The critical points that you need to know about Agile Development

Agile Development is an iterative approach to software development that has gained more and more momentum within organizations since it is more flexible and less bureaucratic.

The change of culture made within the company, coupled with the correct application of this approach has the power to generate a greater impact on the delivery of value through technology, leading to the success of the enterprise.

According to some of the principles, in order to obtain the best results, it is necessary to:

• Engage with corporate leaders, managers, and the user community;
• Have professionals who work well in teams and are committed to continually improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of projects;
• Set the essential elements to refactor and eliminate the technical gap of the chosen method;
• Among other factors.

The Agile manifesto

In 2001, the “ Manifesto for Agile Software Development”, was published, which gave popularity to the term ‘Agile’ and marked the beginning of the application of light software development methods.

This manifesto values:

• Individuals and interactions rather than processes and tools;
• Software that works rather than comprehensive documentation;
• Collaboration with the customer rather than contract negotiation;
• Responding to changes rather than following a plan.

Understanding Agile methods

Agile methods are an alternative to traditional project management and can be applied to any type of project, even those that do not involve software. Through incremental deliveries and iterative cycles, they help teams address unpredictability within a project. The philosophy of agile methods is to encourage frequent inspection and adaptation, which promotes self-organization, constant communication, customer focus, greater teamwork, and value delivery.

The benefits of the Agile Methodology

For teams:

• Greater discipline, regularity, and autonomy in teams;
• Frequent inspection and adaptation of the framework to minimize waste and improve continuously;
• Responsibility shared by all team members;
• The working method that values the human side of the project.

For clients:

• Improvement of final product quality;
• Reducing risks and adapting to surprises and changes;
• Transparency and visibility of project status;
• Flexibility for changing requirements;
• Greater agility in decision making;
• Focus on what brings more value to the user, which is revealed in usability gain;
• Maximizing commitment and improving communication during the process;
• The product owner benefits from a clear and prioritized scope and objectives;
• The anticipation of problems and greater agility in taking actions.

Are you interested in learning more about agile development? Download the whitepaper bellow about one of its frameworks, the Lean UX.