Adopting Agile: Top Seven Benefits of Agility

Agile has revolutionized the world. It has become one of the most popular approach for project management for the past few years.

The Agile philosophy involves adapting a new way of thinking based on the values and principles of agile. This way of thinking helps individuals and teams adapt to change, rather than avoid it. The benefits of using this iterative process as guiding practices have swept the globe and has proved unbound by any ties to the business world.

What is Agile?

According to Wikipedia, Agile is a set of practices used to improve the efficiency of the development process through the collaborative effort of the cross-functional teams and the customers.

It’s a process of delivering the right product with the help of constant customer feedback at regular intervals, adapting to the changes as per the requirements, and changing business needs.

How Agile has Changed the World of Project Management?

Starting in 2001, the Agile philosophy was initially made for software development. It has evolved with time and is now a popular choice for many intellectual professionals irrespective of the industry.

It has changed the comprehensive approach towards businesses and according to stats, it has replaced the old traditional methods by benefiting 98% of organizations.

Beyond the impressive exhibit of IT industries implementing this philosophy, agile has found its way into the day-to-day business activities of other companies and industries worldwide.

It has worked wonders for organizations, and its positive aspects are evident in areas like decreased time in delivering product to market, improved communications, or lower costs. It has helped all types of organizations to develop their product before time.

In a highly competitive and uncertain world, Agile can help organizations flourish and stay relevant. The companies have discovered that the only way to cope with the bumpy customer-driven marketplace is to go agile.

TOP SEVEN BENEFITS OF AGILITY

Knowing how popular Agile is becoming and how companies are learning through their experience, let’s take a closer look at some of the top reasons and benefits of Agile and why it is suitable for managing projects efficiently.

  1. A Faster Feedback Cycle
  2. High Potential for Customer Satisfaction and Retention
  3. Improved Task Prioritization
  4. Superior Quality Product
  5. Transparency
  6. Improved Project Predictability
  7. High Team Morale

1. A Faster Feedback Cycle

Being one of the core principles of agile, short and fast feedback loops help you iterate on the idea or solution.

Instead of finding that out several months after the project started, it helps you avoid that by providing something tangible to show users and get feedback and continue to iterate until you come up with something everyone is happy with.

With work broken into sprints, you can provide feedback before, during, and after each meeting. You get frequent opportunities to ensure that the team is on course to achieve the established business goals.

2. High Potential for Customer Satisfaction and Retention

In Agile, the involvement of the customer in the decision-making process leads to more excellent customer retention. By keeping them in the loop and working according to their feedback, you value the customer and ensure that the final product is genuinely according to their requirements.

Customers are more content as they have a higher probability of getting what they want. Internal teams are at comfort since they can fix bugs and push them out of the door faster.

With scrum, teams respond to changing plans effectively and measure productivity over time to anticipate future workload.

3. Improved Task Prioritization

One of the most faced workplace struggles is prioritizing your work. With many tasks on the to-do list, deciding what deserves your attention can be overwhelming.

Once you identify and prioritize tasks, the team can focus on the items that impact the clients’ business most to provide value faster.

With the Agile Methodology, tasks are managed at the beginning of each Sprint, keeping the customer in the loop to communicate their highest priorities. It helps the project managers to plan according to that insight.

4. Superior Quality Product

Testing is an integral part of the project execution phase in the agile methodology, proving that the quality of the final product is what matters the most. The client remains involved throughout the process and can ask for iterations depending on the market realities.

The team can focus on quality development and collaboration by breaking the project into short, manageable units. Using agile, the team learns and grows with time and continues to improve each day.

The quality of the product is improved by finding and fixing defects, producing frequent builds, and conducting testing and reviews during each cycle.

5. Transparency

An agile approach comes with a unique opportunity to have more transparency with the client as they are actively engaged in the project throughout the process—this level of transparency results in more trust and better communication for all parties.

One of the essential benefits of agile methodology is the ability to find problems and create solutions efficiently. The flexibility of this method allows the team to improve the product on customers’ requirements constantly.

Clients are involved throughout the project, from prioritizing features to iteration planning. Then can review sessions to frequent software build containing new features.

With open lines of communication, there is a high level of transparency, in addition to any impediments to progress.

6. Improved Project Predictability

Another great benefit of an agile process is the ability to release projects quicker and more often. Using a fixed time box, new features are delivered more frequently with higher levels of predictability.

With this method, it is common for projects to be released ahead of schedule and earlier than originally planned.

Predicting risks and coming up with effective plans becomes more accessible with increased visibility. There are more ways to identify and predict risks with agile and plan to ensure that the project runs smoothly.

7. High Team Morale

Effective collaboration is the foundational characteristic of agile teams. The success relies on quality feedback and communication across the group. As the teams are self-organized and self-managing, they have increased authority over their decisions.

By implementing agile principles, development teams have open lines of communication with other internal teams and the client. The cross-functional nature of the groups helps the team members learn new management skills and grow in their current roles.

With frequent stand-ups and consistent communication to discuss challenges and work statuses, agile provides an environment where close-knit teams can have flexible team structures.

The teams work seamlessly together to boost productivity, taking it as a challenge. Effective collaboration with the client results in greater trust in the team’s ability to deliver high-quality work.

 

Wrapping Up

Agile principles are for team effectiveness, better project quality, and providing excellent value to the customer.

We at Genetech Solutions have been following the Agile way to manage our projects for over a decade. From improving the quality of the product to helping in the professional development of our team members, we have seen numerous benefits of going Agile.

We hope it was a good read for you! If you have any questions about how we work with our clients following the Agile methodology, contact us, and we will be more than happy to connect!

I am a CodeGirls graduate with a passion for tech and content creation, currently working as a technical content writer at Genetech Solutions, one of Pakistan's leading software houses.

Habiba Murtaza