9 out of 10 startups fail. In order to succeed, you need to think carefully about how to approach critical business and product decisions. There are few decisions more important than your project management approach. Agile has become one of the most popular product development philosophies of app developers for startups because it delivers results and builds strong teams, all while effectively managing ongoing change and customer needs.
Whether you’re working with a software development agency like Modern Launch or hiring and growing your own team of product designers and developers in-house, the Agile approach is a great choice. Continue reading to learn more about Agile development, why it’s growing in popularity, and why it’s the best choice for your startup.
What is Agile Development?
Agile development is a software development methodology centered around the idea that nimble, flexible teams, can create the best applications using an incremental and iterative approach. Agile is often confused with or equated to DevOps, and while they’re in the same ‘vein’ of thought, they aren’t the same. Agile improves the development process, so teams can deliver higher-quality applications, while DevOps is concerned with code deployment through automation and other powerful tools.
Agile adoption is on the rise, especially among startups. According to one study, 9% of agile development projects fail during development, compared to the 29% failure rate of waterfall development. Agile teams are more productive, and 60% of companies that adopt this philosophy report profit and growth.
5 Reasons Why Agile Development is Best for Startups
App developers and leaders of startups face a unique set of challenges. Bringing a new idea, a new product to market, is difficult and expensive. Agile development can help startups build quickly and adapt to the market without overextending or over-committing.
- Working Software Comes First
Getting your MVP ready for investors and early customers is your first concern. Agile development puts scrutinous documentation on the backburner in favor of focusing on working software.
Creating software documentation is a time-intensive process. If your team is focused on creating documentation at every step of the development process, it’s going to majorly slow the process down. This is especially critical during the early stages of development. With Agile, your team can prioritize writing code and leave the comprehensive documentation for a later date.
- Suited for Change
Things are rarely static when creating a new application. As your startup hones in on what the market needs and what users need, your product requirements are likely to change, a lot. Funding, new market research, and new user stories can alter the path of your application’s development. If you don’t have the right systems in place, it can be difficult for your team to pivot and change course.
By employing the agile philosophy, app developers for startups are more capable of handling these changes without missing a beat. Agile is the best choice for situations where the end goal is not entirely concrete. Even if the end goal seems concrete today, there’s a good chance things will change “tomorrow.” Staying agile is one of the best ways to hedge against the risk of future change.
- Incredibly Flexible
Flexibility is one of the most important traits of any successful development team. You want your team to be highly agile to embrace any necessary changes. The principles of Agile development promote flexibility with its iterative and incremental approach.
Your application will be built in short cycles called sprints. Sprints usually last 1 to 4 weeks. When a sprint ends, your team solicits feedback and checks that the resulting code meets product requirements and customer needs. If not, the code goes through another iteration. Because sprints are short, your team can change gears and address more urgent issues as needed.
- Oriented Towards Customers & People
One of the central tenants of the Agile philosophy is an emphasis on people over process. Agile views each team member as a valuable component of the overall team that should be nurtured and appreciated. Your startup will greatly benefit from a healthy company culture. Happy employees are hard-working employees.
Agile’s people-focused approach extends to customers. At each step of development, you want to consider what your customers need from your application, what features will truly provide value, and what functionality is essential to a good experience. You are encouraged to test your deliverables with prospective customers to learn what works well and what doesn’t.
- Builds Strong Adaptable Teams
Agile believes in the value of collaboration and teamwork as the source of all great software. With Agile development, your small team of developers will learn to work together efficiently and effectively.
Whether your team uses scrum or kanban, Agile’s principles can help your teams work better together and adapt to emerging changes. They’ll be better equipped to handle failure in an atmosphere of openness, collaboration, and commitment. As your developers learn to work together, they will build better software and produce stronger results.
Keep Things Moving with Modern Launch
If your startup is not familiar with implementing a specific product development methodology, like Agile, a software development agency like Modern Launch can help. We have developers and project managers dedicated to helping startups just like yours.
We provide end-to-end application development services, which means we can build your app from scratch. Your budding development team will benefit from working with our developers and project managers to grow into a strong team capable of building future projects on their own. Modern Launch has established processes and experience building web, mobile, and desktop applications for small and large organizations alike.
We hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to us.
Here’s how you can get in touch with us:
Email: contact@modernlaunch.co
Website: https://modernlaunch.co/
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