According to Digital.ai, agile adoption in the software development teams rose from 37% in 2020 to 86% in 2021. 91% of companies dictated that agile is a strategic priority to adopt. So, different organizational departments, such as 86% software development, 63% IT, 16% HR, and 10% Finance, have already implemented agile methodology in their system. So, the pros of agile methodology are tremendous!

To begin with, agile methodology is a project management approach. It is divided into sections, with a focus on ongoing communication and advancement. Here, teams follow a pattern of planning, carrying out, and assessing.

It's not an unknown phrase for IT companies. So, if you're a newbie entrepreneur, willing to know about a renowned management strategy, knowing Agile principles and their influence is essential!

Advantages and Disadvantages of Agile Methodology

According to Deloitte, 78% of US government executives believe deploying agile methodologies positively impacts their company. On the other hand, Harvard Business Review discovered that CEOs spend 4 times the total time on strategy by the end of the transition to agile.

The critical agile development methodologies are Scrum, Adaptive Software Development, Dynamic Software Development Method, Behavior-driven Development, Kanban, and Extreme Programming. Therefore, understandably, agile development methods have several pros and cons, which are the following:

Pros: Satisfy the customer quickly and maintain thorough delivery

Are you considering the key benefits of implementing agile methodology in software development? Agile helps satisfy your customers quickly rather than delivering complete software with every feature and function outright. The leading focus is to split up and provide functioning software into tinier parts. Every delivery concentrates on small but vital elements that can be used after delivery.

Cons: Lack of adequate documentation

As tasks get finished timely for development under the Agile method, documentation is frequently not as done, which might cause misunderstandings and problems in the future.

Pros: Enhanced flexibility

One of the leading agile development methodologies is Kanban. It shares a resemblance with both Scrum and Lean. This significant project management methodology emphasizes collaboration, like Scrum, and effectiveness, like Lean. Kanban's methodology is far less restrictive, resulting in greater adaptability or flexibility and a higher profit for deliverables.

Cons: Maximum time and commitment

Interaction and collaboration are the pros of agile methodology. But the ongoing communication takes higher time and energy for everyone participating.

Pros: Faster time-to-market

Agile methodology has two central pillars, business and technical agility, making it a top-notch tool for lowering time-to-market. Technical agility helps reduce the time required to release products by motivating programmers to create highly flexible architecture and solutions. On the other hand, business agility aids stakeholders in quickly changing situations, lowering feedback loops.

Cons: Scope creep in agile projects

Scope creep occurs when incorrect significance levels are given to items in the backlog. Despite being top priorities, the backlog's items need more depth and consistency. Iterations (or sprints) are forced upon teams without clear objectives.

Due to the weakly flashed-out software requirements and high-level project completion intervals, scope creep is frequent during agile development.

Pros: Greater adaptability

As the final objective of any deliverable is to meet end-user expectations, thoroughly transforming features is a leading requirement to perfect a product. You can execute flexible alterations during the agile development process in every iteration without intervening with what you have created.

Regarding the pros and cons of agile and waterfall, the adaptability criterion sets agile apart from the waterfall methodology. More precisely, the pros and cons of waterfall methodology are the following:

Waterfall methodology possesses the following pros:

  • It's easier to understand and apply.
  • The waterfall model works precisely for tinier projects with fathomable and well-defined requirements.
  • It is a faster product delivery model.
  • This methodology is advantageous for managing dependencies.
  • Due to the model's inflexibility, it's hassle-free to manage - every step possesses transparent deliverables and a review strategy.

Below are the cons of the waterfall methodology:

  • This approach needs to be revised for lengthy projects.
  • It's not a perfect model to build a large-scale project size.
  • Once an app is in the testing phase, it is challenging to go back and change anything that wasn't meticulously planned at the beginning of the design process.

Cons: No planning and project management software

Agile methodology concentrates on shorter delivery cycles instead of planning and long-term vision. It causes hassles for the management team while estimating the final software system for production use. It could be a severe hassle only when the agile team isn't employing specialist agile project management tools and software.

How to Make the Most of Agile Methodologies for Developing Custom Software?

Companies leverage various software solutions in a constantly growing technological ecosystem that aligns with their visions, workflows, and user experience. As a result, there is a lot of enthusiasm for using a customized approach to software solutions through custom software development.

Implementing agile methodologies maximizes the custom software development process. It ensures a repetitive and flexible approach to ensure success. Agile is nowadays used by 86% of international software developers. Therefore, top agile methodologies, including Kanban, Scrum, and Lean, are the top-notch frameworks for handling custom software development projects cooperatively and flexibly.

Leading practices and elementary principles of agile methodologies for custom software development projects

Employing agile development methodology is vital for efficient team collaboration, providing top-notch software solutions while quickly responding to transforming needs. Agile principles and their influence on custom software development projects are the following:

  • CI/CD in agile software development ensures the code transformations are merged frequently, experimented with, and deployed to the production ecosystem.
  • When teammates with various skill sets and competence areas work together on the assignment, this is a collaboration between departments.
  • The project will be divided into shorter sprints using continuous improvement to enable constant input, timely verification, and the distribution of workable results.

Adopting agile methodology in software development has several benefits, such as faster software delivery, increased productivity, maximized software quality, and improved IT alignment. Compared to the waterfall methodology, only 9% of agile projects fail, which means agile projects are approximately 1.5 times more successful.

When should you employ this agile methodology for software development? It depends upon several factors, including the project type, intricacy, competency, and project split into phases. The agile development process should often only be used with an experienced team that has received professional instruction.

Read our previous article, The Power of Agile Delivery for Digital Product Success