can adapt to changing requirements
- Early detection of bugs and issues
- Delivery of the working software is faster and more frequently
- It encourages continuous improvement within the team
- Continuous customer feedback results in better product alignment
Disadvantages of Agile Manifesto
- Requires experienced and self-organised team members.
- Less importance on documentation can cause confusion later
- Can be hard to predict time and cost in large projects
- Frequent changes might delay overall project delivery
Agile vs Waterfall Methodology
Waterfall Model
Like the Agile model, the waterfall model is also a method for software development. It is an old approach, in the field of SDLC, that requires software development teams to follow a laid-out process and move on to the next step only once the previous and current steps are completed. In the waterfall model, before the start of any new phase, the old phase must be successfully completed.
Steps of the Waterfall Model
The steps followed by professionals while using the waterfall model are as follows:
- Requirement: In this step, all the requirements of the system are gathered and documented for analysis.
- System design: The requirements gathered in the previous step are studied to set up the design of the system. This allows professionals to understand the hardware specifications and system requirements, along with defining the architecture of the system.
- Implementation: Here, small programs are built on the basis of system design. These programs are units that can be integrated into the upcoming stage in the model. The functionality of the units is then tested; this process is known as unit testing.
- Testing: Once a unit is tested, it is adopted by the system. In this testing and integration stage, after all, units are integrated, the entire system is checked for failures and faults.
- Deployment: After the completion of the testing phase, the product is released to the market and made accessible to the users.
- Maintenance: The last phase of the model is to deal with the issues that come up from clients after the product patches are released. Maintaining the project will help in making improvements and enhancing it. It will also allow you to deliver the changes to the client.
Drawbacks of the Waterfall Model
- The actual software is created toward the end of the project life cycle.
- It involves a lot of uncertainty and risk as the testing is done once the project is completed.
- It is not suitable for long and complex projects that are object-oriented.
- It is difficult to measure the development progress in the various phases.
- It does not accommodate changes in the requirements.
Agile Model vs Waterfall Model
| Agile Model | Waterfall Model |
| The life cycle of project development is divided into sprints | The development process is divided into multiple phases |
| It follows an incremental method | It follows a sequential method |
| One of the benefits of Agile is its flexibility | It is a structured method of developing software, which often makes it rigid |
| It can be referred to as a collection of several projects | It is completed as a single project |
| The changes in the requirements of project development can be made even after the completion of the initial plan | There is no room for making adjustments to the requirements once you begin the development |
Conclusion
We hope that this blog has helped you gain in-depth knowledge of the reasons why Agile methodology was introduced and adopted by many companies for software development. You also read about the waterfall model, one of the primitive methods used for software development.
This blog also covered the differences between the two methodologies so that you understand how and why Agile is better when compared to the waterfall model. So, if you want to be an expert in Agile project management, you must sign up for our Agile course and give yourself a head start.