Practice makes agility, not putting large phrases on paper. Being agile means constantly putting an agile mentality into practice. It involves considering the value you provide to the customer and how to do it more effectively.
This article will highlight the indicators that your practice isn’t truly agile.
Lengthy documents
Big features will be present, and they must be described. This does not mean we can create 50-page books. Several team members won’t read a document that is more than 5 pages lengthy.
If you receive a 30-page document one day outlining the new function the company wants us to create. Will you give it a careful read? Most probably, no.
To get through the meeting, you might scan through it, but that’s about it. Papers quickly become outdated. Nobody bothered to update the documentation as the requirements changed. Therefore, lengthy documents take a long time to make, and are not that effective in flexible work environments, like the agile development process.
Unclear definitions
For a team to succeed, there needs to be a clear definition of done and ready for development. The team’s performance will suffer if these are absent or unclear.
When the story is ready to be taken up for development, a software engineer should be aware of it. Same for finished.
When the plot is written but the description is absent, is it ready for development? When I deploy it to production and move my task to the “done” column, does that mean it’s finished? If there is such confusion, it is a problem that has to be resolved.
Creating a story that doesn’t provide value to the customer
Delivering value to the customer is at the center of agile software development. The value is in the form of functional software, not a mountain of papers.
Consider the following scenario: “As a manager of customer service, I need to know who initiated a refund so that I can track and audit refunds going forward.” The refunds table might need to have a “created by” field added as part of this work. Nevertheless, the end effect shouldn’t be a “story” with the sentence “Add a created by column in the reimbursements table.”
It can, of course, be a chore or sub-task that is a component of the primary narrative. This database work helps with the process even if the core story is what adds value.
Releasing new versions less frequently
The release of a new software version is a business activity, while deployment is a technical task.
Releases are not deployed. Something needs to be fixed if you are unable to distinguish between the two. Also, you are not doing agile correctly if you only release one new version a month at most. A great approach for receiving input quickly is to release it frequently. With early input, you can improve the software with a new set of adjustments in the subsequent version.
Although mobile applications can have a drawn-out vendor approval process, this may not always be the case. Deploying and releasing web apps numerous times per day ought to be standard practice.
Not focused on motivating the team
Teamwork is essential in software development. The team provides coverage for any injured players. If one team member is lacking in a certain skill, the group fills in for them and assists in teaching the member. The core of agile is a self-organizing team that considers how to improve the process.
High productivity requires team morale and content team members. It is a really terrible sign if you are regarded like tale executors with no voice and no room for change.
It is never too late to repair your processes. You can keep checking periodically whether your agile process is not track or not. If not, you can always pivot the system in the right direction again.