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Agile: The Forgotten Parts

Agile practices have been adopted worldwide. Many companies are proud of being agile. Each of them implements it in a different way, which is good because there is no single way to do it, and it needs to be adapted to each scenario.

From my point of view, too much focus is set on some aspects of Agile while a key one is forgotten. It is nothing new, but if this aspect is not considered, releasing new versions of your software can be a never-ending story. This is what I will tackle in this article.

But before digging into that, I would like to do a small recap about the evolution of software development, starting with Waterfall and the birth of Agile. You may want to skip it if you already know about it.

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The 12 Key Principles of Agile Methodology

Figure 1 12 Key Principles of Agile Methodology

Many customer requests changed during this lag, which led to the cancellation of many projects. As a result, in 2001, 17 leaders met and signed the Agile Manifesto to change the situation for the better. The Manifesto consists of four fundamental values and twelve principles that define the process of software development. Each team applies them differently, but they are an essential part of delivering high-quality software to businesses. The four values of the Agile Manifesto include:

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The 5 Principles of Agile Software Development Methods

Over the years, software development methods have also upgraded parallelly with technological advancements. Agile software development methods are one approach in the current software development trends. Agile methodology breaks up the project into many phases and distributes the workloads across the teams. We prioritize continuous improvement at each stage rather than working on changes at the deployment stage altogether. Progress is constantly updated with the team members during the daily scrum meetings. The examples of agile-based development methods are scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Feature-Driven Development (FDD), Adaptive Software Development (ASD), Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development (DSD), Lean Software Development, etc. The methods are selected according to the type of product/service to be developed. All these agile methods follow a set of dedicated principles. In this blog, we will focus on five crucial principles of agile methodology.    

1. Be Open to Challenges and Changes  

The agile methodology focuses on being highly responsive to changes at all phases of software development. Our teams must be aware of what is going on in the project at any development phase. The agile method splits the tasks and deliverables into iterations to achieve this high degree of clarity. The iterations must be completed in shorter time frames, usually from a week to four. Ensure that the time frames align with the overall time allocated to the project.    

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A Guide to Modern-Day Project Management and Tech Tools

In its essence, project management is the ability to make people come together and strive for a common goal while managing available resources. This has been happening for a long time. From the construction of historic monuments like the pyramids to any modern piece of infrastructure, project management has been used in one way or another over the years, and not just in construction.

Formally, project management as a concept started in manufacturing environments after the second world war in the 1950s. Since the need to break down complex tasks into manageable items and efficiently manage resources was widely felt, project management quickly expanded and became essential for almost all sectors.

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Scaling Agile Frameworks: Creating Solutions or Problems?

When the Agile Manifesto was published in 2001, it brought together several lightweight methods under one umbrella term. Agile methodologies have since been widely adopted across technology companies, as they bring effective benefits in guiding the development and delivery of high-quality, working software.

However, Agile methodologies were designed for small teams, often between five and nine members. So what happens when companies take over massive projects that require dozens or even hundreds of people working towards one common goal? How can you apply Agile methodologies to such an environment? And how do you do it while maintaining both the quality of your output and the best practices within your team?

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The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe): Everything You Need to Know

Built for enterprise development teams, SAFe was first introduced in the year 2011. Dean Leffingwell was the brain behind it. The framework revolves around agile methodology, lean methodology, and systems thinking.

The said practices were used to manage teams, portfolios, and programs until SAFe 3.0. With the arrival of SAFe 4.0, an additional level, i.e., value streams, is also added to the framework.

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A Step by Step Guide to the Final Upgrade From Agile to Cloud PLM

How Does Cloud PLM Differ from On-premise Solutions?

While on-premise Agile PLM allows for product development, processes, and development of product records and more; these are essential features of any PLM. Moving to the Cloud brings you a step ahead in the product conception, with the following advantages:

  • The cloud allows for the identification of individual tasks related to each status of the workflow and the overall change.
  • The cloud has powerful security that enables roles and privileges control to directly. Agile PLM on the other hand has no team security.
  • Cloud provides Page Composer that allows complete customization of the page layout while Agile does not.
  • Sub-classes are of unlimited levels in the cloud, and only of three levels in Agile: base class, class, and subclass.

To make the transition to the cloud easier, GoSaaS has a clear and well-defined process that captures input from within the company to ensure every requirement is fulfilled.

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Agile Best Practices for Remote Work Excellence

Introduction

The COVID-19 virus has disrupted peoples’ lifestyles and the working patterns of many sectors and industries. The IT industry has seen a thorough transformation within the premises, yet no significant changes in the outputs. Here in this blog, let me consider the discrepancies that working remotely has caused the IT companies, especially the Agile software development teams. 

The prime role of Agile is to aid the co-located team function effectively. However, the pandemic has obliged everyone to work from home, i.e., working remotely, and the on-floor teams got converted into distributed teams. 

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Who Leads and Who Lags in the Race for IT Speed?

During February and March of this year, we surveyed 2,200 enterprise architects, application developers, and IT leaders to find out how fast their organizations can respond to change. Analysis of their responses showed that in the race to address change through application development at top speed, there were clear leaders. There were also organizations who lagged behind. Let’s see how they differ.

TLDR: Pressed for time? Check out our Leaders vs. Laggards infographic.  

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7 Software Development Models You Should Know

The Software Development Life Cycle, or SDLC, is the process of planning, designing, developing, testing, and deploying high-quality software at the lowest cost possible, preferably in the shortest amount of time. To achieve this goal, software engineering teams must choose the correct software development model to fit their organization’s requirements, stakeholders’ expectations, and the project. There are a myriad software development models, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Details of the project, including timeframe and budget, should influence your choice of model. The goal is to select a software development model that will ensure project success. Selecting the incorrect model will result in drawn out timelines, exceeded budgets, low quality outputs, and even project failure.

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Why Be Agile: Main Metrics, Most Used Tools, Agile Planning

It’s quite difficult to imagine a modern IT company without a project manager. It is rather an important role, which includes the application of methods, skills, processes, and experience to achieve the project goals and meet the client’s needs and requirements. As Martin Barnes, the former president of the Association for Project Management said, “At its most fundamental, project management is about people getting things done”.

Why Should Businesses/Startups Care About PM?

Both big companies and startups need efficient project management. In fact, the main value of project management lies in the fact that it ensures the appropriate allocation of resources so that a project is completed effectively. Besides, project management is what gives cohesiveness to the process of software development. Meanwhile, the role of a project manager also includes making sure that the project falls within the established budget and will be completed within the deadlines.

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Waterfall vs Agile Project Management: 7 Major Differences (And One Clear Winner)

In the battle between waterfall and agile project management, there can be only one winner. (I would have used an image from the film 'Highlander' if it weren't copyrighted.)

Everything changes over time. From music to clothes to cars, the list is endless.

Software development has followed the same evolution.For most of its history, software development was dominated by the Waterfall methodology. There just wasn’t a better alternative.

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Head-to-Head: The Agile and Waterfall Methodologies

Before the development of a project begins, the project manager’s job is to determine which methodology should be used for the project life cycle. The two most popular methodologies are

  • The Waterfall model, relying on a more traditional approach
  • Agile methodology, a rapid application development procedure, newer than Waterfall and often implemented using Scrum.

The Waterfall model is slowing losing its popularity as software development companies worldwide are adopting Agile methodologies for developing their product. Let’s dive deep into the reason behind Agile’s popularity and how it differs from Waterfall.