All companies that want to have a digital transformation end up including agile methodologies in their business. In this way, they can deliver their products or services with better quality and reducing both time and costs.
Technology is advancing and the digital revolution is a reality, however, due to all these technological changes that companies are facing, many do not reach such innovation and fail to respond to customer needs and market demands.
That is why, at Yapiko, we explain what the Agile methodology consists of in software development and we address methodologies such as Scrum, Lean or Kanban.
What is the Agile Development methodology?
By Agile development methodolgy it’s understood as a methodology that helps to adapt the way of working to the project conditions, i.e. it is used in software development and other projects based on flexibility and eficiency. An Agile methodology means looking for the best working options to solve projects.
The importance of using Agile methodologies for software development is based on promoting the responsibility and autonomy of the teams and thus reducing the risk of the company’s objectives and projects. In addition, the use of these methodologies benefits projects, as they provide speed, autonomy, greater productivity and flexibility to adapt to changes.
What are the key values of Agile?
There are 4 Agile values. They are the following:
- Functional software should be more important than documentation.
- Individuals and interactions are more important than processes and tools.
- Active customer involvement is more important than contract negotiation.
- Be able to respond to changes and unforeseen events. Do not follow a fixed plan, but be able to adapt.
From these 4 values arise the 12 principles of the Agile methodology. The Agile Manifesto defends a series of aspects: customer satisfaction, promoting teamwork, periodic reviews, simplicity or inspection and adaptation to improve.
This Agile Manifesto is a document with 4 vital rules and 12 very useful principles for all those who enter the world ofagile software management.
How to implement the Agile methodology?
There are several steps to follow:
- Identify the business objectives: before launching, you need to know what your business objectives are.
- Perform an analysis of the company culture: the company culture must be able to implement this methodology. In addition, communication must be transparent. In addition, communication must be transparent.
- Know what is the potential impact on your customers: to know how the implementation of the Agile methodology will benefit, it is important that you ask yourself questions such as what will be the impact on services and products , or how will the relationship between the company and the customer be?
- Know what resources the company has: make a list of the people and tools you need.
- Involve the leaders and experts in the company and get their opinion: communicate with leaders and experts for advice and feedback.
- Implement the agile processes: Once you have gone through the above steps, you can implement the agile processes.
What are the advantages of the Agile Development methodology?
The advantages of agile project management are the following:
- Improved product quality: the use of this type of methodologies favours the proactive approach of the workers while seeking together the excellence of the products or services.
- Teamwork: collaborative work together with weekly meetings allows for better organisation and communication of work. Dividing work into teams and roles helps to obtain better results.
- The client feels more satisfied: if the client sees demonstrations and deliveries, he/she will be experiencing the improvements being made, which will make him/her feel satisfied for being part of the development process.
- Increased employee motivation: self-managing work teams facilitate creative capacity.
- Reduced costs: with this methodology, absolute failure is totally reduced, since errors and failures are identified during development, and there is no need to wait until the final product.
- There is more control and predictability: as the product can be reviewed during the process, workers can have more control over their work, allowing predictions of time and costs.
- Use of better metrics: metrics are used to measure time, performance, cost, etc. Metrics in agile projects are more realistic, and because of the small working groups, it is easier to know what is going on.
Which Agile Development methodologies are the most widely used?
There are a lot of agile methodologies, however, not all of them follow the Agile Manifesto pattern. At Yapiko, we tell you which ones do follow this method based on the 12 principles of agile software. These are the methodologies:
Scrum
It is known for being the “chaos methodology” and is based on an incremental development structure. What does this mean? It means that the development parts of the product or service are divided into small projects, which in turn are divided into more parts: analysis, development and testing.
It is perfect for the complex projects that need more flexibility and speed in their delivery of results. The characteristics of Scrum are: innovation, productivity, competitiveness and flexibility.
Extreme Programming XP
It is ideal for startups and companies that are consolidating, as the main objective of Extreme Programming XP is to help build relationships between employees and their customers. It focuses on enhancing relationships through communication and teamwork, as well as reducing downtime.
Kanban
It is also known as the “Visual Card” and is recommended for project managers.. How does it work? It is based on a chart or diagram showing three columns of tasks: pending, in process or completed. The chart must be seen by everyone so that tasks are not repeated or forgotten.
At Yapiko we specialise in Software Development using agile methodologies in those projects of our clients in which we can provide benefits. Our team has experience, commitment and quality. We offer services such as Bespoke Software Development, Mobile App Development and Web Application Development , among others. For any questions or queries, please contact us.
