Customer needs keep constantly evolving, and with more and more products and technology coming in day by day, their needs are at an all-time high. To keep up with the constantly changing customer needs and demands, companies have adopted the Agile methodology for project management. This is because developing any project with Agile means embracing constant change using iterative approaches to development.
The Agile method focuses on keeping the customers’ needs at the center of the project development process and working around it to create a product that will meet all customer needs. By doing so, the customers will be satisfied, and it will result in increasing the organization’s business value. Nearly 49% of surveyed business leaders believe that the main reason for their project’s success was because it was focused on the customer.
The Agile development cycle creates a structure around customer needs with the help of a fluid and flexible method so that the teams can deliver a valuable product to their customers on time. The flexibility and adaptability of Agile projects come from breaking big tasks down into smaller segments. This helps teams to stay focused on their delivery and not get overwhelmed by the process. Mentioned below are the stages of an Agile development cycle.
The Requirements Stage
The requirements stage starts before the Product Owner even begins designing a project. It is done by creating a documented list of all the initial requirements required by the Agile team. These requirements have to include the end result that the project aims to accomplish and the features that the product will have, along with a list of features that it won’t have. The requirements list is usually a short one with only the most necessary product requirements and non-requirements to help create a broad skeleton of the project workflow.
The features that are not immediately necessary are then overlooked, and developers or team members can work on them later once the project is ready with the core features. This list helps the Agile team stay focused on the project’s main goal and not get distracted. What happens sometimes is that developers and team members tend to get fixated on smaller non-issues and features. More and more keep getting added to the project, causing a delay and removing focus from the important tasks. In every iteration, the Product Owner can review the requirements list and change them whenever necessary.
The Design Stage
When it comes to designing an application, Agile teams usually take two ways of completing the project. The first is working on visual design, and the second is working on the architectural structure of the application they are making.
The Product Owner gathers the development team and explains the requirements list made in the first stage. The requirements are then discussed, and ways to complete these requirements are arranged, along with the required tools to finish with the best results. This can include the framework being used along with the libraries and programming language. During future iterations, more aspects of features and their implementation can be discussed.
When it comes to visual design, the designers work on creating a rough mock-up of the finished product. The way the users interact with the product or application is extremely important to the project’s success, so this stage is crucial. Team members usually go about this stage, and check what their competitors are doing, what they are doing wrong, and how their project can solve them. Future iterations are spent on refining the rough mock-up and implementing the app’s architecture into the design.
The Development and Coding Stage
This is the stage where all the hard work goes in. The main design and development of the product or software take place here. If it’s an application, this stage involves writing all the necessary code required for the application to work and converting the rough mock-up of the finished product into actual software while it is being developed.
The development stage is usually the longest one in the Agile development cycle. When the next iterations occur, not many changes occur in this stage because it is the core of the entire product. Only fine-tuning and re-working based on feedback takes place here because it is the skeleton of the project.
The Integration and Testing Stage
If the Agile team is developing an app, this stage would involve all the bug fixes and compatibility tests to ensure all the applications are smoothly running. Here, the Quality Assurance team gets involved and conducts a series of tests. These tests are done to ensure that the code is written clean and the main requirements set in the first stage are being met. Once the basic code and compatibility issues are handled, the future iterations of this stage typically involve testing all the application’s functionalities, systems integration, interoperability, and more.
The Implementation and Deployment Stage
Now that the basic application is ready, the Agile team deploys it on various servers and gives it to the customers for review. The first iteration typically involves releasing a demo to a few customers to gain feedback. Still, after a few more iterations, it can be released for actual use to gain real-time insights and feedback from the customers. After the application has been released for actual use, the future iterations involve getting updates on the app based on the customer feedback with revised bugs and new features.
Review
Once all previous development phases are complete, the Product Owner gathers the Development Team again and reviews the progress made towards completing the requirements. The team introduces their ideas toward resolving the problems that arose during the previous phases, and the Product Owner takes its propositions into consideration.
Final Thoughts
After these stages of the agile development cycle have been completed, the Product Owner goes back to the first stage and begins a new iteration so that the product is continuously evolving and keeps getting better and more user-friendly and customer-centric with each cycle. The Agile process is a very effective way to deliver quality products to the consumer. In a recent survey, it was found that nearly 86% of 101,592 surveyed software developers have been using Agile for their projects.
To use the Agile methodology to deliver products of maximum value, team members need to be trained extensively. It is a drastic shift from traditional means of working and requires proper education and resources to implement the processes effectively. This is why organizations often choose to select various courses and training programs for their team members to adopt the Agile method of project management into their work culture.
