Web Development is Getting Better Thanks to Agile

Agile web development is a methodology based on the principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto for Agile Software Development. It was written by a team of professional developers in 2001. The main goal of this approach is to provide flexibility and ‘satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.‘

Agile web development is the name of an attitude, a mindset with which we choose to undertake a certain project. It gives managers, designers, and developers a chance to focus on delivering the best end product to the clients through adaptability, collaboration, iteration, and feedback.

Before talking about agile methodology in web development, it is important to understand the kind of problems that traditional web development or Waterfall processes produce.

Planning: Clients’ objectives usually change over time. If the developers already implemented parts of the solution that need to be changed, then the client should be spending more money.

Arguably, it will be difficult to go back to editing if any previous phase failure occurs.

Understanding of needs: A developer translates his understanding of the client’s specs into a computer program. Two biases are implied: the correctness of the spec provided by the client, and the understanding of this spec by the developer. If you don’t realize and solve these biases before the final delivery of the project, the complete project won’t be released on time.

The waterfall methodology is independent of the product's feasibility. Technical development is still being carried out and not paying too much attention to the future performance of the product.

Temporal uncertainty: It’s impossible for a developer to predict the time it will take to implement the project with 100% accuracy because some technical problems can happen.

The waterfall approach performs well for a well-defined project in terms of the scope the team will go, with a limited number of changes and modifications to the product.

Agile web design is more suitable for creative, complex, and large projects, especially if you are designing an e-commerce website or a site with a large database and distinctive features. The following section will highlight some of the benefits of using agile methodology for web development.

Better Communication

Realizing that client input is extremely important, Agile methodology provides clients and software development teams with more time to exchange ideas with each other, even at each stage of the project.

The agile methodology requires a team of web designers, developers, and Q.A executives to collaborate on a regular basis throughout the web development process. This allows them to deliver more polished end products to the clients.

Transparency

Transparency is vital for organizations that choose to adopt agile. Agile workplaces customers or clients a chance to get involved during the development stages of their websites.

This may include, review sessions, iterations planning, and so on. In agile development, testing is integrated during the cycle. This means that there are regular checkups to ensure that the product is working right during the process of development.

Faster Time to market

When you develop web applications according to Agile methodology, you will not waste too much time; moreover, you can get increased efficiency by prototyping, developing and testing almost at the same time. In short, Agile produces predictable, early delivery products, reducing time to market and thus tangible business value to clients

Higher Customer Satisfaction

The customer is always involved in the process of web development. Due to high visibility, the product owner is aware of the results of every sprint. Such engagement throughout the project lets the customer monitor the process and ask for any changes or improvements if necessary.

Better Risk Management

Agile is a great way to "limit risk", because listening and receiving feedback from clients constantly, reduces the risk of creating an incorrect product. The client and the development team meet several times, with feedback procedures being repeated throughout the project implementation process.

Adaptability

Project managers cannot foresee the future; however, they can play a key role in making their teams more adaptable, as adaptability is one of the most important cornerstones of agile methodology.

When team members start making good use of their time, they amplify their chances of delivering a quality end product to the stakeholders.

Conclusion

The agile methodology offers flexibility and transparency that helps companies understand what needs to be fixed, what is working well, and what isn’t. This allows the developers to invest their time in more critical requirements.

At SOPHiLABS, we use the Agile methodology since customer satisfaction is of paramount importance for us and agile enables us to deliver the promised functionalities and features that can help us keep our customers satisfied and happy.