Six Agile Product Development Myths: Busted

Do you desire to learn about agile principles and methodology? Don’t fail to know about the various agile product development myths: busted. Institutions have a tendency of adopting agile approach because of a wide variety of reasons. For instance, some organizations embrace agile approach for great productivity or for a lessened time-to-market. There are others that adopt the approach for more successful items while some for achieving the combination of these merits.

However, though there are many merits connected to embracing an agile approach, there are some misconceptions of adopting it also. Here are six myths related to agile product development you should know about:

6 Agile Product Development Myths

1.Agile Lacks Planning

Agile being considered to lack planning is among the commonly known myths of this approach. Though agile is aligned towards an adaptive, iterative procedure, planning is a crucial section of it.

However, instead of trying to make a single big plan on one occasion yearly and believing it will turn out to be relevant six months later, a person may consider dividing planning into compact lumps and take some period to review and rectify it frequently.

2.Scrum

Once a person hears of the word Agile, he or she may start thinking of a sprint. There are some people who believe agile is to have a stand-up meeting or to create a backlog. However, all these factors are elements of Scrum, which is a task management idea that is applied by most agile teams.

Though most people know that Agile equals Scrum, you should know that the latter is simply a framework intended to manage a project while the former unites approaches while adhering to certain set of rules.

3.Agile does not Require Documentation

Working software is more valued by the Agile Manifesto than comprehensive documentation. However, this does not mean agile does not require documentation at all. You will always have to write down the minimal viable details which are essential to be shared with others you collaborate with.

4.Agile does not Require Project Managers

This myth is resulted from people not knowing the functions in agile teams. Basically, agile requires project managers but unfortunately agile teams do not alert people what exactly to do and which time is the best to do it.

Agile depends on self-managing and therefore in order for a project to be successful, there must be localised decision-making, sharing work in progress, collaboration, and communication.

5.Agile can Resolve any Issue

It is obvious that you will never get a particular thing having the capacity of solving all issues in this world. Buying an agile tool and having frequent stand-up meetings does not or cannot make you become truly agile. In order to reap from agile, it is vital for you to adopt the mind-set of agile and integrate the agile methodologies in your firm.

6.Agile is only Important for Software Development

Though initially agile was developed for purposes of software development, it has evolved overtime and currently it is applied by a large audience. For instance, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare among other market niches utilize agile methodology to drive innovation and enhance their delivery.

Bottom Line

These are some of the agile myths most people have encountered in their particular organizations. However, it is vital that you use agile production development methodology accordingly as it can aid your team work more effectively as well as efficiently.

Web development outsourcing for UK-based companies – why and where

What are the benefits and risks of outsourcing web development? Outsourcing currently is commonly being utilised in the business industry as it assists firms to become more efficient and productive in their respective trades. Outsourcing web development is one of the common techniques being adopted by firms. However, since outsourcing web development is associated with both benefits and risks, it is vital you are aware of them prior to utilising this strategy so that you can be aware of the outcomes to expect.

What is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is the exercise of employing other firms to tackle projects usually completed by certain employees in your institution so as to save costs. It is a strategy that enables business owners to concentrate their respective resources on more relevant or important matters.
However, outsourcing web development which is a present-day trend has a set of merits and demerits associated with it including.

Outsourcing Web Development Benefits and Risks

Benefits

1. Saving and Reestablishment of Costs

In-house performance of web development does not only involve a lot of cash, but also wastage of time. The cost can be significantly reduced by outsourcing the task to an expert firm that excels in this specific field. Courtesy of outsourcing web development, as a business owner you will start focusing on your core business since you will be relieved from not only the task of developing your business website, but also of managing it.

2. An Expert Web Development Service Provider will offer Higher Quality Outcomes

Web development task tackled by an expert website development firm guarantees higher quality since such company possess the knowledge and expertise in the area of web development. Also, courtesy of outsourcing web development, it will give an organisation a broad spectrum of talent as an addition to the limited ability of their human resource.

Other benefits associated with outsourcing web development include

*Lowering significantly the staff wages cost

*The outsourced staff will become a remote workforce of your company’s local team

*You can communicate directly with the remote workforce, without middle man

*There are no employing or firing costs

Risks

1. Security Related Issues

With outsourcing web development, there will be a number of developers working on your website and this means several people will be accessing the code of your site. Because different people will access the code of your website, the risk of its security is high and hackers can easily tamper with your site end up inflicting mess with your firm.

2. Communication Gap

Communication gap is also another issue that arise often with the outsourcing firms. In most scenarios, both the parities can end up in a mess as a result of the failure of proper communication.

3. Supervising

With in-house website design and development, as a business operator you are always near the activities. However, with outsourcing service, you only get a single opportunity in a day to look on the progress of the work.

Bottom Line

Outsourcing can be the greatest advantage for your company, but also can be an enormous risk. Therefore, prior to taking a radical choice, think this through.

Application Lifecycle Management: From Development to Production

Application lifecycle management, or ALM, refers to the product lifecycle management of computer programs. It covers a range of management topics, including product management, quality assurance and maintenance. Software development teams rely on application lifecycle management throughout the entire production deployment process. It doesn’t just refer to the products creation, instead spanning its entire life – including launch and maintenance.

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Benefits of Custom Office Applications

Most business owners and office managers continually ask themselves if their off-the-shelf office applications can meet their business needs. It is no secret that client expectations today are much higher compared to before. In addition, the complexity of business tasks that are handled in the office environment are much tougher. There is an array of businesses and this also applies to the requirements. This means that it is quite rare to find one-size-fits-all solutions on the market. It is because of these reasons that numerous organizations are turning to custom office applications in order to remain competitive.

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