Modern software development wouldn’t be where it is now without the agile project management approach. The famous Agile Manifesto was announced back in 2001 and in those 20 years managed to completely change the approach to IT management. At the moment, the majority of software developers work in an environment with agile management implemented. In fact, according to the Stack Overflow’s 2018 Developer Survey, we are talking about approximately 85% of professional devs working this way.
So what is agile, why is it worth investing in, and how actually to assemble an agile software development team to work on your next big digital product? You will find answers to all of these questions below.
What is agile software development?
Agile itself is based on the four major principles included in the original manifesto:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
These principles are only the base that needs to be tailored to the company’s specific needs, but they highlight what’s really important for an agile software development team — continuous delivery of great products that answer the needs of actual customers. Agile promotes flexibility, work based on feedback, as well as a supportive work environment.
These may sound like a lot of fancy words, but the thing is — agile really works. And not only in software development. According to PMI’s 2017 report, agile is being used „sometimes or more frequently than in the past” by 71% organizations. Even manufacturers, who promoted the waterfall management model so much, now increasingly use agile — around 27.4% of manufacturers use only agile while 56.6% mixes agile with old-school waterfall.
Who do you need in your agile software development team?
The agile software development team does not consist only of devs working on code. Instead, such a team is filled with people in a variety of roles to fuel innovation and provide different perspectives on the product. As one of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto states:
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
So who exactly will you need for your agile software development team?
- Developers
Without them, a digital product cannot be built and maintained. Focus your hiring process on finding developers with previous experience in working with teams with agile and other relevant methodologies (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, DevOps) implemented.
- Designers
Experts responsible for the look and feel of your product. Thanks to their creative, more artistic approach, they add another layer of innovation to the whole project. Besides more standard web or mobile-focused designers, think also of hiring more specialized professionals, such as UX or UI designers.
- IT project manager
A good project manager guarantees you realistic, well-planned deadlines, and expert budget management. It’s important that you have in your agile software development team not any PM, but one with previous experience with the technologies you will be using and with working in an agile environment.
- Agile coach
A person who knows everything about the methodology. An agile coach won’t only help you introduce agile software development teams to your organization but also educate everyone at the company, as well as stakeholders, on two major issues: why agile is important and how to use it well for the good of the whole business.
The power of the Scrum team
Agile software development teams often also adopt Scrum as a follow-up management methodology. The most important principle of Scrum is splitting the development process into regular iterations (called Scrum Sprints) that no one can interfere with. Sprints guarantee your business continuous delivery for your digital product as well as the ability to easily respond to customer’s/stakeholder’s feedback by running a feedback session at the end of each sprint.
If you wish to implement Scrum in your agile software development team, you will need to find experts for two more roles.
- Product Owner
The person responsible for the product’s vision and setting up priorities for the developers. They manage the product backlog and sprints, being the only and ultimate decisive organ for the dev team.
- Scrum Master
Makes sure that Scrum’s principles are correctly implemented in the team and — just like an agile coach - educated others on the value of Scrum. If possible, a Scrum Master can also help the Product Owner in managing backlog and other tasks.
What technologies are used in an agile software development team?
To deliver first results fast and continue delivering great products without too many issues on the way, all the members of your agile software development team should be familiar with the technologies used by the team. Of course, developers are the people who need the most insightful technical knowledge, but others also need to have some understanding of these tools to successfully tailor their work to the work of a dev team.
Some of the most important technologies and tools to consider when planning your agile development team are:
- Programming language
Different depending on the type of the project. For example, if you have a web project in mind, you will need experts in front-end (HTML + CSS + JavaScript) as well as back-end (Java/Ruby/PHP/Python/other) languages. Different languages might be used for mobile development (e.g. Kotlin for Android, Swift for iOS), desktop software development (e.g. C++, C#, Java), or machine learning (e.g. Python, R).
- Frameworks
A growing number of companies hire developers based on their experience with a specific framework rather than just programming languages. Once again, the framework you will use depends on the type of project you are running. Some examples are: React (web development with JavaScript), Angular (web development with TypeScript), React Native (mobile cross-platform development).
- Git
The perfect system to track changes in the digital product’s source code. Used by the majority of agile software development teams.
- Issue-tracking system
Such tool allows to easily report, track, and manage bugs and feature requests in a project — it’s incredibly important for the Product Owner. For years, issue-tracking has been done mostly with Jira, but recently more and more new similar tools are developed (e.g. ClickUp). They answer the needs of some businesses better.
How to do agile?
The day in a Scrum-powered agile software development team starts with a standup, a quick daily meeting during which everyone shares their answers to — most often — three questions:
- What I’m going to do today?
- What are the current obstacles standing in my way?
Standups improve communication within the team and allow everyone to stay aligned with each other on their work. If your team is working in the office, the standups are attended in person, face to face. However, if you are working with agile software development with distributed teams, these are done most often via video chat.
We’ve already talked about sprints, the regular iterations (most often 1-4 weeks long) during which specific goals have to be accomplished. To keep the work even more organized and focus on communication, there are two additional events related to sprints.
- Sprint review
A presentation and feedback session on what has been accomplished during the last sprint. In smaller startups, the agile software development team can present their work to the whole company during such review.
- Sprint retrospective
A more internal look at the last sprint, focusing on reviewing what was done well and what could be improved.
The agile company fit
The more each member of the agile software development team fits to each other, the better and more innovative are the results. But how to get people with a perfect fit together? We recommend hiring them based on how well they match your company. Consider the following three areas in the hiring process:
- Industry fit
Look for experts who have already worked in your industry, so they will have the knowledge of your customer group and the solutions that proved to be successful on your market.
- Product fit
Previous experience with products similar to yours gives your new hires the ability to understand your needs easier and deliver requested features faster.
- Company culture fit
Think of the values your company has, the experience of your candidates with a diverse and inclusive environment, as well as approach to remote work — especially if you consider agile software development with distributed teams solution for your project.
The fastest way to find the best agile team
Are you struggling with finding the perfect candidates for your agile team by yourself? We can help.
At Ideamotive, we manage an industry-leading network of top talents in IT looking for new job opportunities. Whatever your role you are currently hiring for, we will get you connected only with the best people tailored according to your specific requirements, company profile, and product specification.
Reach out to us today to start building your future award-winning agile team.
