After software has been developed you might find that the system works great for the most part, but maybe there is one feature or journey that isn’t quite working as you want it to. Maybe you’ve got a legacy system that seems to be glitching more and more after installing a commercial off the shelf solution. Or perhaps you find that the entire infrastructure needs to be overhauled shortly after implementation. Each of these could be due to several factors—including the Agile workflow itself. While Agile is excellent in the right setting with the right group of people, there are some pitfalls that occur that can lead to the bare minimum of passable outcomes.
Agile Might Not Admit the Bigger Picture
The major problem with Agile is that oftentimes developers can’t see the forest for the trees. Agile teams write and test their code in sprints. This makes sense on a surface level, as writing everything at once before testing leads to its own messes. So as requirements are met, those components are tested and then you move on. In morning scrum meetings, developers explain their plans for the day and lingering issues from the day before. People within the team might offer support and solutions to those issues. But when a developer completed their tasks from the day before with no issues, these meetings sometimes become nothing more than listing off work that has been done, not opportunities to collaborate or seek feedback. In those instances, developers may just be concerned with being able to get through the meeting and write code that gets them through the sprint.
Agile Can Allow Coding to the Test, Not Testing to Find Errors
If a team has a 2-week sprint to complete a list of tasks a mile long, chances are good that a less-than-stellar team will find a way to cut corners here and there. One of the easiest (and worst) places to cut corners is in the quality assurance testing phase of the process. Frequently, teams will create tests that are executed over and over. Knowing what is needed to pass the test means that the requirements will be met every time. What needs to happen is for exploratory testing to be conducted that examines this new code for new errors. But often, tight timeframes lead to the opposite. Teams are just kicking the can down the road…and at the end of the road you might have a buggy product that doesn’t meet requirements.
At iLAB we know how to keep the bigger picture in mind while monitoring the smallest details of this sprint, and the next, and the next. In addition, we train our employees to talk with developers about found defects and how to address them in a way that empowers a team, not frustrates them. iLAB can work with you from beginning to end to make sure the bare minimum doesn’t affect your bottom line. Contact us today to learn more.