Succeeding with Agile Application Development through Flexibility

Working with mobile or web development teams is common for most of us today. However, there may have been several times where you may have asked for a tweak here or a feature there and been told by your developers’ team that they need more time. At some other times, you may have even wondered how an agency is charging considerably more to merely add one more social sharing button or an additional currency interface. Before you start blaming your agile application development team for being difficult, understand that they are working within the agile parameters by building in flexibility in terms of development time and cost while mapping project scope.

Succeeding with agile application development weighs in one parameter against the other two for keeping the dev project on track. Flexibility is the key feature and almost synonymous with agile. It helps development teams to be better positioned to address the new requirements being added to a deliverable if they have clarity as to which parameter – scope, time, or cost – is flexible. They can then adapt their development process accordingly. This helps dev teams to ensure stability and ensure at least two of the three parameters are maintained, and the project is not derailed.

Identifying the Flexible Parameter for Agile Application Development

Of the three parameters governing agile application development, project teams need to choose at the outset which of them can be flexible and which of them is rigid. Some projects that are customer-facing and have announced dates of going live publicly cannot be easygoing with the schedule even if it means launching as a minimum viable product (MVP) with fewer features. For instance, if you need to launch an app aligned to a device or a business expo, you will need to be flexible with the features of the app and the number of members you are adding to the team for the project to be completed. For apps where time is not a constraint, but none of the functionalities can be sacrificed, budget and time can be the flexible parameters.

For projects where time and budget cannot be flexible, the scope will have to be limited, and the agile app development team works with the basic features. Often low-code or no-code rapid mobile application development software like OutSytems have necessary frameworks with the most common features, which save on time and prove to be economical for most enterprises. In such a situation, where you need to release your app in the most basic manner, you can rely on releasing frequent updates based on data insights that you collect once the app is live. Such an ongoing process of releasing updates, which not only keeps the end-users satisfied, but also helps circumvent the time and budget constraints in a staggered manner.

For deliverables whose timelines cannot be altered, adding more functionalities to be built into the app is bound to expand the project scope and will need the budget strings to be loosened to effect the expected changes.

How Flexibility Helps Enterprises in Succeeding with Agile

Agile application development may have various formats that different organizations may customize to their needs. However, every agile project must be able to factor in ongoing changes in the development process without an adverse impact on the pace of the project. This is where flexibility becomes a critical factor for an agile application development project. If a project doesn’t take into consideration the possible disruptions of time, scope, and budget, it’s setting itself up for conflict. Any mobile application development is bound to advance its specs or add new specs. Without incorporating this dynamism at the planning stage, there is no guarantee that the dev team can deliver a product as designed. When flexibility is added at the planning stage itself, the product teams are no longer in confusion and are ready to adapt to the new requirements. When scope is the flexible parameter, and you have visualized your minimum viable product based on the must have, should have, could have, won’t have (MoSCoW) prioritizing technique, you can always go into production with the must-have features. And, if there are any bugs in the live product, you can always have your dev team focus on resolving them and wait on developing the should-haves, could-haves features for later. When product teams are not made aware of which between the three – scope, time, and budget – are flexible at the planning stage, they cannot adapt to new demands. Since scope is a flexible parameter here, the product team can ensure a quality product that is well-tested for all features instead of releasing a mobile app that hampers user experience due to all the bugs.

How Agile Application Development Teams Can Imbibe Flexibility

Besides the agile development practices of stand-ups and sprints, teams also bring in flexibility into the agile application development process. These methods consider the time, scope, and budget parameters to inculcate adaptability into the agile dev teams’ culture.

Teams or more commonly used agile term squads can drive flexibility in agile development by knowledge-sharing, trainings, buddying with other successful teams who have aced flexibility. This ensures there are no hurdles faced in delivering with speed.

Another method that agile teams often use is known as rolling wave planning, where the agile application development teams make decisions on product features only when they have all the details and do not act unless the information is available. This ensures there’s no downtime during development, while also being able to adapt to changes quickly.

Being flexible with the capacity of agile application development teams is also necessary considering that the entire team has all the same knowhows for the project, and the members can be added or released as and how needed.

Conclusion

Flexibility is the core of agile application development. Mapping which of the three areas can be flexible at the outset and adding it to the plan will let your agile teams to quickly adapt to the requirements as they are put up and not disrupt the project in any way. Flexibility also ensures all members are abreast of the updates, are in tune with the technological tweaks, and can take up product maintenance and upgrades with ease in the future. Framework architects, developers, designers, quality testers are all aligned and can keep the project going at an even and consistent pace.

To sum, modifying the familiar maxim, ‘If you fail to plan for flexibility, you plan to fail in agile’, we can only reiterate that flexibility is synonymous with succeeding in agile application development projects in every organization. This ensures businesses achieve unprecedented ROI while ensuring customer satisfaction.

To implement an agile application development project for a mobile or web ecosystem, reach out to our expert team for free, and we’ll get your program going immediately!