Agile Development in a Commercial Organisation

“100 grand spent on half finished software is worth nothing” This statement sums up the problem with conventional long cycle development, In the current commercial environment the ability to change focus and deliver value is more critical than ever. Agile development will allow a company to Having been an advocate of Agile development and project management for some years now it is good to a increase in the adoption of these methodology in the mainstream commercial arena. From working with clients over the last few years the main reasons for adoption is:

1. Speed of Response
2. Rapid Prototyping
3. Quick Market Entry

At the end of every iteration their should be a new version of the software with improved functionality, what this means to the organisation is that as long as a iteration is finished (most iterations lasting between 2 and 4 weeks) the value of the software will have increased.

Speed of Response The main reason I looked at Agile years ago was to save the risk over client money but what actually began to happen was that th software became better and more relevant. This was down to the fact that the rapid iterations and releases meant that they could quickly within the space of 4 to 8 weeks change the program to answer a growing customer requirement. The value of the planning process is that features and changes are assessed both on how difficult they will be to deliver and how much value they will add to the user and client. In most cases selecting features that have a high value adds to the software improves the satisfaction and the adoption of the user.

Rapid Prototyping

Most if not all requirements are not well defined by the client, or most requirement changes based the client/users beginning to interact or become more involved in the process. Prototyping will help the user to understand the interaction, with tools like Axure we can develop much more detailed understanding of the thinking process of the client and build a shared vision of the project that everyone can see. Running a lot of rapid prototyping iterations will allow the team to see the effect, test, evaluate and build a group understanding of the project.

Quick Market Entry

The environment or issues change rapidly in real business world and many opportunities are missed because the company cannot get in to the provision of the service or product in time to capture market. These fast moving opportunities are ideal for adoption a Agile methodology for the business not just the development of software.

Why? If using well developed “User Stories” and prioritising functionality a product can be realised which will match the most important requirements quickly. This rapid release will allow the the product to be adopted by the early adopters. Taking a early share of the market and making it harder for competitors to enter, With the user-base and experience the team can develop a better product and grow the user-base due to the iterative process.

This is just the most obvious reasons for a commercial organisation adopting Agile as a Project Management and Product Development process, The main reason is that when a Agile Methodology is adopted it blends creativity and control, I have used Prince 2 process to control agile projects helping it fit in to the larger project management approach and still benefit from the advantages.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Related posts:

1. Agile Product Development
2. Agile Retrospective – Lessons Learned
3. Pair Programming- Software Development Learning Steps
4. Nancy Van Schooenderwoert development in a safety critical environment
5. Basic Project Management with a focus on Agile