What Are The Methodologies Of Agile Development?

Agile development has certainly taken over the IT world, with at least 71% of US companies opting for this methodology in 2022. This popular software building method has placed itself under every tech expert’s watch and it’s being increasingly demanded by business managers as well. Though there are different methodologies of Agile development you can choose from before hiring an Agile developer. Keep reading to find out which Agile methodology is best suited for your projects! 

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What exactly is Agile development?

First, let’s recap the meaning of Agile software development. This is project management iterative approach to creating and developing development projects. According to the official Agile manifesto, the four pillars the Agile realtors value the most are: individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change. 

What the different methodologies of Agile do involves one common goal: building outward over time, from start to finish, instead of just turning in the deliverables of a project with no prior track record of that work. This software methodology focuses on creating continuous releases and taking advantage of every interaction to implement customer service. It allows teams to connect throughout the entire project lifecycle, critiquing, debugging, and improving results as they continue to deliver results. 

Because developers are continuously testing prototypes and receiving customer feedback at every stage of the process, the final results are already highly tested and easier to use. The Agile software development framework also emphasizes task prioritization and collaborative teamwork, thanks to the perfected Agile metrics that allow it to assign tasks more accurately. By measuring success by whether a project is completed on time or not, users can decide if the deliverables have met or failed their expectations. 

The Agile software development lifecycle

As we’ve mentioned, every software development project has its own lifecycle. Still, the Agile software development lifecycle separates each development project into shorter and distinct phases for easier management of tasks. By assigning different prototype testing stages throughout the lifecycle, the process becomes far more efficient and mistakes are detected earlier. 

The phases of the Agile software development lifecycle are: 

1. Requirement Collection: This first stage of the Agile software development cycle is where the scope of the development project needs to be determined. The vision, requirements, and results need to be mapped out in advance.

2. Design: It is in this phase that you need to assemble the development team that will work on the project. You should assign people different tasks based on their abilities and look for Agile software developers with experience working with the Agile software development cycle for tech projects.

3. Development: Most part of the bulk of the development project happens in this phase. This is where your Agile software developers will do the actual coding and work towards the end results of the project.

4. Code testing: This is where quality assurance takes place. Your developers will test the code of the development product and ensure everything is working the way it should before launch.

5. Deployment/Maintenance: Now that the software has been launched and deployed, it’s available for its use. This is where your Agile software developers will need to maintain the code to keep things running smoothly.

6. Retirement: The final phase of the Agile software development cycle is the retirement stage. A software product only enters this stage when it’s being replaced or it has become obsolete to its users.

Why are there different Agile methodologies?

While Agile is commonly referred to as a methodology, this is in fact a set of values and principles recorded in the manifest, detailing the development lifecycle. These principles can be reproduced through different methodologies to further tailor the software building to your company’s specific needs. 

Top 5 methodologies of Agile development

Scrum.

This is the most used Agile methodology framework, thanks to its characteristic sprints and carefully planned iterative process. These sprints are different stages of development and they encourage collaboration because developers want to hit every sprint deadline in time. Still, this methodology also focuses on quality, allowing for fewer mistakes to occur despite the velocity of the development process. 

Even though Scrum is a truly efficient methodology, the option for developers to reorganize their own tasks can cause a team to focus more on one side of the project where they should be focusing on another area. But this key feature is also taken advantage of because developers can focus on the parts of a project they haven’t even gotten a jumpstart on. While roles could not have the most defined hierarchy, this methodology of Agile development generates a lot of synergy between team members. 

Crystal.

Rather than focusing on different development tools and processes, Crystal ensures frequent deliverables by improving member interactions during a project’s length of work. It takes everyone’s skills, talents, and interactions into account to benefit the project and the results of the deliverables. This can be achieved by managing team interactions and ensuring frequent deliverables to spot any bugs or issues from an early development stage. The key relies on clear communities between team members and open chats about how to perfect processes. 

Crystal is fantastic for bonding between software development teams, but it’s also one of the tile methodologies that represents most of a challenge for remote teams of developers. This is because, due to the contestant stopping to communicate and reflect, repetitive zoom calls or endless text messaging can put a strain on your developer’s performance. Don’t worry, it’s still manageable! 

Kanban.

Kanban shares a few similarities with Scrum since they both intend to enable groups to cooperate more efficiently and focus on continual delivery of results. Though this result-oriented priority doesn’t mean to overburden the development team, as there’s a limited workflow of the day and a certain amount of WIP (work in progress) allowed at a given time. On top of it all, Kanban features an enhanced Agile flow that allows developers to automatically take up the next task in backlog once the current ones have been completed. 

One of the most obvious setbacks about Kanban is the way this methodology needs constant updating because it will cause several issues if your Agile developers are working with outdated boards. Since the framework also doesn’t show the different timeframes for each task, it can also be less useful in a dynamic development setting when multiple things are happening at once. 

Lean agile.

Lean Software development is another Agile iterative software development methodology. This is one of the methodologies of Agile development that focuses the most on eliminating waste and intensifying learning on the job. This system emphasizes the effectiveness of working as a team and utilizing every group asset, depending on quick and solid input between both Agile developers and users/clients. 

Because Lean is the most waste reduction oriented of the methodologies of Agile development, the success of Lean projects heavily depends on how disciplined and technically-skilled your developers are. All deliverables will be subjected to how cohesive is the team’s work and everyone’s individual commitment to their tasks. 

Extreme programming.

Extreme programming is an Agile software development methodology that emphasizes simplicity, communication, open feedback, and respect for others’ work. This method advances client association, 24/7 planning, quick feedback loops, seamless testing, and easy-to-access collaboration to help deliver enter coding solutions more efficiently. 

This is another one of the methodologies of Agile development that can be a challenge for distributed teams, because of its heavy focus on core rather than interface design or quality assurance. This can cause the work between distributed teams to be less cohesive than desired during the early stages of development of the first weeks of a recently assembled team.

Need help putting together a talented team of Agile software developers?

Now that you know all about the ins and outs of Agile software development and have found an Agile methodology suited for your development goals, it’s time to prepare to assemble the right Ágile development team. At Next Idea Tech, we understand the importance of finding the perfect match for your company and long-term arrangements are a priority. Contact us today to learn more about our IT staffing solutions!