After working with several start-ups, what we found is that they feel software development is the direct outsourced arrangement. Basically, you hire someone, share your requirement & they go away to build it in isolation. At the end, you find didn’t get what you wanted. Your involvement is limited in a whole development process, at the start & end of the project. This process is called as waterfall approach & unable to meet the modern start-up business requirements.
Agile Methodology is certainly best method for software development, but it can have a great impact on any startup, regardless of its nature, deliverables. Why is it so?
Start-ups are fast moving whose final goals often change, may vaguely define, also people in start-ups play multiple roles at the same time to address & resolve the challenges faced at the moment. Without a way to keep organized in such a volatile environment, startups would descend into chaos. Agile methods are best suitable for startups as they are able to move quickly & easily and responding swiftly to change. It is the method which spotlight setting & accomplishing short-term goals, getting fast results & adapting strategy accordingly. The wide acceptance of agile approaches to software development is due to the interaction of people & their development team combined with an emphasis on efficiency & flexibility, ultimately results in start-up success.
Let’s have a look into central to the agile framework- use of incremental & iterative development processes.
The focus of Agile is to plan & deliver small portions of the project at a time, instead of defining & documenting the whole project during planning phase as in waterfall approach.
Iterations in agile project management lifecycle:
This practice helps to keep bugs & code errors minimum throughout the project cycle. Within 14+ Years of experience in software development, there is one key for successful outcomes. & that is agile methodology. It has proven to be the best for complex projects having a significant level of uncertainties that supports ongoing collaboration & encourages feedback from the target market.
Let’s discuss its benefits in detail:
Adapts to any organizational change:
The agile methodology provides quick response to any changes in the organization. It supports dynamism of business processes & helps in managing changing requirements of projects. As it has involvement of both customers & stakeholders, it is continuously getting the feedback from both the sides & can make changes accordingly with the help of development team quickly. And the development team is also able to take risks for customer’s requirements as they are constantly in the loop. Ultimately it saves time & most recommended for start-ups as they are constantly trying to adjust cruise for moving ahead.
Provokes Individual Interactions:
It is mainly based on discussions, meetings where each team-mate comes with their own prepared questions, opinions, & answers. Here many things get cleared like what had been achieved till date from the last meeting, what needs to be done for the next phase, what is experience & understanding from the work that had been done, new tasks, how to execute them, etc. This eliminates the probabilities of duplication of work,
Boosts the quality:
As each person is in the loop while execution of each step, this methodology certainly improves the comprehensive quality of the software. Developers rely on quick feedbacks rather than the waiting for the time-consuming long-length formal documents. Also, the automated testing process identifies the errors at an early stage of development. Test-driven development ensures that there would not be complexity in design & architecture. As start-ups are imminent, quality should be focused & agile helps for the same.
United Working Culture:
It is important to interact with your team members, developers on daily basis, in order to discuss the ongoing projects & ensuring the projects executed as scheduled, tracking them. This culture encourages you to find out your own positives & negatives, all in all, define your role that exactly utilizes your expertise.
Time-Saving:
You are being assured of within your budget & tasks would be completed on time without any mess. What it ensures is the legitimate use of resources. It helps in continuously adding value to the product. It provides transparency in the process and continuous iterations help in wastage of resources & time.
Summary:
Start-ups are continuously looking for faster, scalable development & agile methodology is best & one-stop solution for your start-up. If you have any question, you can put it in comments, I would be glad to help you out.
Responsible for developing and managing web presence, Sarah has been associated with eLuminous Technologies for 7+ years. Strategic and innovative with a passion for Content Marketing and enhancing brand awareness. Administered all business marketing operations and advertisement campaigns that eventually increased web traffic. She works under the motto “Think like a Publisher, not a Marketer.”
The focus of Agile is to plan & deliver small portions of the project at a time, instead of defining & documenting the whole project during planning phase as in waterfall approach.
