Principles on which Agile Software Development works.

Change, change can be both good or bad, depending on the time it is happening. If you have a sudden idea, that could change your product’s life, it is incredible. But if this change comes to your mind when your developers have almost completed your product development and you pitch it to them, believe me, they are cursing you internally. Agile software development process or method delivers small but significantly fast increments towards product development, which helps the evaluation of results continuously, thus making it easier to adapt to any changes that may occur.

There are a set of 12 Agile principles for effective software development. These principles help you in the constructive growth of agile software development. Most business organizations now follow this set of principles in effective agile software building. Even though times have changed but yet this sphere of software development has not changed a lot. Now let’s find out principles that should be applied to your project development.

The twelve principles of agile software development

1) Consistent Delivery of software

The first principle is all about delivering top quality satisfaction to the customers through timely and consistent delivery of software. If a business organization takes a lot of time in delivering the software, the delay will frustrate the customers.

Customers will always expect delivery on time with no fuss, moreover getting the software out early helps in getting valuable feedback to improve any issues.

Every delivery adds value to the customer’s experience. For example, customers won’t give much attention if there’s a change in the login terminal however will get irritated if they can’t log in easily. Quick updates not only gain customers’ confidence but also reduce the risk of major failures later.

2) Look forward to changes

The second principle asks you to adapt and embrace new changes because changes in agile processes help a lot in improving customers’ experience. We are living in a world which is developing as we speak, so it’s not possible to figure out what the requirements of software tomorrow are.

However, the present business organizations don’t enjoy wasting their precious money on something that has no impact on the market. Embracing the change helps you get a competitive advantage over your competitors as your software meets the requirements of the current market. So one must encourage new changes to deliver a better product to your consumer.

3) Frequent delivery of software

This principle states that it is essential to deliver a product within a quicker time frame. You might find this a tad bit similar to the first one however here we’ll talk about the meaning of delivering products frequently. This principle tells you to deliver a newer version of your software within a short period. Thus the updates will be of smaller size and will have fewer issues, but the value they add to the original project is much bigger.

4) The unexpected duo: Software developers and business owners

This principle says that the business owners and the developers should work hand in hand throughout the development of the project. You’ll see that there is an unseen but obvious barrier between software people and business people as the spheres of the work are different (and they might don’t get along much) but this principle asks them to work together by removing these barriers so they can interact more freely. It’ll help in avoiding any misunderstandings in the later phases of the project.

5) Keep unmotivated people on the sidelines (or not even in the vicinity of your project)

This rule asks you to build projects by keeping around motivated people so that they can be backed up with everything they need and have faith in them to get the work done in time. An agile team is responsible enough to make quality software within a stipulated time frame and also trustworthy. If you build the projects around someone who is not motivated to strive for the best, most likely your project will fail to meet its potential.

6) Having conversations in real-time (don’t be a tech slave)

This principle throws light on the fact that it is essential to share conversations face to face for the effective development of a product. However, with the advancement of technology by leaps and bounds, individuals can communicate through a lot of virtual mediums, but it is important to have conversations with your team face to face. It helps you understand what body language a person is talking to you while telling something, thus helps in better communication for better software development.

7) Software that works efficiently speaks itself for you

One of the best ways to ensure the success of a project is by delivering working software. Most software projects nowadays take a long time to complete. This principle states that building software which meets the need of the customers and works effectively dictates the success of the project. Necessary add on and models of your project are essential, but in the end, you’ve to build software that is working because that will add value to the satisfaction of the customers.

8) Excellence in Technicalities

It’s vital to have consistent technical excellence (Obviously!) for improving the agility of the project. Everyone out on the market prefers software which is very well designed and has its technicalities on point. So it’s essential to build software which works effectively and also has a good technical design. Because if it lacks technicality, then it is bound to slow down in the market and the effect it has on the market will slowly decrease.

9) Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

Among other things, it’s very important to not forget the basic thing of simplicity. You can easily do this by removing unnecessary procedures that are not relevant to the present context. Yes, we understand that you have an incredible functionality that would just be a cherry on top for the product, but hold your horses and ask yourself this, “Is its absence gonna affect my product negatively or I am just overdoing things?” If no, note it down for future iterations. This will help you a lot in saving time and deliver more value to the consumer. It will help you focus on the drawbacks of your project and how to improve those before adding more cool but unnecessary items.

10) Self-Organizing Teams

Most excellent designs and plans for software come from solid self-organizing teams (an amalgamation of all the principles). If you want the business individuals and the developers to work together by communicating freely, want to start a project with a motivated bunch of people, and measure success by working with software then it’s vital to have an organized team working within the project (Let’s be real, you can’t babysit them!)

All the teams working on the project should prioritize organizing all the requirements of a project and build quality software for the consumers.

11) Make improvements based on reflection

It is vital to reflect on the changes in the project so you can make necessary improvements for more effectiveness of the product at regular intervals. All the teams working with the project should take out time and look through the workings of the project and make required adjustments if needed. A good software agile team can evaluate the feedback and identify any underlying issues in the project to improve the project quality.

12) Yes, all of these matters

You will find this interesting that all the above principles for agile software development are still relevant in the present day because they are built on the foundation of human emotions and economics. However, some principles have also changed a bit over time as people don’t need to stay in a room for effective communication.