Apple launched its mobile App Store back in 2008 with just around 500 apps, and today, it has over 2.2 million apps. Though Android joined the club a few years later, it offers more than 2.8 million applications on its Play Store. What these figures tell us is that in spite of being just around a decade old, mobile apps have now become an essential commodity that every smartphone user consumes and a channel that businesses use to reach out to an immensely vast global audience, thereby boosting revenues.

But as much as mobile app industry has exploded or the technologies they employ have evolved, the methodology has witnessed little or no change. Most mobile app developers still rely on the typical industrial conveyor belt model, referred as waterfall model by technocrats, where the app upon designing moves on to the coding section, then to testing and so forth, with little and limited communication between the respective teams.

This is where agile development steps in.

To reaffirm at this point, agile is not a technology or a tool for app development but a methodology that makes use of such technologies and tools much more efficient and yield far superior results.

So, what exactly is agile development?

The first and the most important distinction between traditional and agile methodology is that while the former partitions the development procedure into different stages, the latter segregates them into iterative cycles. Each cycle in itself is treated as a mini-project where all the stakeholders concurrently collaborate, with an agile coach on the top to synchronize and steer communication. While the model remains very simple-to-implement, the benefits that developers can reap are manifold. Here are few prominent ones:

Transparency

Since all the stakeholders are actively involved, the development procedure witnesses much higher transparency between the client and the developers as well as among the team of developers. This approach, besides promoting collaboration and engagement, also makes the entire team accountable for the project, rather than individuals.

Quality

Since the development process is divided into multiple smaller cycles- each of which passes under the scrutiny of all the stakeholders, there is little chance of any discrepancies creeping in, thereby ensuring much better quality than otherwise possible.

Customization

As there are no concrete stages in the development process, the developers have the liberty to accommodate new client requests without causing any backlash towards previous development efforts. And since most of the apps are developed over the course of months, there is a good chance that some new trends can be witnessed in the meanwhile and thus, agile methodology is the only way you can save your application for getting outdated even before launch.

Quicker Deployment

The app development works in iterative cycles, which means a usable product gets developed very early in the development stage. If you like it, you can deploy such application to gain valuable feedback, which can then be easily accommodated in the next cycles. This way, the final product you deploy is not just highly refined, but also in line with user expectations.

Predictable time-frame and cost

App development is a complex task and it is often observed that what initially was expected to take a week gets stretched over a month due to some peculiar bug. But agile development, due to its collaborative model and strict development cycles, makes it much easier to predict precise development time and costs, empowering the businesses to tailor their business strategy accordingly.

All said, perhaps, the best thing about Agile methodology is that it has virtually no shortfalls. So, while there is plenty to gain if you adopt agile development, there is nothing to lose in return. And this is the aspect that has led most top mobile application development companies to adopt this methodology and reap subsequent benefits.

We also have put in place an elaborate infrastructure and agile teams to handle projects of all scales and complexities. If you have any mobile app concept in mind that you believe will benefit the most from agile development, get in touch with our team.