#AgileDevelopment Archives

As Clients’ Extended Distributed Team, Here’s How We Run Agile Projects!

Posted on 18/05/202103/06/2021 by Anteelo Master

A recent report by Computereconomics found that in the 2018/19 period, the application development process has emerged as the one witnessing maximum outsourcing opportunity – with 56% of the organizations around the world outsourcing their development requirements.

The reason behind this heightened demand for outsourcing the mobile app development needs has been the same as always – Lower cost than what would have to be shelled out if employing own country developers, allowing greater focus on the main business, and better service quality.

However, even with outsourcing taking a central place in the application development industry, we have found that there are some common concerns that the clients show when they plan to outsource their software development project outside their geographical nation.

In this article, we will look into how Appinventiv works with offshore clients using the distributed agile development cycle allowing a more connected working process with aligned risk and remuneration model across all.

But before we get on to the part where we tell how we operate as the distributed team of our clients and work so seamlessly that we become their extended in-house tech team, it is important to know what Distributed Agile Team even means.

What Do We Mean by Distributed Agile Team

A distributed team is a concept used to explain the event where two or more team function across multiple geographical locations instead of one office space or even two office spaces in one city. The distributed agile team relies on digital technologies to interact seamlessly and work together toward the same goal – Timely project delivery.

Why do Businesses Invest in a Mobile App Development Distributed Team?

There are a number of reasons that drive businesses to invest in distributed teams, reasons ranging from:

The scarcity of skilled developers in their nation
The need to test the market before an investment is made towards team buildup
To avail the benefit of the flexible team which can be increased at the time of scaling the app and dissolved when the need ends.

With the definition and the need now attended to, let us now look at how Appinventiv team works as a distributed team of our clients. But before we jump there, let us quickly look at what our typical distributed agile team structure looks like –

Appinventiv Approach to Distributed Agile Development

Many a time we get a project where the requirement entails us to work in close connection with the clients’ FTEs. In such instances, it becomes very important that we don’t let the distance in thousand miles come between work and that we are able to make changes and take action on developmental process in real time.

How we ensure timely delivery without zero scopes of communication lag and misunderstanding is a question whose answer lies in Distributed Agile Methodology.

Fit with both small-scale and large-scale businesses, following distributed agile best practices comes in very handy when we have to work alongside a team that is sitting in some other geographical location with an absolutely different time zone.

Let us look at the Distributed Agile Development Method we apply in our mobile app development process.

After we have introduced all the team members with each other and have collaborated the project management software, the actual work starts.

We formulate the process of daily agile scrum methodology. While in its traditional sense, Scrum requires face to face standup meeting of 15 mins where every participant shares the status of their tasks and informs the team of the tasks they will be taking up next, it is nearly impossible to follow the same process when half of the team is sitting in some other geographical nation in some other time zone.

What we do to keep the essence of face to face interaction alive in the scrum, is we hold a video call on one decided time, which is suited for everyone in the team working on the project. With the help of screen sharing our Agile Scrum Master runs through virtual sprint backlog with the help of tools like Trello or Jira, enabling every team member to give an update on where the project is headed.

What we have experienced is that it is very important to give all the team members an access to a task tracking platform that is easily accessible and updatable. We also emphasize using a communication platform like Skype or Slack for everyone to share updates or ask their doubts between the two scrum time periods.

Another approach that we follow for daily agile and scrum process is that for every different scrum, we appoint one scrum master. So, every individual teamwork as a separate scrum team with a scrum master and product owner – A process which is also known as Scrum of Scrums.

In this, all the scrum representatives provide an answer to the following questions in the scrum –

The work that team has completed since last Scrum of Scrums
The work team is planning to do before the next Scrum of Scrums meeting
The present blocker that the team is facing
The blocker that can lead to another Scrum team.

The method enables all the main individuals working on the project to interact with each other directly, something that always results in dedication from the initiation stage to launch period. This ensures an open, clear, and transparent communication between all the teams, where everyone is given a voice. The process apart from scrum of scrums is the same as what we follow under the typical Agile methodology. But the mere fact that the distance between our team and our clients’ team is miles apart and yet we have to work as seamlessly as possible, has brought a series of learnings that we have driven by the adoption of Distributed Agile. Let us look at what those learnings are –

The Learnings That we Drew by Working on Distributed Agile Development Process

1. Creation of Distributed team is about Building a Culture and Not a Process

What defines the success of a project working under the agile for distributed teams approach is not dependent on how well skilled the team members are, but on how well they are able to work together, the sense of ownership with which they work, and ultimately how closely aligned they are with the goal of the project – something that comes with culture and not a process formation.

2.Only SMART Projects Succeed

When a project has to be completed by a team that is not even in the same country let alone office, it is very important that the goals that you have set for the project follow the SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-framed, concept to the t.

3. There is no Alternate to Online Collaboration Tools

No matter how much it costs you, you will have to rely on online collaboration tools that are real-time and have minimal to zero lags. In terms of finalizing the online project management and communication platforms, you can not in anyway cut slack. You will have to ensure that they are technically capable of handling your requirements.

Now that we have seen the learnings that we have drawn from our extensive working experience as a distributed team, it is time to look at some of the challenges that we came across during the process and how we solved them to become a trusted Distributed Agile App Development Company.

Challenges with Distributed Agile Development Approach and How we Solve Them

1. Difference in Culture

Usually distributed agile software development approach ask for working with teams coming from different cultural backgrounds. This difference causes friction because of different values and figure of speech. Our Solution: We work very closely with the client’s team in the initial few days so that we get accustomed to their between the lines and contexts.

2. A Difference in Time Zones

The crux of distributed agile methodology is teams working out of different geographical nations. In a situation like this, the occurrence of a communication gap emerging because of the time difference is very common. Our Solution: We follow the concept of agile for a distributed team to its core. We fix a time when the teams from all the nations are present and active. To achieve full focus and attention, we ask our teammates to change their office timing on the scrum day, so that they are well slept and attentive.

3. Lack of a Common Idea of ‘Big Picture’

Because of a difference in geographical location, working structure, and policies, there can be a discrepancy in the idea of the Big Picture – the end aim of the mobile app. This difference might cause a lack of interest from some team members and a heightened interest from others. Our Solution: A visioning meeting at the start of the project initiation and a reminder in every scrum, so that everyone is working towards the same goal.

4. An absence of Code Ownership

The absence of collective code ownership means that no one person owns the code, it is owned by the whole team and so when something goes wrong, the blame game starts. Our Solution: We apply a version control system to check who is working on a code and when and the effect of it. This way, there is complete transparency and honesty in the picture.

Agile Development: Build Your App

Posted on 13/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

AGILE METHODOLOGY

You finally have it. After months, maybe even years, of failing to envision an app that will resonate with users, you’ve come up with The Really Good Idea: An app that fills a niche no one else has thought of, an app that fills a need users didn’t even know they had.

So, you plan. You decide exactly what you’re going to build, you get funding, you set goals, you track every step, you work an utterly absurd amount of hours, you arrive at your finished product, you release it to the world, and… no one is impressed. Your idea was not the hit you expected; users barely notice it.

Predicting what customers will want is not easy. No matter how skilled your team is, if your Really Good Idea isn’t actually as useful or appealing as you imagined, at the end of it all you’ll have merely wasted time, money, and energy.

Agile development is essentially an umbrella term for various methodologies such as Scrum and extreme programming (XP), and represents a way of avoiding this fate. The idea came about in 2001 when 17 software developers met up at Utah’s Snowbird resort and shared their ideas with one another about making the software development process more efficient and simple. The result was the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, which outlined a set of principles used to build an app that actually gives users what they want.

WHAT AGILE DEVELOPMENT IS

The emergence of agile development followed a period in the 1990s when teams were striving to create lightweight software development methods. Prior to this, many software development teams followed the “waterfall” model. This process involved following a strict set of steps to arrive at a finished product: Once the product idea was in place, teams would first analyze the software and system requirements necessary to realize the concept. Following that, they would design the software architecture, code, test for bugs and defects, and eventually introduce the finished product.

It’s a process that requires a fair amount of planning and provides little room for flexibility. The problem for app developers, though, is that all that strict regulation, combined with the sequential nature of the waterfall method, means that there’s no way of knowing whether or not users will actually be interested in a product until it is complete.

Agile development, by focusing on incremental goals, rather than just the major end goal, gives developers the opportunity to respond quickly to user reactions and modify plans to build an app that will succeed. By embracing certain key principles, including frequent delivery of software and an openness to change at any step of the process, developers can avoid gambling all of their resources on the hope that the app they are working to build will appeal to users.

THE AGILE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Again, it’s important to keep in mind that agile development encompasses many different methodologies. No business needs to use all of them, nor could any one business possibly use all of them. As such, the process varies depending on the project.

That said, there are basic aspects of agile development that are generally applicable. One of these is the idea of “iterations.”

Instead of spending months working to create a complete product, which often involves a tremendous amount of planning and risk, agile app development encourages teams to spend one to four weeks developing basic iterations of an app. At the end of each cycle, the latest iteration is demonstrated. Although these individual iterations are rarely strong enough to bring to market, they allow a business to introduce new features, identify potential problems, and adapt to changing needs more quickly.

While working on an iteration, a common part of the agile development process is a daily meeting in which all team members explain what they did the previous day to reach the goal of that iteration, and bring up any roadblocks they anticipate. However, these daily meetings are usually not meant to be problem-solving conferences. If any problem-solving does occur, it only involves select members of the team, so that other team members can continue working on their piece of the project. In this way, time management and efficiency is preserved during the process.

Although milestones are a key part of agile development, they can be changed if necessary.

AGILE DEVELOPMENT ROLES

There is no one set of roles that all agile development teams adopt. Different methods encourage different roles. However, there are certain team members who are typically involved.

Usually, the development team consists of 10 or fewer people equipped with the skills necessary to plan, develop, and test a new iteration of an app. These teams are usually self-motivated, and although there is rarely a specific team “leader,” there is often one member whose role involves addressing any issues that would distract a team from its task.

Another key player often involved in agile development is a product manager who represents the interests of the customers and stakeholders. Because the development team should be focused on reaching the goals of a particular iteration, someone needs to be available who can make sure that the work being done will actually result in something of value. One of the major principles of agile development is the idea that business owners and developers should be in constant communication, and this person facilitates that.

BENEFITS OF AGILE APP DEVELOPMENT

Building a successful app almost always involves being able to adapt. Your Really Good Idea might have only been the seed for something that customers actually want. As talented as you might be, predicting what will or will not resonate with users is no easy task. Yet, some approaches to software development rely on a team’s ability to make that kind of accurate prediction.

Agile development helps to limit risk by letting teams build apps in increments. Users can test new iterations and provide feedback; additional features can be launched to see if they add to the product; teams can spot potential problems early. They can also identify potentially successful features that they might not have thought of during the early planning stages.

As Fueled strategist Aaron Cohen puts it, “The agile process allows for unparalleled flexibility and customization during the development cycle of an application. While we may be certain of fundamental features and user experiences, the interface details and specific user flows can be tweaked during development should new use cases arise or insights be learned. Our designers often create discrete graphic elements moments before the engineers incorporate them into the codebase, freeing the engineers from reliance upon product level design files and less-than-ideal graphic elements. This is one of the primary reasons why our apps, even our v1 releases, exude such an evolved design sensibility.”

To put the agile development process to use, let’s look at a real-life example: The origin of Instagram is Burbn, a check-in app that you’ve probably never heard of. The team realized it was too similar to Foursquare and as a result, they changed direction, focusing on the photography element of the product. In the world of app development, teams have to be able to pivot when a better opportunity presents itself. But by sticking to a plan that’s too rigid, this can be difficult, if not impossible.
Agile development isn’t about doing away with planning. It isn’t about being unfocused. It’s about making sure your team works in a way that allows it to make those pivots when they need to.

TRENDS IN LOGO DESIGN

Posted on 05/04/202124/05/2021 by Anteelo Master

Logos are like puzzles, they don’t make much sense to the users when it comes to influence. They don’t contribute in persuading the users, however they play a crucial role in identifying a brand or a product. Depending on the brand’s familiarity, logos can provoke a lot of emotions, from nostalgia to relief, it could be anything. When companies try to introduce new logos, they often face backlash and complaints from the users, which shows they significance of logos.One thing that branding gurus say about classic brand logos is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. However, at times it becomes a necessity to revamp the logos or even completely change it, if it is hurting the brand image. Keeping up with changing trends, styles, colour combinations, etc., requires a lot of effort and that might make the company look like it is behind the times. But, if a company revamps and changes the outdated logo, it gives an impression that the company keeps up with the times and is forward thinking.

Sophisticated logos containing multiple colours might look appealing in digital mode, but sometimes there comes a huge difficulty in scaling it up and down and placing it effectively. In such a situation, considering re-designing is a good option.

Change in a company’s portfolio, due to value, mergers, etc., can also prompt re-designing of logos. They are dedicated to choosing a new logo that best represents them.

For instance, HeroHonda was a single company, but when they separated they obviously discarded the signature hero-honda logo and chose brand new logos for their respective companies.

Designs are extremely sensitive and prone to losing relevance at a higher pace. There goes a lot of cultural, psychological research behind designing a logo. It is essential to know what relates best to the brand/product.

Let’s take a look at the top logo design trends–

BROKEN LETTERS

The broken letter logo caught the fire amidst designers not long ago. The reconstruction, deconstruction of alphabets in a geometric sense, slicing them aesthetically, this is all what broken letter logo is about. This represents a modern shift in design, wherein with a touch of creativity, logos are designed in a way that it is clear to the users as to what the brand stands for.

ANIMATED LOGOS

By far the hottest trends, logos designed with animation and special effects. As a modern world, where digitisation plays a crucial role, the brand that sells on the web is clearly on top. An animated or a moving gif logo surprises the users in a way they didn’t expect to be coming. How would you feel when you look at a logp thinking it to be still, rather you find it in an animated form? Now how does something like that not catch the users’ eyes?

GEOMETRICAL SHAPES

Clean lines and clear shapes are satisfying to the eyes right? It is like an oddly satisfying element in design. From squares to trapeziums, almost all the shapes are in trend and that too, for all kinds of design. We are inevitably drawn towards geometric shapes and our designer-mates like multi-use design shapes. It is like a simple yet effective element in design.

VIBRANT COLOURS; SINGLE SHADE

Adding pop of colours generously lead to the creation of quirky, eye-catching logos. Of Late, many brands have reinvented their image by adding vivid and vibrant singular colours to their logos. This addition of hues enables the brands to attract users’ attention and leave an impact.

GRADIENT

Remember those days when designers used to create 3D logos to catch those eyes? Sadly and happily, those days are long gone. Here we are with the concept of ombre, i.e., gradients. The subtle mixing of colours to create a beautiful effect, mostly starting with darker tones and ending with a lighter tone. It is very pleasing to the eyes and as a bonus, it also opens up a lot of creative possibilities.

SIMPLICITY IS THE BEST

If designed the right way, simple and crisp logos become impactful in a soothing way. “Less is more”, best suits such logos that have set newer benchmarks everytime in the industry. Art can be creative and can be sleek, simple at the same time. It is not an impossible task to achieve, all you need is balance. And the best part is, such logos work for all sorts of brands and businesses.

HAND-DRAWN

Personal touch always leaves a mark and hand drawn logos are the perfect example. It brings back an ocean of nostalgia and memories. Such kinds of logos bring about a variety of senses: humaneness, grounded feeling, playfulness, quirkiness and happiness. They aren’t restricted by letter or technology, they set your hands free. However, whilst designing such a logo, make sure that it makes sense, looks legit and does not get affected by the doctor-like handwriting.

Before designing a logo, make sure that you’ve researched well into the trends and highlights. But that is just to keep you up with the times, the design that you create should be entirely unique and should solely belong to you. It shouldn’t be like, “oh this looks like..” that’s a huge NO.

There are a lot of expectations from logos and so make sure to create a beautiful combination of the trends and your innovation. This will lead to the production of a modern-looking, timeless logo.

Agile for Mobile App Development Process-Reasons to Trust

Posted on 19/10/202011/06/2021 by Tushar

Agile Mobile Application Development has emerged as a concept that ensures not just a quick delivery of projects but also the one that guarantees app responsiveness and overall business growth and agility.

It was after three app projects, developed and deployed using the Waterfall model, we realized that we were not just slow but also the team lacked clarity, which showed in the apps. It was a loss for both us and the brands we were developing apps for, as the resources were getting freezed for more time than they should along with the missing sense of a clear process.

Let us look into the concept in more detail. Highlighting the meaning of the methodology and the associated benefits and ultimately the approach we follow for developing apps using agile methodology.

Let’s start –

What is Agile Mobile App Development About?

The Agile Methodology is a term used for an incremental and iterative app development approach, which consists of breaking down the complete app development process cycle in various different tasks. The whole array of segregated processes are further categorized into number of sub-tasks, every one of which performs as separate modules among the app development team. Next, each of the module is handed to a dedicated cross-functioning group of specialists who then work on every module as an independent mini-project.

Using this agile methodology for mobile application development enables multiple teams to develop different parts of the apps simultaneously. The whole project becomes a combination of various small modules. Agile software development method not just lowers the associated risk, but even provides developers with full freedom and flexibility for developing a superior-quality app, which quickly adjusts to alterations post-release.

Now that you know what Agile Development is, let us look at why agile is best for app development, reasons to use agile methodology, and why app development companies like us, swear by it.

Why use Agile App Development Process?

Agile for mobile app development helps agile software developers to efficiently come up agile development methodology and project management system that is foolproof in many ways. It certainly assists agile software development company and development teams to overcome some critical development issues like varying demands of various classes of users, which in turn hinders seamless development across multiple running platforms.

Agile is the go-to framework for helping app startups and development agencies maintain a focus on delivering a quality application ー rapidly and productively. Agile maximizes value throughout the development process and significantly decreases the overall risk of any given project.

1. Quality Product

It was expected to test software before the launch, however with agile, testing is integrated at every phase of development to guarantee a quality end result. This type of continuous testing of every single module provides space for changes and reduces the risk of encountering a bug during quality testing of the complete project. It also helps mobile app developers to inspect app elements at every phase of the development process and make alterations as per the requirement, eventually helping in providing high quality of services.

2. Customization

While opting for agile development best practices, developers get the chance to customize the whole app development process according to their preference and work upon user- driven solutions. Thus, customization is another reason behind why use agile methodology for creating mobile applications.

In a situation where developers are on the hunt for various techniques for creating and launching a mobile application while integrating the recent technologies into the development process, agile methodology approach keeps you covered.

3. Swift Return on Investment

Backed by iterative nature, app features are developed and deployed speedily in an agile development process, leading to rapid application development. Contrary to the earlier used waterfall development methodology where you had to sit till the completion of an app project to even look at return on investment value, agile methodology allows you to drive ROIs in advance. In agile app development process, the stakeholder plays a very crucial role and stays in direct conversation with the project’s scrum master to help prioritize the main features and then show an aligned development process.

4. Reduced Risks

The previously used waterfall app development system came with high chances of failures, which varied from budget shortage, timeline extensions, scope creep, not being able to have the priority features, even by the time of project completion.

While Agile, on the other side, employs parallel test model to allow you to line up the different mobile application development problems while developing other features, simultaneously. The transparency that the process comes with the scrum process of agile app development process enables you to view and remove the issues of even the later-stages from their roots, in the beginning stages itself.

5. Helps to Move with Business Agility

Rapid variations in the smartphone user movements hints towards the need of brands to promote superior level of business agility by using agile process method. Agile method enables you to adjust to the varying business needs or user trends in spite of what stage of app development you are in, without any further amount of investment. Agile method gives you the freedom to not be confined to work around a pre set feature list as a part of mobile app solution. This enhanced business dexterity gives the application any shape you are seeking, thus giving you an unprecedented edge over the competitors.

6. Enhanced productivity

The sprint-based workflow of agile methodology lowers the scope of daily detailed discussions and concentrates on the delivery of list of the high-valued app features in every sprint. Using collaboration, mobile app developers’ team works on goals with accountability, which helps in meeting all the commitments in fixed time. The distinct set of work, which are decided for specific time frames allow scrum master to measure the real-time work status and can handle the teams, likewise.

7. Develop superior quality mobile app development solutions

Quality undoubtedly continues to be the main concerns in an app world. Because of the collateral testing model used in the agile mobile app development process, it gets easier for mobile app developers to inspect an app project in the real-time and then undergo the necessary quality based improvements hand-by-hand. With respect to this, when there are variations in both – the mobile application needs or in the quality standards which have to be maintained, the project managers can get them incorporated and solved, instantly.

8. Placing Responsiveness in the Technology

By combining agile sprints with the app’s software update method, the enhancements along with the needed new features, based on customer feedback, can be made instantly, lowering the development timeline.

Agile mobile development process introduces a data backed consistent app updation process that makes sure that even with the app updates, the data is spatially harmonious with old data.

Now, as promised earlier, we will now get into the basics of how we employ Agile Development in the apps that we develop.

Agile development process in itself comes in different types. While we focus on Scrum to a large extent, there are around five other types of Agile App Development methodologies, which we use in combination, which varies from app to app.

Let us look at each of them, to give you a better understanding of the types there are and what you should expect to achieve from each.

Types of Agile App Development Methods

1. Adaptive Software Development

This method is used in software projects, which have shifting requirements and strictly fall in the category of short span app projects. The methodology takes help of processes like collaboration, speculation, and learning to achieve this.

2. Crystal Methods

These are the methodologies that are used to help develop app by concentrating on app properties such as reflective improvement, frequent delivery, focus, close communication, easy access to expert users, and personal safety, taking help of configuration management, automated tests, and recurrent integrations. The process works best when developing apps that are related to people, community, interaction, talents, skills, and communication.

3. Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

It is an iterative agile development method which ensures that every step is completed just enough to be able to move on to the next stage. It helps in delivering working systems in short span of time. This process aids in aiding regularly changing scenario since the next level of process can be easily put to work by not affecting the process of delivery in whatever way.

DSDM makes use of tools, knowledge, and techniques and helps with the delivery of new systems in the expected period of time.

4. Feature Driven Development

This is the agile methodology for the app development process, which is also model-driven. At the start of the app project, the developers design a model, which specifies various app features and their iterations.

5. Lean Development

It is one of the most used agile methodologies, in fact the one we swear upon, which is implemented for the development of mobile apps. This principle aims at managing the risks and turn them into opportunities. This, then offers a competitive advantage to a business over its counterparts.

6. Scrum

Scrum is another agile software development process that implements the flexible process control for complex software projects. It likewise makes use of iterative and growing practices. In light of the theory that we can’t characterize the last prerequisites of the project, initially, the information is acquired over the due process from the mistakes made over the long run. It solely focuses around checking the progress of the project and resolving the challenges when it is encountered in the frequent gatherings. It gives the benefits of agile methodology that it assists to take action as and when the requirement changes.

7. Extreme Programming

Here, the focus is entirely on the app project instead of the documentation, since it follows principles of design and simple code. Which, in turn, makes it easy for the developers who join late, to understand the process.

The method is based on twelve practices and four groups. The four groups include – feedback,collaboration, respect, and revision. This requires the direct participation of all the involved parties including our customers.

The twelve practices are collective code ownership, coding standards, system metaphor, simple design, pair programming, test driven development, planning game, refactoring, the whole team, continuous integration, short releases, and a sustainable pace.

Now that you know the types of Agile Development Process, let me take you through the Approach we follow while developing and deploying Mobile Apps on the basis of the methodology.

Anteelo Approach to Developing Apps Using Agile Development Process

When we start an app development project here at Anteelo, we segregate the functional requirements in user stories, which becomes the basis of our app development process.

We mostly work in the structure of two-weeks sprint set, and restate continuously till we gain milestones in the app. This includes apps that come with a very high number of brand requirements

The method has helped us work on projects with as much as 3,500 different development needs, by breaking down the requirement in small, manageable processes.

We divide our Approach into processes that include –

– Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)

Connecting you with the developers, designers, and the testers, which helps you communicate the specific requirements even before the actual implementation.

– Agile Modeling

We document the principles and values for applying in mobile app development work, which ease the implementation of agile development methods like the extreme programming, Scrum, and the Rational Unified Process.

– Agile Testing

Making mobile app testing a crucial part of mobile app development process, we ensure that the bugs and errors are next to nothing. Lead by our team of testers, Agile method help keeps every involved party from the UX-UI designers to the app developers in the circle.

– Backlogs

Every one of our POCs know their to-do lists and the what’s left lists. This helps in achieving client’s expectations through the incremental and iterative mobile app development process.

– Behavior-Driven Development

Every app functionality is validated in planned way to not miss test cases or criterias defining them. It also includes the prime causes and their relevant fixes.

Need help with streamlining your app development process? Contact our team of Mobile App Developers, today.

Optimizing Agile delivery when the development team isn’t co-located

Posted on 24/02/202015/06/2021 by Tushar

Co-locating Agile development teams with the customer or business unit is optimal for collaboration and customer intimacy. However, co-location is not always feasible. Development team members could be from multiple geographic locations, the customer could also be spread across multiple locations, and economic considerations might direct some of the development to regions with lower costs.

This requires an effective Distributed Agile/Remote Agile Delivery model. Here are the four key considerations that need to be taken into account for a Distributed Agile Delivery model to ensure successful delivery:

1. Culture. If the teams are spread across multiple countries, cultural differences are bound to arise due to diverse work practices, values, processes, styles of leadership, decision-making, and problem-solving approaches. Not being able to work side-by-side can lead to misunderstandings from unrecognized cultural differences.

To mitigate, it is essential to build trust and establish relationships between the teams early on. Initiation events, where teams meet and work together, and establish common standards and consistent practices, present a great opportunity to establish trust and foster team building. Sending “Ambassadors” from each site to the others on a periodic basis is also an effective way to bridge the cultural gap.

2. Common hours and communications. Cultural and language differences make effective communications hard. Even with web- and video-conferencing, it is challenging to overcome the lack of visual cues and face-to-face interactions. This is further compounded by insufficient time zone overlap.

Teams need to work out an approach to shift some work hours to improve their time zone overlap. Often teams agree on “core hours” during which members at all locations will be simultaneously available. Reliable communication tools, desktop sharing, phone, instant messaging, and virtual rooms can then play a big role in establishing strong communications. Agile coaches and Scrum masters need to step up as effective coordinators. Bi-directional travel by key customer stakeholders and vendor leaders also helps.

3. Collaboration. Distance makes collaboration and frequent communication challenging. Context of discussions is sometimes lost as well. Using a “Proxy Product Owner” at each site can help bridge any gaps in business and domain knowledge. Building a work culture around compulsively using Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (EAPT) and collaboration tools facilitates collaboration among remote teams. The Ambassador program mentioned earlier — rotating some or all of the team between locations — and bringing the teams together on a periodic basis helps.

4. Consistent Infrastructure and Configuration Management. Challenges with Distributed Agile multiply if you do not have standard shared infrastructure and continuous integration. You need to leverage virtualization and provide identical environments for teams at all sites. Other strategies include using a single configuration management system for all teams, deploying DevOps (at least Continuous Integration and Continuous Testing), and insisting on frequent builds.

Ensuring that these four areas are addressed at project onset sets the collaborative tone for your distributed agile delivery. Having a collaborative team mindset from kick-off through delivery is crucial to project success.

Agile Scrum Methodology in Mobile App Development-Guide

Posted on 02/01/202012/06/2021 by Tushar

Agile scrum methodology is one of the most commonly used practices in project management in today’s time. The benefits that the method comes with such as increased business value, faster go to market, greater transparency among the team, and better quality management is enough to push a number of businesses across a range of industries to follow the Agile development Scrum approach in their everyday work process.

If your business, seeing the benefits that the methodology has to offer, is also planning to take the agile scrum development route, this article is for you.

But before getting further into the topic, you should first understand what is agile methodology?

Interestingly, there is a slight difference between agile vs scrum if we speak of them individually. Strictly speaking, Agile is a development methodology based on incremental and iterative approach. Whereas, Scrum is just an implementation or a type of agile methodology. Here, incremental builds are passed to the clients bi-weekly.

Meaning, an agile methodology for application development starts by outlining the users and documenting a statement on a scope of problems, opportunities, and values to be addressed. This vision is then caught by the product owner who works with different teams to provide quality end results.

Now that we are clear on the basic difference between agile vs scrum, there is something else that you need to consider before adopting distributed agile development methodology. Let us first touch bases on what Agile Methodology Scrum actually stands for and how it single-handedly brings the model miles ahead in the Agile vs Waterfall debate.

What is Agile Scrum Method in context of Mobile App Development?

Holistically, the role of Agile in mobile apps is well-renowned and Scrum is the most commonly used sub domain of the agile methodology, which has quickly expanded to handling big and complicated projects that might have otherwise taken a lot of time to finish.

When it comes to the role of using agile project management on mobile application development then one needs to take into account that the mobile application developers make an app for a device with a small screen, less memory and less processing speed. Thus, the use of agile and scrum methodology includes programming, development and project management with breakdown of the software development life cycle into smaller modules.

Used mostly by mobile application development services companies or agile software development company, the scrum team breaks down their allotted work aka product backlogs in actions, which they could cover within the two-week cycles, also known as – “sprints.” By completing every sprint, the team is expected to produce a working mobile app, which they continue to work upon and improve.

Every sprint comes with a timeline that extends from 2 months to maximum 4 months. And each of them have these following components to make the agile mobile app development process more efficient –

1. Scrum Roles

How effectively you run an Agile Distributed team is dependent a lot on how well you distribute the roles?

Product Owner – The person is responsible for overlooking what the team is working on and is also responsible for ensuring that the backlog is up to date. The communication of the end customer and team members are also looked at by them.

Scrum Master – He is the one who is assigned to ensure that the agile scrum is followed rightly by the team. They are also responsible for overlooking how the team is performing and resolving any issue that is coming up.

Scrum team – They are the ones who are actually doing the tasks. They own the development and testing part of the whole project and for this purpose the team is said to be self-organized, cross functional, and agile.

2. Product Backlog

Handled by the product owner, product backlog is a list of tasks that the team needs to perform. The modifications and priorities are set as and when needed. The backlog contains various documents which are continuously updated and used when required.

The idea is to have a list of backlogs ready before the sprint starts.

3. Agile Sprint Backlog and Planning

In this scrum project management methodology step, the mobile app development team decides on the backlogs they will be targeting in the current sprint. Sprint backlog is the list of things the team plans on achieving in the delivery. Usually, sprint backlogs are divided into workable actions and once the team agrees upon the backlog items, the sprint begins.

4. Daily Scrum Meeting

Once the above steps of agile application development are done and the team starts working on the product backlogs, a practice called daily scrum is initiated. A stand up daily meeting is held every day for 15 minutes. In the daily scrum everyone in the team tells about the last day’s work and the day’s plan. The daily scrum lets everyone in the team know of the whole project’s progress.

5. Agile Sprint Review

After every agile sprint, the team demonstrates what was developed to the stakeholders and look into the steps where they got stuck and which went well. The findings of one sprint becomes the action statement of the next.

6. Increment

The end result of a scrum is called Increment. The aim of everyone involved in a scrum is to deliver an increment that is complete on its own.It should adhere to all the quality standards set by the product owner and team.

7. Learn. Repeat. Improve.

This entire cycle is repeated in the next sprint.

Sprint Planning chooses the next set of items in the Product Backlog and the sprint cycle starts again. As the team executes the Sprint, the Agile Product Owner simultaneously ensures that the items which are on top of the product backlog are executed first in the next Sprint.

The short, iterative cycle offers the team a lot of opportunities for learning and improving.

How Does Agile Scrum Methodology Makes Mobile App Development Efficient?

Unlike usual desktop applications for PC that may work for a couple of years without any redesign, upgrade, etc., mobile apps ought to be significantly more flexible and adaptable for users. Users’ requests may change rather regularly, thus app owners should update the app each time when it requires new changes. Furthermore, the best approach to make a top notch mobile application without extra revisions is to opt for an agile development company.

1. Improves the Mobile App Quality

Since testing and QA is integrated at every sprint throughout the agile scrum process, the app is checked at all stages, ensuring that it is developed according to the set quality standard, thus sealing its future in terms of high performance and acceptance.

2. Greater Client Satisfaction

Since Agile Method is based on involving the clients at every point, they have a clear access to the app progress, as they are given an app demo with every set of newly added features after every sprint.

3. Greater Transparency

Since the practice of agile methodology is based on involving everyone who is a part of the mobile app development process plus the client, everyone knows the exact work that is to be done and its status.

4. Faster Return on Investment

One of the perks that come associated with Agile software development is Faster development and ROI. With the help of Agile, app development companies are able to start the development process much faster, and are able to take up multiple areas of the process at the same time. Add this with the ease of testing the app function by function on the go, and you will get an expedited app development timeline.

5. Rapid Changes

With the use of agile project management with scrum for mobile app development, it is handy to make changes in apps due to the presence of sprints. The best part is that there is no negative impact on the development as the scrum agile development methodology avoids the problem of revision, time and cost.

Now that you know what agile scrum development process stands for and what are the advantages of Scrum, let us now move on to the factors that you need to consider before you adopt it in your mobile app development branch.

Factors that You Should Consider Before Implementing Agile Scrum in Your Mobile App Development Process

1. Do you have a person in your team who can fill in the role of a scrum master?

This is one of the crucial components of agile scrum development. Before you even move on with the Agile scrum methodology, you will have to appoint a scrum master who would be overlooking all the development processes and the challenges that the team faces. The scrum master will be responsible for gathering requirements from the end users. He will also be responsible for holding the scrum meetings and managing the backlogs.

The role of a scrum master is a very crucial one when it comes to development using the Agile methodology. He would be single handedly responsible for the easy completion of the project.

2. Is your team’s role and responsibilities clear?

The success of your mobile app development process based on agile scrum development methodology depends entirely on how clear your team is with the roles they have to play and how willing they are to handle their part independently. If the individual team members are not comfortable with their roles, the project will face a number of execution challenges and you will never be able to take the full advantage of the agile scrum methodology.

3. Will the Agile Scrum Method actually work for your industry?

One of the rules of the agile scrum that we adhere to before even we start working on an agile approach is gauge if it’s necessary at all. Even though Agile Scrum framework is used by a number of industries globally, it is not fit for all the industry types.

The development method works best for small size teams who handle scrum project management with unknown solutions, varying deliverables, and constant interaction with the end users or clients, which makes it ideal for projects that deal in marketing, software development, supply chain silos, or strategic planning.

Processes like accounting, sales, and even the purchasing domain, which deals with established processes or static deliverables won’t really benefit from it. But companies like Software Development, IT, Operations, Marketing, etc., do practice agile and the rate at which they are adapting is increasing at a fast pace.

In the end, if you understand the benefits that agile scrum development methodology will bring with it and you are prepared to change your work process around it, go ahead with it. But ensure that you have got your stakeholders and team on board with the idea.

What are the Agile Scrum process best practices?

1. Always create product backlog and vision together

So what is a product backlog? Well, it is a list of items needed to be added to product development. Now, it is advised to make the product backlog and product vision together because this way, developers and stakeholders both are in the loop and aware of everything.

2. Employ burndown charts for sprints

In order to track the progress of sprints, the experts at Anteelo suggest that you should use burnout charts. They graphically show the amount of work that has been done. What is more, these charts also help in identifying certain risks related to undelivered work.

3. Establish communication guidelines

If there is one thing that can greatly affect the workflow, it is uninterrupted communication. If not tackled, it becomes one of the greatest challenges of scaling agile practices. There is one thing that can be done – develop a communication strategy based on the guidelines for the teams. This is something that can prove to be very useful for remote teams in making their process transparent.

4. Practice stand-ups

A project/product development process speeds up once every member of the team is on the same page and knows the progress of work. These stand-up meetings are also known as ‘daily scrum’ held at the starting of the working day and last for no more than 15 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why use agile scrum methodology?

Agile Scrum methodology is beneficial in the app development process if done right and religiously. It helps in improving mobile app quality, increases client satisfaction, gives immediate ROI, promotes transparency, and so much more.

2. Who Uses Agile Scrum Methodology?

Almost all the companies irrespective of the industry domain take benefits of agile scrum methodology in order to make the management and process more transparent and smooth.

3. What is Scrum methodology in relation to Agile Project Management?

Scrum is a part of the agile project management methodology which includes a team managed by a Scrum Master. The main job of a Scrum Master is to clear away all obstacles to the team completing work.

Here, the work is done in short cycles known as sprints, and a meeting is arranged including the whole team on a daily basis daily to discuss current tasks and roadblocks that need clearing.