Agile Methodology and Model

What is Agile Methodology?

The term "agile methodology" refers to a process that encourages continuous development and testing throughout the project's software development life cycle. Unlike the Waterfall paradigm, both development and testing operations are contemporaneous under the Agile style of software testing.

Agile Methodology Vs. Traditional Software Development

One of the easiest and most successful ways to transform a vision for a company requirement into software solutions is to use the Agile software development approach. Continuous planning, learning, improvement, team collaboration, evolutionary development, and early delivery are all terms used to define agile software development methodologies. It increases adaptability in the face of change.

The four essential values of agile software development are highlighted.

• Interactions between individuals and groups around processes and tools

• Working software trumps thorough documentation.

• Collaboration with customers is preferred above contract negotiations.

• Adapting to change in accordance with a strategy

This Agile project management tutorial will teach you how to −

• What is Agile Methodology, and how does it work?

• The Waterfall Model vs. the Agile Model

• Scrum

• Backlog of Products

• Scrum Methodologies

• Scrum Methodologies Process Flow:

• Extreme Programming (XP) is a kind of programming that (XP)

• eXtreme programming phases −

• Methodologies for Crystals

• Methodology for Developing Dynamic Software (DSDM)

• Feature-Oriented Design (FDD)

• Software Development using Lean Principles

• Kanban

• Flexible metrics

Waterfall Model vs. Agile Model

Agile and Waterfall models are two distinct approaches to software development. Despite their differences in approach, both methodologies might be effective at times, depending on the need and project type.

Agile Process

Agile testing employs a variety of Agile methodologies, which are described below −

Scrum

SCRUM is an agile development methodology that focuses on task management within a team-based development environment. Scrum is formed from the action that takes place during a rugby match. Scrum promotes working in small teams and believes in empowering the development team (say- 7 to 9 members). There are three jobs in Agile and Scrum, and their duties are as follows −

• Scrum Master

  • The master is in charge of organizing the team, holding sprint meetings, and removing roadblocks to development.

• Owner of the product

  • The Product Owner is in charge of creating the product backlog, prioritizing it, and ensuring that the functionality is delivered at each iteration.

• Scrum Group

  • The team oversees and arranges their work to accomplish the sprint or cycle.

Backlog of Products

This is a repository for tracking needs, including the number of requirements (user stories) that must be satisfied for each release. The Product Owner should keep track of it and prioritize it, and it should be provided to the scrum team. The team may also request the inclusion, modification, or deletion of a new requirement.

Scrum Methodologies Process Flow

The following is the scrum testing process flow −

• Sprints are the iterations of a scrum.

• A product backlog is a list that contains all of the information needed to create the final product.

• The top user stories from the Product backlog are chosen and translated into Sprint backlogs during each Sprint.

• The team works on the sprint backlog that has been established.

• The team double-checks the everyday job.

• The team provides product functionality after the sprint.

Extreme Programming (XP)

When clients' needs or specifications are continually changing, or when they are unsure about the system's operation, the Extreme Programming approach comes in handy. It encourages numerous "releases" of the product in short development cycles, which increases the system's efficiency and provides a checkpoint where any client needs may be quickly incorporated. The XP creates software with the client in mind.

Stories are used to collect business needs. The parking lot is where all of those tales are kept.

Releases are based on shorter cycles called Iterations, which cover a 14- day time frame under this technique. Each iteration involves steps like development, unit testing, and system testing, with each phase resulting in the addition of small or large functionality to the program.

eXtreme programming phases

In the Agile XP approach, six stages are outlined as follows −

Planning

• Stakeholder and sponsor identification

• Needs for Infrastructure

• Information collecting and security-related information

• Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and their terms

Analysis

• Storytelling in the Parking Lot

• In the parking lot, prioritize the tales.

• Estimation of tales via scrubbing

• Iteration SPAN is a term that is used to describe the number of times a person (Time)

• Both the Development and QA teams need to arrange their resources.

Design

• Tasks are broken down

• For each job, prepare a test scenario.

• Framework for Regression Automation

Execution

• Coding

• Testing at the unit level

• Manual test scenarios are carried out.

• Generation of a Defect Report

• Regression test cases converted from manual to automated

• Review of the second iteration

• Review at the end of each iteration

Wrapping

• Releases for Small Groups

• Testing for Regression

• Demonstrations and evaluations

• Create new tales depending on the requirements.

• Improvements to the process based on the feedback received after each iteration

Closure

• Launch of a Pilot Program

• Training

• Launch of the Production

• Guaranteed Service Level Agreement

• Examine your SOA approach.

• Production Assistance

Two storyboards are available to monitor work daily, and they are given below for your convenience.

• Cardboard Story

  • This is a typical method of storing all of the tales on a board in the form of stick notes to keep track of daily XP activities. Switching to an online form is preferable since this manual process requires more work and time.

• Online Storyboard

  • The tales may be saved using the online application Storyboard. It may be used by several teams for various objectives.

Methodologies for Crystals

Three principles underpin Crystal Methodology.

• Creating a development team, doing a preliminary feasibility study, generating an initial strategy, and fine-tuning the development technique are all part of the chartering phase.

• Cyclic delivery − During the primary development period, there are two or more delivery cycles in which the product is developed.

  • The release strategy is updated and refined by the team.

  • Through one or more program test integrates cycles, a portion of the requirements is implemented.

  • A fully integrated product is made available to actual consumers.

  • Examining the project strategy and the development technique used

• Wrap Up − This phase includes activities like as deployment into the user environment, post-deployment evaluations, and reflections.

Methodology for Developing Dynamic Software (DSDM)

DSDM is an agile project delivery methodology based on the Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach to software development. The key feature of DSDM is that users are obliged to participate actively, and teams are given decision-making authority. With DSDM, the active emphasis shifts to product delivery regularly. DSDM employs a variety of strategies.

• Time Boxing

• Rules of the MoSCoW

• Prototyping

There are seven stages to the DSDM project.

• Pre-project

• Study of Feasibility

• Business Research

• Iteration of the Functional Model

• Iteration on design and construction

• Implementation

• Post-project

Feature-Oriented Design (FDD)

This strategy focuses on "developing and constructing" features. Unlike other Agile software engineering methodologies, FDD outlines highly precise and brief stages of work that must be completed independently for each feature. Domain walkthrough, design inspection, promote to build, code inspection and design are all part of it. FDD creates products with the following criteria in mind.

• Modeling of Domain Objects

• Feature-based development

• Ownership of Components and Classes

• Teams to Watch

• Inspections

• Management of Configuration

• Regular Structures

• Progress and outcomes are shown.

Software Development using Lean Principles

The "Just in Time Production" premise underpins the lean software development process. Its goal is to speed up software development while lowering costs. The process of lean development may be broken down into seven parts.

• Waste Reduction

• Enhancing learning

• Postpone your commitment (deciding as late as possible)

• Delivery on time

• Increasing the team's autonomy

• Increasing Integrity

• Optimize the whole process.

Kanban

Kanban is a Japanese term that refers to a card that contains all of the information required to complete a product at each step of its journey to completion. This framework or approach is widely used in software testing, particularly in Agile methodologies.

Kanban vs. Scrum

The following table highlights the major differences between Kanban and Scrum −

Metrics for Agile

The following are some metrics that may be gathered to ensure that Agile is used effectively −

• Factor of drag

  • Hours of effort that do not contribute to the sprint objective

  • Reduce the number of shared resources and the amount of non-contributing activities to improve the drag factor.

  • New estimates may be enhanced by a percentage of the drag factor, as follows: New estimate = (Old estimate+drag factor)

• Velocity

  • The number of backlog items (user stories) that have been turned into sprint-ready functionality.

• The number of unit tests that have been introduced has increased.

• The time it takes to finish a daily build

• Bugs discovered in a prior version or earlier iterations

• Leakage of production defects

Which Agile Project Management Tools are the Most Effective?

Agile project management necessitates a versatile solution that allows you to measure progress using Kanban boards and Burn charts while also allowing you to manage tasks and communicate information. As a result, we propose the following well-known Agile tools −

• Wrike

• Monday.com

• ClickUp