The Role of Scrum in Agile
Scrum is the most popular framework for agile project management that is simple and flexible. Recently
there has been a lot of buzz around the efficiency of the agile approach, and almost all development
companies have started to advertise that they utilise Scrum and offer the best practices of agile
development, such as extreme programming, even if their approach was not such one at all. Scrum promotes
feedback, self-organized development teams and delivery of fully operational product within short
periods of time.
You should pay attention to these details, when choosing a developer, because developers who practice a
traditional approach usually need a lot of time and effort to switch to real Scrum and its practices
like extreme programming.
1
Roles And Meetings
There are three specific roles in Scrum: Product owner, Scrum Master, and Team. You can learn
about the roles and their responsibilities attending a Scrum training, which has become a
popular way of learning the agile development method. Typically, these three roles share the
responsibilities of a project manager in the classical approach. The members of the team discuss
the project and their achievements at five regular meetings: Product Backlog Refinement (or
Grooming), Sprint Planning, Daily Stand-up Meeting (or Daily Scrum), the Sprint Review and the
Sprint Retrospective Meeting.
2
Scrum Trainings
A great number of different organisations offer Scrum training courses, classes and tutorials,
but unfortunately, not all of them can boast a high quality and accuracy. To identify whether
the source of information about Scrum is trustworthy, you should check whether it has an
official Scrum certification. Scrum Alliance was the first organisation that started providing
worldwide Scrum trainings and certification.
Globally, Scrum is becomming so popular as there are more successful cases among the whole
projects in comparison to the waterfall technology cases.
Scrum for Large Companies
Many companies have proclaimed their transition to the agile technology. However, large and medium
organisations are often reluctant to fundamentally change their procedures. Such companies can use the
so-called Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) for quick and painless transition. Another more difficult and
principled approach for big developers with multiple team is Large Scale Scrum (LeSS).
The Scaled Approach
- The Teams in the Scaled Agile Framework are organised on the basis of classical Scrum teams.
-
The efforts and the achievements of multiple agile teams are joined together to deliver more
valuable software releases.
- The software is developed with a view of business goals and financial capacity.
The Principles Of Scaled Agile
- Take an economic view
- Think systematically
- Provide for variability, leave room for options
- Develop in iterations within short, integrated learning cycles
- Achievement is measured through evaluation of working systems
- Visualize and limit work in process, minimize batch sizes and queue lengths
- Utilise cadence and cross-domain planning
- Keep the developers and the designers motivated
- Decentralize decision-making
What Makes a Good Development Team
Why choosing our software development firm when there are so many independent developers and
software companies who offer their services in easy terms? Because our programmers can boast a high
level of skills and a solid experience in building successful applications with rights reserved
for every industry, which is proven by our extensive portfolio and a solid amount of rave
reviews
written by our clients. And we guarantee you that your app will be in line with the latest trends of
the digital world because our developers know their craft in and out.
The Opportunities of Agile Method
Agile programming approach allows the developers to adjust the direction of the project during the
development and introduce changes to the software even at the final stages. This is possible through
regular iterations or sprints - periods of works after which the team delivers a fully functional
product or potentially shippable product increment. Agile software development is often described as
incremental or iterative because each short work cycle results in an increment.
On the contrary, in the Waterfall development, teams can deliver a final shippable
product only once, therefore, there is no room for mistake and no chance to introduce
any changes. In the agile software methodology, every aspect - specifications, features,
designs - is repeatedly reviewed throughout the lifecycle. When you regularly reevaluate
the project, you can easily find ways to optimise it and keep in line with the latest
trends.
The agile methodology, thanks to its inspect and adapt approach, enables to get the
product to the market fast and minimises the cost of development. You can forget about
such problem as analysis paralysis, because it simply cannot happen in the agile method
of software development, where the requirements are gathered alongside the creation
process. As the work cycles typically do not last longer than two weeks, the client is
able to change their demands and calibrate the requirements for success in the
ever-changing circumstances. Agile development offers the following benefits:
-
High quality products. In general, the agile system development is a continuous form
of review and revision. Due to teamwork and short work cycles, it is more likely
that any error or defect will be timely detected and corrected.
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Skill and knowledge sharing. When the specialists work closely together, they have
an ability to relate to and interact with one another, therefore, they share learn
from one another and share their experience, boosting efficiency and improving
productivity.
-
Documentation is no longer obligatory. There is less need for documentation die to
improved quality of products and knowledge sharing.
-
More actual work is done. Statistics shows, that when developers work in agile
groups or pairs, they are exhausted after 5 or 6 hours of programming, because they
do actual hard work.
Agile development allows developers firms to design the most effective solutions within
the shortest possible time. The agile approach guarantees you that the final product
will stand out among the competition due to the repetitive revisions and continuous
optimisation of the software. Developers who utilise the agile software development
methodology work hard to polish the software after each iteration, producing perfect
results that add value and gain recognition.
The Agile Manifesto says
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
The Principles of Agile
There are twelve basic principle that lay the foundation of the agile approach to software
development:
The main objective is client satisfaction achieved through fast and continuous delivery of
efficient software.
Software requirements can be changed even late in development. Agile software methodology
harnesses change to make the client stand out among the competitors.
Functional software is delivered regularly within weeks or months with the aim to build the
product as fast as possible.
The client and the development team cooperate closely throughout the development process.
Projects are created around motivated people. You give them the environment and support they
need, and they develop a quality software for you.
The most efficient way of developer / client communication is face-to-face conversation.
Functional software is the principal measure of progress.
THe development process should be sustainable. The client, the developers and the users
should always maintain a constant pace.
Developers should strive for technical perfection and appealing designs.
Self-organised teams produce the best architecture, requirements and design.
At regular periods of time the team analyses how to be more effective and brings the found
solutions to life.
The History of Agile Software Development
In 1970, Dr. Winston Royce criticized traditional development strategies in his paper entitled
"Managing the Development of Large Software Systems". He said that waterfall equates software
development to a production line conveyor belt, where each piece of the final product is added in
sequential phases. The next phase can start only when the previous one has been completed. Dr. Royce
argued against this approach in which developers first specify all requirements, then create the
architecture and design, then program the application and so on. He said that this method was
obsolete because of the lack of cooperation between the separate teams that work on every specific
phase.
Waterfall Vs Agile
If you compare the two methods of development - waterfall and agile - you will easily see why the
second one is much more efficient and optimised for one kind of projects, and can be irrelevant for
others. The main problem of the Waterfall approach is that it demands that every requirement is
identified before the development starts. In other words, the developers and designers should know
every feature and detail of the future program before they proceed to actual design and coding. On
the other hand, it would be much more convenient if the client could provide their feedback and
decide about the functionality after they have tried out a functional program. It is not rare that
the design agencies that stick to the waterfall approach realize that the software they have built
according to the requirement specified a year ago is completely out of date, because business
environment has changed over that time. And as a positive example, when everything is agreed and the
software requirements are clear and concrete, the Waterfall is all you need for this project.
Clients
How True Agile Differs From Fake Agile?
A truly agile team selects and implements the management and development practices that best work
for them. Adoption of this methodology can be a hard process, during which you will likely hear a
lot of excuses about why it will never work out. But the results you will get if the transition is
successful are extremely valuable and motivating. As for those who search for reasons why it is
doomed to fail, they rill either end up returning to the traditional methodology, or practice a
so-called fake agile.
The Developers Who Never Stop Improving
We at Magora believe that a good developer never fixates on a single methodology and continuously
explores the new horizons and finds the approaches that best suit each individual project. There is
no such thing as an ultimate development method, that is why you have to determine the method you
will use every time you start a new project. And that is exactly what agile development
methodologies promote. It is a philosophy based on continuous improvement. On the other hand, if you
have a clear view of your future application, its features and requirements and do not want to
depart from your plan - waterfall is exactly what you need. So if you want to work with ambitious,
creative and talented developers who never stop learning and improving and always strive for
flawless results, contact us - our design comapny will be glad to hear you at any time.
About Us
Our expert can deliver all kinds of digital solution for business use - our development agency designs
applications and websites that deliver value and appeal to customers. Our London-based development
agency builds bespoke business solutions that keep in line with your business identity and perfectly fit
into our goals.
Over the years our app developers have worked with various industries, developing successful
educational apps, medical technologies, engaging games, efficient management systems and many more.
Our services extend far beyond programming and implementing the real agile - our web design firm
provides our products with long-term support and offer consultancy services in regards to market
analytics and research, software performance, user behaviour, growth rates, SEO strategies, etc. We
are proud to say that our company ranks among the top app designers in the UK and boasts a wide
portfolio of great projects developed for enterprises of all sizes. We would be glad to translate
our vast experience into your web solution.
