How Agile Methodology Improves Development Process and Time-to-Delivery

In the modern workspace, efficiency trumps all and you’d expect nothing less from the management tools and practices that power top organisations. This is especially relevant to companies that operate within the IT sector as delivering large workloads while maintaining consistency and quality is largely a project management problem. In 2001, the IT world gained the Agile Manifesto, which revolutionised software development for the years to come. It started out as a methodological guide for optimising internal processes and has now become a staple for project managers across industries.

Simply put, Agile methodologies involve an incremental and iterative approach to software development. These enable teams to stay focused on their deliverables more consistently, increase their business value and minimise project overhead. It is believed that these primary benefits are a result of the unique continuous-delivery approach. As a matter of fact, data from 2020 indicates that over 70% of companies have adopted the Agile methodology, with around 98% of these finding the change beneficial. To further highlight its relevance, the reported Agile failure rate is just 8%, which is a great improvement considering that around 50% of IT projects are known to fail.

Considering these statistics, it comes as no surprise that it is likely that Agile approaches will soon be the most adopted worldwide. To know more about why it works as well, take a look at how Agile methodology improves the development process and time-to-delivery.

Encourages client involvement

Software development projects can be quite a task to handle without proper collaboration with the stakeholder. Miscommunication or the lack of communication can greatly hamper progress as developers are left in the dark on what’s expected from them. Agile methodology addresses this problem area as it provides ample opportunities for team engagement. This is during all key stages of the process, be it during the pre-planning stage, during the execution and finally at the review step.

By having the client actively involved in every stage of development, developers have the ability to truly understand the goal or vision of the project. Moreover, considering the iterative nature of the Agile approach, having clients involved also means giving them access to results in a consistent manner. This goes a long way in building trust between the two entities and makes for good business. In fact, this may be one of the reasons why Agile has a low failure rate. By providing a consistent stream of results, projects rarely end up in a disastrous state. Even in the event of a crisis, due the fact that projects are worked on in iterations, there are always parts that can be salvaged and used towards a solution.

Improves project scalability

When managing development projects, a key responsibility is to determine whether company resources are getting utilised optimally. This is particularly important for larger organisations as the overall yield from resources is higher. In such cases, Agile methodologies are the perfect fit because it clearly answers the very important question, ‘What else can be achieved with these company resources?’.

By conducting a thorough productivity analysis, project managers are able to identify ways to better leverage team members. This includes finding ways to have them work smart, more efficiently and while avoiding additional investment. All of these factors provide for easy scalability as Agile methodologies give companies the ability to mix and match team members as per needs. This way, projects get scaled optimally and there is no over-investment into any one field, thus ensuring employees don’t get overworked or another project gets side-lined.

Enhances transparency

Working with the Agile approach means having the stakeholders be an active part of development. This transparency plays a pivotal role in the success and outcome of any given project as clients have access to information about the work in motion. For instance, during development, clients may require certain features prioritised or may need to plan out the next iteration of the project. Agile methodology allows for that fosters a beneficial exchange that can be crucial for staying on course.

Helps deliver quality

The Agile approach to development employs a unique ideology, which is known to help secure desirable results. Projects are broken down into smaller units or iterations, thus prioritizing quality at every stage. The inherent and unparalleled flexibility works wonders for organizations that are dealing with high-pressure projects that usually require changes or deliverables on short notice.

Moreover, by going this route of working on smaller, more manageable units, there is more room for quality assessments and testing, all of which is key to delivering a polished product. Frequent reviews also help identify potential problem areas and this helps with employing fixes too. In rare cases, clients may also be presented with the opportunity to reassess their expectations, and address mismatches before it is too late.

Fosters a culture of improvement

Per the Agile manifesto, one of principles is to strive for continuous improvement. This is fostered through the methodologies as projects are handled in iteration. Each sprint is treated with the learning from the last and this can have a compounding effect on overall efficiency. Team members involved are less likely to repeat mistakes and will find ways to optimise the approach for a better time-to-delivery. Additionally, the Agile approach encourages collaboration and the culture of exchanging ideas. This is a great way to ensure improvements as the team learns through shared experiences and can collectively progress consistently.

There is no doubt the Agile methodology is an incredibly powerful tool when used for software development. As a developer, learning to work within the Agile lifecycle and framework is definitely important to furthering your career. In fact, with the right set of skills, you may be able to work alongside some of the best minds in the industry. All you have to do is sign up for T500 and our intuitive platform will align your profile with best-suited openings at Fortune 500 companies.