What Is Agile Application Development
Agile is one of the most popular software development methodologies. It’s centered on the idea of an iterative approach. That means, you can make frequent changes in the project as and when required.
In Agile, you first build apps in iterations or “short time-boxes”. Each of these takes from a few weeks to a month for development. At the same time, you seek regular customer feedback by the end of each iteration.
What’s more, unlike the conventional methods that emphasize documentation, Agile focuses on customer satisfaction. This helps you deliver value to your customers faster and with fewer headaches.
In this article, we will talk about why to choose Agile, its key concepts, and the benefits and limitations you may face. Read on!
Why Choose Agile Application Development
Communication and collaboration are the priority in Agile. That means, developers are in direct touch with customers to better understand their needs. This leaves no room for useless features to make it into the build.
Agile is mostly about delivering what’s important to the customers. This helps in creating higher-quality products that satisfy the end users.
6 Key Concepts of Agile Application Development
1. User Stories
Once you receive inputs from the client, you can divide the project into smaller deliverables called “user stories”. Each of these are considered the building blocks of the app and must add value to the final product.
2. Daily Meetings
Meetings are held between the developers and customers. This helps improve coordination between the teams and keep each of them up to date about the progress and status of work.
3. User Personas
During the initial stages of development, you map out your target audience, along with their needs and behaviors. Working with the user personas in mind makes a great difference in the final version of the product.
4. Incremental Development
The app is first built with all the features that are required. But during incremental development, you can make improvements to the previous version of the app based on customer feedback.
5. Iterative Development
Agile app development is iterative. That is, it allows for repeating, revisiting, refining, and researching the same work products during the development cycle.
6. Milestone Retrospective
Once a significant portion of the project, or the entire project, is completed, it’s time to get a retrospective view of all the major developments. This allows you to better yourself for future projects.
Pros of Using Agile Application Development
From being highly adaptive to leaving no room for guesswork, here are the benefits of using agile for app development.
- Adaptive approach and allows you to address any modifications the client needs.
- Fewer software defects due to the iterations during testing and fine-tuning.
- Provides greater clarity to all the teams involved, leaving no room for guesswork.
- Minimizes risks like cost overruns and delays when adding new features.
- Focuses on customer satisfaction to deliver quality, useful apps.
Cons of Using Agile Application Development
Although there are several benefits of using Agile, you may also face certain limitations, like an overwhelming number of iterations.
- Developers may be overwhelmed with multiple change requests.
- Constant discussions and feedback may be too time-consuming.
- Requires only experienced developers, and can prove to be a more expensive approach.
- Relies heavily on real-time communication, and may lack proper documentation.
- More time and labor-intensive compared to other app development methods, like Waterfall and RAD.
Agile Application Development – The Bottom Line
App developers and customers may have different ideas about what they expect from a certain product. With Agile, you can easily bridge this gap and work together.
Agile is a flexible, adaptive approach to application development. Need to make changes? Incorporate feedback given by the customer? Or respond to market demands? No problem at all.
Furthermore, Agile focuses on customer satisfaction to deliver quality products. The only limitation is that this methodology demands time and commitment. If that’s not an issue, agile may be the way forward for you!
Additional Resources
- Agile Alliance – We create opportunities to develop your knowledge, share your ideas and connect with others so you can help your organization build customer value.
- Scurm.org – Helping people and teams use Professional Scrum to solve complex problems through training, certification, and ongoing learning experiences.