How Agile Methodology Facilitates Faster App development?

Believe it or not, the success of any app development project highly depends on the project development methodology you select. In fact, the cost and timeline at the end of the app development would be remarkably different if you would implement two different project methodologies.

Speaking about popular project development methods, Waterfall has been regarded as the simplest and oldest method for project management. It is also called the Linear project development method. But when it comes to complex projects where frequent changes are given during the project for delivering the client-centric product, the Waterfall method falls flat.

To keep up with the changing environment on software engineering and the need for the rapid development process a new methodology was created. And Agile methodology falls into this category.

Let’s find the process in more depth and get the panoramic view on the Agile methodology and know how it caters to reduce the overall cost and app development timeline.

What is Agile Methodology in Project Development?

Agile development process is not linear like Waterfall. Instead, it emphasizes more on responding to the change immediately; it is flexible, unlike Waterfall.

The history of the Agile philosophy can be traced back to 1957. Engineers named Herb Jacobs, Gerald Weinberg, John von Neumann, Bernie Dimsdale were working on a software project for IBM and Motorola. They were using this advanced and effective method of project management. Which was called Agile methodology. The new approach didn’t get widely adopted until 2001, where a group of 17 engineers gathered to find an alternative way to traditional project management systems.

Today, almost 94% of organizations prefer agile as their development methodology.

How Does Agile Methodology Work?

As mentioned earlier in the article, Agile Methodology takes an iterative approach in the app development project. Unlike the waterfall method where the development process has one fixed deadline and single deliverable, Agile methodology has a number of project sprints that follow strict guidelines and principles. Consider these sprints as numbers of miniature projects.

It has a backlog, ideation, design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance stages, that should be completed in a pre-defined time. Moreover, these project sprints have their own budget which the team has to keep in mind.

Every completed module works as an appendage to the main project and pushes the project further. Unlike waterfall, here frequent iterations make sure that the new feature completed in each sprint is properly coded and tested. As a result, the chances of getting a failed product reduce to a bare minimum.

What Are the Aspects of Agile Methodology?

Here we have summarized some aspects of agile methodology. Take a look at how agile is different from traditional methodologies.

1. Flexibility: During the project progress, the scope of work may change as per the new needs.

2. Sprints: The project is divided into small modules

3. Value of Teamwork: Each team member has been given their own role and works closely according to their responsibility

4. Iteration: There is a constant reassessment of each sprint during projects. Hence, the final product is better.

5. Better Communication with Client: Through the whole project the client is closely involved in every activity of software development.

What Are the Popular Agile Frameworks?

Agile is a broad term under which many techniques work. There are several Agile techniques that follow the Agile rules and philosophy but have their own methods and values. Kanban, Scrum, Hybrid, Lean, Bimodal, and XP are some of the popular Agile framework examples.

We will discuss the first three in detail as they are more popular and used.

1. Scrum Framework

Around 58% of the companies follow the scrum framework as their project development method and 18% mix it with the other techniques. So it is no doubt that Scrum is one of the most used methods in app development projects.

The method is based on a productive interaction between three main roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Scrum team.

Scrum Master is the main part of the team and responsible for the smooth running of the project.

The product owner is the customer or a stakeholder who is involved in the process throughout the project and provides timely feedback after each sprint completes.

The scrum team is responsible for the final implementation of the project.

2. Kanban Framework

Kanban is the framework everyone might have used in their project development process knowingly or unknowingly. 43% of the organization have stated that they use Kanban as their development project.

Perhaps you might have used Trello in your project development process. It follows the Kanban methodology. The Kanban board is divided into three or more parts according to the requirement of the project. The method focuses on the visualization of the workflow and gives priority to work in progress. As soon as the priority task is completed the team member takes a new card from the Backlog section and puts in the work in progress section. As the tasks get completed it is moved to the finished work.

3. Hybrid Framework

As the name suggests, the Hybrid framework is a combination of agile and waterfall methods. Some companies practice both methodologies parallelly especially if their requirement needs hardware and software development. 23% of the organizations believe that using the amalgamation of both methodologies is beneficial than using only one methodology.

For the completion of the software modules, the specialists use the agile method, while they think of budgeting, planning, and hardware set up, they prefer waterfall.

These three frameworks are used majorly in any software development project. Apart from that, there are also other frameworks as well namely, Bimodal, lean, and XP.

Conclusion

Delivering a software development project in time, budget, and quality is all product managers want. And Agile methodology facilitates them to achieve it. The methodology is mistakenly thought of as a single methodology. Otherwise, it has multiple techniques and methods you could select from as per your project requirement.

Also depending on your project needs, you can still benefit from a waterfall and hybrid method.