Why use Agile

Why use Agile

PART II

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4 min read

Previous pain points

The market had started to evolve and it was beginning to be realized that both the needs and expectations from the business users would not remain static for so long.

A growing number of experts felt that there had to be a better way to build products with a focus on:

  • business users, and

  • business value and quality in short amount of time./

Why use agile

  1. Predictability in VUCA

    • Agile enables organizations to predictably deliver value in a world where we are constantly being challenged with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

    • Agile project management includes many practices, tools, and artifacts to improve predictability, which helps reduce risk.

    • Agile's adaptive planning approach is an iterative approach which organizes several information flows, analyses, issues, and opinions that coalesce into predictable decisions that align with the strategy.

    • For example, successful agile organizations keep the same iteration length, and Agile team allocation throughout the product development life-cycle. This ensures some structure within the chaos. This also enables the project team to predict the exact cost for each iteration.

Why Are Organizations Adopting Agile? Because of the challenges of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity

  1. Fast Delivery Approach

    accelerates product development cycles.

    • user gets solution quicker

    • rapid feedback to dev team

50 - 80% faster release than traditional approach of project dev.

  1. Early ROI

    1. Squeeze cash out of WIP(Work in Progress)

      • Cash is freed up to more flexibly invest as the product evolves based on market needs.

        Waste, commonly referred to as the Japanese term Muda in the real-world,

    2. Increase Returns

      • mitigating the chances when investing in non-value/unproven assumption added features.
  2. FEEDBACK

  3. BUILD RIGHT PRODUCT

    Agile works to efficiently develop products where the chances of it being valuable to customers and end users is enhanced.

  4. Early Risk Reduction

    • Agile helps manage risks more proactively.

      By evaluating project progress more frequently, we are able to meaningfully evaluate during each iteration.

      This helps the team measure delivered value, as well as showcase working product to obtain realistic feedback.

    • Specifically, risk reduction is accomplished through iterative deliveries as requirements are discovered, prioritized, and demoed to representatives(business proxy) from the business.

    • Transparency (cross-functional teams that respect and understand each other's skill sets, sustainable and predictable pace, continuous feedback, and technical excellence, that is built-in quality.) ensures early risk management

  5. Built in quality

    • better velocity: measure how much valuable work completed in a iteration

    • Predictable pace of incremental Delivery

    • A more reliable solution environment enables an agile team to confidently innovate and scale.

  6. Culture and Morale

    1. Agile emboldens the culture by:

      1. encouraging open communication,

      2. collaboration

      3. cohesiveness driven by a common business value-driven goal.

    2. Agile promotes a more adaptable work environment that boost morale, prevents burnout, and encourages a highly productive, sustainable pace.

    3. When treated with respect, Agile team members evolve their practices and find opportunities that benefit the business.

    4. This aspiration is elevated when Agile teams understand the larger purpose behind their work.

  7. Customer Satisfaction

    • Customer satisfaction is further increased because they're requested features are delivered not only early in the project life cycle, but also continuously, as a product has evolved and enhanced based on market feedback.
  8. Alignment

    • The vision drives what is to be included and excluded in the list of features and functionality, which is customarily called a product backlog in Agile.

    • Agile is the deliberate goal of setting challenging but very realistic expectations

    • In Agile, milestones and accomplishments are based on demonstrable results through the objective evaluation of working systems. Such demos give the business owners an opportunity to ensure that the Agile teams work is aligned with the vision.

  9. Emergent Outcome

    • Agile works well in the development of complex dynamic systems.

    • For example, self-organizing interactions among the Agile team, they give rise to outcomes that may be different from or in addition to any anticipated or targeted outcomes.

    • The initially unplanned, yet valuable results can emerge in such circumstances.

    • Agile frameworks are designed to accommodate such emergent needs.

Effectiveness vs Efficiency

This is a fine balancing act that Agile recommends.

If you're only focused on going fast, you prioritize efficiency.

But if you are trying to focus on innovation, creativity, and making sure you're working on the right thing, you need to focus on effectiveness.

This is often done at the cost of efficiency.

Agile ensures a balanced approach,

Agile beyond soft. dev.

if your processes are not continually being challenged to deliver additional business value, you are an outdated organization.

that razor sharp focus on business value is the secret to Agile's miraculous success.

SUMMARY

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