Is Agile Product Development for Startups?

What is Agile?

The Agile methodology is an increasingly popular and effective way for different types of development companies to create, test, and present their products — especially software — to the public market. It is a practice that involves continuously developing and testing a software/product throughout its whole development lifecycle.

A unique aspect of the Agile approach is that the development and testing activities remain simultaneous; this often renders it more powerful in today’s world. 

Business 2 community says, “If you want to get somewhere fast, you have to be Agile! That’s the core value of Agile product development methodology.” 

The Agile approach is well known as one of the simplest, most effective processes to turn a vision of a product into software solutions.

Simply put, agile is a term used to describe a product development approach that requires constant planning, team collaboration, improvement, early delivery, and evolutionary development.

Agile is gaining popularity largely because it inspires flexible responses to feedback and change (business 2 community).

The very definition of agile speaks for itself in the context of the expanding, ever-changing, fast-moving reality we inhabit. Software development is and will continue to be a forefront player in the current cultural global evolution. As rebeldot mentions, “AGILE = the ability to create and respond to change. A way of dealing and succeeding in a fairly turbulent environment; the ability to adapt.”

Adaptation is a key to success in the majority of business ventures and other aspects of peoples’ lives nowadays. Moreover, the numbers speak for themselves. One source found that a whopping 98% of companies that have adopted Agile have found it beneficial! That figure alone should be enough incentive to give it a try. 

To dive into a better understanding of Agile and its merits, it is important to compare its features to those of its predecessor, Waterfall, as outlined by business 2 community:

Waterfall Approach

• In the Waterfall approach, product development flows sequentially from one point to another, just as a waterfall fills the adjacent reservoir.
• Customers can see the product only at the end of the project when using the Waterfall method.
• This strategy is considered to be more secure because it is plan-oriented.
• Errors are tested only when the whole product is ready. So, if changes are to be made, the product development has to start from the beginning
• In the Waterfall method, product developers and testers focus on their work separately.
• All features of a software or product are delivered together at the end of the project, only after the long implementation phase.

Agile Approach

• The Agile method follows an incremental approach to product development.
• It encourages launching products early so customers have early and frequent opportunities to use the product. Consequently, product development teams have more feedback to make decisions and any necessary changes to the product.
• The Agile approach is relatively unstructured as compared to the Waterfall method.
• Product development teams are allowed to fix errors in the middle of the project, as Agile development has no predetermined beginning or end. Teams continue to test products throughout the product life cycle and they can consistently gain useful feedback from the customer.
• Testers and product developers collaborate throughout the Agile process.
• In this product development strategy, core features of a product are regularly delivered for users to prototype, and managers can progressively add or remove features. 

One major difference between the traditional Waterfall method and the more recent Agile approach is the opportunity for and utilization of customer feedback. This has proven to be a positive trait in today’s fast-moving market.

Both testing and development based on customer feedback and response are extremely important pieces of digital product building when following Agile development principles (rebeldot).

Another important factor in its success: “Agile adoption doesn’t require project teams to work from a specific location. They can implement the approach from anywhere and at any time. Because of this, it’s estimated that in the US alone, almost 50% of agile teams are expected to work remotely in 2022, Agile stats reveal” (goremotely).

The increasingly large number of startups, companies, and organizations are currently opting to keep their operations remote for the many benefits it brings. Agile can fit well into the work-from-home trend; this could be a reason for it being a recent hit.

What are the benefits of Agile? Who is it suitable for?

For many reasons, developers are quickly adopting the Agile method at high rates for their projects. According to goremotely, 71% of businesses nowadays are adopting the Agile way. It has helped 98% of companies that have tried it; those are some good odds! Historically, entities using waterfall-like approaches have not experienced such a fantastic success rate.

For example, the U.S. government has lost about $32 billion as a result of failed IT projects. Expensive mistakes can be all too common in the software development environment, so understandably, stakeholders are thrilled about the Agile product roadmap’s much higher profits.

As (business 2 community) states, Agile is:

• Iterative: It takes advantage of intuitive, regular working rhythms.
• Cost-Efficient: Agile reduces the cost of development by allowing product development while teams simultaneously gather requirements and information.
• Faster: It ensures that the product will reach the market faster.
• Incremental: It grants product development teams the ability to present products in smaller steps.
• Responsive: Product managers can respond immediately if there’s an unpredictable scenario and revamp the design or concept accordingly.

The use of the Agile process is expected to gain in popularity across more sectors in 2022 and beyond. It is already being widely implemented in the marketing, human resources, and engineering sectors, to name a few. Plus, it’s expected to be utilized in even more business sectors.

Considering the numerous benefits associated with Agile, this shift in product strategy clearly doesn’t come as a surprise. More and more companies are leaning towards Agile adoption or even considering it the norm! (goremotely)

Are there any risks?

As is the case with most business endeavors, the short answer is that, yes, there are risks. Utilizing Agile product roadmaps means that your project will have less financial predictability. Still, you will be surprised to find out how less budget predictability might work to your advantage. Here’s why outlined by rebeldot:

• If the goal is to bring a product to market rapidly, then, without any doubt, adopting Agile is the way to go. Encouraging feedback-based iterations and incremental progress allows an Agile product manager to advise releases as quickly as possible, with plenty of space for quick improvements. 
• As an Agile development team, we encourage startups as well as enterprise companies to first build a minimum viable product (MVP). 
• MVPs are a huge part of being Agile. Competitive players should know how to build and innovate with minimum viable products and use available information, such as rapid customer feedback. 
• Planning to launch new digital products in today’s cutthroat technology scene, needs to come with an extraordinary ability to adapt to change and customer feedback. Great emphasis should be placed on customer feedback for an important reason: it helps stakeholders make sure that what they build responds to real customer needs. That way, they know it will actually be successful and in-demand. 
• By encouraging incremental development, the Agile method provides a framework to avoid waiting months, even years of development to finally see a big product reveal. 

What was the traditional approach before Agile?

Before 2001, when the Agile methodology was created by a group of software developers, development teams (particularly those in the software, aerospace, manufacturing, and defense industries) would often follow the Waterfall methodology.

Specifically, teams would first identify a problem; next plan a solution; then work to arrive at the solution. Only the finished product is brought to market. The Waterfall development process follows a set path with little room for adjustment. Planview describes that when using Waterfall, a development manager should oversee the steps in order: 

While Waterfall is a linear model for software development, Agile is an incremental and iterative approach to building software. The Waterfall system has historically been popular with large companies because all the information is upfront and it gives the appearance of more control, rebeldot says. However, both large companies and startups are shifting the narrative in today’s world, as Waterfall’s slower, more drawn-out process becomes less viable.

How is Agile implemented at a company?

Thinking about implementing the Agile process in your company’s next project? Maybe you’ve already been trying it and need a better outline to follow. Keep reading this information about the Agile process to expand your mental toolbox. From business 2 community:

1. Project Initiation: The first step in the life cycle of Agile product methodology. This stage is often referred to as the envision or the inception phase, in which the team members discuss the product’s key features and ROI justification.
   • Agile product development always starts by documenting a vision statement based on the scope of problems the product can solve, defining opportunities, and values to be addressed. Apart from this, it begins by defining the prospective users. The product owner documents all this and works with multidisciplinary teams to deliver on the vision.
2. Create Backlogs: The backlogs in product development refer to the list of work that needs to be done. These are main requirements, ordered by priority, that should be fulfilled for each branch of the team.
   • Prioritization is a key point in agile backlog grooming because it enables teams to adjust their scope of work, review costs that will be incurred, and schedule team members’ roles. All of this helps the product development teams to accomplish time-bound tasks and stay on track.
3. Establish Sprints for Software Development: Instead of delivering the whole backlog at the end of product release, project managers can divide the product into iterations, or “sprints.” Sprints are a smaller number of deliverables that are taken from the backlog. This is a characterization of Scrum methodology.
   • Sprints have smaller time frames that may last from one to four weeks depending on a team’s performance capacity and experience. For example, if you’re working with a team that hasn’t worked in an Agile environment, it’s best to consider sprints of one or two weeks.
   • During the sprints, the product development team works through a full development cycle to accomplish one milestone. One sprint might not result in a marketable release, so multiple sprints are needed to complete all backlog items.
4. Product Development: Once the requirements have been defined and roles and sprints have been set, the actual work begins. Agile product development focuses on delivering high quality products in sprints or incremental phases.
   • Essentially, Agile product developers start building the first iteration of a product with a goal of having a usable product at the end of a specific number of sprints. This workable product is far from the final version and undergoes a number of revisions. Hence, it includes minimum functionality.

Teams can achieve in delivering the aforementioned sprints by:

What are some trends related to Agile?

Software companies are becoming much more Agile in 2022, and for some good reasons. Agile’s success rates are more than 1.5 times higher than those of Waterfall projects. Some food for thought: right now, Agile adoption boasts a success rate of 42%, and its failure rate is just 8%.

Contrastingly, the Waterfall method’s success rate is 26%, while its failure rate is 21%, goremotely reports. Despite the fact that many companies use a variation of the two approaches depending on the project in question, only 2% rely on pure Waterfall, whereas 16% use pure Agile. That’s a significant difference!

If you still aren’t sure that your software development or other company could benefit from trying Agile on certain projects, we’ll explore some other numbers.

“Let’s look at it from another angle. Based on a survey conducted in 2019, the Agile failure rate is close to 3 times lower than the Waterfall one. So, you’re clearly better off with the former” (goremotely). 

Some more Agile trends from goremotely include:

• Agile adoption has now replaced Waterfall as the norm.
• 14% more companies are using solely Agile adoption processes than Waterfall.
• 60% of companies experience growth in profits after adopting an Agile approach.
• 80% of federal IT projects adopt Agile.
• The Agile method’s failure rate is 8%.
• The average salary of an Agile project manager is $90,000.
• Microsoft Project is the most sought after project management software.
• Accounting statistics show that organizations that created their software using Agile raked in 60% more profit.

Before implementing any kind of project management software, companies need to ask themselves which methodology to use: Waterfall or Agile. The former is a more linear, traditionally secure approach, while the latter is rapid and possibly more profitable. 

In many cases, product management is looking at adopting effective, up-to-date, streamlined quality testing approaches which fall line with Agile principles. This most often means good news for companies considering taking the next step towards their future (goremotely).

As we all know, this world is moving at an ever-increasing speed, and the business sector should be no exception. In fact, an agile, flexible project approach might be exactly the push your startup or company could use to rise to victory!