Top Agile Methodologies of 2021

Adapting Agile software development methodologies helped  us to provide professional service to our customers. Being a start up of 2008 and going through recession periods, Agile ” The hot trend” really helped us to make a mark and make many satisfied customers across the globe. Operating from Cochin, Kerala also helped us to be flexible in the difficult periods. We implemented agile methodology not only in software development but in other operations as well. Top Agile Methodologies of 2018, used in different departments of shrishti info solutions are included in this article.

Agile Methodology can be defined as a people-focused, results-focused approach to software development that takes care of our rapidly changing world. It’s centered around adaptive planning, self-organisation, and short delivery times. Agile methodology is flexible, fast, and aims for continuous improvements in quality. This is possible by associating with the development company, development team and also the Product owner.

In order  to make things easy, Here are the key benefits which a company gets by adapting to agile methodology for software developments.

• Be first, Be innovative;
• Faster ROI;
• Quality
• Lower risk;
• Transparency;
• quick response to changes;
• Customer Involvement;
• Motivates the Team;
• Inspection and Adaptation
• Increases productivity of team

Above are the main benefits as a company, Now  let us see some of the top Agile software development methodologies.

Top agile methodologies in 2021

Scrum

No doubt, Scrum is the Hottest Agile methodology across the globe,  it is practices in almost all software development companies because of its simplicity.  At Shrishti Info Solutions, We use scrum to manage big and complex projects where customer involvement also needed. We divide the entire project in to small sprints. We normally use 2 week sprints.

Our scrum team is managed by scrum master, First day of the week we do scrum planning, Normally works with team size of 3-7 depending on the complexity of project. Once the sprint has started, there will be daily stand-up meetings to inform about the progress of the project, short user stories; tasks, retrospective and public “to-do” lists. We divide sprints considering there is a deliverable product increment in each sprint.

We make sure our Scrum team able to keep the 5 scrum values, Commitment, Courage, Focus, openness and respect. So that we can keep the pillars of scrum in the development such as transparency, Inspection and Adaptation. Product owner also have key role in the sprint review meeting alone with scrum master and scrum team.

Kanban

A kanban is a lean scheduling system developed in Japan by Toyota motor corporation.  A kanban system utilises visual cues that tell you, what produce ?, how much to produce and when to produce it Sushi menu is a typical example of kanban, where customer indicate which item they would like to have right then and how many of each.  Kanban system usually start with a board and visual cards that represents items in your product backlog. On the board we place the cards in to columns that represent their current step in the workflow ranging from “new” to “complete”. The visual nature of board makes it easy to find out, whats already been done, Whats in progress, and whats going to be started next.

Kanban imposes limit on number of items that can live in any one workflow step at any given time. Its called Work In progress Limits (WIP Limits). They should be set so that the work flows as smoothly and consistently as possible by creating a visible bottleneck. This helps the entire problem to address the big problem and hence collaborate. Limiting the amount of work that’s in progress means that you’ve got to finish some of the things on your plate before you can start an additional item. WIP limits help you , save time by eliminating too much task switching, and complete task. Kanban performs well when paired with a good scrum framework and a great scrum tool. scrum provides the structure for feedback, short term planning, stack ranking,  an inspect and adapt mind set, etc.

We use kanban software development methodology for some of our own product development. Also used in Our sales and marketing activities. Kanban makes the tasks complete smoothly and top managers can identify  where is real issue  is and address it. At Shrishti we use physical kanban board at times or we use trello normally.

Extreme programming (XP).

The third top agile framework we recommend is “Extreme programming”  (XP).  Extreme programming mainly intendes to improve quality code and improve productivity. Extreme programming consist of pair programming, Code review, unit testing, Integration testing, Planning game, Courage and Respect.Pair programming means two persons are coding using single computer , One person as navigator and other as observer. if pair programming is done well,  Less mistakes are made hence reduce cost.  One partner learns from the other. new idea and better codes every day by good participation of both members.

Code review is the continues process of improvement  by giving programmers continues review of code. Code is usually well documented which makes it easy for others  to review. usually code review is done by review team, makes the programmer aware of bad habits in coding. Unit testing is a testing method to test  each unit as small testable part. it helps to find the failure in logic. Integration testing were individual parts combined and tested as a whole. Courage, This comes in to play when important decision needs to be made. Like changing the code structure or removing unused code.

We at Shrsithi Info Solutions , Extreme programming is practices on projects with strict deadlines so that there is no room for error. We make sure each line of code is examine by 2 persons and review team. This is mainly practices to reduce development time.

Conclusion:

Though we use all the 3 methods in Shrishti, we decide which method to follow considering clients requirement and deadline. We are show our openness to use any of the methodologies in the pre-planning meeting and finalize the methodology. We are able to satisfy our clients as well as programmers with above methods.