The evolution of coding technology led to the advancement in software and web-based software development. Traditionally, software project management or agile developer jobs has taken a linear approach, with five main lifecycle phases; project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/controlling, and closure. New software development techniques such as agile project management for an agile developer have arisen, which software developers are actively embracing. Read on for more information on all things agile methodologies, including how to have a great career as an agile developer.
What Is Agile Project Management for Developers?
Agile is a software development framework based on iterative development. Unlike the traditional software development process, agile development for agile developers involves small, consumable increments and releases. It’s unique in that it focuses on programmers and how their collaborative action yields solutions. Agile allows for constant feedback from the end-user to generate software that meets clients’ specific needs.
How Does Agile Work?
The utilization of agile project management techniques is unique. Once the software development life cycle commences, feedback from the end-user of the software under development helps improve the design and facilitates the inclusion of new features. Project managers can incorporate and ensure the functionality of these features through regular updates. That can occur at any stage of the software development cycle.
What Is the Process of Agile Project Management Job?
The agile project management process is pretty basic. When developing a web-based software or user interface, project developers create the basic structure and obtain feedback from the users or website owners. They can then get ideas on features that may enhance the website’s usability.
The project manager is responsible for calling a sprint planning meeting for the software development team to list arising issues as project blocks. They then group them into sprints and work on the problems simultaneously with other website features in progress.
Once completed, the software engineers launch changes via software updates, and the process continues until they achieve the desired result. Instead of a linear software development process, agile project management takes up a circular and dynamic approach which allows the collaboration of team members and the uptake of feedback from the stakeholders. The result is more robust and functional products due to the rigorous development process and the deep, diverse, and collective thought process.
How Can You Become a Good Agile Developer?
Any software development project manager can master the agile project management approach. According to Darren Talham, a director of information technology at a finance company, a good agile developer is proficient with the agile philosophy and comprehends why agile leads to better software. Here are some qualities that make some of the best agile project managers:
Believe In the Concept of Developer Teamwork for an Agile Developer
You should buy into the concept of teamwork and be ready to accept any software development job’s result (success or failure) to become a good agile project manager. Take up extra roles, help out other team members, and be willing to embrace whatever it takes for the team job to succeed.
Learn From Others and Mentor Other Team Members
Your career as an agile software developer or agile developer will likely thrive if you’re willing to teach or mentor your juniors and learn from the daily agile software development processes you encounter daily. Be liberal-minded to the idea of sharing knowledge with and learning from others regardless of your seniority or rank.
Understand the Definition and Value of Done
It’s crucial to ensure that your team completes each task before moving on to the next one. Remember that you should never leave any team member behind on any work job. Overall, ensure that you deliver a complete product to the clients or stakeholders.
Take Responsibility and Own the Resulting Deliverables
The delicate nature of software development makes it prone to mistakes that may lead to defects. You should critically handle the process by bringing your team and the clients together to solve the problem rather than shifting blame. Taking ownership and making the situation right greatly determines your worth as an agile developer.
What Are the Benefits of Agile Developer Methodologies?
The flexible and evolutionary nature of agile project management has made it popular among software developers and engineers. Here are some top reasons why agile methodologies stand supreme in the software development world:
Better Project Developer Predictability
The agile approach lets the project manager predict the possible outcome of specific tasks and the overall project. That, in turn, facilitates risk reduction, improved flexibility, and continuous improvements. It also enables early detection of any technical or team challenges that may threaten the failure of the task at hand.
Superior Quality Products
Agile includes software testing in the execution phase. That leads to a thoroughly vetted end product, hence a top-notch result. The interactive nature of agile also builds a self-organizing team that works together to achieve what the client envisions.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
The use of agile methodologies generally facilitates customer satisfaction. Project developers constantly involve the client in the decision-making process, ensuring that the consumer is aware of all stages of the development process and provides the feedback necessary to make any adjustments. The result is a product that meets client needs as per the exact requirements.
Greater Project Control
Agile integrates quality control, transparency, feedback, daily reports, and teamwork. That allows the project manager to control the whole project process better.
FAQs on Agile Development
What are the different agile methodologies?
There are five agile methodologies: Scrum (the most commonly used), Kanban, Lean Development, Crystal, and Extreme Programming (XP).
What is agile methodology?
Agile methodology is a technique in project management that involves breaking a project down into several phases. The process integrates constant collaboration with stakeholders and continuous improvements at every stage. The team cycles through the planning, executing, and monitoring/evaluation processes throughout the project life cycle.
What is agile project management?
Agile project management is an interactive software project management technique that continuously incorporates customer feedback throughout the software development process.
What is agile, and why is it important for a developer?
Agile is a dynamic, repetitious, and incremental approach to software and web-based project management that enables project management teams to keep up with customer and workforce needs. It makes the whole software development process much easier for managers, allowing them to have greater control over their projects.
What are the 3 agile principles?
The three main agile principles are collaboration, customer satisfaction, and adapting to change.
What are the 12 Principles of agile?
The 12 principles of agile are:
- Ensure customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery.
- Adopt change in the project development process, even at the late stages.
- Frequently deliver value to clients within short timelines.
- Open up the project process for stakeholders and software developers to work together.
- Build projects around a motivated software and web development team.
- Uphold face-to-face communication, that’s the most effective and efficient form of relaying information within the software development team.
- Working on software is the basic measure of progress.
- Keep to a sustainable working pace between the sponsors, developers, and software users.
- Sustained attention on technical prowess, excellence, and good design enhances agility.
- Simplicity is fundamental.
- Self-organizing teams realize the best results.
- Constantly reflect and adjust the work to enhance effectiveness.
How will agile work?
Agile allows teams to provide rapid and unpredictable responses to any feedback they receive from the client or a software’s end-user. That allows software managers to assess the project’s direction during the development stage rather than after completion.
What is agile in simple words?
In simple terms, agile is a continuous enhancement or improvement of software or web development by building products incrementally through small, frequent releases rather than delivering them at once at the end of completion.
What is the agile mindset?
The agile mindset for agile developers is a thought process that involves understanding, learning, collaborating, and adopting flexibility to achieve high-performance results. That mindset enables teams to adapt and embrace change and eventually deliver incremental value to customers.
What are the 4 agile values?
The four core values of agile are:
- Individuals and interactions over software development tools and processes.
- Operational software over comprehensive documentation.
- Client or end-user collaboration over contract negotiation.
- Reacting to change over sticking to a plan.
What’s the difference between scrum and agile?
Simply put, scrum is a way to get things done, while agile is a way of doing things. Scrum is an agile methodology that helps facilitate a software development project. On the other hand, agile is a project management methodology that adopts and utilizes a core set of principles or values.
How do you practice agile?
You can practice agile by adopting a software project management that’s dynamic and allows for user feedback during project plan implementation. That will enable you to achieve the agile goal; continuously improving the software or web-based project during all or any of the development stages.
What is a scrum in agile?
In Agile, you can define scrum as a set of rules, events, roles, and tools you can use to implement agile projects. It consists of sprints that may last between a week and a month. Software development teams use them to deliver an updated version of a software product.
What are agile flavors?
The seven flavors of Agile are Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Kanban, Lean Software Development, Scrumban, Scale Agile Framework (SAFe®), and Large Scale Scrum (LeSS).
What are agile skills?
Agile skills are the skills a project manager needs to complete the agile software development process. They include the ability to navigate through unnecessary work, focus on essential work, remain calm, and make sound judgments under pressure and stress. Another crucial skill is emulating exceptional motivation and coaching skills to support and guide the software development team through project phases.
How do you give story points?
Story points are metrics that estimate the difficulty of implementing a user story, with more points depicting tasks that may take longer. Team members usually take one item from the product backlog and discuss it. Each member then mentally develops an estimate before holding out a card showing a figure that represents their estimate. They assign points per the work complexity, risk of uncertainty, and the amount of work needed.
Why agile is used?
People use agile because it helps enhance the performance of software development teams and improves customer satisfaction. They also love that it increases the versatility of projects and enables companies needing web-based software to adapt and respond to market dynamics.
How do you calculate scrum?
Scrum calculations are based on the velocity of the software development team and the total story points for each item on the product backlog. You can calculate it by dividing the velocity by the total points, which will give you an estimate of the number of sprints.
How many hours are 5 story points?
The number of hours for a story point entirely depends on the software development team. If a story point for your team is 2-4 hours, for instance, 5 story points will be approximately 16-20 hours.
What is in a sprint backlog?
A sprint backlog is a list of tasks that the scrum team has identified to complete during a single scrum sprint.
What are the five key values of agile?
The five key values of agile are commitment, openness, focus, courage, and respect.
What are the 4 values of the agile manifesto?
The four core values of the agile manifesto are:
- People and interactions over software development tools and processes.
- A functioning software over comprehensive documentation.
- Consumer cooperation over contract negotiation.
- Adopting and responding to change over sticking to the software development plan.
What is the difference between waterfall and agile?
Agile is a circular system that utilizes an interactive and incremental approach, separating project tasks into sprints and helping complete multiple small projects. On the other hand, waterfall is a linear system that divides a project into clear-cut phases and helps complete one single project. While waterfall requires teams to complete each project stage before moving to the next stage, agile encourages team members to work simultaneously on different project phases.
To Conclude
Agile development or agile developers career is a viable tool that can benefit any software developer and engineer. According to a Forbes article by Lee Davis, Agile can save companies time, money, and frustration. It’s a popular methodology that project managers use to track responsibilities, roles, and deadlines. At Sonatafy, we actively build a community of experienced software developers and engineers proficient with Agile. Our goal is to help professionals in Mexico and beyond advance their careers and scale to greater heights. Besides, we have a bilingual team that can efficiently communicate with you — don’t hesitate to join us today!