Agile Development can be described as a method where a product is developed little by little in an iterative process. At the beginning, the prototype of the product is designed to satisfy the basic needs of the client and final user. After that, the development team keeps testing and improving it until it’s ready for launch.
Is Agile Development Just for Small Companies?
Today, Agile has become a very popular methodology where the priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Although Agile tends to be a better option for smaller projects, large companies adapt this development model to get the benefits of being faster and more flexible in their processes.
It’s important to have in mind that the transition from traditional development to Agile is more difficult for large enterprises. The adoption process sometimes gets tricky and if it isn’t well driven, the team of the company will be frustrated. As software consultants we know the problems that people can deal with as they integrate Agile to their organizations, so we recommend the next things to prevent obstacles that may show up.
Three things to consider before implementing Agile Development in large companies
- Management support
Even if the technical team is motivated to adopt Agile, it’s necessary to have the approval of management to implement a new methodology. When the leaders of large companies agree to integrate Agile Development in their business, employees will deal the challenges of the transition as a unified team. - Experience of the Agile training
According to the VersionOne survey, 44 percent of participants realized that the top cause of Agile project failure was the lack of experience with the methodology. Large companies should consider to hire an expert team to help them in their Agile adoption. Coaching is useful to solve obstacles that employees face with technical practices or facilitation skills during the training period. -
Organization and communication of large structures
Another thing to consider is the size of the teams for the projects. Large companies have more resources to develop a product but they should be able to keep managing small groups in their processes. It’s better to have less people fully dedicated to a project than having many employees partially committed.
Big enterprises often include remote employees so they should guarantee an effective communication with them. Teams need to collaborate in the best way to maintain Agile principles within their development projects.
Large companies deal with more challenges than startups or small businesses when they implement Agile in their processes. However, they can manage obstacles if there is a careful plan of the adoption of this methodology. The key is to have the support of management to make the transition, apply correctly the principles of Agile and encourage clarity in the communication of the teams.
