More and more software development companies say they are using the Agile model but do they understand what it really stands for?
It is the ability to be able to deliver the most effective software through continuous interaction between clients and developers. It is built on people and interactions rather than just tools and processes. Delivering working software at regular intervals, there is no one final delivery of a software system that may have become out-dated in the time it took to be developed as happens with the traditional model. With Agile, attention to technical excellence and good design continues through every phase of development.
The Agile model is flexible, adaptable and even allows for late changes to be made at very little cost. It isn’t tied down by a set-in-stone plan but is built on the assumption that your needs are as dynamic and changing as the business and IT world you work in.
With the freedom of time and options, important decisions can be made as a project unfolds, when the right data is available.
Agile on the budget
Agile makes it easier to understand and factor in the approximate cost of each feature to be released by coupling estimates of cost given before each phased release and actual cost of previous releases. When it comes to making decisions about the priority of work to be done and if any additional features are needed, this is budget planning at its best.
More Agile, more efficient
Changes are inevitable in business so why would you want your software to be inflexible and out-dated by the time it is completed? By delivering an agreed-to subset of features with each increment of development, priorities can be shifted and important changes can be made in a matter of weeks rather than being a lengthy and expensive add-on process.
While you determine the priority of features to be implemented, our team can better understand what is most important to your business, delivering software with the most valuable features first. Software is built following the needs of real customers and so each increment delivers value. And with the ability to beta test your software at every stage, feedback is fed directly into the project and used constructively in real time.
Agile development is collaboration. It is about breaking down each project into manageable segments and working together to produce an end product that meets your business objectives, is flexible enough to adapt to the ever –changing demands of today’s fast-paced business environment, creating real value for your business.