For any project, success depends upon the quality of the product being delivered and also at the speed of its delivery. As the product continues to grow, the testing time and efforts also grow exponentially. This results either in delaying the release or withholding the testing.
Agile came into the picture for a better software development approach as it enables the developers and testers to reduce the count of bugs in the code by detecting the bugs in the early stages. In an agile environment, development cycles break tasks into small increments. It aligns the teams to deliver working software more collaboratively and with better quality. Agile has become more popular in recent years in a large number of organizations which includes both startups and large enterprises. Let us look into the reasons for adopting the agile software delivery approach.
1. The End product is more reliable
i) In agile development, the main focus is absolutely on building the right product.
ii) According to the seven-year analysis of metrics, customer satisfaction surveys were taken after each project and agile-based projects received higher scores than waterfall-based projects.
iii) Agile based projects always receive five-star ratings.
2. Revenue control
i) Fixed timescales and evolving requirements is a key approach in agile that results in a fixed budget.
ii) The iterative nature of agile development leads to incremental delivery of features enabling the benefits to be realized early as the product continues to develop.
3. Decisions are taken more quickly
i) Collocated business partners have the power to make the most important decisions. People are gathered in the agile space to discuss the issues when the questions arise.
ii) When issues arise, everyone in the group knows about them and solutions are often identified by the resources who are working on a completely different area of the application. In agile, there is a shared desire to achieve success.
4. Increased product quality
i) Testing is integrated throughout the lifecycle of the product which is one of the best features of agile that results in enabling regular inspection of the working product.
ii) With the help of this, the product owner is allowed to make adjustments if necessary and it gives the product team early sight of any quality issues.
5. Fast delivery to market
i) Agile development supports the release of early and regular releases due to which the revenue generation is high.
ii) Agile development approach involves shorter sprints in order to speed up the development process inconsistent with the business goals.
6. Application maintenance is easier
i) If only one developer knows about the code then there are high chances of failure as no one else knows where to make the changes.
ii) This is never the case with agile because multiple developers code every part of the system.
7. Risk management
i) Because of the small incremental releases of the product to the product owner and product team through its development the issues are identified in the early development stages which makes it easier to respond to change.
ii) In agile development, clear visibility helps to ensure that important decisions can be taken at the earliest possible opportunity which results in improving the quality of the developed products.
8. More flexibility
i) Many waterfall projects face "analysis paralysis" because of the pressure built upon them to get the requirements right before moving on.
ii) In traditional project developments, requirements are fixed during the early stages of development and for product owners. It becomes very expensive to change anything, particularly when the project goes on.
iii) In Agile methodology, development principles are different. Any change is always welcomed and accepted.
iv) In Agile, timescale is not fixed and requirements are always emerging and evolving with the development of the product.
9. Boost delivery predictability
i) Clients or Product owners always care about the predictability.
ii) Agile approach stresses on creating metrics and measurements which helps the teams to plan, coordinate and deliver the product with high predictability.
10. Motivate teams
i) Agile approach for software development focuses on better communication and collaboration among various teams.
ii) Self-organization, better communication are the best characteristics of the agile approach which brings out positive change in the team and motivates them as well.
Suggested Read: How to Overcome Agile Methodology Challenges?
