Agile Software Development: Core Values, Types & Benefits

Everyone talks about agile development, but how does it work? Learn how teams collaborate using scrum, kanban, and other popular agile methodologies.

The Agile software development model is a more recent model that has grown in popularity in recent years. It is based on the iteration principle and feedback and enables quick changes effectively, which benefits both the customer and the developer.

Agile has largely replaced waterfall as the preferred development methodology in most organizations, but it is in danger of being supplanted by the growing popularity of DevOps.

What is Agile Methodology?

Agile software development is a methodology that anticipates the need for flexibility and applies a level of pragmatism to the delivery of the finished product.?

Also, it necessitates a cultural shift in many organizations because it focuses on the clean delivery of individual pieces or parts of software rather than the entire application.

What are the four core values of Agile Methodology?

1. Individual interactions trump processes and tools: People are in charge of driving development and responding to business needs. Therefore, they are an essential development component and should be prioritized over processes and tools.
2. Working software over detailed documentation: Before Agile, a significant amount of time was spent documenting the product throughout development in preparation for delivery. The Agile Methodology continues to value the documentation process but places a higher value on working software.
3. Instead of contract negotiations, consider collaborating: Agile emphasizes collaboration between the customer and project manager to work out delivery details rather than negotiations.
4. A focus on adapting to change: Change was traditionally avoided in software development because it was regarded as an unwelcome expense. The Agile cycle's short iterations allow for easy change, allowing the team to modify the process to best suit their needs rather than the other way around.

The Agile Software Development Cycle

The Agile SDLC methodology has the foundation for team decision-making and cyclical, iterative progress toward creating working software. The work is done in short, weekly sprints.

Also, it contrasts sharply with the time frame of traditional project management, which can sometimes seem interminable. Instead, the Agile SDLC model emphasizes process adaptability and customer satisfaction by quickly delivering a working software product.

Agile methods divide the product into small incremental builds delivered in iterations. At the end of the iteration, the developers show the customer and other interested parties a work product that includes all of the customer's functionality.

Types of Agile methodologies

Every Agile methodology strives to embrace and adapt to change while producing working software as quickly as possible. Each method, however, differs in how it defines the stages of software development. The following are the most commonly used Agile methods:

• Scrum is a project management system based on incremental development. Each iteration consists of two to four-week sprints, intending to complete the most important features first and produce a potentially deliverable product.
• Lean software development relies on fast and reliable feedback between customers and programmers to provide quick and efficient development workflows.
• Extreme programming is a software development methodology subset of agile methodologies. XP focuses on values, principles, and practices to enable small to mid-sized teams to produce high-quality software while adapting to evolving and changing requirements.
• Crystal is an agile framework focusing on people and their interactions rather than processes and tools. In other words, this framework directly results from one of the Agile Methodology's core values.
• Kanban is a well-known framework for implementing agile and DevOps software development. It necessitates real-time capacity communication and complete transparency of work. Work items are visually represented on a kanban board, allowing team members to see the status of all work at any time.
• The dynamic systems development method is an iterative approach to software development that adds additional discipline and structure to the process. The principle that "any project must be aligned to clearly defined strategic goals and focus on early delivery of real benefits to the business" is central to DSDM.
• Feature-driven development is an iterative and incremental software development process. FDD combines several industry-recognized best practices into a unified whole, and these practices are motivated by client-valued functionality.

Benefits of Agile Methodology

Agile project management is similar to the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule (20% of the effort yields 80% of the result, while the remaining 80% of the action yields only 20% of the effect) and vice versa.

With Agile SDLC, you can deliver 80% of the product in 20% of the time because it focuses your attention on the critical components of the software that add real value to the clients and the project.

It may not always be applicable, but Agile-developed products have a faster time-to-market, primarily due to Agile's task prioritization.?

For example, the team can divide the end product into smaller manageable units to improve product quality. After each sprint, testing is an essential part of the Agile process (basically after developing a single feature or a set of features).

Another advantage of using Agile is that it promotes teamwork. The team works closely together to complete each cycle, which helps to develop teamwork and communication skills.

Conclusion

Since 2001, Agile methodologies have grown in popularity. As more businesses and teams adopt the methods, an ecosystem has formed that includes everyone who uses Agile software development and the people and organizations that support the process through training, consulting, frameworks, and tools.

Which type of Agile Methodology does your company use, and what other benefits have you seen? Leave your comments below.