The ability to create and respond to change in order to succeed in an uncertain and turbulent environment.
What is Agile Software Development ?
Agile Software Development is an umbrella term for a set of methods and practices based on the values and principles expressed in the Agile Manifesto. Solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams utilizing the appropriate practices for their context.
The Stages of the Agile Software Development Life Cycle
1. Scope out and prioritise projects
During the first step of the agile software development life cycle, the team scopes out and prioritizes projects. Some teams may work on more than one project at the same time depending on the department’s organization. For each concept, you should define the business opportunity and determine the time and work it’ll take to complete the project. Based on this information, you can assess technical and economic feasibility and decide which projects are worth pursuing.
2. Flow Diagram for the initial sprint
Once you have identified the project, work with stakeholders to determine requirements. You might want to use user flow diagrams or high-level UML diagrams to demonstrate how the new feature should function and how it will fit into your existing system.
From there, select team members to work on the project and allocate resources. Create a timeline or a swimlane process map in chart to delineate responsibilities and clearly show when certain work needs to be completed for the duration of the sprint.
Example of userflow given below:
3. Iteration or Sprint
Once a team has defined requirements for the initial sprint based on stakeholder feedback and requirements, the work begins. UX designers and developers begin work on their first iteration of the project, with the goal of having a working product to launch at the end of the sprint. Remember, the product will undergo various rounds of revisions, so this first iteration might only include the bare minimum functionality. The team can and will have additional sprints to expand upon the overall product.
4. Release the iteration into production
You’re nearly ready to release your product into the world. Finish up this software iteration with the following steps:
Test the system. Your quality assurance (QA) team should test functionality, detect bugs, and record wins and losses.
Address any defects.
Finalize system and user documentation. Lucidchart can help you visualize your code through UML diagrams or demonstrate user flows so everyone understands how the system functions and how they can build upon it further.
Release the iteration into production.
5. Production and ongoing support for the software release
This phase involves ongoing support for the software release. In other words, your team should keep the system running smoothly and show users how to use it. The production phase ends when support has ended or when the release is planned for retirement.
6. Withdrawl
During the Taking away phase, you remove the system release from production, typically when you want to replace a system with a new release or when the system becomes redundant, obsolete, or contrary to your business model.