Ghostwritten by Gystilyn O’Brien for Accunity via Content Castle. 7/5/19.

Managing a team and making sure that everyone delivers their output in a timely fashion is no easy task. It is for this precise reason that businesses and organizations are adopting agile software development principles and methods. While these practices were first observed in the tech scene, other niches have recently started adapting these notions to their project management processes and are experiencing enormous success.

What Makes the Agile Software Development Effective?

We at Accunity, use the agile software development methodology–an iterative approach to planning, implementing, and guiding a project’s processes. Tasks are divided into smaller segments called sprints. Sprints are the milestones that build a larger picture of the project. Each sprint often has a short-term deadline which allows the team to focus on one task at a time and remain organized.

Dividing the entire project into sprints makes it easier to estimate a timeline with more accuracy. Since the group is not overwhelmed with too many different components at once, dealing with short-term task completion becomes easier.

Constant changes are also easier to deal with as the team doesn’t need to start from the beginning each time a revision is needed. Dividing the workload into sprints allows the team to work on separate segments simultaneously, in an effort to advance a project with haste.

Let’s take a look at the steps in the agile cycle:

The Agile Process Flow

Concept

This stage is where the team paints the project’s entire picture. Once complete, the team scopes out the project and identifies its priorities.

Inception

This is where sprints are developed and team members are assigned to each sprint. Timelines and other requirements are also discussed in this stage.

Iteration/Construction

The team begins work on the assigned sprints based on the requirements, timelines, and priorities that were established in the inception phase. The end goal for this stage is to launch a working product before the official release.

Release

Once the first iteration is complete, the product undergoes testing, quality assurance, addressing of revisions, documentation, internal and external training, and lastly, releasing the iteration into production.

Production

This phase deals with providing ongoing support after the release. The team keeps the systems running smoothly while educating users on how to use the software/product. This phase concludes when the support has ended or when the release is planned for retirement.

Retirement

At the end of a project/product lifecycle, there is retirement. Typically, this happens when you want to replace a system with a new release, or the system becomes redundant or obsolete.

Making Agile Work for You

To utilize the agile workflow to its fullest potential, here are four activities that you should incorporate:

Daily Meetings

Host daily stand-up meetings to keep the communications open, hold team members accountable, and make sure that the iteration is moving forward. They are called “stand up” meetings with the idea that if one is not sitting, the chances of pontification are greatly reduced – it keeps the meeting moving along.

Live Demonstration

Depict the iteration’s final product to show the stakeholders how much progress has been made.

Share Feedback

Collate feedback from the stakeholders and customers and discuss it with the team before the next sprint begins so the team can make any necessary adjustments or changes.

Remain Agile

Just as it sounds, with this process the project remains agile, improving the next iteration’s sprint by implementing changes in the processes based on feedback received.

Agile software development accepts that each project has its own uncertainties. It also values responses to changes and corrections. This method encourages everyone involved to work on something small, execute it efficiently, evaluate and obtain feedback, and improve from there. By employing these methods, Accunity is able to develop and deliver quality performance websites and software quickly. If that’s just what you need, contact us today for a free quote.