Agile transformation is one of the most misrepresented and possibly underestimated terms in the software development procedure. For starters, it is not a technology or a tool for the developers to deploy, but a shift in method those existing tools are technologies are exploited for higher efficiency and better products. Traditionally, software development, or any business process for that matter, has been partitioned into various stages, each handled by different teams, of which not more than two teams ever communicate directly.
Take app development agencies for example, most of them have a well-defined set of processes that goes something like this:
A team generates lead then another team does a thorough requirement analysis, which is then passed on to the designing team, which in turn goes to the coding team. Then quality assurance team comes in and after deployment, a support team takes the charge.
And while this type of rigorous communication chain serves well in defining responsibility and fixing accountability, it suffers from two fundamental flaws:
1. Communication gap (for instance analysis team hardly ever communicates with QA team) that often results into quality degradation;
2. Skewed delivery time due to project moving back and forth among different stages.
How is Agile Development Better?
Instead of dividing the project into various stages, agile development creates multiple development cycles- each of which involve all the teams concurrently. This approach is beneficial on two levels
1. Promotes direct communication between all the teams hence improving product quality;
2. Since the product is developed in cycles instead of stages, it becomes available much sooner, leaving ample room for subsequent refinements.
So How do You Bring Agile Transformation?
When you decide to embrace agile transformation, the first thing you need to do is to hire an agile coach. They are the ones who will co-ordinate the communication between all the teams and keep an hawkish eye on the entire project. The transformation itself will go through three phases:
- Structural Reorganization– It involves creating different teams based on agile principles.
- Chain of Command– It involves identifying different levels of organization and fixing responsibilities of each, while clearly specifying work roles and how priorities will be handled.
- Evaluation– The traditional methods that organizations use to measure productivity, loses its credibility once you adopt agile methodology. So, instead of focusing on individuals, adopt parameters to evaluate development cycles. One of the most common and feasible metric is to measure the time it takes from when a client request is made to the time the task is released.
How Beneficial is Agile Transformation?
Compared to traditional development methodologies, agile development creates not only quality products, but also has much has much higher productivity with minimum failures. To things into perspective, let’s take a look at project failure rates:
- 11% of small projects fail in waterfall model, while the rate drops to 4% if agile development is employed.
- For medium projects, waterfall model has a 25% failure rate, while only 11% for agile development.
- A staggering 45% of large projects fail if waterfall model is deployed while it is 23% for agile development.
And according to a survey, different organizations when asked about the benefits they reaped after agile transformation, highlighted these five top benefits:
- Enhanced collaboration- 54%
- Improved quality- 52%
- Higher customer satisfaction- 49%
- Quick deployment- 43%
- Reduced cost- 42%
So, now that you know what agile transformation really is, how you can adopt, and various benefits it has on offer, there is virtually no reason for you hold back on your traditional organizational practices, that limits the true potential of your business. The quicker you move, the more business avenues you can cover.