What is the Agile Methodology?

Agile methodologies overview

The Agile software development methodology is one of the most basic and effective project management methodologies for transforming a business’s vision into software solutions. It’s a widely used methodology in the software industry, especially in the project management process. The agile methodology’s fundamental idea might be described as ‘demonstrating quick responses to changing conditions.’ It aims to create solutions dynamically in the accumulation by changing the conditions and challenges that are faced during the project management process.

How was the Agile methodology born?

Agile was created in the early 2000s to improve processes, as earlier project management approaches were inefficient. Pre-designed technologies, according to business leaders in development, are slow and therefore unable to completely respond to the ability to modify strategies quickly when priorities change across different projects. The “Agile Manifest” was released by a group of industry leaders, which included four key ideas and 12 principles of the agile process.

Four Basic principles of the Agile Method

The agile technique is defined by four main components. The following are the four primary principles that describe their basic principles:

​​Individuals and interactions over processes and tools,

Working software over comprehensive documentation,

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation,

Responding to change over following a plan,

The agile method has prioritized these 4 points.

What is the most important factor in the agile method?

The most important factor in the Agile methodology can be proved to be continuously adding value through returns. By breaking a project into very small chunks, the agile methodology focuses on the value addition of each segment. It progresses with the return obtained at the end of each part, increasing its value. This allows for the quickest response to problems and returns encountered during the project management process.

Benefits of Using the Agile Methodology

Although the benefits of agile project management differ depending on the team’s project management methodology, there are several fundamental benefits that are common. Agile project management is usually considered to provide the following key benefits:

Customer Satisfaction

Agile teams engage customers in the development process, keeping them in the loop and showing that they value their ideas. Stakeholders want to be included throughout the project lifecycle so they can provide feedback and ensure that the final product is tailored to their needs. These specially crafted results improve the overall user experience and increase customer loyalty.

Better quality results

Agile methodologies use a repetitive approach to project management, which means that processes are improved each time a range is repeated. Focusing on this continuous improvement and quality control is one of the main principles of the agile method and helps to create higher quality products.

Flexibility

Flexibility and harmony are one of the most important principles in agile methodology. Agile teams respond to change even at the last minute and must be able to adapt to change without too many disrupts. Project presentations are not fixed, so teams can easily re-evaluate their plans and easily adjust their priorities to the updated goals. Being adaptable means that teams can serve consistently and effectively manage customers’ changing needs.

Predictability

Agile teams work by dividing the project into short-term stages. These stages are called ‘sprint’. These fixed times (e.g. Two weeks) makes it easy for project managers to measure team performance and assign resources accordingly. It is also easier to estimate costs for a shorter time than a long-term project. This method also simplifies the estimation process.

Less risk

Developers regularly assess progress during sprints, which means they can read the project better and quickly identify potential obstacles. These small issues create an effective risk mitigation process and give the project a greater chance of success.

Better communication

Agile teams prioritize regular communication and continuous interaction. In general, daily meetings are held to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working to achieve the same goals. By communicating regularly with each other, it eliminates potential confusion and helps them successfully achieve their goals.

Agile vs Waterfall

Waterfall Methodology

The waterfall approach to software development is a highly sequential approach and can be divided into seven different stages. There are a series of successive phases that need to be completed individually. The second stage cannot be started until the first step is completed.

The stages of the waterfall methodology are:

Concept: The idea stage is a process that includes what developers want to design and why they want to design.

Launch and Analysis: This phase includes the collection and documentation process of what the software development project requires, including system and software requirements for the product or project.

Design: At this stage, developers determine how they want the software parts to work and which parts to encode.

Encoding: This phase includes coding each unit of the software, testing, and integrating units from design to software architecture.

Testing: This stage involves testing the entire software system; it may include user testing, error testing, and returning to correct specific problems.

Application: In many cases, this means delivering the “finished” product to the customer or providing the software across the system.

What are the differences between Agile and Waterfall?

Both methodologies can help developers produce high-quality project management. Depending on the specific project requirements, knowing the difference between Agile and Waterfall can lead a development team to have better hardware to choose the right process and methods to deliver a successful software project.

Some of the obvious differences are:

Agile is an incremental and repetitive approach, and waterfall is a linear and sequential approach.

Agile splits a project into sprints, and waterfall takes a project into stages.

Waterfall helps complete a single project. Agile helps complete many small projects.

Waterfall focuses on successful project delivery. Agile offers a product mindset focused on customer satisfaction.

When requirements are prepared in Agile every day, requirements are initially prepared in Waterfall.

While requirements are prepared daily at Agile, requirements are initially prepared once at Waterfall.

Agile allows change of requirements at any time; Waterfall prevents coverage changes after the project starts.

The test is performed simultaneously with the development in Agile; the test phase only comes after the build phase in a Waterfall project.

Test teams in Agile can participate in the change of requirements; test teams in W’aterfall are not included in the change of requirements.

Agile allows the project team to work without a special project manager; Waterfall requires a project manager who plays an important role at each stage.

How is the agile method applied?

Many techniques can be used to implement the agile project management method. The most important ones are Scrum and Kanban techniques. In general, Agile project management is implemented through these two techniques.

Scrum

Scrum project management is a popular framework that focuses on all types of recursive or incremental projects. This focus allows Scrum to deliver the optimal job value as soon as possible. All iterations or increments must always have a well defined goal. These goals can be changed throughout the project from iteration to iteration.within scum, the product owner or ‘Scrum Manager’ works closely with the team to create a Spooling List. From this, they can prioritize system functionality.

Kanban

The other most popular Agile frame is Kanban. Kanban stands for “visual signal” and in 1940 Toyota appeared on the factory floor. Developed as an order or planning system. The goal was to best manage business and inventory at every stage of manufacturing. Adapting this mindset for Agile project management allows for rapid development by emphasizing optimized, continuous flow. When an ongoing task is completed, developers only draw new work from one queue.

For more information about Scrum and Kanban, you can read Scrum vs Kanban: What are the differences blog post.

CONCLUSION

Agile project management is a project management methodology that is widely used today, especially in the software development industry. It provides a lot of ease for companies in the process of developing and managing projects.