Process: Agile Development

If you use—or want to start using—an agile-development process, you probably already know its benefits, but you might not be as aware of one of its main drawbacks. Even though 46% of US organizations and 85% internationally report that they’ve used an agile approach within the past year, communicating your agile process to clients remains a challenge.

Specifically, the problem is bridging the gap between clients’ expectations of the process and the way agile really works. But overcoming this difficulty is well worth the effort if you wind up with a first-rate product and a fully satisfied client.

Of course, some clients are already quite familiar with how agile works. However, for those who aren’t—and whose previous experience was with waterfall product-development approaches—explaining the process and merits of agile can be tough. Sure, your clients might know some agile buzzwords, be familiar with some of the tools, or know the importance of meetings to the agile process. However, it’s unlikely that they understand how agile actually works in practice. Read More

In 2023, “software is eating the world.” Software drives most companies today. This means that more and more companies are becoming agile—and so are the processes and methods by which these companies function. Most companies are on the lookout for methods that reduce their products’ time to market, which can be challenging for in-house teams such as testing teams. As a result, software-testing professionals need to curate a solid approach that lets them keep up with all the changes, updates, and operations.

In agile, regression testing can help teams focus on new functionalities, but also preserve the stability of each product increment and update. Teams use regression testing to ensure that tested software continues to perform well after every modification. Read More

In today’s fast-moving digital landscape, organizations in all sectors and of all sizes are increasingly turning to agile ways of working, with the goal of gaining the speed, flexibility, and responsiveness they need to remain competitive. In fact, Version One’s most recent State of Agile survey found that 95% of software organizations now practice agile development and, in 43% of organizations, the majority of development teams are agile. However, an organization is unlikely to achieve a successful agile transformation simply by rigidly following a defined set of agile strictures. Instead, an agile transformation requires a complete cultural shift across entire teams, structures, and processes.

In this article, I’ll look at some of the most common reasons behind the failure of agile transformations. My hope is that this information will help your organization to avoid its agile initiatives’ falling foul of the same mistakes and ensure that you’re able to reap all of the rewards the approach has to offer. Read More