5 Reasons Why an Agile Methodology Will Help Your Business Shine
Are you struggling with adapting to the rapid changes of the modern development environment?
Then agile methodology can help you improve your process and see more success.
The agile manifesto gets a lot of praise from businesses of all kinds, but why is that?
It’s an effective way to improve the whole structure of your business. The simple and adaptable yet advanced principles can transform the way you work.
Despite its simplicity, it can help plan and balance a project’s time span, cost, risk, and quality.
Here are five reasons why implementing the agile methods will help your business.
1. Excellent Process = Excellent Outcome With Agile Methodology
Excellence isn’t only a quality of outcome, but the whole process from idea to final product.
To convert excellence from sporadic actions into a reliable structure, you need the right process.
There’s no “one size fits all” solution for production, but plenty of opportunities to develop your own perfect process.
Most companies can’t spare the time and resources to always be improving their structured process. It’s not feasible.
Agile methodology solves this problem. The principles are flexible enough to make it simple for your business to adapt to specific needs.
You can start with taking inspiration from companies that applied Agile with success. Then evaluate how to translate this to your company.
2. Less Bureaucracy, More Creativity
In a traditional organizational structure, many workers never work outside their designated roles.
A rigid structure leaves no room for experimentation and growth. It can cause tension and workplace conflicts.
Discipline must be balanced with flexibility. The agile process replaces bureaucracy with democracy.
It’s important because workers will be in a bad and unproductive mood if they feel like they’re bossed around too much. Especially when they think they have a better solution.
Agile methodology takes care of this problem and makes workers more involved.
3. Survival of the Fittest
Older structures tend to only introduce change management at the point when change is imminent and urgent. When it’s already too late. Until that point, the organization tends to resist and ignore the need for change.
Agile has the benefit of prioritizing responding to changes over strict following of plans. This new production philosophy addresses the problems surrounding process changes.
Agile organizations see the need for change as a tool rather than a constraint.
Development is ever-changing by nature. It’s a form of evolution. Responding to the changes is the best way to build a product and a team.
Most problems have many potential solutions. Jumping straight to the best one just isn’t possible. There may be an easy way out if there’s an off-the-shelf solution to adopt, but that’s not always the case.
The “survival of the fittest” concept explains the situation well.
4. Modern Products Require Early ROI
The modern market is a busy river full of new ideas that render old ones obsolete in no time. You can’t afford to take too long trying to develop the perfect product before putting it on the market.
The traditional process can’t keep up with the modern market and its demands. It doesn’t leave enough room for planning, budgeting, and execution.
You can’t change the market, so you have to adapt. You need a process that reduces the time-to-market and grants early returns.
If you can’t present the consumers with what they want, when they want it, you won’t convince them to buy your product. It doesn’t matter how perfect your production is.
Agile promotes the use of “minimum viable products” that you can put on the market while perfecting the concept.
5. Keep Your Customers in the Loop
Perhaps the biggest problem of the old processes is that you can’t know if you’re developing the right product until it’s finished.
Only the customers can validate the value of your product. If they have no insight into what you’re making, you can’t know if they’ll like it or not.
Whether it’s a general consumer product or something highly specialized like an oil and gas database, you need to know that the final buyer will like it.
Engaging the customer throughout your project lets you know what they want. It also makes them feel more involved and inclined to buy.
Agile methodology prioritizes customer focus and collaboration.
Final Thoughts on Agile Methodology
The agile manifesto provides many insights and solutions for business that need to improve their processes and structures.
It helps you improve performance, consistency, creativity, and early returns.
You’ll have an easier time reaching your customers and keeping workers motivated.
Keep reading our productivity blog for more information.
