Seven Strategies to facilitate the transition to an Agile software development Methodology

Software Development is filled with uncertainty, and the agile software development methodology makes things possible.

Technology changes too fast these days that a mobile app development or a web application development entirely planned from the beginning, without leaving room for unexpected changes, will have less probability of being completed on time and causing extra work for the dedicated software development team is impossible.

Agile presents itself as a way to help dedicated software development teams to minimize the risks caused by uncertainty and prepare each person involved in the Project against possible issues/problems caused by these unexpected changes.

When working with people that haven’t worked with Agile in the past, we face an interesting challenge; convincing them this is the best way to develop an application and QA testing, and make them feel comfortable using the agile scrum methodology.

One of the most important challenges is convincing the Product Owner/ Client that having him completely involved in the process is necessary for guaranteeing success. Usually, product owners are involved in different matters and their availability is minimum, but it’s important to let them know and understand that the dedicated software development team needs a collaborative interaction with him to get the work done well. In the beginning, it will be difficult for him to adapt to daily communication, but once he starts seeing positive results, he’ll start getting comfortable to the idea.

Here are some ideas to help facilitate the transition:

1. Sprint Planning sessions
   • Work with Product Owner on initial story creation, This will allow him to begin feeling more at ease.
   • Understand the complexity level of each task. Discuss the amount of time that should be allocated for creating and executing each task. This will allow the product owner to adjust to a scalable way of working.
   • Plan workload individually rather than for the whole team.
     • Reserve a block time in the sprint for:
       • Development
       • QA testing
       • Fixes after software QA testing
2. Have one-weeks sprints in the beginning, with low-impact features to deliver, so the whole Team can start evaluating the methodology.
   • Demo at the end of each sprint to get feedback from the product owner
3. Daily Standup meetings
   • Share status with the team. Be honest and discuss any blocking issue to provide clarity to the product owner, so he can make decisions in regards to which strategies the dedicated software development team can follow to meet the goal.
4. Use ongoing communication tools (like Slack, Hangouts, Skype) to initiate collaborative work in an easy/quick way.
5. Use a tracking system so everyone can review and understand the status of the dedicated software development team on a daily basis.
6. Have the QA Team participate in a collaborative way for each sprint, making everyone feel comfortable with the result of the sprint meeting initial expectations.
7. Retrospective sessions to review what went well in the Sprint (and congratulate the team for it), with what went not so well, the team can identify which processes should be improved, in a constructive way, not to discourage the team members.

In the beginning it may be little difficult to have everyone committed to the Agile software development Methodology.

Daily collaborative work will help to highlight the improvement in the relationship with the customer, establish how easy the project objectives are achieved, knowledge on how efficient the team is (applying corrective measures on time, if necessary), which in the end will justify the implementation of the Agile Kanban or Scrum Methodology.