Agile is again the most popular framework for software development. Agile adoption rates went from 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021.
It’s time to ditch the traditional software development methodologies and switch to Agile.
Having second thoughts about the effectiveness of Agile?
Here are the top 7 benefits of Agile methodology in Software Development to help you change your mind-
Table of Contents
What is Agile?
Agile is a time bound approach where software development happens in iterations, where all features are built in increments instead of building it all at once.
Agile is based on four values-
- Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
The Agile Manifesto which is a holy book of Scrum propagates these 12 Agile principles–
- Customer satisfaction through continuous delivery of the product
- Divide large tasks into smaller parts for faster and achievable tasks for quicker completion and easier integration of changes
- Adhere to the decided timeframe for the delivery of a working product
- All stakeholders must frequently collaborate to ensure that project is headed in the right direction
- Create a supportive environment to motivate team members and encourage them to perform better
- Prefer face to face communication over other methods
- Working software is the primary measure of progress
- Strive to maintain a steady pace of development
- Maintain the quality of the product by paying attention to the technical details
- Keep things simple
- Self-Organized teams produce more results
- Self Reflection helps in correcting mistakes and improving performance
Benefits of Agile Methodology in Software Development
The popularity of Agile can be attributed to its benefits in software development. Here are the Top 7 Benefits of Agile Methodology in Software Development.
- Quality par excellence
When using Agile for software development, product features are built incrementally and not all at once. The project is broken down into phases to ensure superior quality development, testing, and collaboration.
After a feature is built, testing is conducted to ensure quality. Clients are also kept in loop and the product is built according to their wishes. Since testing is done regularly, any defects are identified before the final product is built.
- Decreases Technical Debt
Technical Debt refers to the maintenance tasks that are required to support the current product.
Defect resolution, refactoring, and testing are the maintenance tasks. Agile is a magic bullet to reduce technical debt. If any features, maintenance tasks, or bugs need to be resolved, it is added to the product backlog.
Before the start of every new sprint, the team reviews the product backlog to determine the important feature to be added.
- Faster Time to Market
Since, Agile methodology emphasizes on a working product, you stand to gain when you launch your product which serves as minimum viable product (MVP).
This gives the first mover advantage in some cases.
- Constant delivery and Improvement
Working on self-improvement and striving for perfection is one of the 12 principles of Agile. Since Agile is an iterative process, every sprint is better than the last and no mistakes are repeated.
Agile focuses on constant delivery and improvement. Team members can communicate freely and collaborate to share learnings and learn from each other.
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- Happier Clients
Customer satisfaction is always the core focus in Agile methodology. Customers are always part of the feedback loop and their review is taken after every sprint.
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In traditional development methodology, the customer is only involved in the planning phase of the project. Agile ensures the client participates in the entire development process and the end product is as per their liking.
- User centric testing
All products are developed through user stories. User stories are a depiction of software features from the perspective of the end users.
Large tasks are called Epics. These Epics are broken down into user stories. The user stories are then divided into tasks and sub tasks. This helps them build small portions of a large project easily.
- Renewed Project Predictability
With a time bound and iterative approach, the project delivery is easily predictable. Agile allows timely delivery of the projects with early identification of risks and defects.
Conclusion
Agile is the most popular methodology. Don’t believe us? Agile adoption increased from a mere 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021. The benefits of Agile Methodology in Software Development are a testament to its result driving ability.
Should you have any doubt, our consultants at Agilemania will help you out.
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Naveen Kumar Singh is an Agile Coach and a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST), facilitates Scrum Master Training, Scrum Developer, Product Owner, Agile, Kanban, and LeSS Practitioners as well as provides agile technical workshops. Naveen is active in the agile community and participates in major events as a speaker and volunteer. He has also presented papers in Global Scrum Gatherings as well as in many other Scrum Alliance conferences and meet-ups.