How to Embrace Agile Development Methodology in 2019

Agile development methodology’s introduction has transformed how software development worked. Over the past few decades, agile development has multiplied the success rate of products. Along with this, it has also resulted in faster delivery and internal moral development for employees.

Agile development methodology is an innovative substitution for the command-and-control type of management. With its values & principles, agile offers development teams a wide spectrum of functionalities.

Accelerating Profitability with Agile Development

Companies understand that agile development only leads to better profitability. National Public Radio developed new and improved programming by implementing agile. While Saab developed new fighter jets with agile, John Deere implemented it to develop new machines. General Electric, has integrated agile for its transition to a 21st century “digital industrial company”.

Agile development replaces the product-centric approach with the customer-focused approach. It enables self-management, accelerates profitability, and develops skilled managers.

However, not everyone is still open to accepting agile development methods. Some senior executives feel uneasy when talking about agile. This is because they lack the proper training to understand how agile actually works. Their hesitation to embrace it is nothing but a result of a lack of understanding of the approach. The principles of agile are effective when one knows what they are working towards and how it will affect their business.

Why Agile Based Development Projects fail frequently?

Agile is a quick & smooth delivery approach to product development. Managers launch projects with haywire deadlines which demands the team to be spread out through several projects. This requires regular meetings with agile teams, leading to skipping work and decreased productivity.

Another factor is that agile managers talk more but listen less. The team and clients have valuable and first-hand feedback on how to work but managers seldom listen. They try to promote ideas that have already been implemented and exhausted.

With several projects, agile managers tend to impose deadlines and controls on the team. They want to ensure that the mistakes aren’t repeated. But this defeats the purpose of agile development methodology that requires freedom for development teams. The ultimate result is a failure to implement agile.

3 Practices that can help Organizations Embrace Agile in 2019

Managers can achieve success in agile development management if they create an environment that is susceptible to its implementation. This requires following certain principles & practices that keep agile stable. Here are a few practices that can help managers win with agile:

1. Understand how Agile Works

Agile development isn’t working according to your wish. If you’re an executive, you can’t boss around teams in the name of agile development. Agile includes Scrum, Lean development, Kanban, etc. which are methods to streamline the development process.

However, executives miss the entire point because they aren’t aware of the basic principles. The methodology and benefits have been documented but aren’t understood by managers who lack the patience and focus to go through them. They need to engage the entire agile development team and align the principles with their organization’s core objective. Only then will agile offer benefits to the entire process of development.

2. Understand its Feasibility in Processes

What most managers think is that Agile based development can solve any problem. Nothing can be far from the truth. Generally, agile development is crucial when it comes to software innovation. The problems are complex, the product will frequently be modified, and teams need to be creative and on their toes for developing a top-notch product.

Agile comes in handy in such product development scenarios. However, for routine tasks like plant maintenance, purchasing, accounting, and administrative tasks, agile methodology isn’t really beneficial. Software development requires constant feedback and quick iterative delivery of the products whereas other departments don’t have the same requirements.

3. Understand Agile barriers

Often, managers and agile teams follow a different roadmap which leads to miscommunication and confusion. The development process suffers heavily because the approach is no longer a collaborative effort. Executives need to understand such barriers and eliminate them for improving agile methodology implementation.

70% of agile practitioners report tension between their teams and the rest of the organization. (Research by Scrum Alliance)

Once executives understand these challenges, they can easily overcome them. Agile practitioners must try to get the team on the same page. They must start small and before iterating the entire development process, they must begin with changes in the roles. Apart from these, they must follow the practices of the Agile Manifesto to make better agile teams.

Agile development methodology has transformed how software products are developed. It is a significant change that led organizations to switch from the inefficiencies in the waterfall methodology. By analysing the exact project requirements, agile can be implemented to achieve maximum efficiency from the teams and rapid product development. BoTreeTechnologies is a leading IT solutions company that can help you implement agile to boost your product development capabilities. Contact us today for a free consultation!