Delivering a product goes beyond simple planning. The software engineers must assess resources, time frames, and the steps required to achieve the desired result. And it takes a long time to get from an idea to a finished product, especially if teams don’t work within a framework. As a result, gauging the Agile software development life cycle is the ideal solution, as it provides a structured series of stages that a product goes through from beginning to end, with a focus on process adaptability and customer satisfaction.
By thoroughly analyzing each of the project development steps, the software development life cycle enables engineering teams to measure and improve their development processes. It provides a foundation for planning process, scheduling, and estimating; allowing clients and teams to better manage their resources and time.
Agile SDLC, also known as Agile Software Development Life Cycle, is a shift from the traditional software development life cycle, which prioritizes work for software development teams.
This article will go over the Agile development lifecycle and the process workflow that occurs during an iterative process.
What is Agile Software Development Cycle?
The Agile Software Development Life Cycle combines iterative and incremental process models. It prioritizes process adaptability and customer satisfaction through the rapid delivery of a working software product. The Agile SDLC breaks the product down into small incremental builds. These builds are distributed in iterations. By rapidly delivering a working software product, the Agile SDLC model emphasizes process adaptability and customer satisfaction.
Agile is subdivided into project management methodologies such as Adaptive Software Development, Extreme Programming, Lean Software Development, Dynamic Systems Development Method, Feature-Based Development, Kanban, Scrum, and so on.
Stages of the Agile Software Development Life Cycle
There are six stages in the Agile software development life cycle. Let’s take a closer look at each of these Agile phases.
- Requirements Gathering and Analysis
- Inception
- Iteration
- Testing
- Deployment
- Maintenance
Requirements Gathering and Analysis
During the requirement analysis phase, software development requirements are discussed. The goal of this phase is to capture all of the project’s details, or we can say that the requirement analysis phase is to capture the detail of each requirement and to ensure that everyone understands the scope of the work and how each requirement will be fulfilled.
The product owner will estimate the time and cost of potential projects during the concept stage. This in-depth analysis will assist them in determining whether or not a project is feasible before beginning work.
Inception
After defining and documenting the key features and requirements, it’s time to build the software development team during this second stage. During this phase, developers and technical architects begin high-level design of the software and system to ensure that each requirement is met. The conceptual details of the design are discussed with stakeholders, and various parameters such as risks, technologies to be used, team capability, project constraints, time, and budget are reviewed before selecting the best design direction for the product.
Here the phase is divided into two sections
- Visual Design (UI/UX): The designers create a mock-up of the interface designs. It’s always a good idea at this stage to look at what your competitors are doing.
- Architectural Structure: The team analyzes the best way to approach the requirements and the tools that will be required. They define the best programming languages, frameworks, and libraries to use during this phase.
Iteration
This is the stage at which we actually put all of the requirements gathered from the client into action. During this phase, coding begins based on the client’s specifications. Everyone begins doing their jobs: database administrators begin creating database programmes, database programmers begin coding the functions, or modules, of the projects, and front end developers begin developing an interactive GUI in accordance with the software’s requirements.
Testing
The Quality Assurance team examines the product’s performance and looks for glitches during this phase. This phase also includes the creation of documentation and the final release of an iteration into production.
Deployment
Following all of the testing and positive results, the product is now ready to go live. The software is fully deployed and available to customers at this point. Through developer efforts, various modules or designs will be integrated into the primary source code, typically by leveraging training environments to detect additional errors or defects.
The information system will be integrated and eventually installed into its environment. After passing this stage, the software is theoretically market-ready and can be distributed to any end-user.
Maintenance
During this phase, developers now enter maintenance mode and begin practicing any activities required to address issues reported by end users.
After this, the Agile software development life cycle then begins a new iteration.
Advantages Of Using The Agile Software Development Life Cycle Method
- Improved software quality
- Consistent focus on technical excellence and good design
- Transparency in progress
- Predictable timeframe and costs
- Process oriented towards the user
- Regularly adapting to changing circumstances
Why Should You Go Agile?
Without a doubt, agile is a powerful and efficient method for software development. It not only benefits the development team, but it also benefits the client’s business. This model enables teams to address minor issues as they arise, rather than deferring them until the project’s later, more complex stages.
If you’d like to learn more about how our Product Engineering Services & Solutions can benefit your organization, schedule a free consultation with one of our Product Engineering Experts and let’s talk about how our services can help make your business more secure.
Algoscale is one of the leading product engineering services companies in USA and that allows us to fine-tune all steps of the development process. Our development team relies on Agile Product Development that focuses on incremental and iterative development while promoting collaboration and communication.
