What is Agile Software Development?

Agile is a set of frameworks and development practices in the approach of software development with a heavy emphasis on the importance of the human factor.

Instead of focusing on the development of an entire product, Agile prioritizes the most important features of the product. Through real-life feedback from stakeholders and market shifts, a development team continues to improve the product so that it can meet evolving demands. This focus on human collaboration sets Agile apart from other software methodologies like Waterfall.

At Designveloper, we’ve applied Agile software development approaches, typically SCRUM and Kanban, to all projects. Below is Designveloper’s workshop that elaborates on the basics of these Agile frameworks.

1. Agile software development life cycle (SDLC) model

Agile SDLC takes a developer through six basic stages of a typical project. They include planning, analysis, design, implementation, testing and integration, and maintenance. These stages are repeated in cycles (known as “sprints”) to continuously modify and improve the software. Each sprint often lasts two weeks, so developers need to estimate the right number of tasks, coupled with their assigned time and resources, in each sprint. This ensures adaptability to change during development.

2. Case study: Instagram and Designveloper

There are various businesses shifting from traditional software development approaches to Agile and acquiring a big success. This has encouraged more and more companies to gradually adopt this approach to different aspects of their business operations. Understanding this need, the global value of enterprise agile transformation services is expected to grow by roughly 17% from 2025 to 2033. So, how can Agile bring success to Let’s take a deeper look at two prominent case studies.

Instagram

In the stage of sketching a brand new product, Instagram’s team leaned on the efficiency of the Waterfall model. Having tested the mobile app with real users, gained feedback from the user experience. The team used the Agile method to make quick modifications like cutting down unnecessary. Or adding more features based on the user inputs.

By doing this, the team was able to deliver what customers really want as opposed to what they thought the customers would want. After applying Agile in the building and testing the product one more time. The mobile app got its debut and the rest is history.

Success: Agile led Instagram to a million downloads within two months of the mobile application’s launching.

Designveloper

Designveloper teams have adopted Agile for a long time, particularly following the SCRUM framework in the Agile methodology. When we worked on the Lumin PDF project, we needed to rebrand almost 50 static web pages of the Lumin website. Initially, we adopted a linear approach where we designed, developed, and tested each part of the project when we went along.

However, this approach presented some challenges. Typically, when the team was working on page 20 and received feedback for page 1, we would have to go back to adjust the design and documentation before reupdating it on the development environment. This led to significant delays due to rework.

That’s why we made a change to the Agile methodology and divided our work into small, manageable tasks needed to be done in each sprint. This gave us a clear view of the work ahead and any difficulties we might encounter.

Success: Our team worked more productively and reduced the time spent redoing finished tasks. This ensured timely delivery within our client’s expected budget.

3. The roles of people in an Agile team

If the Agile approach was so praised by companies whose software development projects proved the success of the development methodology, then how should you as a business owner implement this approach and how can you structure your organization for the new project?

In a human-centric manifesto like Agile, there is no heavy sense of hierarchy as elements like human interaction, communication, and teamwork are valuable over the order of an organization. Since the approach is big on adaptability and customers’ feedback, the role of testers is the most important since the product’s success is without customers’ actual needs and demands.

5. Agile work process

The work process in the Agile software development approach goes through basic steps from research, estimation, quality assurance, development, design, prototyping, and launching. Each business aims at a different specific feature of the project.

If projects depend heavily on research and development (R&D), for example, understanding the market and customer demands often evolves alongside the project itself instead of being fully defined from the beginning. Through activities like market research, customer survey, and discovery, the development team can get insights that allow the project to adapt to evolving client requirements.

If your business is all about the best quality a product can offer the market, the steps of quality assurance, quality control, and customer support would be of vitality since top quality is purely decided by product users. To each their own, each business needs to determine the top priority of their project outcome and discuss it with developers as communication is the key topic of Agile.

Agile Manifesto and Its 12 Core Principles

The Agile Manifesto is at the core of the Agile Movement. It was born in the 1990s to bridge the gap between business requirements and the final delivery of a product. The Agile Manifesto emphasizes lean manufacturing, human interaction, collaboration, and constant improvement. In other words, it ensures seamless communication, swift development, and adaptability to external factors while maintaining the core track of the plan.

The Agile Manifesto has the following 12 core principles a developer must bear in mind at all times while applying Agile:

Agile’s 4 Core Values for Customer-Centric Businesses

In addition to those core principles, you should understand four Agile core values as follows if you want to create a customer-centric product.

1. Human over tools

The first value in the Agile Manifesto is human over tools. The human factor wins over other elements like processes and tools as it is the people who directly respond to business requirements, such as the features a client required.

Based on understanding initial requirements and the client’s specific industry, the development team then can decide which tools or development processes to adopt. This ensures the team can develop a custom product that aligns with the client’s business.

2. Working software over documentation

The second value is working software over documentation. Data input requires time, discipline, and meticulousness, which only the human factor can do. However, Agile does not completely wipe out the element of comprehensive documentation. But it allows developers to get in closer touch with the piece of information without the burden of processing and data input.

3. Customer collaboration vs. term negotiation

Human interaction plays a key role in the Agile software development method, especially when customer needs grow.

To collaborate effectively with a client, your development team needs to establish a clear and open communication channels. These channels help the client and the whole team keep up with the progress, exchange ideas or feedback. This not only leads to better outcomes but also forges the long-term relationship with clientele.

Further, to ensure transparency and clarify collaboration methods, it’s crucial to negotiate detailed partnership contracts or documentation.

4. Instant response and adaptability to the original plan

Adaptability can be highly valued in the Agile Manifesto. Swift responses to customers’ feedback and the latest changes in market insights usually would drive the working process further from the original plan.

This means, as opposed to rigidly sticking to the initial execution plan, Agile adapters would listen to the external environment and create changes accordingly without altering the original mission statement of the overall plan.

Developers, meanwhile, should keep in mind that there is more than one way of achieving one specific goal. It is completely okay to abandon a no-longer A-okay plan to pursue something new, especially when this answers well to the market and retains your business’ credibility to the users.

Advantages vs. Downsides

Advantages	Downsides
1. Increased value Changes in challenges added more required features to the updated product constantly. Adding more value to the project as changes are documented	1. Less likely to forecast Constant changes in the markets make it harder to forecast the kind of alternation that needs to be done to the software development project
2. Visibility Agile makes it possible to see the final product at any time instead of waiting for the final phase of the development process. Allowing the business owner to better visualize the final product	2. Intensive commitment Consistency and constant attention are required to develop a project regardless of what hours a day
3. Adaptability at early stages The key to a swift response to changes and clients’ requirements can be done at any stage. Enabling the business owner to save time and be more attentive to what customers really want	3. Higher demand for the profession and interpersonal skills. Heavy emphasis on developers’ profession and communication skills are placed in the application of Agile Manifesto
4. Reducing immense project risks Consequently, the application of the Agile Manifesto alleviates the hidden project risks and avoids the investment being put in maintaining the original plan that will no longer pay off	4. Harder to keep track Due to constant and unpredictable changes

Conclusion

With all what we analyzed, you might better understand what Agile methodologies are and how they benefit your software development. Having said that, it still comes with several shortcomings and cannot be useful in all cases. If your project aims at adapting quickly to market shifts or customer demands, Agile can be a good choice. So, consider your business’s project requirements, specific industry, and end-users before going to the final decision on whether to adopt Agile. For more interesting topics about this development methodology, subscribe to our blog!