Agile

“Agile” started with big promises to improve software development. The promise was so great that very soon people began to revolutionize the rest of the business organization outside of IT with agile approaches. The question of whether this was the smartest idea is open to debate. In any case, it is important to be clear about how to use “Agile” properly to get the promised enhancements.

Transparency

One of the biggest problems with waterfall projects was the lack of transparency. Agile wanted to create this in two ways: short iteration cycles and open communication.

Short iteration cycles in development and the provision of iteratively developed increments enable the business departments to provide continuous feedback on the current status. This significantly increases the acceptance of the resulting software product in the respective company. In addition, the involvement of the business motivates the development team. Changes, even if they deviate from the original intention, can be implemented quickly. In addition, the company can usually track any cost increases in an uncomplicated manner.

Open communication during software development is very important. On the one hand, included users can give their feedback which helps to optimize the product. On the other hand, open communication between and with developers helps them to understand what they are working for.

This can be achieved with “daily scrum”, “sprint planning” and/or “grooming sessions”, retrospectives, and more. In all of those events, developers speak with each other and sometimes with the stakeholders. Some of the meetings are very efficient and keep the team motivated. Others have the potential to consume too much time, reducing efficiency, and they can be quite demotivating. Each company needs to find the communication method that best suits them. One thing is certain, however: keep the number of meetings to a minimum.

Cost Reduction

One of the big promises is the reduction of costs associated with an agile approach such as “Scrum”.

The idea is that shorter release cycles lead to early feedback, resulting in earlier changes, which prevent a software team from moving in the wrong direction for too long and thus implementing changes very late, often at great expense. We can subscribe to this from experience and it is logical.

Faster Time to Market

Agile approaches significantly increase the speed of bringing software products to market. The main drivers are the short iteration cycles, which allow the development teams to react to change requests almost in real-time.

The idea of creating transparency through continuous communication within teams, between teams, and between IT and business is also a powerful tool to develop custom-fit software faster. However, care should be taken to limit the number of sessions for all participants to avoid productivity losses. Some agile projects are getting simply lost in endless discussions and meetings which will sacrifice efficiency and productivity for the sake of endless discussions. In the end, one can run into a situation where agile is even slower than waterfall ever used to be.