Impact of Agile Methodology on Software Development

What is Software Development?

According to IBM (International Business Machines Corporation), Software development refers to a set of computer science activities dedicated to the process of creating, designing, deploying, and supporting software. The software itself is the set of instructions or programs that tell a computer what to do. It is independent of hardware and makes computers programmable.

Types of Software Development Methodologies

  1. Agile Methodology

This emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and rapid iteration. It is best suited for projects with rapidly changing requirements or a high degree of uncertainty, like requirement gathering. There are various types of frameworks in the Agile methodology but a few will be listed.

• Kanban
• Scrum
• Extreme Programming (XP)
• Crystal
• Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
• Feature Driven Development (FDD)‍

  2. Lean Methodology

This explains the elimination of waste and maximizing efficiency by continuously improving the process and people involved.

  3. Waterfall Methodology

This is a traditional, linear methodology that involves completing one phase of development before moving on to the next. It is best suited for projects with well-defined requirements and a fixed scope.

  4. DevOps Methodology

This is a methodology meant to improve work throughout the software development lifecycle. The DevOps process can be visualized as an infinite loop. It comprises the following steps: plan, code, build, test, release, deploy, operate, monitor, and thorough feedback while planning again which resets the loop.

Impact of Agile Methodology on Software Methodology

  1. Quality and Team Involvement

Agile methodology is a widely adopted software development approach that aims to deliver high-quality software in a timely and efficient manner. This is based on a set of principles that prioritizes (1) Adaptability (2) Flexibility (3) Collaboration among team members.

For example, my organization builds software solutions for clients. Here we adopt an agile methodology. Daily stand-up meetings are being conducted to ensure that every member of the development team fully understands what has been done and what is expected. We address issues or contributions in order to decide faster collectively.

N.B: Agile teams work together to meet the customer's needs. This is achieved through regular team meetings called “Scrum” where teams share ideas, discuss progress, and identify issues that need to be addressed. Scrum is a lightweight agile framework that can be used by project managers to control all types of iterative and incremental projects. In Scrum, the product owner creates a product backlog that allows them to work with their team to identify and prioritize system functionality. The product backlog is a list of everything that needs to be accomplished to deliver a successful, working software system: this includes bug fixes, features, and non-functional requirements. Once the product backlog is defined, no additional functionality can be added except by the corresponding team. This close collaboration allows for early identification and resolution of problems, which helps to ensure that software is delivered timely, error-free, and of high satisfaction to customers.

  2. Quick response and transparency for key stakeholders

Read full article on the blog. An article by Olufunso Oladiran.