Are you Agile enough?
The question makes all sense in present times. Not only because Agile teams are consistently delivering the highest business value at the fastest time and over the longest period, but also because they do seem to be the most efficient.
One way or the other, “being agile” is not an easy task. In fact, agility represents a fundamentally different way of doing business within an organization. For instance, it is important to understand what it means when we are talking about Agile application development.
While each of the Agile methodologies is unique in its specific approach, they all share a common vision and core values (as said in the Agile Manifesto). They all fundamentally incorporate interaction and the continuous feedback that IT provides to successively refine and deliver a software system.
They all involve continuous planning, testing, integration, and other forms of evolution of both the project and the software. They are all lightweight, especially compared to the most traditional way of doing things.
Above all, Agile methods all focus on empowering people to collaborate and make decisions together; decisions that must be taken in an efficient and rapid way. That is quite (one of) the secrets behind it all; we will give you three more!
1. When “developing” and “feedback” are day-to-day things
Are you looking for an application that responds in a totally fit way to the real business needs? Agile development is the answer as it simplifies production stages e allows applications to be constantly adapted (and corrected, if that is the case) throughout all the development stages. The result is no more than perfect! It allows companies to deal with products that are totally designed for them and the problems they address by that time.
Does anyone still remembers when IT people had to take “those” products back to the development stage, to correct, and correct it again, just because “they were not quite what business need”?
That is a scenario of the past as today things like “a long (and costly) delay” on putting the final product available in the market is no longer thing managers and IT people will have to deal with.
In fact, by using Agile development, companies will be able to deal with software testing in an easy way, just with the purpose of verifying the quality, functionality, performance and safety before a product is put into production. With the increasing pressure of competitors and markets all over the world, the Agile methodology is the key to a happy ending.
2. A quick response may save the day
By now, no one doubts that Agile methodology is a way to put in place some “agile” benefits to project management and even to the management of the company itself. This comes in an era in which a highly volatile market demands that companies have the ability to respond quickly to changes and adapt themselves as well as their offer.
With traditional management models, that would no longer be possible, so organizations would end in a place where they were pushed towards Agile metrics as a way of adapting to the new realities of the market.
Adopting Agile methods means a substantial reduction in time-to-market, no matter what kind of project are we talking about, as well as the ability to put aside client complains about “probable delays”.
With Agile Methodology, IT teams are able to work on a project phase by phase, which lets them anticipate and rapidly deal with sudden and unexpected problems.
One other huge advantage, that cannot be forgotten, is the capacity to add one or more component and functionalities to the project along the way. In the end, the business will have a much more optimized offer to make available in the market.
3. One step ahead
In today’s competitive business environment, the fact is that organizations must be aware that things like software and product development are already driven and focused on the needs of customers and businesses; and they all need rapid responses in order to work.
If the business wants to be ahead of the competition, things like feedback must be immediately incorporated into products as well as teams must deliver the exact product customers are looking for.
Using Agile, organizations have the ability to rapidly respond to market changes, delivering higher quality software and products, as well as gaining the competitive edge.
An Agile development allows the company to be the first to deliver market innovations. For instance, there are more and more businesses providing their customers with apps – home banking, customer areas, and invoice validation, among many others. And there is no doubt that a company that gets the first product available will win an interesting slice of new customers and retain older ones.
In conclusion…
There are many Agile Methodologies available in the market but five of them are the most utilized: Scrum, Extreme Programming, Kanban, Iterative Development, Lean Development. Anyhow, teams must have in mind that:
– No matter which methodology companies use, the fact is that Agile application development is a real competitive advantage that has to go hand-in-hand with business.
– Whether it be used for internal purposes (as to develop a new ERP modules) or for customer use (getting a new home banking app in the market), Agile development should be a business requirement in order to ensure rapid delivery of applications and, at the same time, making sure those app are tailored to respond to all the business needs.
At Blue Screen, we use an Agile development methodology in order to provide better services and applications to our clients. If you want to learn more about this methodology and how it can help your business, feel free to contact us.