In the software development and IT industry, Scum and Agile are management models that are popular in the world. To understand their concepts and values, we will simply describe and list the benefits that businesses can utilize Agile Methodology for their productivity.
Read more: What is Agile Marketing?
What is Agile?
First of all, we want to discuss the agile model. Agile is the methodology to help the development team deliver products to customers as soon as possible. Based on many methods that both bring benefits and drawbacks, we have a list of rules for Agile methodology.
– Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
– Working software over comprehensive documentation
– Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
– Responding to change over following a plan
Besides, there are other principles that businesses should prioritize to make sure the product and service have always satisfied their customers.
Repeatability
The project is usually conducted under different Sprints within the timeframe. The timeframe of each Sprint is reliant on the business’s working process, but it’s mostly around 1 – 2 months for every Sprint. The development team has to complete the whole process to deliver small parts of the product. This means the product can be divided into different parts and the team will conduct these parts every sprint. It is believed that developing a product with small parts at every sprint can make the process more simple. In addition, progress and productivity are easy to manage and maintain when the manager doesn’t have to follow up and plan the project over a too-long period.
Incremental
Even though your project is divided into small parts, mostly all of them are well-developed and tested. Thus they can run independently. The team can synchronize the sprints until the final product is completed and satisfy customer requirements.
Adaptation
With the characteristic of breaking down the tasks, adaptability is indisputable. Specifically, developers can customize and apply more advanced technologies and solutions to the product. On the other hand, they can change the details required by customers at each sprint without impacting the whole project’s progress. The agile method is a popular option due to its adaptation.
Process management
Based on the agile principles, development teams generally use practical data and experience to test, define, and determine the best technologies or solutions for product development. Theory and prescription are just factors to help teams follow the steps, but it is not the number one priority.
Developers can shorten the steps of development to save time but they can guarantee productivity based on their practical experience. In other words, the life cycle of development can be simplified and the cost can decline. Accordingly, developers can manage and maximize productivity with less time and effort.
Communication
Communication helps teams and clients understand the requests and difficulties together. Therefore, face-to-face communication with clients is the obligation in the working process so that not only the manager but the subordinates also take part in the communication to clarify and understand the problems and requirements. The manager now is not the only one to deliver tasks and explain everything to teams which it can reduce risks of miscommunication.
Value-based development
The final evaluation is the quality of functions or products that have been developed. This is believed to be the standard to estimate and classify which are the most important tasks and which are not so as to specify the prime tasks for projects.
Face-to-face communication, which includes frequent communication between clients and development teams, this active collaboration facilitates the teams to understand the level of priorities and strategize the most appropriate schedules and solutions for essential tasks that meet requirements and deadlines.
