Agile Methodologies: Which one to use in Software Development?

The use of agile methodologies has become an increasingly frequent topic in discussions about project management and has become an indispensable tool and way of thinking in the daily operations of companies that want lighter and more productive ways of working. 

This is because, in recent years, with the increased demand from the technology market, there has been a need for organizational methods that go beyond simply following processes to deliver results. 

Although originating from software engineering, which previously used (in an adapted way) the same methodologies as the manufacturing industry, agile methodologies have also gained ground and proven effective in other market areas, such as finance, marketing, sales, and others. 

However, unlike the manufacturing industry, the software industry is dynamic, abstract, and interactive; therefore, it requires corresponding organizational methods that consider not only the mechanical aspect but also the creative and human aspects characteristic of systems development.

In this article, we've compiled the main agile methodologies used in software development and compared their uses. Continue reading to learn which agile methodology best suits your software development process.

The agile way of being

Agile methodologies emerged from the need to devise quick and effective ways to execute a project and generate value. More than a methodology or tool, the agile vision should be the company's way of thinking and operating, guiding its principles and values. 

These aspects are part of the principles established in the agile manifesto, created in 2001 by a group of project managers interested in discussing and implementing new approaches to organizing and executing work, which include:

• Interaction and communication: Focus on people and how they interact and communicate. Less technique/process and more organic/natural.
• Functionality and practicality: Focus on how the software works, rather than extensive documentation.
• Productivity: A steady pace of delivering results improves productivity
• Collaboration: The client-team relationship is not just about negotiating contracts, but about collaborative work to align ideas and expectations. 
• Continuous adaptability and feedback: Changes in requirements should be seen as positive, as being flexible and adaptable is part of the process and increases competitive value.

Why use an agile methodology?

Companies that adopt such visions stand out in the market, as agile thinking improves collaboration between clients and teams, reduces risks, saves resources, and promotes flexibility in changing alternatives.

There are numerous agile methods available today, and choosing the most appropriate one for your project can make all the difference. There's no point in choosing the most effective method, generally speaking, if it doesn't meet your project's needs and align with your organization's principles. 

Therefore, the most appropriate method is the one that best aligns with your team type, size, and company culture.

Below, we've organized the characteristics of the five main methods that follow the agile mindset, their advantages and disadvantages, and the types of projects they can be incorporated into. Read on.

1. Scrum

The main characteristics of the Scrum framework are:

• The scope of work is divided into smaller parts.
• Solving adaptive and complex problems, delivering the highest possible value products in a productive and creative way.
• Feature-oriented iterative and incremental process.
• The team is composed of a project leader (Scrum Master), the requester (Product Owner) and the development team (Scrum Team).
• Composition of tasks in priority lists (Backlog).
• Development time interval (Sprints) is short (maximum 4 weeks).
• Review activities and feedback at the end of each sprint until the entire backlog is completed.

Benefits

• Transparency: Everyone is following the progress of the project.
• Quality: Focus on reducing errors.
• Flexibility: The possibility of reorganizing activities, giving attention to the most important sprints.
• Lightness: Focus on eliminating waste.
• Simplicity and practicality: It anticipates changes and errors, and increases risk control.

Disadvantages

• Focusing on only parts of the project can cause the team to lose sight of the whole.
• Tasks need to be clearly defined. Otherwise, there will be confusion among team members.
• It requires a lot of courage, focus, openness and respect from the team to achieve the project's objectives.

Where to apply?

• In small teams working on complex long-term projects, such as software development, for example.
• Projects where the amount of work cannot be accurately estimated or the expected launch date is not fixed.

2. Kanban

Kanban is a lean system developed by Toyota for manufacturing. It's based on the principles of visualizing work and limiting work in progress to improve flow. It's recently been applied to software development, which doesn't exactly make it an agile development methodology.

Agile software development, as described in the Agile Manifesto or in frameworks like Scrum and XP, was created to solve other types of problems. The main topics addressed by Agile are constant interaction with the customer, response to change, and improving team interaction. 

Both Kanban and Scrum have their origins in Lean thinking. Lean is the set of principles behind the Toyota Production System, but both methodologies implicitly recognize that software development has more similarities to product development than to production. Due to the widespread adoption of Kanban for software development and the need for adaptation of the methodology, Scrumban emerged as a hybrid method. Scrumban is when Scrum and Kanban are applied together in projects and are used to maintain different applications.

Kanban suggests limits on the amount of work in progress, allowing constraints to be addressed. Scrum encourages collaboration, resulting in less work in progress. Scrum uses velocity and estimation, which can help prevent productivity metrics from becoming targets. Kanban uses lead and cycle time, tying its measurements to valuable targets that are difficult to control.

Work items are visualized to give stakeholders a view of progress and process from start to finish, typically through a Kanban board. Work is pulled as capacity allows, rather than being pushed into the process when requested.

In knowledge work and software development, the goal is to provide a visual process management system that helps in decision-making about what, when, and how much to produce. Recently, it has begun to be recognized by business units in various industries.

The main features of the framework Kanban include:

• A visual approach to process flow, using visualization boards or cards (classified as "to do," "in progress," and "completed"), which change position as the process evolves. Trello is an example of a tool that can support this methodology.
• It prioritizes the nature and progress of the work (it does not focus on how the task should be performed). 
• Execution of small parts of activities according to demand.

Benefits

• Constant collaboration and continuous learning.
• Visualization of all project tasks and stages, which makes it easier to focus on the priorities and status of each activity.
• Improves task monitoring and control.
• Continuous movement of deliveries.

Disadvantages

• Possibility of misinterpretation of tasks.
• Lack of establishment of deadlines.
• It requires team engagement in continuous monitoring of tasks for proper execution.

Where to apply?

• In any type of project that doesn't need to focus on the execution method, but only on monitoring the status of tasks.
• Complex projects with multiple completion stages.

3. Extreme Programming (XP)

Extreme Programming (XP) is an agile software development framework that aims to produce high-quality software and improve the quality of life for the development team. XP is the most specific of the agile frameworks regarding appropriate engineering practices for software development.

The main features of the Extreme Programming (XP) framework are:

• Its principles are: Uniformity, communication, feedback, resilience, courage, and respect.
• Motivates the development team to align with the changes requested by customers.
• Focuses on short-term deliveries.
• It executes a small number of software engineering practices at the highest level, performed as quickly as possible.
• Testing, restructuring, continuous integration, and pair programming (two developers working on the same code) practices are used.

Benefits

• Simplicity of written code.
• Short-term goals and faster results.
• Constant software testing provides faster completion.
• Greater retention and improvement of teams.
• Continuous customer feedback.

Disadvantages

• More focus on code can lead to less attention on design.
• Need to keep records of possible errors to speed up the resolution of future bugs.
• It requires a lot of flexibility and good communication between the team to achieve the project objectives.

Where to apply?

• In small teams that work together with managers and clients
• In teams with developers experienced in creating functional tests.

4. Crystal

Crystal is an agile framework that focuses on individuals and their interactions, as opposed to processes and tools. In other words, this framework is a direct consequence of one of the core values articulated in the Agile Manifesto.

Crystal's agile framework is built on two core beliefs:

• Teams can find ways on their own to improve and optimize their workflows.
• Every project is unique and ever-changing, which is why the project team is best suited to determine how they will approach the work.

The main features of the framework Crystal include:

• It encompasses several smaller classes of agile methodologies, including Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow, Crystal Red, and others. The parameters of each consider the number of people involved and the project's criticality level.
• The interaction and communication of the people involved in the project, as well as the sense of collaboration, skills and talents are factors that bring countless benefits to the execution of the project.
• The criticality of projects is defined based on four levels: Comfort (C), when there are flaws that impair user comfort. Discretionary Money (D), the risk of low financial impact. Essential Money (E), when there are risks of indispensable financial losses, and Life (L), for risks that may cause loss of life.

Benefits

• Frequent deliveries.
• Space for improvements and feedback for refinement.
• Constant and closer communication between team members.
• Safety, as it deals with criticality levels of systems.
• Automated testing and integration.

Disadvantages

• Projects can become complex due to the existence of method variants.

Where to apply?

• In high or low criticality projects.
• In projects with few or many members.
• In projects that deal with criticality levels.

Final Words

As you may have noticed, there are several agile methodologies available to you. The challenge for companies is understanding how to leverage agile methodologies according to their corporate culture and the challenges presented by the market.

To achieve this, it's important to understand that methodologies offer various tools and processes that can be combined and integrated according to the needs of each project. Interested in learning more? How about checking out these 5 tips for maintaining process agility?