In recent years, the agile method has become so popular that is now considered the norm in the IT industry. According to TechBeacon’s recent survey of more than 600 IT professionals, around 50% of organizations primarily use the agile method. What’s more, two-thirds of professionals described their organization as either “pure agile” or leaning toward agile”. Although the reaming third of organizations use waterfall, the influence of agile is still there – nearly 25% of respondents say that they use a hybrid approach, which means that they incorporate at least some aspects and principles of agile into the management of their projects.
Before we start discussing anything, let’s first define what agile development is. Basically, it is a method of software development that is built on principles such as adaptive planning, permanent improvement and, more importantly to us – flexible response to sudden changes. You can learn more about this from a local development company, such as agile development companies or companies wherever you are based. As a matter of fact, many people consider the principle of “responding to change over following a plan” from the Agile Manifesto, to be the biggest strength of agile. As a matter of fact, according to a survey conducted by Microsoft, most industry professionals list flexibility as one the top three benefits of agile development.
The Iron Triangle
Every business project has to be carried out under certain restraints – in most cases, they are time, costs and scope. These three factors are more commonly called the Project Management Triple Constraint (also known as the Iron Triangle). The best business managers know that at least some flexibility is frequently needed for one (in some cases even two) of these restrictions. As the project progresses, the objectives evolve, and knowing which objective is flexible allows you and your team to do adapt to everything effortlessly without affecting anything and enables you to finish and deliver a quality product on time. In a way, being flexible means to assume that not everything will go according to your plan. Therefore, building flexibility into your development process will migrate risk – which is great for agile development.
Time
You have certainly worked on certain projects where time was of the essence. Maybe the product you were working on had to be launched at the same time with another release. For example – pre-loaded apps need to complete before a device is released. When this happens, either the cost or the scope must be flexible. However, time might not be as important for other projects. So if your product requires a specific number of functionalities and features, or it needs to stay within a precise budget, then without a doubt, time will have to be your flexible boundary.
Costs
In case your project scope increases, and you discover that your timeline is rigid, then your costs (we can also use the term budget) will need to become the flexible boundary. When more features are requested for the product and more resources are required, the costs increase, and your budget changes.
Scope
If your time is strict and the budget is rigid, flexibility has to lie in your scope. Now, having to cut back on features is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, following a frequent and rapid delivery model and having a smaller release will allow your team to collect more data, which you can use to add more value to consumers continuously. What’s more, this can be a great way to show and prove your concept in the marketplace, so in case you need more funding, you can use the data to make a case for your product.
Conclusion
Flexibility is the foundation of a truly agile methodology. Now, as we mentioned before, you have to carefully identify where flexibility is needed and then build it into your development process. This will allow your team to quickly adapt to any changes and take advantage of the agile method completely. Finally, always keep in mind that a successfully implemented agile method comes with numerous benefits. For instance, director of enterprise data at EPAM, Ian Abramson, in a recent interview with TheServerSide.com, explained that the agile method allowed his team to deploy features 25% faster than they could with the traditional waterfall method.
