Why transform to Agile?

I am sure many of you (or at least some) would have been faced with this question of whether or not to adopt Agile methodology.  The decision can be based on the benefits Agile an offer to your setup / product. It is not necessary that Agile will suit each situation. 

Things where requirements are quite clear upfront and the job is not complex, one can assess the overall effort and execute it in a waterfall model. But as more and more complex problems are there to solve, agile can offer a good alternative approach.

Here are some reasons why transforming to Agile will make sense:

Executive teams are often pressured to produce long-term budgets and milestones. So why should executives sign off for a change to Agile framework? A short answer is that they want predictability. 

• Long term plans don’t last. Things change every quarter. Budgets can go so wrong!

• So a working valuable deliverable is a safer choice.  It's better just to get something that's completed a little bit over time.

Traditional projects depend on upfront planning. If there is a lot of uncertainty, then you'll have a lot of guesses in your plan. If your guesses are wrong, then it will create a lot of instability. Traditional projects will work much smoother if you're predictions are very accurate. 

• Think about a typical project, the longer the project runs, the more you know about what it takes to finish. That's usually because you're learning a lot more with working with the project and less from predicting. Unfortunately, the longer you work on the project, the more expensive it is to make changes. This is called the project's cone of uncertainty. It's when you're forced to make all the predictions at the time when you have the least information.

In Agile, 

• There will be a lot more flexibility with the Agile team to be able to learn quickly and adapt for any changes and make course corrections timely. If something goes wrong, cost of rework will be less.

• Incremental delivery is not just a way to break up work. It's an alternative way to deliver work.

• The team will start with the highest value items first and start delivering that from the beginning. If you're eating a dish, you'll want to start with the best parts!

• Another great advantage is that Agile breaks things down into smaller bites that you can estimate. This can minimize the rework and increase the accuracy of the estimates.

Businesses use this model of project management to ensure that throughout the process customers save time, money, and have the flexibility to make changes anytime during the development process.