The document outlines several Agile best practices for software development, including collaborating closely with customers, strong teamwork, self-organizing teams, and prioritizing tasks. It discusses how these practices like face-to-face communication, daily stand-ups, and prioritizing a backlog contribute to project success by empowering teams and improving productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
The document outlines several Agile best practices for software development, including collaborating closely with customers, strong teamwork, self-organizing teams, and prioritizing tasks. It discusses how these practices like face-to-face communication, daily stand-ups, and prioritizing a backlog contribute to project success by empowering teams and improving productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
The document outlines several Agile best practices for software development, including collaborating closely with customers, strong teamwork, self-organizing teams, and prioritizing tasks. It discusses how these practices like face-to-face communication, daily stand-ups, and prioritizing a backlog contribute to project success by empowering teams and improving productivity, innovation, and customer satisfaction.
AGILE BEST PRACTICES • By using an iterative framework, the Agile approach relies upon the interaction of self-organizing teams who have the cross-functional skill- sets required to develop and test the working software. The most commonly used programming practices are based on the following tactics: • Test-driven development • Code refactoring • Continuous integration • Simple code design • Pair-programming • A common codebase and a single coding standard AGILE BEST PRACTICES
• It all contributes to the quality, flexibility, and sustainability of the
software in Agile software development. To better understand the Agile methods, here are some of the best practices for efficient and effective interaction on Agile teams. 1: COLLABORATION WITH THE CUSTOMER • Customer satisfaction is indeed the first and foremost priority in the Agile approach. To deeply understand customer requirements, collaboration must be strong among both parties. In a traditional development method, a customer is involved only on the funnel's two ends, first at the beginning of collecting the requirements and second at the end of the funnel with the developed product. But in the Agile approach, the customer is involved throughout the whole process, clarifying expectations, collaborating on fixes, and communicating options not previously considered. The constant communication between the team and the customer promotes creativity and better customer satisfaction. 2: TEAMWORK QUALITY • In Agile software development, a group of people works together as a team cohesive, leading to successful projects. There are six components of increased teamwork quality. • Communication • Coordination • Balance of team member contributions • Mutual support • Effort • Cohesion 2: TEAMWORK QUALITY • There is a direct relationship between teamwork quality, team performance, and project success. Agile teams work on a simple equation that they can work more effectively if they depend on each other rather than depending on the tools that are the mainstays of software development. By working together, Agile teams can empower and embolden to take imaginative leaps that result in an innovative product. Hence, collaborative teamwork is one of the most important skills in the lexicon of Agile best practices. #3: INDIVIDUALS MOTIVATION • Motivation is the driving force for any organization. Motivated employees perform 10% better and are the individuals who love their job, are focused on the team goal, and supportive of each other. With a motivated Agile team, an organization witnesses rhythm in their work and fast-paced speed. But, creating an environment where it all happens, isn’t easy. #4: EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION • In the Agile approach, the best way to communicate is face-to-face. No matter if you are communicating with a teammate on a knotty problem or reporting your accomplishments on the daily meeting, face-to-face communication is the best practice. Let’s say if we send an email or a memo or a voice message and it gets lost among a hundred similar messages, who will be blamed for the delays? The daily meeting is one of the best ways to gather the entire team and connects them to determine if there are issues causing delays. Face-to-face communication builds trust, opens gates for feedback, and creates conversation among the teammates. In scenarios like a global team, geographic isolation of working groups or individuals, and time zone differences, it is still preferred to communicate face-to-face by creating virtual rooms with videoconferencing services. #5: SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMS • Agile software development is driven by creating self-organizing teams who work in harmony. Self-organizing teams are capable of deciding their pathways. They decide how they will execute the work and who will do what. They also divide the tasks into small iterations which can be completed in each sprint. A self-organizing team is only created with team members who are confident in their work and can push through the most difficult and frustrating blocks. As a whole, a self-organizing team shares full responsibility and accountability for stepping out of the ways to resolve issues. If the outcome misses the mark, the team learns and adapts from their mistake. #5: SELF-ORGANIZING TEAMS • Just remember, each team member must have extensive prior experience in his/her field. Agile teams do not intuitively know how to self-organize, plan and execute the project. It will require constant training, coaching, and mentoring to create an Agile team. A team that can perform at the fullest irrespective of any throttle or block. #6: TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
• In the Agile approach, the team works and evaluates their
performance daily. As individuals and as a group, development teams are open to mentoring and coaching. However, as one Agile coach notes, the team doesn't respond well to management's command and control. As prior mentioned, they work well when self-organizing. • Agile teams figure things out on their own. Team members share what went well and what went wrong and then identify how to improve the next go-around process. In a Scrum team retrospective, each member suggests something the team should start doing, stop doing, and continue doing. #6: TEAM EFFECTIVENESS
• Based on the pointer discussed in these meetings, the team adjusts
their behavior accordingly. Over time, the team builds its catalogue of Agile best practices and performs them daily. Technology is as important in Agile teams as individuals. • Agile teams use numerous applications to complete their work and streamline the development process. One such tool is the online Kanban board, which helps Agile teams to visualize the workflow, plan everyday tasks, and track progress. #7: TASKS PRIORITIZATION • Backlog management is also another best practice for Agile software development. It is the responsibility of the Product Owner to record tasks in the backlog and assign their priorities. The Product Owner changes and sets the priority of the backlog item list based on stakeholder feedback and project circumstances. #7: TASKS PRIORITIZATION • Higher priority tasks will be assigned first to the respective team members in each iteration or sprint. Assigning priority to the backlog tasks also provides the team members knowledge of what is coming next. • As you can see, these Agile best practices are basically a rich array of options to be followed. When an Agile team uses these best practices in their daily routines, they witness numerous advantages. Let's have a look at some of the benefits of Agile best practices.
Agile Project Management: The Complete Guide for Beginners to Scrum, Agile Project Management, and Software Development: Lean Guides with Scrum, Sprint, Kanban, DSDM, XP & Crystal Book, #6