5 Best Agile Development Practices For More Effective Teams

There are several best agile development practices for more effective teams. According to recent studies, about 60% of companies increase their profits by adopting the agile approach for their development teams. With this track record, over 70% of companies are integrating agile into their enterprises. As a software development manager, you need to know the most important agile practices to implement on your team. This way, you can implement this iterative project management approach to improve your team’s productivity. Of course, you can also increase your profitability as well. Read on to discover the best agile development practices for more effective teams.

Develop In Iterations

First, the agile software development approach calls for teams to develop projects in iterations. Typically, bigger projects, such as mobile and web applications, are broken down into smaller chunks. Also known as sprints, these iterations are typically broken down into two-week periods where the team takes time to work through planning, execution, testing, and adjustments. Of course, the iteration length can vary from project to project. Anywhere from one to four weeks is standard. Additionally, you should test your software continuously with repetitive cycles. By applying this practice, agile teams can gain a new perspective on features they can add to the project. Notably, this strategy allows your team to regularly evaluate business hypotheses and assess your teams’ contributions as well.

Deliver As Fast As Possible

In addition, one of the best agile practices you can follow is to deliver as fast as possible. Short development cycles allow your team to get more feedback and eliminate time wasted. Importantly, you should try to make your iterations as short as possible for the most efficient deployments. To do this, you can install a container registry by JFrog. This tool can support your Docker containers and Helm chart repositories for your Kubernetes deployments. Additionally, this software provides reliable, efficient access to your build ecosystem. With access to self-hosted, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, JFrog’s container registries are highly scalable to support your future business model. Furthermore, with easy control over access and permissions on your team, you can streamline management procedures in your pipeline as well.

Communicate With Customers

Next, customer communication is essential on an agile team. Indeed, this development approach requires your team to be more responsive to customer requests throughout the project. For example, many teams review their progress with their clients after completing an iteration. This gives the client an opportunity to recommend valuable features they are looking for in the final product. Effectively, this reduces miscommunication between developers and their customers. Often, customers are more satisfied with highly responsive vendors, as they feel more involved in the project. Furthermore, vendors also reduce waste by focusing on high-value features designed to make the customer happy and increase their revenue.

Use An Agile Framework

Moreover, many iterative teams also use agile development frameworks to keep their projects on track. Often, these tools provide specifics on development processes and agile development practices, aligned to the lifecycle. For example, many teams who develop in sprints use a scrum framework to plan their priorities, review user feedback, and set up meetings for project updates. Other teams use kanban boards to funnel user requests through the development process. Importantly, agile frameworks help shape the development process and structure how your team collaborates. However, consider the tasks your team members perform and how it aligns to the framework. For instance, some teams adopt paired programming to deliver higher quality code efficiently.

Adapt To Different Requirements

Furthermore, your development team needs to adapt to different demands for a successful agile method. Often, many organizations struggle to adapt top-down, command-and-control structures to new customer requests later in the development lifecycle. For agile, this is essential. To adapt to different requirements in your enterprise, you need to adopt a strategic discovery mindset. Indeed, the core of agile’s success relies on harnessing change to increase the customer’s competitive advantage. As a development manager, you need to facilitate your team, so they understand the reasoning behind various changes. If they understand its impact, they are likely to be more committed to the outcome, making for a more successful project.

There are several best agile development practices for more effective teams. First, it is essential to develop in iterations, usually between one to four weeks. Next, communicate with your customers often for positive client satisfaction and to conserve your resources. In addition, you need to deliver your projects as fast as possible to increase feedback and productivity. Moreover, use an agile framework to keep your project on track. Furthermore, adapt to different requirement to boose the customer’s competitive advantage, as well as your own. Implement these best agile development practices for more effective teams.