Agile Methodology

•  A project management approach is commonly used in software development.
•  It divides the project into smaller phases or iterations to execute tasks more quickly while adapting to changing requirements. 
• Replaces the traditional Waterfall methodology for project management.

What is waterfall methodology?

• It is a traditional approach in software development where the whole project is treated as a single unit.
• So, the Development of a single phase depends on the previous phase hence the previous phase’s output is the input for the upcoming phase.
• Adding new features to the product takes specific time which is known as downtime.
• Downtime is the specific period, where the product is inactive during the development process. In downtime, the developers are allocated to deploy the new features to avoid product failure or error.

The Process of Agile Methodology.

Requirement Gathering: 

• The process of gathering requirements for product development. 
• Includes the collecting process of business requirements and technical and non-functional requirements.
• Involves the creating process of epic or user stories, each containing points.
• Challenges are identified to help in formulating solutions and rectifying the challenges.

Planning and Analysing: 

• Groom the user stories created in the requirements gathering phase, and plan for the release.
• Evaluate the capacity and provide a point to each story.
• Add the dependencies between the stories and assign them to the team.

Development:

• In the development phase, the design of technical documentation is completed and functionality is developed.
• The functional and unit tests are performed. 
• The test scripts are also written in the development phase.
• The code and demo should be reviewed during the development’s last part.

Testing:

• Writing test cases and preparing the list of test scenarios are done in the testing phase.
• Also in this phase data for testing is created and defects are raised after testing is completed.

Functional Review:

• Plan a demo and get it reviewed from a business perspective, Do the changes if needed.
• Plan a client demo for the release.

User Acceptance Testing:

• In UAT the actual user or the product owner tests the product.
• Using UAT observe the results and fix the defect raised.
• Explain the product and the challenges faced with alternatives, and move on to the next release in case of delay.

Demo Deployment:

• During the demo deployment expect the defects to be raised and have the solution prepared in advance.
• Be ready for the hotfix during demo deployment.

Advantages of the Agile method:

• No, need to worry about the before phase during the development of another.
• Downtime is not needed, as developers can deploy changes on the go, and it avoids product failure.
• Since the product is deployed in an actual working environment developers get user reviews to improve the product for example beta programs.
• Defects are reduced with the improved efficiency of the product.