Introduction
To understand agile methodology better, we must first understand the meaning of the word ‘agile’. The word agile in English translates to quick and swift movement’. This is also an important aspect of agile methodology. Under traditional software development methods such as the ‘waterfall methodology’, specific projects take a lot of time to get completed, sometimes even several months or years. Also, the product is not shown to the customer until the project ends. In most high-level projects which are not from agile methodology, the project team is allocated a lot of time for activities such as requirements gathering, designing, development, testing, and user acceptance testing. The project is deployed only when these procedures are completed. In the projects under agile methodology, not much time is allocated to such activities, rather the project team runs iterations or sprint runs, which can be more than one. The duration of each iteration varies from 2 weeks to 2 months. The duration of each iteration is always equal. In these iterations, the team develops some pre-determined features of the projects and delivers them.
A business can benefits greatly by choosing to get its project done by experts in agile methodology. Below are the reasons why-
- 1. Quicker Completion of Project The biggest and the most visible advantage of using agile methodology for the completion of a project is the speed with which the project is completed and delivered to a client. As said in the introduction, the word ‘agile’ means quick and swift, and under agile project development, a project is completed swiftly and quickly and delivered to the concerned customer with due diligence. One must also know that the quick completion of the project does not mean a careless job and a low-quality project. Quality is never compromised upon just because the project is completed in less time. The agility of a project helps cut costs and faster delivery combined with pristine quality ensures a better business.
- 2. Delivery after Every Iteration As talked about above, under agile methodology, the project is divided into various iterations, or sprint runs. The duration of each iteration is always equal. While in projects done under a non-agile methodology, a customer is unable to see a project till the whole project is completed, under the agile methodology, that is not the case. The client will have the delivery of a specific part of a project after each iteration which he or she can check if it is according to their requirements or expectations or not. If not, the client can ask for specific changes which he or she finds not according to their requirements. This way both the project team and the client will save a lot of time as they won’t have to wait for doing this till the end of the project. Also, some of these iterations have pre-determined functions which ensure time-saving and a very less chance of something going wrong.
- 3. Cost Cutting and Time Saving When a customer decides to get a project completed, he or she looks first and foremost at two things- the cost of the whole project and the amount of time required to complete the project. Agile methodology is excellent for a customer who has a tight budget and wants a project done in a minimum amount of time as this methodology saves both. In agile methodology, things are done in a fast and swift manner, ensuring that a minimum amount of time is used up in the completion of the project. Also, when there is a saving of time, it automatically ensures that cost-cutting happens, as less amount of resources is now to be employed on a project. This is again a major benefit for businesses that choose an agile methodology.
- 4. Customer Satisfaction is Ensured Comparing a project done under a non-agile methodology to the one done under the agile methodology, one thing that stands out in agile methodology from the point of view of the customer is three customer satisfaction that is ensured under agile methodology. That is because of the fact that there is an ample amount of communication between the project team and the client in agile methodology. A certain work has to be submitted after each and every iteration and the client always can keep a check on the working of the team throughout the completion of the project just because of this feature under this methodology.
Conclusion-Even though agile methodology stands out in many aspects, one must know that in certain situations, the use of the classic, more traditional methods such as the waterfall methodology is best. When there is a lot of research to be done in certain projects, the waterfall approach is the best, as it provides a good amount of time for research.
