Nowadays, more and more companies are starting to use Agile.
I am sure, there are no Senior Engineers who are not familiar with Agile methodologies.
So I am going to explain the basics of Agile and why we use Agile over traditional methodologies.
What is Agile?
Agile is an iterative approach to project management and software development that helps teams deliver value to their customers faster and with fewer headaches. Instead of betting everything on a "big bang" launch, an agile team delivers work in small, but consumable, increments. Requirements, plans, and results are evaluated continuously so teams have a natural mechanism for responding to change quickly.
Aren't you familiar with definitions?
Let's take this.
Funny?
If you build and launch the new type of car named "WaterFall" with lots of money, but customers really don't like that.
You lost money and will be fired.
Let's change the name of the car from "WaterFall" to "Agile".
You started to build from something small and basics, added features to the basics.
With this approach, you can avoid unnecessary money lost and great failure!.
It is more likely to idiot story but I hope you get some understanding of Agile now.
Let's dive into the next part.
Why do we use Agile?
If you understand the main purpose of figure correctly, you can get the main point why we use Agile.
Let's get in a more professional way.
Why do we use Agile?
1. Revenue
The iterative nature of agile development means features are delivered incrementally, enabling some benefits to be realized early as the product continues to develop.
2. Quality
A key principle of agile development is that testing is integrated throughout the lifecycle, enabling regular inspection of the working product as it develops. This allows the product owner to make adjustments if necessary and gives the product team early sight of any quality issues.
3. Risk Management
Small incremental releases made visible to the product owner and product team through its development help to identify any issues early and make it easier to respond to change. The clear visibility in agile development helps to ensure that any necessary decisions can be taken at the earliest possible opportunity, while there’s still time to make a material difference to the outcome.
4. Agility
In traditional development projects, we write a big spec up-front and then tell business owners how expensive it is to change anything, particularly as the project goes on. In fear of scope creep and a never-ending project, we resist changes and put people through a change control committee to keep them to the essential minimum. Agile development principles are different. In agile development, change is accepted. In fact, it’s expected. Because the one thing that’s certain in life is change. Instead the timescale is fixed and requirements emerge and evolve as the product is developed. Of course for this to work, it’s imperative to have an actively involved stakeholder who understands this concept and makes the necessary trade-off decisions, trading existing scope for new.
5. Business Engagement/Customer Satisfaction
The active involvement of a user representative and/or product owner, the high visibility of the product and progress, and the flexibility to change when change is needed, create much better business engagement and customer satisfaction. This is an important benefit that can create much more positive and enduring working relationships.
Is Agile good in the real world?
- 86% of software development teams have fully adopted the Agile approach.
- At least 71% of U.S. companies are now using Agile.
- Agile projects have a 65% success rate, whereas projects under the competing methodology known as waterfall only have a 50% success rate.
- After adopting Agile, companies have experienced an average 60% growth in revenue and profit.
I will cover how to use Agile in software development in more detail in the next part.
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