17/02/2022
7 Key Benefits of Agile Development
Creating contemporary software development solutions has never been so challenging or demanding. This has prompted software development companies worldwide to adopt flexible and scalable development frameworks.
Enter Agile, a software development methodology that emphasizes iteration and cross-functionality between developers. Scrum is the most popular sub-framework within Agile, as it allows development teams to manage complex projects and incrementally build on them. Using Agile and Scrum in your software development can fundamentally change the way you approach software-related projects.
7 Key Benefits of Agile Development
According to recent findings by HBR, Agile can increase revenue by up to 60%, with eight out of ten companies committed to using it. 78% of companies also use Agile not just in software development but across various departments to create cross-functional teams and projects. So why should you use Agile in your company as 2022 is closing in? How can you benefit from using this framework in your company and what are the bottlenecks you should be aware of in doing so?
1. Higher and More Dynamic Development Flexibility
More than anything, Agile development is flexible and dynamic without being detrimental to moment-to-moment workflow. Using this framework to create new software solutions will enable everyone on your team to pitch in and contribute in meaningful ways. Agile allows developers to shift task priorities and delegate duties on an almost hourly basis.
This means that everyone is working on everything at the same time, while also being aware of what others are doing. According to Go Remotely, adopting Agile has helped 98% of the companies which took it up, with 80% of CMOs experiencing increased productivity. Agile can help everyone on the team feel important, valuable, and helpful without disrupting the development workflow. In such an environment, everyone is bound to give their best to ensure that the final product is as good as possible.
2. Address Production Bottlenecks More Proactively
Agile frameworks are very proactive and solution-oriented on a minute-to-minute basis. This means that you can quickly shift your team around and re-prioritize different tasks at a moment’s notice. It is a stark contrast compared to traditional development workflow which constitutes each member of your team only specializing in a single niche.
In Agile, everyone can pitch in to help everyone else and solve common issues which plague the entire project. This is what makes Agile particularly alluring for remote teams which operate based on milestones and KPIs (more on that later). By using this framework, you will be able to address bugs, production bottlenecks, and other management issues quickly and efficiently.
3. Accessible Product Scalability Opportunities
You never know when you may face a short deadline or have to introduce new features into your software app at a moment’s notice. Using Agile in this instance can make project scalability a non-issue. You can easily onboard new team members or freelance specialists to lend a hand on your project almost daily.
Scaling your project up and down while retaining a core team of developers is what makes Agile more unique than other frameworks. You can scale your project whenever there are resource or timeline issues, or whenever you may want to bring new talent onto your project quickly. Likewise, when going gets tough, you can disband your team easily while maintaining a good overview of what everyone did while being on the team.
4. Improved Developer Agency and Autonomy
As your development team works within Agile, they’ll experience a far greater sense of agency about the project. The feeling of belonging and purpose within a development team is at risk when working in a traditional workflow.
There, the duties of senior and junior software developers rarely intertwine, whereas, in Agile, everyone is in charge of everyone. By participating in every facet of software development, professionals can feel as if the project is theirs. This can help them identify with the work they did and feel as if they contributed to the final product. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Agile development frameworks.
5. Ability to Cover All Relevant Development Metrics Easily
Developing new software solutions inevitably leads to certain milestones, KPIs, and requirements set by investors or clients. These can often fall to the wayside during development and it can be troublesome to address them post-development.
Agile will allow more people to keep track of relevant KPIs and milestones during active development. This will enable the entire team to pitch in and succeed in developing the exact type of software app you were hired to make. Unlike traditional development, this makes tracking metrics far more convenient and easier for everyone.
6. Higher Emphasis on Teamwork and Collaboration
Software development teams can quickly splinter into smaller groups or teams where everyone is doing only their jobs and nothing else. This can cause toxic individualism to creep into your team and coming back from it will require days or weeks of teambuilding.
Agile assumes that everyone is on the same page and acts as an equal member of the team from day one. This in turn leads to a greater emphasis on collaboration than in any other development framework. It is also what has made Agile attractive for cross-department collaborations in other corporate industries apart from software development. Agile promotes teamwork where teamwork translates to helping one another achieve a common goal – a quality end-product for everyone.
7. Better Quality of the Final Product
As Agile allows all team members to work on the project in equal measure, they are more likely to iron out bugs and glitches during development. This effectively expands your QA team to include everyone on the roster. With Agile, your clients will receive far better final products for their money than ever before.
By not limiting your team’s duties on a person-to-person basis, you allow everyone to provide relevant feedback on the product’s quality. In turn, critical errors and breaking bugs are less likely to creep into your product before launch.
Potential Bottlenecks of Relying on Agile Development
There are plenty of good reasons to use Agile development frameworks to create new software solutions for your clients. However, there are also some issues and bottlenecks you need to be aware of before adopting this development methodology.
Based on Tech Republic findings, 84% of software development businesses adopted Agile in 2021 as opposed to 37% in 2020, with 75% of them explaining the decision as “critical”. Agile is a great system to rely on in times of social distancing and the global pandemic, as it allows developers to work from home and contribute to active projects just the same.
However, it is also a development framework with its quirks which you need to address quickly. Here are some things you should be aware of about Agile frameworks and how to mitigate them as best as possible.
It’s no secret that Agile is the current trend and that many companies are adopting it day-in, day-out. However, using Agile simply to “use Agile” is a bad idea. You need to understand how the framework works before you delegate it to your development team. Even then, Agile may not work out for you and you may have to revert to basics.
Poor internal communication can lead to development misalignment and unnecessary fixes which can cost precious time and resources. Proper moment-to-moment communication between developers is required for Agile to work.
No development plan and no KPIs translate to poor final product quality. Despite Agile being useful for software developers, it is still a software development framework. Building a functioning app requires careful planning and Key Performance Indicators to steer the team in the right direction.
Some teams may not look favorably on Agile as it requires everyone to work together with others constantly. Agile discourages individuality and independence, which can lead to some change resistance in your team. Address these pain points quickly to avoid potential clashes and development issues within the team.
Given that Agile is so flexible in terms of work delegation and cross-collaboration, it can lead to developer burnout. Some developers won’t know when to stop taking up new tasks and embrace too many responsibilities too quickly. As a project manager, your job is to manage your team’s workload so that no one is weighed down by their tasks.
In Conclusion
There is objective potential to be found in Agile frameworks when developing new software solutions and web-based apps or platforms. However, it’s also pivotal that you don’t get caught up in the hype and stumble while adopting Agile without knowing how it works.
Go over the benefits of Agile we’ve outlined and see if you can adapt its framework to your team and projects. When it works, agile will transform the way you approach your workflow in 2022. When it doesn’t it can easily be remedied and course-corrected, so give Agile some time to grow on you and use it to your advantage.
Working within the Agile development framework can improve the final results of your software development efforts – what are the key benefits of using it?
