“If we have a fully defined backlog, we no longer have a true Agile Product Development situation. Instead, we have a project: a list of stuff all of which has to be done.” – Ron Jeffries, signatory of the Manifesto for Agile software development.
The Concept of Startups
Startups are young companies initially funded by the founders to develop a unique product or service business in the market. Basically, Startups are different from any regular businesses. The basic difference is the investment that is being put in the early stages of the business. For example, investing in certification programs like agile methodology certification to frame a perfect road map for designing a working software.
In a regular business model, you might expect to lose a bit of money in the initial stage and quickly move into making more money or you may not even survive sometime. But startups expect to lose massive amounts of money and take years and years to build it. Most of the startups are ready to face this risk. Why? Because the line for growth and profit is massive. The loss in the beginning stage is seen as an investment in startups.
So, the trending formula that every startup follows is, first you need to build something and then you sell it. For example, you invest in technology to build software for your online business. An application that is free to use. You get millions of people using it as they find it valuable and then you make the money back within a few years which can be a huge amount, ten times the money you invested in building the software.
When it comes to building a software, agile frameworks like scaled agile framework providesa base of best practices that helps an organization deliver high quality software. And any fast-growing startups can follow agile methodology in the beginning stage of their business. The reason is most of the startups fail within the first five years because they lack proper planning and undervalue their competitors.
Adapting the agile method, the startups can easily frame a plan, encourage fast delivery and have a high success rate. And as a founder of the startup you need to know how an agile approach improves team performance to position your business for long term success.
Here are some important characteristics that define startups:
- Huge Investment.
- Growth is the key. Slow growth is not meant for startups.
- It should be scalable.
What is Agile Software Development?
Agile software development is a cycle a product goes through in the building stage. Depending on the project management methodology, agile life cycle changes. For example, scrum, kanban and extreme programming and scaled agile framework (SAFe) are popular frameworks that come under an agile model that follows different roles in a software development team. Scrum team works as sprints, extreme programming works in shorter iteration and eng
ineering practices, Kanban follows a continuous flow with no required roles.
Reasons for not adopting Agile in Startups
- Financial returns.
- Lacking proper agile team
- The Agile model depends on value driven delivery.
- Startups often run into obstacles.
- Lack of communication.
- Lack of expertise in the team
Which is the most preferred model among Startups?
Agile methodology is the most preferred type of model followed by startups as it fulfills short term goals with welcoming the changes. This methodology helps running many sprints after accepting the customer feedback, by comparing the product with competitors and by adding new features and improvements for the products to proceed for the next sprint.
Another reason why entrepreneurs prefer this model is the availability of different frameworks under agile models. These frameworks are developed by developers to fit according to the software development needs of the organizations. Some of the frequently used frameworks are scrum, Kanban, extreme programming, Lean, Crystal and SAFe. Agile Methodology Certification programs cover these frameworks to provide clear aspects of the agile model for developers to implement while developing a software.
I often receive a question from people asking – WHY one should attend a PSM training when it is not mandatory for taking the certification?
When I was introduced to Scrum in my organization in 2010-11, I assumed that the role of a Scrum Master is that of a “Scrum Secretary”, the person responsible for taking notes, updating JIRA boards, scheduling events and so on.
I lived in that bubble for the next couple of years without making much change or creating any impact as a Scrum Master.
Also, it gave me clarity on a variety of skills that I needed to acquire to become a change agent who could create business impact.Having said that and now being a Professional Scrum Trainer, let me share my top 5 reasons why anyone should attend a training.Active Learning: The way grown-ups learn is much different from how kids learn.
When we read a book or a white paper, we read it with our own biases and make assumptions about many things through our own lens of the world.
The Scrum Guide which is the go-to source for Scrum has left many things for readers interpretation.
Scrum Master and Agile scrum project management are two words that go together and almost make one feel as they are synonymous.
Nevertheless, practicing agile without a scrum master is unheard of and would just delay in reaping the benefits of the methodology.And this why Scrum Master is a crucial role in the agile project management scheme of things.At a very high level, Scrum Masters are considered as:Leaders – have the skills to motivate and lead the team practice agile successfully.Experienced – have thorough knowledge of the agile principles and stay true to them throughout the course of the project.Coach/Mentor – have the role of coaching and guiding the teams through agile adoption.Organizers – as the crucial responsibility of ensuring coordination, communication and collaboration within and between teams, product owner and business stakeholders lies on them.Now this gives us a good glimpse of the various hats that a Scrum Master has to wear to enable his teams implement agile project management successfully.Let us take a quick look at the Scrum Master role to then understand what they do, how and why.
Read the full article at Orangescrum blog
