Waterfalling the Agile: 10 Reasons you should know
In a world where change is the only constant, organizations are looking for ways to be more agile and responsive to customer needs. While there are many approaches to being more agile, the waterfall model is often seen as outdated.
Waterfall is a sequential process where each step must be completed before the next one can begin. Agile is an iterative process that allows for steps to be completed in parallel. While both methods have benefits, waterfalling is often seen as outdated and inflexible, while agile is seen as efficient and adaptable.
What is Agile?
Agile is a business methodology that values customer satisfaction, business value, and timely delivery over following a rigid plan. Its methods are iterative, meaning they deliver small functionality regularly so that customers can provide feedback early and often.
It helps to ensure that the final product is exactly what the customer wants and that business value is delivered as quickly as possible. Agile methods are also collaborative, involving close cooperation between business stakeholders and delivery teams.
This ensures that everyone is on the same page and that there are no surprises when it comes time to deliver the final product. Agile is about being flexible and responsive and delivering business value as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Agile aims to tackle priority priorities first. Keeping the to-do list short will allow for quicker progress on those little pieces of work—a determination to finish what you’re doing swiftly.
What is Waterfall?
One of the first methods of software development is a waterfall. The entire idea behind Waterfall is to cascade through a process until it is finished, step by step. A staged approach to construction is used for software development assembly lines. You can proceed to the next when you fully accomplish a specific phase.
The work advances incrementally and consistently in that direction. Changes to the work or modifications to the procedure are not permitted. Waterfall travels very deliberately and systematically in a single order.
10 Reasons you should know for moving from Waterfall to Agile
With the best of intentions, many organizations move from waterfall to agile. To reduce time-to-market and produce high-quality apps, you might be looking to replace your typical waterfall procedures with agile, just like many other businesses.
But becoming agile can be a difficult journey! We have compiled a few lessons and advice you to transition effectively from waterfall to agile!
1. Adopt an agile mindset initially
Agile is less of a method and more of a mentality. Before teams can completely embrace agile, they must adopt the agile culture. Everyone engaged must be patient, aware of what to anticipate, and, most importantly, open to change if the effort is to be successful.
Agile leads you to a better working style based on teamwork to give your users the most value possible. But it’s up to you to put those rules into practice. Most teams from a traditional software development approach find this component the most difficult because there are no strict guidelines to follow.
2. Adapt roles and responsibilities
Within a company, roles and duties are impacted by the move to agile. Yes, agile encourages developers and testers to collaborate closely with business professionals. However, it also wants other changes. The product team, business analysts, engineering, and IT are just a few of the firm’s areas where roles, responsibilities, and working methods need to alter. Horizontal discussions should be used to replace a top-down, command-and-control culture.
Management supports teams, encourages them to work together, and ensures that projects are aligned with corporate goals. It takes on the role of a facilitator and fosters an environment where teams can develop.
3. Employ a team approach.
The whole-team strategy necessitates ongoing communication. When defining requirements, project scope, and what is required to ensure the program’s quality, the team must work together from the start. Software quality is an ongoing effort that calls for dedication from all parties.
Testers on agile teams participate in all conversations, communication, design decisions, and document sharing. They become more familiar with a feature’s complexities during its design and development. Regardless of their positions, every team member is equally accountable for the timely completion of the tasks they have committed to within an iteration.
4. Test frequently and early
Many teams will claim that adopting agile is the biggest shift brought on by the testing process. Now, testing must be done continually, all the time! You must consider and include tests of some form at every step and level of the software development process. The code used to create software is continually modified. Before checking in, you must ensure that the new code complies with specifications and does not interfere with already-functioning code.
5. Recall that agile is iterative
Teams are accustomed to taking a sequential approach to their work in waterfall projects. The typical team workflow is requirements, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Everything is meticulously scheduled and planned. Agile, however, is an incremental and iterative process rather than a linear one. Agile development and delivery of software take place in manageable pieces. An application is consistently evaluated to ensure it fulfills the market’s needs.
6. Promote open communication
Agile values each individual’s viewpoint and offers everyone a voice. By promoting open communication, businesses can encourage employees to share ideas and raise concerns in a safe and effective manner. It can help to build trust and improve teamwork. Agile provides training on effective communication methods and makes it easy for employees to give feedback. They are now expected to express their ideas, some team members can feel anxious! To meet the ambitious goals that the teams have set for themselves, agile teams need regular and effective communication.
7. Test automation should be your friend.
With test automation, agile software development will be successful. Agile projects cannot be like most waterfall projects, which may have considered test automation an extra or a luxury. Your functional tests must be run and restarted during each iteration of the agile project. Manual regression testing is labor-intensive, sluggish, uneven, and prone to mistakes.
8. Engage in early planning and feedback
Agile’s fundamental tenet is that failure should be swiftly followed by learning. Therefore, whatever you do in your earliest iterations will be evaluated with the end in mind. The early input from demos and evaluations improves the project’s design.
The quality of the software being developed can also be significantly estimated by early test automation input. The more accessible and less expensive it is to resolve issues in your software, the earlier you uncover them.
9. Participate the entire company in the agile transformation.
People are more likely to endorse, support, and adopt a method when involved. You must apply it to the team and management to benefit from agile.
Problems will inevitably arise if only some involved are committed and contribute effectively. For this reason, you must ensure that switching to agile is collaborative. To get the support of all interest groups and prevent conflict between how the teams function and how management operates the business, communication, effective participation from all parties, and ongoing planning are essential.
10. Adopt instruments that promote teamwork.
New and better technologies will require agile teams to collaborate as effectively as possible. Instead of placing additional strain on them to continuously write letters and paperwork or attend meetings to discuss changes, your goal should be to make it simpler for them to embrace new procedures. Select the finest solutions for your needs and your team to make collaboration easier. These tools can be for development, source control, knowledge sharing, documentation, code reviews, or testing.
Waterfalling the agile
Regarding software development, there are two major approaches: Waterfall and Agile. Both have benefits and drawbacks, and the best approach for a project depends on various factors. A waterfall is a traditional approach that involves breaking down the development process into distinct phases.
Each phase is completed before moving on to the next. It can be beneficial in cases where requirements are well-understood upfront, and there is little need for change during the project. However, it can also lead to delays if unforeseen problems arise during development.
Agile, on the other hand, is a more flexible approach that involves iterative cycles of growth. Multiple phases can run in parallel, allowing for faster delivery of working software. It can be beneficial in cases where business needs are likely to change during the project. This feedback enables teams to learn more quickly than almost any other method, do, profit from it, and improve even more!
