The following principles of Agile development makes it look like Agile is mostly
ID: 650652 • Letter: T
Question
The following principles of Agile development makes it look like Agile is mostly suited for services companies:
Customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of useful software
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development
Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months)
Working closely with the client. Often this involves a client representative to be a part of the development team.
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location)
My question is: Is Agile exclusively suited for service oriented companies or do even product development companies (including web based companies) benefit from Agile techniques?
Explanation / Answer
Agile (and any iterative) method is even more helpful for product development companies as opposed to service industry.
In one of my first assignment in a product development start-up, we went with the management a very detailed (including fine print) scope and my boss threw out most of it and trimmed down the requirement to almost all bare basic; the product won't have any gizmo's not even bells and whistles.
After the conclusion the crux is need to experiment with the market, as he said
... look, we are not a services company. Many typical service contracts (he gave examples of companies) starts out with unnecessary stuff; later on when people realize gaps, it's essentially more money to the services company. In a product development, we cann't afford to waste resources like that.
he continued ...
... when you build a product, you really have to go out and experiment with the market to understand what is really needed, that's when you go and build this (extra) things on top of the core product.
So from the product development point of view any methodology that begins with focus on minimum and essential requirements first is most important. Agile fits in perfect.
Second, there is another key things that product development companies face far more fiercely, time to market.
While you are developing, invariably, you will realize that some competitor will pop-up, and you do tend to either try to minimize scope as much as possible to get to market fast, or you may learn that need of the market needs to adapt.
Agile is even more important for product development environment than services companies.
One Caveat:
May be one place where i can think of Agile being misfit is where there is quite a bit of research work involved. Even research based work requires planning for individual task; however, suddenly one realizes some huge problems or a fresh new idea arrives, and the planning goes for a toss. Probably here, any structured approach finds somewhat limitation. Any one has tried Agile in research oriented work?
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