What Is Agile App Development? Advantages, Process & Tips

Understand Agile app development, its process, key benefits, and expert advice for creating adaptable and high-performing applications.

With the fast-paced nature of the tech world, it’s no surprise that app design agencies are under constant pressure to deliver top-notch digital products quickly. Agile app development is one of the best ways to accomplish this goal. This flexible approach empowers teams to streamline their processes to build high-quality apps that meet user needs while adapting to changing requirements as the project and the market evolves. This article will explore the advantages of agile app development, its processes, and tips for success to help you get started.

For design agencies looking to improve their product development processes, NUMI's product design solution offers a valuable tool to learn about agile app development, its advantages, methods, and tips for success.

What is Agile App Development?

computer with a laptop - Agile App Development

Agile app development focuses on breaking projects into smaller, more manageable chunks—or sprints. This ensures regular delivery of working software that can be tested and assessed to align with project expectations. Agile development is particularly effective for projects with high uncertainty, and the end goals will likely change between the start and finish.

This is often the case with mobile app development, where user preferences can shift quickly and impact a project’s success. The Agile approach helps teams effectively manage this risk and produce quality software that meets the latest market standards.

Agile Methodology Frameworks

There are four different types of agile methodologies, such as:

1. Scrum

Scrum is one of the most popular approaches used by many companies. It promotes cohesiveness and focuses on quality improvement. Scrum helps the team communicate effectively and work together to tackle challenging issues.

2. Kanban

Kanban is a method that helps teams facilitate the flow of value through the visualization of workflow and the setting of limits for the work in progress (WIP). With the Kanban Tool, any business efficiency process can be assessed and improved simultaneously.

3. Extreme Programming (XP)

Extreme Programming is a methodology for developing software designed to improve consistency and adaptability to clients’ or customers’ changing needs. It aims to make iterative, continual releases during the project possible to evaluate and track its progress.

4. Adaptive Project Framework (APF)

The APF methodology is designed to respond continuously to unexpected events that could evolve during a project. By approaching projects with the awareness that core parts are continuously changing, team members may take a versatile approach and learn during a project by reviewing results.

The Role of Sprint Planning in Building Lean Applications with Agile Frameworks

These frameworks share the focus on developing lean applications to help create quality software effectively.

Therefore, these frameworks are performed in sprints, using sprint planning, which helps define what work needs to be achieved and delivered from the start.

Agile App Development vs Traditional App Development

Traditional app development follows a linear, stage-by-stage process, where each phase is completed before moving on to the next, like:

Requirements gathering
Design
Development
Testing
Deployment

The methodology is strict, making it a good fit for projects with precise requirements that are unlikely to change.

Agile Methods Outperform Traditional Approaches

For instance, traditional methods might work fine if you’re developing an app for a specific and static need, like a utility billing system. But here’s the catch: life (and software development) is rarely predictable.

If market needs change or new features emerge mid-project, traditional methods can feel like trying to U-turn a cruise ship:

Slow
Expensive
Frustrating

Documentation is heavy, user feedback is delayed, and often, the final product may not fully align with user expectations.

Agile App Development: Adaptability at Its Core

Imagine that road trip again, but you’re planning one day at a time this time. You decide where to stay based on where you are and what’s available. Agile development is like that—it embraces flexibility and focuses on adjusting to change as you go.

Instead of a rigid, step-by-step process, Agile breaks the project into smaller, manageable chunks called iterations or sprints.

How Agile Development Enhances Feedback, Flexibility, Efficiency, and Collaboration in App Projects

Each sprint delivers a working piece of the app, allowing:

Developers to gather feedback
Make adjustments
Prioritize what’s most important at every step

Here’s why Agile is the darling of modern app development:

User Feedback Loop: With Agile, users can test and evaluate the app early and often, ensuring it stays aligned with their needs.
Flexibility: Agile teams can pivot without derailing the timeline if priorities or market demands shift mid-project.
Efficiency: Agile focuses on delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) quickly, so users get something functional sooner rather than waiting months for the final release.
Collaboration: Regular communication between developers, stakeholders, and end users creates a more transparent and collaborative environment.

Overcoming Challenges in Agile Development

That’s not to say Agile is without its challenges. Constant iterations require discipline, and the process can go off track without strong communication. But when done right, Agile fosters innovation and delivers products that resonate with users.

Advantages Of Using Agile Techniques For App Development

woman typing on a laptop - Agile App Development

Speedy Delivery: Get Your App to Market Faster with Agile

Agile methodologies for app development deliver faster results because they prioritize incremental delivery and iterative development. The Agile approach breaks projects into smaller, manageable tasks with time limits. This allows teams to focus on getting features and functionalities done quickly so they are delivered immediately.

How Agile Enhances Application Delivery Through Continuous Feedback, Collaboration, and Rapid Iteration

Agile also influences application delivery terms by emphasizing the following:

Frequent communication
Collaboration
Feedback

Involving stakeholders and customers in the process ensures that their requirements and expectations are continually addressed and incorporated into the evolving product. This real-time feedback loop enables teams to more rapidly:

Make adjustments
Prioritize features
Deliver value-added updates

Streamlining Agile Delivery: Managing a Clear Product Backlog to Focus on Value-Driven Features

To maximize the benefits of faster delivery in Agile, maintain a well-defined product backlog with clear priorities so your team can focus on delivering the most valuable features first. Reviewing and refining the backlog also ensures that development efforts align with customer needs.

Quality Control: Agile Improves App Development Standards

Agile incorporates quality-focused practices into each sprint, enabling teams to identify and address issues promptly, resulting in a higher quality standard for the final product. Its iterative nature enables continuous testing, allowing for comprehensive:

Bug detection
Performance optimization
User experience enhancements

To succeed in quality improvement, add automated testing to your process to continuously verify and validate the application’s functionality, reducing the risk of regression and ensuring that changes do not introduce new defects.

Flexible Framework: Respond to Change with Agile

Increased flexibility is a notable benefit of using Agile in mobile app development. Agile enables teams to adapt and respond to changes in:

Requirements
Market conditions
Customer feedback

Agile methodologies emphasize embracing change throughout the development process. This iterative approach, during each sprint, ensures the mobile app remains aligned with evolving business goals and user expectations and helps incorporate:

New features
Modifications
Enhancements

Collaboration Made Easy: The Agile Approach Enhances Teamwork

Agile methodologies prioritize close collaboration between developers, designers, testers, product owners, and other team members, enhancing cooperation and shared understanding.

It promotes frequent and transparent communication channels. Daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning sessions, and retrospectives create opportunities for team members to align their efforts, share progress updates, and address any challenges collectively.

Enhancing Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration

By involving stakeholders throughout the development process, Agile encourages:

Active participation
Feedback
Collaboration

It ensures that the final product meets their expectations. It also utilizes collaboration tools and platforms, such as:

Project management software
Version control systems
Communication channels

It facilitates seamless information exchange and real-time collaboration.

Get Your App to Market Faster with Agile

Faster time to market enables organizations to release their mobile apps more quickly and stay ahead in the competitive market. Agile methodologies prioritize delivering incremental value and working software in shorter time frames, allowing you to seize market opportunities and respond to customer demands promptly.

Accelerating Mobile App Development with Agile Sprints: Faster Iterations and Continuous Deliveries

Agile’s sprints focus on delivering a shippable product increment at the end of each iteration. By working in smaller increments and continuously releasing new features and improvements, mobile app development teams can accelerate the overall development timeline and shorten the time it takes to launch the app.

Agile App Development Process

woman on a laptop - Agile App Development

Agile aims to produce shorter development cycles and deliver more frequent product releases than traditional project management methods. Scrum and Kanban are the two most common Agile methodologies, and both follow the same basic process that includes the following steps.

Vision

In the vision phase of the Agile process, the product owners conceive an idea for the product by searching for a gap in the market. Once the gap is identified, one needs to identify the project stakeholders. At a startup, the stakeholders are the startup founders and core team members.

At a more prominent company, the stakeholders are the following:

Managers
Clients
Significant shareholders

This is the stage where you will also require a project charter, a single document that describes everything about the project.

Speculate

In this stage, you will need to list your product’s features. While building the feature list, putting yourself in the customers’ shoes would be a good idea. Find out the more minor components required to make the feature work seamlessly. For instance, a search bar would require drop-down menus, filters, and auto-completion features.

Identify the time that it will take to implement these features. Include the time to finish the smaller components while you plan the total time to build a feature. Determine the project’s key milestones and identify when your project will differ from the previous stages

Explore

The explore phase is also known as the execution phase. This is the phase where you start the development work. The Agile project management method emphasizes adaptability. Agile lets you explore all the different ways that can aid you in accomplishing the project. During the software development process, if another approach is working better, Agile lets you change your plans accordingly.

This is because, in Agile development, we work in short sprints of one to four weeks. If the development work of a short sprint is unsatisfactory, then it is easy to discard this short sprint and do the job again.

Adapt

The adaptation phase is the strength of the Agile project methodology. A significant drawback of traditional project management methods like the waterfall methodology was that a product was built over several months, assuming what the customers wanted. If the product performed well in the market, it was good, but if it didn’t, there was no way to return it. Such an issue does not happen with Agile.

This is because, in Agile project management, we focus on building a tight feedback loop with the customers. Agile allows the development team to incorporate customer suggestions and opinions into the mobile app. Instead of guessing what the customers want, Agile focuses on asking the customers directly.

Alpha Testing and User Research Shape Agile Development Success

The development team chooses alpha testers and works closely with them to determine the requirements of their users. If user research gives new ideas, the development team includes them in the project, even if the idea was not a part of the original plan. The key here is to iterate repeatedly and not be afraid to listen to the process. Go back and change if something is not working. The idea behind this repeated iteration is that the end product will be much closer to where it needs to be through incremental changes.

Close

Include the conditions early in the project under which you will be ready to release the product to a broader audience. Understand that closing is not an irreversible process. Closing does not mean you lose the liberty to change the product if required. Under Agile, we consistently improve the product until we retire the project for good. Closing conditions ensure that you are confident about what you will build.

While you close the project, test it rigorously to ensure it is bugs-free. This is because a mobile app’s bugs can irreversibly harm your reputation. Once you release the app, many customers will provide their opinions through various channels like social media and app reviews on the app’s page on the app store. Listen to these opinions, however harsh they may sound, and try to include them in future project iterations.

4 Best Practices For Implementing Agile Methodologies In Mobile App Development

employees using a laptop - Agile App Development

1. User Stories and Product Backlogs: The Essentials of Agile App Development

User stories define app functionalities from a user’s perspective and serve as the basis for development. Prioritize user stories based on their importance and value to the end-users. Create a product backlog, a prioritized list of user stories, to guide the development process.

2. Sprint Planning: The Next Step to Agile App Development

Plan sprints based on the development team’s capacity and available resources. Select user stories from the product backlog and break them into smaller tasks. Estimate the effort required for each task and allocate them to team members.

3. Stand-Up Meetings: The Daily Ritual of Agile App Development

Conduct short, focused daily stand-up meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and plans for the day. Each team member shares their:

Accomplishments
Current tasks
Obstacles

The goal is:

To keep everyone informed
Identify and address roadblocks
Maintain project momentum

4. Sprint Review: The Show Must Go On

At the end of each sprint, conduct a sprint review to showcase the completed work to stakeholders. Collect feedback from stakeholders and end-users to gather insights for future iterations.

Hold a retrospective meeting to:

Evaluate the sprint process
Identify areas for improvement
Implement necessary adjustments

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What Is Agile App Development? Advantages, Process & Tips