The most common myth surrounding agile is that it will help deliver projects faster than the traditional model. I have heard this phrase used more often in teams that have a limited understanding of what agile is and what agile can do.
What is Agile?
Let us take a step back and understand the layers that make up agile. Agile is a methodology that breaks down a project into incremental chunks. Agile teams work on a small but complete portion of the backlog, run through the entire development, testing, and delivery cycle to release the product. In contrast, the traditional waterfall model spends months in the requirement gathering phase and design phases. During these phases, the end-user does not use anything, but the entire project is theoretical until that point.
Does agile help me deliver faster?
When we look at the delivery time, Agile delivers value much faster than the traditional model. It does not deliver the whole thing but delivers some portion of the MVP early to the users. It also benefits in a way, that users can use the product before the next sprint. This way, the agile team can adjust its direction and priorities early on. This way we get a better product than the traditional approach.
Let’s say for example, to deliver a project in the waterfall model, it will take 3 years to complete. Agile will not enable us to complete it sooner, however if we break down the 3 years into small chunks of say 6 months, and keep the continuous improvement cycle, then every 6 months, we will provide a chunk of software for the use and feed in the feedback into the backlog. That way, at the end of the project, we will get a better product than the traditional approach.
What the Agile process looks like:
And I couldn’t summarize all this better than Luke Walter: http://tynerblain.com/blog/2013/07/09/is-agile-really-cheaper/
“You won’t get a whole year’s worth of pre-agile production of code in only three months post-agile. And you wouldn’t want to, would you? What you might get – with learning, practice, and experience – is a traditional year’s delivery of value in half, a third, or even a quarter of the time.”
Thus, using Agile, we cannot say the project will be delivered faster, but we can say we can realize the value faster. We can adjust our goals to rapidly prototype and deliver value quicker.
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