Do It Right: CTO’s Guide To Agile Software Development Life Cycles

The concept of agile development is not new and is snowballing in the development field.

It is particularly well-suited for startups, as it allows for rapid prototyping and iteration based on customer feedback.

Agile development is based on the Agile Manifesto, which values individuals and interactions, working software, and customer collaboration over processes and tools.

This approach allows startups to quickly adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs, giving them a competitive edge in the fast-paced startup ecosystem.

This blog will explore the agile development life cycle so you can get started quickly with your agile software development team.

What is Agile Development?

Agile software development is a set of best practices for building software according to customer needs. It focuses on creating working products as quickly as possible and continuously improving based on user feedback. 

Agile development differs from the waterfall or other traditional methods in that you can immediately see its results at the end of a project. Instead, while it takes longer than other methods (or “waterfall”), your team can iteratively make changes and learn how customers like using the product so they can optimize those features in future iterations.”

The Agile Manifesto

The Agile Manifesto is a set of principles for software development. It was created by 17 software developers in 2001 and published as an open letter, followed by several additional documents that expand on the original ideas. The manifesto is not a process or a framework, but it can be used to create one if you want to.   

The agile manifesto has 4 main points:

Agile Development Lifecycle

The Agile software development life cycle is the structured series of stages that a product goes through as it moves from beginning to end. The purpose of an agile lifecycle is to enable teams to work in parallel with each other on the same project; this allows them to iterate quickly and move towards solutions faster than the traditional waterfall approach.

It comprises six steps: concept, inception, iteration, release, maintenance, and retirement.

The Agile life cycle will vary slightly depending on the project management methodology that a team chooses. Scrum teams, for instance, work in short periods, known as sprints. It also has clear roles, such as Scrum master, and they also have clear responsibilities.

On the other hand, Kanban teams, which have a continuous flow with no roles required, have a more constant flow. Extreme Programming is another example, where teams develop software in shorter iterations and emphasize engineering practices. Nonetheless, all software development teams strive to deliver working software to users on time.

6 Stages of the Agile Development Lifecycle

1. Conception

The Conception Stage is the first step in creating an Agile Software Development Lifecycle (ASDL). It is a time to explore and understand the problem and gather information about your business needs for the project. You can build a prototype or proof of concept during this stage to see how it will work in practice before implementing it on a larger scale later.

The riskiest part of your project occurs during this stage because it’s all fresh, so there’s no way to know whether what you’re doing will work out or not—but if you’ve done everything right up until now and still haven’t figured out anything important yet (like “how”), then don’t panic! That said: try not to get too far ahead with plans that aren’t likely ever going to happen anyway (unless they do).

2. Inception

Inception is the second phase of the offshore agile development lifecycle. It is the phase where the project is defined, and a plan is created for executing it.

During this phase, the team will define the project’s objectives and goals, identify the stakeholders and users, and create a high-level plan for achieving those goals. The team will also work to identify any risks that may arise during the project and develop a plan to mitigate them.

Activities in the inception phase include:

• Gathering requirements,
• Identifying stakeholders and users
• Developing a high-level plan,
• Identifying risks,
• Creating a vision statement,
• Establishing the project’s objectives and goals.

The outcome of the inception phase is a high-level plan that outlines the project’s objectives and goals, the stakeholders and users, and the overall approach to achieving those goals.

3. Iteration

The iteration phase, also known as the development phase, is a core part of the agile development lifecycle. It is the phase where the actual development of the software takes place. The iteration phase is divided into a series of short sprints, time-boxed periods (typically 2-4 weeks) during which the team works to deliver a potentially releasable product increment.

During each sprint, the team will:

• Review the user stories, and requirements for the sprint
• Prioritize and plan the work for the sprint
• Develop and test the software
• Review and demonstrate the software to stakeholders
• The team will also hold a sprint retrospective meeting at the end of each sprint to review the sprint’s progress and identify areas for improvement.

4. Release

In the release stage, you deliver your product to your customer, who can use it. This can be done only after creating a product version that has been tested and approved or by releasing an early version with some bugs still present (called alpha).

In both cases, the release means no more planned changes to be made after this point—the team has completed its work on this particular feature set, and they’re ready for release!

5. Maintenance

Maintenance is the process of fixing bugs and making improvements to existing software. It’s an ongoing process, and it should be done agilely.

Agile development can help you prevent bugs from creeping into your code base by keeping it small and focused on a single feature at a time. By breaking down large tasks into smaller pieces, you’re less likely to introduce errors that could cause problems later down the road.

Offshore agile development maintenance methods allow you to quickly incorporate changes when they’re made available by other contributors, customers, or even yourself! The flexibility afforded by this approach helps ensure that no matter how many features get added or removed over time (and there will always be more), everything remains stable without sacrificing quality control over what gets included/removed from production releases.

6. Retirement

Retirement is the process of removing a feature from use. It’s the last phase of your software development lifecycle, and retiring features that are no longer used is essential. The goal of retirement is to reduce complexity and make your product simpler, more reliable, and easier to maintain over time.

To determine if you should retire a feature, ask yourself: “Does this feature add value?” If so, then keep it! But if there’s no need for it anymore, go ahead and remove it so you can focus on other areas where improvements might be needed instead of spending time maintaining something that doesn’t bring anything new into play here (but only wastes resources).

Final Words

The agile development lifecycle is a flexible and adaptive approach to software development that prioritizes the needs of the customer and the ability to adapt to changing requirements quickly. It emphasizes delivering working software that provides value to the customer, continuous collaboration between the development team and stakeholders, and flexibility to adapt to changes.

By understanding the agile development lifecycle and how to implement agile practices in your startup effectively, you can create a more efficient and effective software development process that leads to a more successful product. It further allows you to ascertain the right agile software development team for your project.

So, without wasting more time, start building your product today. For in-depth guidance, schedule a free consultation.