How an agile approach to development works at DEV
How waterfall and agile software development differ and how you can choose the right approach for your tech for good project.
Note: This article follows on from our previous piece about the differences between a waterfall and agile approach to building tech for good. If you haven’t read it yet, it will offer some helpful background information.
Project management will always vary from organisation to organisation. While many of the tenets of a purely agile approach are optimised for internal software development (building new features at Spotify for example) at DEV we have developed our own approach to agile development that is aimed at delivering the best results for charities and NGOs.
To do this, we start with clear agreed objectives set by you (the ‘why?’). The budget agreed for the project determines how much time we can spend on the development. With this top-level goal in mind and a sense of our time budget, we’ll work with you to break down the work required into sprints and tasks/cards.
From here, we’ll work with you to align priorities and make sure tasks get delivered in order of what is most important. This will be handled transparently in a way that allows you to observe and monitor the progress of each task. We will work to a fixed timeline and deliver the most work possible for the time available, which can often be more work than either team expected could be delivered in that time, giving you extra value for your time. Once we hit the end of the sprint, the work ends for that phase and you will be able to use and test what has been built so far. At the start of the next sprint, we repeat the process all over. In short we focus on delivery and the solution, you focus on priorities and goals.
This approach accepts that things change over time (and should) and allows us to focus on outcomes (what you want to achieve) and not outputs (a predetermined idea of what the product should be), which is ideal for the third sector where the only thing that should matter is how much impact and change you can deliver. The main caveat with an agile project is that you need to work to either a fixed cost (your budget will guarantee a certain amount of time and therefore as much as can be delivered in that time) or fixed scope (you outline the features that must be delivered but until they are finished, we won’t know exactly how long they will take and therefore, exactly how much the project will cost).
An agile approach means working together as true partners, engaging you at each stage of the process, and keeping you involved throughout to ensure we can bring our technical expertise and combine that with your deep understanding of how to make change. While there can be less certainty about your final product with agile, there should be no nasty surprises and you will be aware throughout the project of how work is progressing. For example, with a fixed scope project you should be regularly confirming and authorising ongoing work and not just presented with a bill at the end. Regular releases and regular check-ins reduce the risk of all elements of our agile approach.
When you can’t work agile (yet)
Of course we understand that many organisations do not have the luxury of choosing their approach to developing technology. Whether this is to do with procurement processes or funder requirements, you may not have the flexibility to work in a truly agile manner and we completely understand that.
We’re here to partner with you and to respond to what you need, not only in terms of technical development but in terms of process and project management too. Where you have a fixed scope, timelines and/or need a fixed budget, we can work with you to deliver that. However, as we have seen above, the risks in terms of impact are actually higher on projects like this and this approach can in the long run lead to higher costs as more resources are required to ensure tasks are delivered exactly on time. Of course we are more than happy to discuss this further with you and help work through whatever project shape you have. And if you are interested in working in a more agile way but not sure how you can balance that with the needs of your project, we’re here to help you get to where you want to go. Just let us know.
Our commitment at The Developer Society is to help charities and NGOs increase their impact through technology and we can help you navigate the constraints of your project, whatever they are.
John Dunford is the CEO at The Developer Society, a not-for-profit digital agency, working with NGOs and groups with a progressive mission to help make the world we live in a better place.
Stay in touch by subscribing to our updates here. Follow us on Twitter too to show a bit of extra love.
And of course if you liked this article, please add a clap below and share the piece — it means the world to us at DEV.
