Is agile faster than waterfall?

Is agile faster than waterfall?

Learning Mudra, Category - PMP

What is waterfall?

Waterfall project development methodology is a stepped approach for project development that has a described set of activities and dependencies. The key characteristic of this methodology is that each step of the process should be approved by the stakeholders before the team moves on to the next step and once the step is approved the team cannot go back to the previous step just like what happens in a waterfall. That is why this methodology is known as waterfall project development methodology. The steps that are generally included in this process are:

• Gather all the requirements and document them
• Design
• Development
• Testing
• Deployment or delivery of the outcome

If you are using this methodology to develop your product then at the end of the last step you will achieve the final outcome (product). This is a traditional project development methodology as now this methodology is very rarely used.

Pros of waterfall development methodology:

• Well defined methodology
• You know what are you building at the beginning itself
• The deliverable outcome is more predictable

Cons of waterfall development methodology:

• Less room for innovation and creativity due to defined set of requirements.
• Can cost heavily at the end if the changes are done after everything is built.
• Interpretation of requirements can be different for different team members.
• Building the documentation requires more efforts than building the product.

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What is agile?

Agile is a project development methodology which has a collaborative approach for software development where solutions and requirements evolve through iterations. This methodology relies on cross-functional, self-organizing teams that discover and build a solution using an iterative process. Using this methodology one need not define and plan the project before any work begins. The agile project development process generally looks like this:

• Gather few initial requirements
• Design
• Develop
• Test
• Deploy
• Evaluate the minor outcome
• Collect feedback of the outcome
• Look out and set up new requirements that are based on feedback and repeat the minor outcome cycles in order to achieve the final desired product.

Some of the basis of agile include the following:

• Empiricism – ability to perform, pause, reflect, improve and continue in a manner to increase productivity.
• Prioritization – deliver the work based on the value it provides to the business.
• Self-organization – team has the best idea of how to deliver the project based on resources and constraints.
• Time boxing – the tasks allotted to team are required to be completed within defined timelines.
• Collaboration –the team makes commitment to deliver the final product within decided timeline, this will encourage team collaboration and innovation in completing the tasks.

Pros of agile development methodology

• Agile offers more flexibility
• It empowers the team
• Time to market the product is accelerated
• Learning is embraced and encouraged
• It gives more opportunity for creativity

Cons of agile development methodology

• The outcome and time required to deliver the product is less predictable
• The stakeholders must invest their time in the project
• Documentation is not an agile deliverable
• The team must have a strong relationship for better productivity
• Rework can be avoided while using agile methodology.

Difference between waterfall and agile

• Waterfall requires customer involvement only when the deliverable is ready whereas agile requires customer involvement throughout the project.
• Waterfall works best when the scope is well known in advance whereas agile should be used when the scope is not defined properly in the beginning.
• Team coordination in waterfall methodology is limited as compared to that of agile methodology.
• Waterfall methodology has a higher risk of failure whereas agile has partial or minimal rate of risk due to iterative process.
• Waterfall methodology has reduced risk in terms of fixed costs whereas agile has higher stress when it comes to fixed costs but it works well for non-fixed funding.

Factors to be considered while deciding a methodology for your project

• Requirements and regulations: many requirements – waterfall, few requirements - agile
• Existing organisational processes: strict process – waterfall, lenient process - agile
• Product owner involvement: limited involvement – waterfall, high involvement - agile
• Nature of the project: enhancement to existing product– waterfall, new product - agile
• Timeline: fixed – waterfall, flexible - agile
• Budget: fixed – waterfall, has some scope of changes – agile

Now as you know what is waterfall and agile methodology of project development along with their pros and cons, and differences between them, you can very well understand that agile is faster when it comes to delivering minor outcomes. The minor outcomes can help in getting right direction for the expected final product with minimal chances of error in it. Thus, one can anytime rework on the requirements and get the desired product updated with the help of constant feedbacks and improvements.

Conclusion to the Topic: Is agile faster than waterfall?

As both the methodologies have their own pros and cons, there are many projects which use the combination of these methodologies. This means that in a project the initially methodology adopted is waterfall but thereafter the project adapts to agile methodology so as to enjoy the benefit of reworking and removing the backlogs. The benefit of integrating these methodologies is that the project will have a proper documentation at the beginning and the goal can be achieved in a flexible way.