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Risks Involved in Agile Development and How To Manage Them
08/06/2022
Risks Involved in Agile Development and How To Manage Them
Most of the outsourced projects are developed in a methodology called Agile or flexible. These methodologies are applied to a variety of requirements as per customer preferences. And every agile development project has some degree of risk. These risks are often the result of planning errors, failure in the process, and project team mistakes. How a company addresses these risks ensures the probability of the project’s success. Depending on the project type, these risks may vary. Below, we’ll discuss some of these risks and how they can be mitigated.
Risks in Agile Development
Budget Risk
It can be difficult to give an accurate estimate of the development cost in the early stages of the product. As it is agile development, the project can be brought under changes anytime, depending on the customer. In the end, the client may find expenses that are far above the initial estimate.
Knowledge Risk
Agile development requires able and qualified team members to run the project smoothly. If the team is unable to understand what the project is all about, they might run into trouble. The level of skill of each worker is also a factor. If someone underqualified works on the project, then it can put the whole development process in jeopardy.
Stop of work
This may happen if the product no longer fits the requirements of the market. Should the product get outdated or have wrong initial goals, sudden stopping of work might happen. This leads to idle time, which is one of the worst things that can happen in the development phase of any project.
Technical Risk
While agile development may be preferable for its flexibility, it’s a given that constant changes will adversely affect the project. Changes in the project design during development will require code changes. And constant code changes will lead to quality problems and low performance.
Personnel Risk
This can happen due to the absence of a project team member. Should a team member go absent for any reason, the project can be delayed and hampered. Even for a short period, personnel risks can lead to large delays and miscommunications between team members.
Time Risk
Delays in agile development are all too common. Time risk is usually the result of poor planning, unrealistic goals and standards, and the inability to configure change in the product. Time risks can often lead to other types of risks and must be avoided at all costs.
How to Manage Agile Development Risks
Budget Risks
The best way to manage budget risks is to go through LEAN development. In this, the cost estimate of the work is done step by step to ensure that the numbers stay as accurate as possible. Another method is rolling wave planning. This method entails giving out an estimate of the cost only when all the estimates are completely clear.
Knowledge Risks
To avoid knowledge risks, it is important to gather a team of skilled workers who understand agile development and its principles. If the team doesn’t have that much experience, they can take the help of other team members. Supporting and promoting knowledge learning is the best way to create able developers. Constant meetings help to score small but consistent increments in improvements.
Stop of work Risks
To avoid this, it is important to conduct a discovery phase of the project to learn more about its purpose, its function, and the product itself. It is important to stay in constant communication with the client and give out ideas for improvements.
Technical Risks
Before the start of the project, clarify the non-functional requirements that are related to the quality, performance, etc. Once that is done, design the system architecture in a way that matches these requirements. Some examples include microservices and modular architecture. To manage the quality of the end product, each task should have its acceptance criteria. Once the okay is given, that task can be considered complete. For complex projects, using a stage-wise program is the best. This makes sure that the system quality and performance match the criteria set by the client.
Personnel Risks
This can be offset by squad-based agile development. Make up a team of 10-12 workers that plan and work together. Ensure that a squad stays the same from the start of the project to the end. By doing this, they will have an open flow of knowledge and a known maximum capacity. This will help address personnel risk as it will give the other team members the ability to take care of tasks should one of the members remain absent.
Time Risks
Time risks emerge due to the perfection complex of the team members. The rigidity in the team leads to improper capacity planning and a stiff development process that can take a long time to complete. The way to overcome this is a replicable and flexible process. This would give a solid vision of the goals of the agile development process and mitigate most of the factors that are responsible for causing time risks.
Focaloid for agile development
At Focaloid, we follow agile development in almost most of our projects. Our experts and veteran team members have designed our framework in such a way as to deliver high value through stability and flexibility. All while dealing with the complexity of the project and the risks associated with it. With the help of these workers, we can accelerate the agile development of your project without giving an inch on the quality. With our bi-weekly sprints, we’ve already made several projects successful over the years. And in the coming years, we plan to increase this number.
Conclusion
In agile development, risk management doesn’t necessarily mean meetings or formal documentation. Instead, it is built into roles, personnel, and events. The most influential factor in agile development risk management is to make sure that you have that flexibility. A flexible process will help the team as well. They will be able to adapt smoothly and quickly during times of need and control changes in the product. By implementing the solutions above, companies will be better placed to mitigate any risks involved with agile development.
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