We love Agile scrum and sprints
Web developers love nothing more than to produce high quality code and satisfy their clients. We get more satisfaction from this than from money or love. So, it is no surprise that web developers love the concept of Agile Development Methodology using the concept of Scrum Planning and Sprints.
With Scrum, we are able to do a better job of prioritizing important features, benefits, and user stories into our websites and web applications. With short 5-day sprints and a scrum team as small as 5-7 people; we can accomplish things with a high level of quality and feel good about our accomplishments, which increases our morale and makes us want to spring out of bed, race into work, and do more good things.
By following Scrum with discipline, including a Product Owner, Scrum Master, Team Members, Stakeholders, User Stores, Scrum Planning, and Scrum Reviews, etc.; we get everybody involved in the early stages of planning, estimate with better precision, break down mysterious requirements, and build the performance criteria before jumping into the code. It results in more predictable results, on time and within budget.
Why you should not use scrum
Now, Scrum and Agile is not meant for everybody. If you enjoy watching your web projects get stalled then Scrum is not for you. If you enjoy invoice shock when a $100,000 web app turns into a $300,000 web app then you should not try Scrum. If you enjoy wasting months with one development agency and then firing them so you can waste time with a second development agency, then please avoid Scrum.
In addition, if you have a procurement system that demands fixed price, fixed functionality, fixed timeline, and fixed quality standards; then a herculean effort needs to be made up front to mitigate risk on the part of the developer so we don’t lose our pants in the process. This forces us into a “waterfall methodology of development”. Because firm fixed price, fixed deadlines, fixed functionality, and fixed quality puts all the pressure on the contractor to perform; we have to practice extreme due diligence before we ever start writing the first line of code.
The problem with the waterfall method is that we end up spending so much time up front documenting and estimating that by the time we get done delivering the product, it is no longer what the client thought he or she needed anymore. The thing is that people don’t really know what they want until they see what they get and based on what they get, they have something to reference, compare to, and move forward with. So, the concept of Agile and Scrum is to get software out as quickly as possible, test it, use it, evolve it, and iterate it as quickly as possible.
So, if you want to see web development teams make serious progress towards web app development at a predictable cadence, then you might consider learning more about Agile Development, Scrum Planning, and Sprints.
The video below is one of the best ‘splainer videos (as in, “Lucy, you have a lot of esplainin’ to do”) I’ve seen in a long time.
