A startup needs to patiently work itself towards sustained success. As an entrepreneur, you cannot move ahead with abrupt decisions and aggressive strategies. Frequent challenges are common during the teething period and the same can be overcome effectively through adoption of agile methodology. The flexibility offered allows your startup to remain in the competition and march ahead with reasonable time bound growth.
You can plan and structure your strategies in a flexible manner. This offers you enough control over the processes involved so that you can bounce back in time if disaster strikes. Your stakes in a particular process are strategic enough that can be withdrawn within time to shield your startup from the crisis.
Agile Methodology: Most Effective of All Variants Available
In recent times, a number of methodologies have surfaced to cater to the unique needs of startups. Each comes accompanied with its own pros and cons. Agile methodology definitely has an edge over others, particularly on intra-organization informational exchange and coordination fronts.
In Agile methodology, business development happens from the perspective of cross-functional collaboration. Startup needs and efficacy of corresponding solutions are analyzed from the viewpoint of organizational mission and customers’ needs. Processes and development criteria are accordingly aligned. Iteration is an integral part of development. Superior quality solutions are achieved through regular inspection and re-orientation of non-performing processes. Expeditious delivery of products or services can be achieved with relative ease.
Highly Adaptive Process
Agile methodology helps in change management within the startup in dynamic and responsive manner. Late changes in the projects can be seamlessly incorporated without tilting the business dynamics. Outcomes of the change become visible to managers and clients sooner so those needful alterations can be done within strategic time. All needful features or needs that may not be getting adequately reflected in the project can be assimilated with the help of development team. Innovation and risk-taking are agilely done by developers to meet customer needs. This allows saving of time, energy, and resources which helps startups to tide over the struggling phase successfully.
More Interaction Oriented
Agile methodology needs the professional intervention of each team member. Everyone on-board is amenable to the chair. Individual accomplishments are taken stock of. Key performance indicators are set for all members and the same are measured in every meeting. Bottlenecks and their solutions are discussed in detail. This keeps the project from de-railing due to individual lacunas and also effectively closes all scope of vulnerabilities. Since individual responsibilities are clearly defined, work duplication and ensuing confusion are eliminated. The team functions in a coordinated manner and helps in accomplishing the objective of the startup efficiently.
Promotes Collaboration
Your startup can succeed if it functions like a cohesive unit. The collective conscience of the employees needs to be addressed to exploit individual strengths for surmounting challenges posed by personal weaknesses. The sense of oneness creates the motivation for working intuitively. Inherent potential of professionals is unleashed optimally. It also helps managers to provide strategic support framework needed to succeed. Consequently, resource wastages are drastically slashed. The entire aforesaid can be seamlessly achieved through the adoption of agile methodology.
Quality Enhancement
Product and service quality is significantly improved. Periodic communication gets rid of bottlenecks. Reliance on documents is reduced and feedbacks of stakeholders take precedence. Startup dynamics is infused with a sense of urgency. Checklists are prepared and completion status is cross-checked frequently for identification of issues at every phase. Continuous integration does away with the need of cumbersome corrections at a later stage. Architectural complexities are set right. All these steps tremendously leverage quality parameters which are essential for startup’s success.
Prevents Unwarranted Draining of Resources
Startups consistently battle with capital crunch. The agile methodology allows projects to be completed within deadlines without going overboard with the allocated budget. Resources and assets are sweated optimally. Smaller teams enhance better coordination. Constraints are proactively managed for constant value addition to team endeavors. Customer feedbacks and developers’ views are collected at frequent intervals and then analyzed for streamlining processes. Better process transparency allows for shorter delivery cycles. The entire startup ecosystem gets a periodic shakeup without wastage of resources.
Better Knowledge Management
Through agile methodology, every member of the team remains informed on what his or her colleague is working on. If a member comes across a particular problem whose solution is not directly under his professional purview, he/ she can engage in interaction with a responsible team member to sort the same out. This improves the knowledge level of teammates about critical processes significantly. Sharing of resources by team members’ also fosters better collaboration. Better diffusion of knowledge leads to better product quality. Efficient alternatives are readily available. Training offered to one member allows for the dissemination of gathered knowledge to all members of the team. All stakeholders remain fully involved in the development process. This helps in quick decision making. Visible progress is demonstrated. Backlogs are cleared.
As a startup, you can rely on the effective techniques of Agile methodology to forge ahead in your business endeavors.
