How Agile helps an IT contractor deliver results faster while the client gains better control over development and changes.
We dig into the nuances, the benefits for both client and developer, and the values of the Agile approach. Imagine you want to commission the development of an online store, a service, or a B2B portal and are choosing a contractor. You have two candidates: IT companies with similar experience.
Each with its own strengths: technology, team... But one of the companies claims an advantage: "We work in Agile!"
What does Agile mean for the client: more profit?
Or more problems? Agile is a flexible approach to software development.
Here, the work is broken into a large number of small stages - sprints.
A sprint can last from one week to one month, and the result of each sprint is something the client can already work with - a product increment. With this approach, it is easy for the client to control each stage of the work, and the result is as closely adapted to market requirements as possible.
No paperwork hassle. With Agile there is no need for a technical specification, even though it often includes crucial sections explaining the purpose of components and describing the overall plan. Yes, sometimes the client wants to work from a precise specification, especially at the start of the project.
But in practice adjustments are inevitable: here a contract wasn't signed with the system you needed to integrate with, but one was signed with another that needs a different integration. And the business keeps generating new inputs. In other words, to work from a technical specification you have to overcome difficulties: drafting and signing it very carefully.
In practice, even if the client is sure that all their requirements are described and clear, by the second demo they will think of better solutions.
But they can only be included in the project if a large buffer was built into the time estimate from the outset; you have to spend budget and time developing a document that is almost certain to be substantially revised; when changing the specification you have to maintain a large layer of documentation, otherwise the client will later fail an internal audit (if the specification does not match what was built) and the contractor risks not being paid; and you must not let its writing drag on for many months.
Large clients often cannot approve the technical specification - it requires alignment across many departments.
Each department generates new requirements and has no interest in meeting deadlines (they have more important things to do).
As a result, the implementation specification takes a long time to write and becomes outdated even during development; you will still have to hold regular demos, because testing the entire feature set at once takes a great deal of time, and there is usually no spare time; contrary to popular belief, development against a specification generally does not reveal quality problems, whereas in agile development you add an increment of value in every sprint.
And if the number of scenarios decreases over time or the cost of a sprint rises, that is one sign of declining quality (the worse the quality, the higher the cost of changes).
Contract simplicity: the contract specifies monthly acceptance of the work volume based on the provided breakdown.
A simpler contract means faster approval and signing, while the document protects both the contractor and the client equally.
The client is fully involved and controls every stage.
No bureaucracy or delays - decisions are made quickly.
The product reaches the market faster, as an MVP, and is easier to adapt to customer demands. Profit is always in focus. The goal is to get the first profit from the MVP quickly and increase it by better meeting customer needs.
Without Agile: there are planned targets that must be followed precisely: the project start date, the project end date, and the budget. First, the business forms hypotheses about what the ideal IT product should be (an online store, a mobile app, a B2B portal...), then a clear technical specification must be prepared, and the contractor follows it. Only after the contractor delivers the work does the business accept the project into operation.
Even if you invite representatives from every department to interim demos, it will not help: only real users will start asking real questions. But the contractor is no longer interested in how the product will actually be used - what matters is meeting the technical specification. The main thing for them is to do their part, stay within budget, and meet deadlines. But what if the technical specification did not account for some processes (and, we should emphasize, that happens almost always)?
During development, a more attractive substitute or an aggressive competitor appeared on the market, and trends, exchange rates and other factors shifted.
: here, the project is reduced to the size of a sprint. At the end of the sprint, a small piece of functionality appears that can already be used. Yes, we cannot influence how fast developers work. But what Agile definitely speeds up is the release of a minimum viable product (MVP). It is realistic to launch an MVP in 1-3 months, then start refining the functionality based on business requirements while adjusting priorities along the way. That means the resulting product will better match user expectations.
As soon as the MVP meets its users, we can quickly see the feedback and adapt to new requirements. If it proves unprofitable, we won't mindlessly churn out an unneeded product but will change it or create a new one. The same applies to every subsequent version of the product. Agile means "nimble," "agile," and the system itself stands for flexibility, mobility and readiness for change. Improvements can be made regularly rather than all at once, and at a lower cost.
As a result, the quality of the finished IT solution is maximally adapted to the client's requirements. This is easy to track not only through reviews but also through web analytics and usability analysis.
Without Agile: the client doesn't see what the developers are actually doing; the finished product, awaited for so long, may disappoint.
If the project is stopped early, you can be left with nothing, since the result was planned to arrive only at the very end.
Making changes to the technical specification is difficult and time-consuming, with many approvals required - bureaucracy.
Sometimes drafting the initial technical specification takes a company so much effort and time that reworking it seems impossible.
A programmer cares about finishing the project on time, without considering the cost of maintaining and changing the project later.
This is a serious problem with the project-based approach.
: in Agile, there are no projects with fixed end dates; the focus is on the product, which can be improved in small steps for as long as needed.
At the same time, the process is so flexible that it can be stopped at any moment - and you still have a finished increment in hand that already works and interacts with the market.
We treat progress in the project as effectively endless, so we will have to clear the technical debt ourselves later.
This motivates writing clean code from the start and raises the contractor's motivation overall.
And if most of the work is directed toward fighting technical debt, client satisfaction will decline. In Agile, the development team communicates with the client constantly.
Meetings are held daily - daily meeting.
Of course, the client does not always have time - in that case, we send them a report to show today's plans and the facts received yesterday.
The main project risk is failing to recover the investment.
The main way to avoid this is to meet the needs of the end customer.
Without Agile: are you ready to spend money for months or even years building a product whose profitability is in doubt? Remember that with the classic approach the result is visible only at the very end. With Agile: the team's focus is aimed at business goals from the start.
The more often new versions ship, the more often we get feedback from users and/or the market and do everything to make profitability grow.
Agile will not let you spend time and effort, and therefore money, for long on unprofitable activities.
The goal of business is to generate profit. Software is often a complex system (in Agile methodology, a system with many factors where cause-and-effect relationships are unclear). For complex systems, it is more important to get feedback from real users faster, and at present it is fair to say that developing and managing any product is a complex system.
If, on the other hand, you face clear and unambiguous tasks, the classic methodology is perfectly viable: specification, deadlines, budget.
The client fully controls the process, so there will be no unpleasant surprises at the end.
Corporate clients very often ask how to handle documentation.
Its creation is built into sprints as part of the development process (if the task requires documentation, we write it) or as a fixed block of hours.
Agile principles in IT development help our clients stay ahead of competitors and skim the cream off any market.
You can see examples of projects worked on using exactly this method in our portfolio.
