Introduction
What is Agile Development?
Agile development is a process that was initially designed for software development, where software is developed in iterative and incremental cycles. Where traditional (waterfall) methods try to plan the development process and outcome at the beginning of, or even before, development, agile development is a flexible process that allows developers to change direction during the project and quickly respond to changing circumstances.
We use Agile methods to develop our digital products and services
Agile Development Model
The Agile process has four stages: Discovery, Alpha, Beta and Live
Kick Off Meeting
All Digital Projects should start with a Kick Off Meeting. This meeting needs to identify:
- What processes (products) we will look at
- What order we will look at them in
- What can be done by the Digital team
- What needs to be done by others and who e.g. GIS team
- Who will lead on the project from the service team side PO (Product Owner) This person needs to have full authority to sign off finished product.
- Budget for the project if required
- Required delivery date for live
- External factors such as whether the project is politically sensitive or involves partners
- What are the potential efficiencies, savings and benefits (ESB’s)
Agile Team Roles
Our project teams will usually include the following roles:
- product manager
- service owner
- delivery manager
- user researcher
- content designer
- developer