Don’t drown in a Waterfall, use Agile Software Development to navigate your business transformation

Agile Software Development (ASD) is ideally suited to many modern businesses, as it means rapid, incremental development of new software, so IT systems or solutions can evolve and move with the changing needs of an organisation, or customer requirements. It also means speed and flexibility can be built into the delivery of new software, over each stage of a transformation programme, promoting collaboration as developers aren’t fettered by plans that can’t be altered without threat of losing time and money.

In its infancy, ASD was largely used by web developers to post sites, create interaction and add new functionality, but it’s being introduced more and more into the mainstream of software development, replacing the “Waterfall” or “cascade” methodology more traditionally used. And, ASD has been increasingly adopted by companies, who previously would have seen it as too radical, because it answers the needs of their business (and the trading environment) to flex and change as quickly as possible to remain competitive.

Usually a Waterfall approach would have seen a 6 to 12 month comprehensive development and deployment plan. Every aspect of the new software release or product would have been mapped out, accounted for and costed. But, in today’s environment the idea of waiting 12, or even 6 months for an upgrade or new system seems ludicrous –  the world will have moved on… two or three times by then!

Plus, it’s naïve to expect the requirements set at the beginning of a project won’t change as a strategy is refined or becomes clearer, so what’s the point of attempting to develop a full and finite package, with all its bells and whistles, when it’s better to deliver what’s needed now, and then improve it in stages as the needs and requirements take shape?

There is, as always, a note of caution: there is a glut of software developers globally – some very good, some very disappointing, and you need to be careful who you chose to captain your ship.

ExcelSource run independent tenders for clients looking to select developers for ASD projects, supporting their business transformation and/or introduce ASD into their organisation. We are ideally placed to match suppliers with particular technical skills to a client’s business requirements. For example, a UK financial services provider of mortgage, savings and loans products, recently engaged ExcelSource to find developers that could extend  ASD for their core business systems, giving them advantage over their larger, and potentially more lumbering, competitors.

There are, of course, many scenarios where ASD offers advantage; when merging or acquiring businesses, for example, disparate IT systems need to be brought together quickly to realise the M&A objective.  But these types of IT project, with long roadmaps, can lose time, money and momentum along the way, especially if the end destination remains fluid. What if the “Waterfall” is used, the system is developed and you find out it’s not what you needed after all, or even more concerning, it has become too large and complicated to be delivered? This is where ASD comes into its own, as a system is never going to be 100% agreed, signed-off and perfect, so why not develop and deploy it through useful iterations?

An IT methodology that can be refined or adapted as a business changes is far more effective than trying to cast all system requirements into a single, detailed specification where development is started, only later to find that extensive changes need to be made because the strategy has changed, or is understood in more detail.

So, don’t drown in the “Waterfall”, navigate through your business transformation the Agile way. And, if you would like to discuss its potential use or introduction into your business, ExcelSource is ideally placed to help you chart a course, so please call on +44 (0)1206 580 125 or contact us today and schedule a free consultation.