Agile is considered the popular approach in software and web development. The agile methodology emphasizes on providing value to customers’ lives by dividing the entire project into small increments. Therefore, agile methodology facilitates collaborative working among team members.
In the agile approach, senior managers allow the team members to figure out what needs to be completed on their own.
Many organizations prefer to follow the agile approach because it facilitates collaborative efforts toward accomplishing the end goal. An agile approach is preferable for ongoing projects or where there are no defined project constraints.
Earlier, agile approach was popular in software development, but now every industry, IT, business, or construction, is following it.
Companies developing software or engaged in developing websites deliver work in small increments rather than launching everything on the big bang. This is what agile model is all about. (Progressive web development service)
Research conducted by the project management institute in 2017 concluded that around 71 percent used the agile approach in their processes. Agile methodology follows the 5 basic yet essential principles –
According to the research conducted by kiss flow in 2018, organizations that are developing projects using agile methodologies are 28 percent more successful. Therefore, organizations believe that using an agile approach in developing web projects leads to faster completion of projects and, at the same time, providing a final product that meets customers’ needs. There are various agile development frameworks. Some of them include Kanban, Lean software development, scrum, extreme programming (XP) etc.
Big corporations such as CNBC, Microsoft, and Google use the agile approach. So, where are you heading towards?
Traditional web development approaches put more emphasis on following rigid plans. In the traditional software development approach, projects follow a sequential, step-by-step plan which includes various stages –
The traditional software development approach follows systematic plans to ensure the completion of projects. Therefore, it is often considered as a linear approach to developing web projects. On the contrary, agile methodology is a completely flexible process as changes can be made in the project even after the project gets started.
In the traditional software development approach, customers get involved in the early stages of development. Customers can see the product after it gets developed.
On the contrary, the agile model is all about where customers are highly involved in the development of web projects from the start. Not only this, they can review the application at every stage of development.
When handling small projects or projects that do not require any complex changes, then working with a traditional approach outperforms the best. Sudden changes in the project can shift the development team’s focus to move back to step 1.
On the other hand, the agile approach should be recommended for handling complex projects or projects that are subject to frequent changes.
The traditional approach clearly defines the requirements before the project starts. There is no room for feedback as sudden changes in the project can push the deadline. The project’s scope is fixed in advance with the estimated date of its completion.
On the other hand, the agile methodology allows the development team to take continuous feedback for delivering a high-quality project.
Basis of comparison | Traditional approach | Agile methodology |
Project complexity | Traditional approach should be preferred for less complex projects or where everything confines to the fixed schedule | Agile methodology is suitable for more complex and small projects |
Customer Involvement | In traditional approach, customers are involving when the project is initiated. They can see the final product after the projects gets completed | There is high level of customer involvement from the stage when the project gets initiated till it gets completed |
Feedback | Under traditional methodology, there is no scope for feedback as the project has to be delivered within the fixed timespan | Feedback from customers has to be taken into consideration throughout the development process, so it is the preferred choice by developers and project managers |
Project requirements | It is easy to do web development for the projects whose requirements are already defined | It is suitable for those projects where project requirements are unclear |
Cost of development | Cost of developing web apps is comparatively lower than agile as the project requirements and scope is already defined | Developing projects using agile approach is expensive as the stakeholder requirements are fuzzy. |
Project releases | Traditional approach is not suitable for frequent project releases | Agile methodology is suitable for doing frequent project releases |
Examples | Manufacturing of cars or where minor improvements are required in the project | Skype, Philips, JP morgan chase |
How does agile methodology improve communication between web developers, stakeholders, and customers?
In the waterfall model, the stakeholders define the project’s requirements, then the requirements are passed over to the designer, and then developers initiate the project’s development.
In the agile approach, stakeholders are involved in all mockups; scrum is conducted every day to ensure better collaboration among everyone.
The agile methodology focuses on reducing the number of steps for delivering the project so the team members can collaborate with each other to move the project ahead. In the agile approach, no fixed structure or schedule has to be followed. The agile approach focuses on providing the final product in smaller chunks.
Hence, Agile methodology facilitates a high level of collaboration between project managers and customers as there is continuous interaction with the customers not just at the beginning but also at the end of the project.
For example – Customers can interact with the development team to ensure that the project meets their expectations or not.
In agile methodology, the entire project is dissected into small and manageable tasks so the team members can easily collaborate.
Additionally, in agile, each feature is tested as and when it is developed. The testing is performed for every feature, and the product owners share reviews with the entire development team, and the team work together to fix the loopholes in the early stages of development. Hence, the quality of the product is improved.
Customers need not wait for months or years to get a product that is not meeting their expectations. Agile methodology satisfies its end users by keeping the customers in the loop. The development team can make the prototype changes based on the product owner’s feedback. This way, the product is built by keeping customer expectations in mind.
Waterfall methodology does not involve the customer in all stages of development. In the agile development approach, weekly meetings are conducted so developers can interact with customers to create a customer centric product.
As various stakeholders are involved in the project so agile approach provides a better control to them. Every team member knows what they are supposed to deliver.
Daily stand-up meetings are conducted so the development team can check the project progress each time. Not only this, under the agile approach, planning meetings take place that allows team members to brainstorm with each other and plan for the next sprint.
Agile development allows the team members to become more flexible as the project members can make changes in the project if there is a change in project requirements or if the customer needs changes.
Consider an example of a stakeholder who wants to add a new feature to the product; agile methodology allows the development team to iterate the process and deliver the final product without disrupting the overall development process which in turn leads to greater flexibility.
Agile methodology allows web developers to launch the website quickly. In the traditional approach, the website launch happens at the end of the project. So, it becomes a time-consuming task to gather inputs from the stakeholder, and when the product is going to launch, revisions are added to the product.
On the other hand, agile methodology focuses on evolving your product on a regular basis as there is a scope of direct feedback.
There is a scope for continuous improvement in agile methodology. Every product is the better version of last one as there is transparent communication between stakeholders and web developers. The agile approach’s objective is to continuously improve the product and deliver the project on time. Hire web developers
Also, agile is an interactive process; every product gets delivered in increments, so the mistakes repeated in the last sprint will not be there in the next sprint. Hence, it ensures that the product is getting improved at every stage.
Agile methodology is more about working collaboratively to accomplish development goals. Daily meetings are conducted to track the progress of each team member. The agile methodology allows the clients to get fully involved at every project stage, be it creating a project plan, doing iterations, or creating new features.
Every team member knows each other assigned tasks, and everyone is involved from the start in planning, reviewing, and testing. Hence, it leads to better transparency and develops a healthy work environment.
The website development team can quickly launch the website in the market. All thanks to agile methodologies! The agile development approach is an incremental and iterative process, so team members get continuous feedback to make the changes on the go, thereby, increasing the development speed.
Regarding the traditional waterfall model, there was some uncertainty involved in project development. Agile is popular not only for flexibility but also serves as a risk-reducing technique.
In agile process, Regular team meetings are conducted between the client and project manager which ensures that everyone is on the same page. Here, testing of the product is performed after it gets developed, and feedback is taken after each iteration.
The traditional waterfall model was more about completing the project once the documentation was approved. But agile is a flexible approach where any task’s progress can be easily measured. Agile provides insight into some exact metrics, such as lead time, cycle team, etc., that can help to measure overall team performance.
You might get a clear idea of why agile is the most preferred approach for software development. Though companies are still using traditional waterfall model in developing projects, but majority of organizations are adopting agile methodology in their processes.
It completely depends on your project requirements as to whether you should go with agile or waterfall.
The waterfall approach is suitable for developing a website when project requirements are defined in advance and there is a fixed timeframe for completing the project. On the contrary, the agile development approach is used for developing web projects with no defined scope of work.
Scrum is the most common agile methodology for development, whereas Kanban is ideal for maintenance and support projects.
1. Collaboration
2. Flexibility
3. Key-driven metrics
4. Efficiency
5. Ownership
1. Provides maximum satisfaction to the customers
2. Deliver the project in smaller increments
3. Put collaborative efforts toward the completion of the project
4. Do regular face to conversations with the customer
5. The web development team should adapt to changes in technology rather than following rigid processes
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