Agile Software Development — From Chaos to Efficiency
Agile is a typical software development methodology in today’s software engineering besides the waterfall method. In this article, LTS Group will give you a detailed explanation of the agile software development life cycle (SDLC), popular agile software development methodologies, and why more and more businesses opt for the agile methodology.
What is Agile?
Agile is literally the ability to respond to change. This is the optimal way to deal with uncertainty, either uncertainty of a thing itself or of what’s going to impact this thing.
If a business has agility, it has the flexibility to quickly handle changes and not be overwhelmed in a turbulent environment. Nowadays, when consumers’ expectation changes more quickly than what business owners can predict, applying an agile methodology and incrementally figuring things out will help steer clear of serious risks.
What is Agile Software Development?
The agile model in software engineering is an iterative adaptive software development approach that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, iterative development, and rapid response to change.
An Agile delivery model comprises small releases through agile iterations, commonly known as sprints. During each iteration, IT experts will carry out a particular amount of work and have the deliverable reviewed by stakeholders. Iterations are built upon each other, the latter outcome is better than the former, until the product reaches product-market fit.
The Agile philosophy involves strong collaboration and minimal up-front documentation. During the development process, the business team and the technical team follow a collaborative culture where constant reports and feedback are made.
The Agile framework is an ideal choice for complex systems development with dynamic requirements. It has largely replaced the traditional waterfall approach in recent years. A prominent indication of this shift is the fact that a majority of vendors emphasize the use of Agile methodology in their software development services.
Traditional vs. Agile Approach To Software Development
Let’s see the fundamental differences between Agile and traditional perspectives, such as the Waterfall and Spiral on software development.
At LTS Group, we keep in mind the pros and cons of each development methodology to advise our client to choose the right one. Typically, we suggest waterfall for predictable projects and agile for changeable projects.
And now, we will go into details of the 4 Agile methodology steps.
Agile Software Development Life Cycle
The agile software development process typically goes through the following 4 steps:
- Conceptualization & Inception
- Iteration
- Release
- Maintenance
Let’s dive in!
1. Conceptualize & Inception
At the first step of the Agile life cycle, we define:
- What we want to build: Product-related items such as project ideas, target users, and expected outcomes.
- What we want to get: Business opportunities
- What we have to pay: Project-related items such as project scope, user story documents (product backlog), stakeholders, development team, budget, and timeline.
2. Iteration
Each Agile iteration typically happens in several weeks and contains 4 steps: Planning, Execution, Review, and Backlog Refinement. Once an iteration is finished, the team reviews the work, incorporates feedback, and gets ready for the next iterations, until we reach the target outcome.
- Planning: The development team selects a set of requirements from the product backlog to be developed and delivered in the upcoming iteration. IT experts estimate the effort for each requirement and define the tasks needed to fulfill it.
- Execution: The team develops, tests, and integrates the software incrementally based on requirements and continuous feedback from stakeholders during the time-boxed period.
- Review: At the end of each iteration, stakeholders meet to review the product demo, gather feedback and determine necessary adjustments for future iterations.
- Backlog Refinement: Alongside iteration reviews and retrospectives, the team continually refines and updates the product backlog as new requirements emerge, priorities change, or new insights are gained. This ensures that the backlog remains relevant and aligned with the project’s goals.
3. Release
Post agile iterations, once the product is ready for release, system testing, functional testing, user training, and documentation development are implemented to guarantee flawless rollout.
4. Maintenance
The development team provides ongoing support for the software during its regular operation to ensure a smooth run. The team may fix bugs or refresh the existing product with upgrades and additional features.
Agile Software Development Methodologies
The agile approach to software development is NOT a single framework. Instead, it is a philosophy for numerous software development frameworks. Here are some of the most common frameworks:
- Scrum
- Kanban
- Extreme Programming (XP)
- Feature-driven development (FDD)
Let’s dive into a comparison of the 4 most common Agile software development methodologies.
- Scrum
Principle
- The project consists of sprints.
- The team works on one sprint at a time.
- The team meets daily for reviewing & planning.
Pros
- Visible & achievable milestones for the team.
- High motivation & collaboration, as the team meets daily.
- Facilitation of in-time priority shift.
Cons
- Lack of a whole picture of the project.
2. Extreme Programming (XP)
Principle
- The project consists of sprints.
- The team executes tests from the first day of development.
- Customers actively involve in the progress.
- Encourages the team to accept changes.
Pros
- Early detection of issues for stakeholders.
- Timely communication of new requirements.
Cons
- Potential timeline expansion due to requirements that come at later stages.
- Not ideal for a remote development team.
3. Kanban
Principle
- Is known as a complete flow management solution.
- Each flow of the project is shown in columns, typically To-do, Doing & Done, on a “Kanban board”.
- The column’s information changes according to progress.
Pros
- Ease of use for the team.
- Full project overview for stakeholders.
- Convenient progress tracking for stakeholders.
- Task-focused management.
Cons
- Lack of a strict timeframe that can lead to possible delays.
- Potential information misalignment without frequent updates.
4. Feature-driven development (FDD)
Principle
- The team prioritizes features over task management.
- The team delivers small, incremental features.
- Each feature comes with a development cycle, encompassing planning, designing, building, and testing.
Pros
- Full project overview for stakeholders.
- User satisfaction guarantee.
- Decreased meeting frequency.
Cons
- Incompatible with small-scale projects.
- Time-intensive with a sequence of small development cycles.
Roles In Agile Methodology
An Agile software development process often involves 4 stakeholders:
- The user
- The product owner
- The technical leader/scrum master
- Software development team
Let’s see the responsibilities of each party in an Agile software development life cycle.
1. The user
Agile software development is all about putting the user first. That’s why today’s software development starts with defining the user personas and user stories.
User stories explain the user’s desired functionality from a user’s perspective. They are the heart of an Agile development process, which will guide the team on what to do and clarify why the team is doing what they are doing.
2. The product owner
A product owner (PO) focuses on the engineering side of a project. Typically, he/she is in charge of:
- defining the product vision,
- creating the story backlog and acceptance criteria,
- managing stakeholders,
- managing the product roadmap, and
- keeping track of the execution of every user story
3. A technical leader/scrum master
A technical leader/scrum master manages the development with the below typical responsibilities:
- coaches members on agile processes
- creates estimates and plans
- supports the progress of the project.
On the other side, he/she manages external coordination with the PO and other stakeholders.
While large projects often assign separate individuals for the technical leader and scrum master roles, small to medium-sized projects may merge these responsibilities into a single role.
4. The software development team
An Agile team is responsible for designing and developing the product. It typically involves:
- Product designers
- UI/UX specialists
- Developers
- Testers
Why Choose Agile Software Development?
Thousands of IT businesses and development teams are benefiting from agile SDLC, however, it undeniably poses potential risks. Because, at its core, the agile approach to software development is about putting users at the heart of the SDLC and delivering user-accepted products, in a tradeoff for resource predictability.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Agile software development for further details.
Thanks to its flexible nature, here comes the major benefits of the agile approach compared to the traditional approaches like Waterfall:
- Allows light beginning with compact documents and plan
- Allows priorities shift and requirements change
- Reduces risks of misconception.
- Allows continuous improvement
- Enables the product-market fit process
- Reduces management efforts thanks to self-organized teams
But apart from that, Agile methodology also has its challenges and constraints, which are worth mentioning:
- Less predictability of time, effort, and budget
- Potential priority crisis in case of change of user stories alongside poor team management
- Greater demand for client involvement
- Lack of necessary documentation for post-development activities like maintenance and upgrade
With the given pros and cons, Agile methodology is ideal for complex projects and/or projects with dynamic requirements or without a clear expectation and outcome upfront.
Conversely, for simple, familiar projects or ones with clearly defined requirements, traditional approaches like Waterfall will be the better choice.
Frequently Asked Questions about Agile Software Development
1. Agile vs. Waterfall: What’s the difference?
The fundamental functional difference between the agile and waterfall approaches is the ability to respond to changes.
If you are familiar with the traditional waterfall methodology, you know that in a waterfall SDLC, we build an initial plan, then developers sequentially move along the standard software development process without revisiting previous stages, deliver a big batch as the initial imagination, and finish.
Meanwhile, an agile process delivers the product through multiple small iterations or sprints, then collects and applies feedback to the next batch and delivers again, the latter is better than the former, until the product gets ready for the production stage.
2. What are the 12 Agile Principles?
To further understand the agile methodology, we can’t miss the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. The Agile Manifesto, which serves as a foundation for the Agile model, encompasses twelve key principles as follows:
- Prioritize customer satisfaction by early and continuously delivering valuable software.
- Welcome requirement adjustment, even in late development phases.
- Deliver working software frequently (weeks rather than months).
- Encourage close, daily cooperation between stakeholders and developers.
- Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted.
- Emphasize the significance of a face-to-face conversation.
- Measure progress by working software
- Promote sustainable development and the ability to maintain a constant pace.
- Pay continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.
- Keep “simplicity” in mind — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done.
- Self-organizing teams invent the best architectures, requirements, and designs.
- Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts behaviors accordingly.
Final Notes of Agile Software Development
Needless to say, in agile software development methodology, user satisfaction takes center stage. That’s why it enables the development team to receive real-time feedback, navigate an ever-changing landscape, and polish the product before its official release.
At LTS Group, we have helped our clients overcome the challenges of foggy requirements and successfully delivered over 100 Agile-based projects. If you want to achieve the same result, consult our Agile experts today.
