Is Agile Web Development a thing? And if so, what is it?
Agile Software Development defined, Agile software development describes an approach to software development under which requirements and solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams and their customer(s)/end user(s).
Leading a development project that is “Agile” essentially means that you work with a team on piecing together design and functionality over time, building each function piece by piece until you have reached your objective and finished project. If you are interested in reading more about that, I’d highly suggest reading “Agile Project Management for Dummies“. (No offense intended).
Throughout my career of launching, developing and managing both small and large scale web projects I have realized that a very similar approach works well for website development as well.
What is Agile Web Development?
Agile web development is a model of ongoing development of a website to consistently review it and build functionality or enhance design based on data driven and stakeholder feedback or requirements and decisions.
Why would a business benefit from Agile Web Development?
By launching a website with only “What you need” you can save costs overall. That is the primary purpose of this model and the biggest benefit. You don’t need to launch with functionality that may have cost thousands to build until you know that your website and it’s users require it.
How does Agile Web Development work?
- Launch – You have gone through the process of building a lean website and developed it. You are ready to launch your website.
- Data Review – Typically after 3 months or more you review your analytics and compile recommendations with your team on changes that should or could be made to the website for better usability.
- Consult with Stakeholders – You review the planned recommendations with stakeholders (clients, business owners, etc…), collect feedback from them and take any reccomendations or requests they have for future development.
- Approve Tasks – Like agile development you compile a list of development tasks into a Sprint and have your developer(s) build them on your test server.
- Develop – Development begins.
- Test – This is your User Acceptance Testing phase (UAT) where your stakeholders and yourself confirm everything is working on your dev\test server or site.
- Launch.
- Repeat cycle periodically.