Agile Development: Why and How To Use It in Your Web and App Workflow

Irrespective of your business sector, it is crucial to keep up with the many changes to guarantee your growth. You should be proactive in identifying the emerging changes in your business processes and consumer needs to implement the necessary actions that address these changes. One thing currently changing project management for website and app developers is the agile approach.

You might have heard about the agile model but have not adopted it because you are unsure of what it entails. The guide below will help you understand how the agile workflow approach can change your app and web workflow along with its benefits for your venture.

What Is The Waterfall Workflow Process?

Most developers know about the traditional waterfall model for website creation. In it, the stages of creation are called milestones and have clear start and end dates. The waterfall model comprises four steps: discovery/planning, design, development, and deployment. The stakeholders, usually the board members and staff, will give their input to the production team at the discovery stage.

In the design phase, the discovery outcomes are used for composition creation. The next phase is the development stage, where the design is built according to specifications to execute a designer’s vision. The product is launched to the public in the deployment phase. Unfortunately, the waterfall model is costly, time-consuming, and cumbersome. Moreover, most features in your product might not appeal to users since they are not actively involved at each step.

Here is a visual representation of the model.

What Is The Agile Workflow Model?

To overcome the challenges of the waterfall model, the agile workflow was introduced into the market. The agile workflow approach refers to a set of product development stages. In it, your project management models will be separated into smaller cycles, known as sprints. Your stakeholders and customers will provide feedback on your product when each sprint ends. This way, developers pick and fix issues with your product early.

The Steps of the Agile Workflow Approach

The agile workflow will remain largely unchanged in all projects. Here are the main steps of this workflow model.

1. Ideation. In this stage, you will envision and plan your project. It includes defining the business scope of each idea, delineating your sprints, and developing a product backlog.
2. Inception. After determining your project’s viability, you form sprint teams with different assigned tasks. Each team gets objectives and a timeframe for their completion. Allocation of resources also happens in inception.
3. Iteration. Here, sprint teams start working and tackle your product’s backlog items.
4. Release. At this point, your product is released to stakeholders and clients who will give you their feedback. The feedback is integrated into the product, then tested before another feedback session. A quality analysis team will also check the product’s functionality before its final release.
5. Production. After all documentation and testing, the production team will ensure a successful product launch while giving all the necessary support for its release. The team may also guide users on how to handle the product.
6. Retirement. This is the final stage of product development. It includes notifying your clients about migration to a new web or app or the new product.

Here is a diagram of the agile workflow model.

Types of Agile Workflow Frameworks

Outlined below are the different agile workflow models:

• Feature-driven development. This iterative and progressive model mainly focuses on the features of your app or website. It aims to develop high-end features.
• Crystal. This model comprises several software methodologies. It does not define any methods or tools at the start of a project, but instead flows according to its technical requisites. It is human-centric, meaning people are its most important assets.
• Agile unified process. This progressive workflow model comprises four steps; inception, elaboration, construction, and transition.
• Extreme programming. This focuses on continuous product improvement through customer feedback. Its steps include coding, testing, listening, and designing.
• Scrum. This is based on a repetitive approach and emphasizes continuous customer satisfaction.
• Kanban. This emphasizes the delivery of a quality product based on effective team collaboration.

How to Adopt the Agile Workflow Model for Web and App Development

Here are the steps for creating your agile workflow model for web and app development:

1. Adopt the right practices. Remember that the agile model is not simply about following steps but involves a mindset shift. Before implementing this workflow model, help your team understand the process’ rationale so they can easily adopt it.
2. Choose a suitable framework for your project.
3. Develop a roadmap to guide your sprint teams to achieve their goals and meet timelines.
4. Assign the sprint teams clearly defining the responsibilities of each member.
5. Apply the agile workflow model. With implementation, always aim for continuous improvement and on-time deliveries.

Benefits of the Agile Workflow Model.

Here are the reasons why the agile workflow model is the best choice for web and app development:

• It has high customer satisfaction since the customer is involved in each step.
• You can deliver your products early and correctly predict the delivery date to clients and stakeholders.
• The sprint meetings and transparency of every step give project managers increased control of the project.
• The transparency and increased communication between sprint teams reduce project failure risk.
• The faster development of apps and websites translates to lower costs because there is no overtime pay.
• The development team will deliver solutions that are clearly oriented to your business’ values because it understands what is crucial for client satisfaction.

You are now ready to implement the agile workflow model in your app and web development with the information above. Remember that one of the pillars of your production process is customer feedback. For this, you can create a Google review link. The link will not only give you an idea of what clients think about your product but is crucial for getting new clients. After all, 85% of customers nowadays trust online reviews and rely on them before investing in a brand.