Agile Strategy is a methodology for managing change. Change can occur in any aspect of an Agile Project, from the initial concept through execution and closing. Agile differs from conventional project management in that it considers a “development strategy” guiding the project from inception to end. It does not include management time or a budget; instead, it relies on the project team and stakeholders’ inputs to guide change. An excellent Agile Strategy will ensure that all team members directly impact the project’s success.
Agile Development focuses on five stages: pre-planning, planning, design, testing, and maintenance. Each stage has an independent focus but hinges upon previous ones. The principle goal of Agile is to minimize change while ensuring that processes are documented and easy to understand. Agile planning helps define scope, work priority, and design deliverables.
In Agile, design begins with a formal plan that describes the project’s goals and objectives. This is followed by a design process in which the project’s issues and requirements are defined, and conditions are analyzed to determine their root causes and cures. Then a design team completes a series of design iterations, which validate the initial results. A test team completes a series of complex or straightforward tests to check the final design.
Testing involves a series of code reviews to verify that a code is working as expected. Testers check for defects in implementation, functionality, performance, and security. Agile testing has several objectives. Firstly, Agile Testing assures that the software solution is correct and includes test cases for quality assurance. Secondly, Agile Testing helps validate new code, which ensures that the production environment is not negatively affected by the addition of the new code.
Once the design phase is complete, the next step is integration. This includes coding and integration of functionality and testing to verify the integrity of the solution. The integration team may work in parallel with the other team to ensure proper implementation. Testing is again required to check that the integration process is working smoothly and the application meets the stakeholders’ requirements.
The testing phase follows the implementation process. It is designed to test the robustness of the project and identify any flaws that might be exposed due to the implementation. The testing phase also ensures that the project meets all the project’s requirements. It can be divided into various phases to address different aspects of the project. One of the biggest benefits of Agile Testing is that it allows for incremental improvements in the system.
New requirements can be identified and implemented using the tested solutions to improve the functionality and efficiency of the system. When testing is done well in the Agile Development cycle, the test cases can be reused across multiple projects. The result is a continuous improvement process that drives the Agile principle: The basic aim of Agile is to have a development process that involves testing, improvement, and finally, adoption of the final product.
