What is Agile?
Agile methodology is a modern approach in project management that is widely used in software development. Agile Software Development is an alternative to the traditional sequential process of development, known as “waterfall”. Agile helps with the timely response to any changes in the project, and corrects the workflow accordingly.
The Agile Roadmap to Value
Agile project management allows you to bring more transparency into the development process. Below you will find the main stages of the agile development process.
- Stage 1: Vision – The product owner identifies what the product is, its place in the strategy of the company and the end users.
- In Stage 2: Product Roadmap – The Roadmap of the product is a document that contains the requirements for the product and the terms of their development.
- Stage 3: Release Plan – The release plan establishes the timeframes for the release of the software. Agile methodology involves multiple releases, including when the core functions are released in the first instance. An average release contains three to five sprints.
- Stage 4: Sprint Planning – Members of the Agile development process, namely Product Owner, Scrum Master and Development Team, plan the sprints (iterations) and then start working.
- Stage 5: Daily Meetings – In the course of each sprint, the team gathers every day for a 15-minute meeting to talk about yesterday’s results, plans for today and for any problems that may occur.
- Stage 6: Sprint Review – At the end of every sprint, the team demonstrates the product to the stakeholders.
- Stage 7: Sprint Retrospective – The team analyzes sprints that were approved, what went right, what went wrong and defines what improvements can be made in the next sprint.
Why use Agile?
Agile development makes it possible to change the direction of the development in order to solve the main problems in the first instance.
Unlike waterfall, Agile allows for the revision of every aspect of the development such as technical requirements, list of features, design, etc., throughout the lifecycle of the project. After each iteration, the team stops, analyzes the results of the sprint and is free to choose the direction and specification of the sprint.
Such flexibility gives the stakeholders an opportunity to calibrate the delivered product to their business processes. Agile development helps to keep the product relevant to the market, and also helps to avoid the wasting time and money due to any unexpected circumstances.