Jun 30th, 2022
Business Insights
Prepared for Change
Written by: Shane Oswald, Chief Operating Officer
One of the advantages of Agile methodology is that it allows for change. With any software development project, there are going to be learnings along the way. Some of the features that were originally deemed critical, may turn out to be not as critical as initially thought. There may be some features that are uncovered that were never originally thought of at all. Changing direction is commonplace. In fact, it’s one of the consistencies across all of our projects. I have never worked on a project that went 100% according to the original plan. I’m confident that I’ll never see that day come.
Understanding and accepting the fact that change will occur requires flexibility for all parties involved. It requires flexibility from the delivery team to adjust to changing scope or requirements, and it requires flexibility on the part of the product owner to adjust their backlog and re-prioritize what’s most important. We provide the ultimate flexibility to our customers because we know that change will occur.
In addition to flexing for scope change, we provide additional flexibility when it comes to speed. At the end of each sprint, our customers have the opportunity to increase the velocity at which we complete work because we can increase our team size to move faster. Alternatively, we can slow down if needed by reducing our team size. We can pause the project to allow more vetting of the solution, or we can stop altogether if we realize that we’ve met the objectives of the project and further development of features is not actually needed. Often times, we will extend teams to continue on with further phases of the project, or to provide production support after features go live.
We also offer flexibility when it comes to team dynamics. We have offshore development teams which provide a more cost-effective delivery model, or we have onshore development teams which provide same time zone development and collaboration. We can accommodate either preference.
We offer the ultimate flexibility for our customers because their customers require that of them. Finding a development partner that can bend without breaking, the true definition of flexibility, is vital for project success.