TV series’ wisdom plus ruling-the-world objective equals Agile project management. Seems unlikely? “King in the North!”, screamed the excited crowd a couple of seasons ago coronating one of the characters to rule the kingdom. A lot of us then thought: “Hmm, being a king does not look so bad…”. Power over what you create is exhilarating, is it not? Anyone who has seen GoT, HoC, or just paid some attention to recent politics would sense the thrill coming from the ruling, be it only on TV, or in real life.
Do you, personally, feel like a King or a Queen at work? Ruling change, projects, teams or everyday to-do lists? Would you like to be one? There is always space for improvement in how your teammates and vendors are listening to you! Have a look on how it is done in the fastest-growing IT industry of today’s world – mobile – and become agile, too!
What is this Agility, after all?
“Agile”, apart from being a buzzword of 2016, is a set of principles used, among others, in Scrum framework for management. There are numerous definitions I could quote for it but it all boils down to this idea: being agile is listening to your client, team, or boss and giving them what they want in batches so they can influence it more in the production process.
If you want to learn more about the most popular Agile methodologies, read our guide to Scrum and Kanban!
Why would mobile be Agile?
80% of Internet users own a smartphone and mobile apps downloads are expected to reach 268.69 billion in 2017 worldwide, according to Statista. But business is growing like crazy not only thanks to the ubiquity of the Internet and smart stuff. It is also one of the few industries nowadays that adapts to its surroundings almost every hour of every day. How is this possible?
1. Responsiveness: you can talk when you want not when they let you
People on all levels listen in mobile. Developers work together as a community supporting each other, sharing code, libraries, and ideas. Sales offer consulting expertise that will lead you to a tailored solution. Project Managers will listen to your needs, dreams, and business fantasies and then help them flourish into functionalities.
2. Creativity: you can make your ideas come to life
People are kick-ass creative in mobile. Your app can scan QR or barcodes, fingertips or documents. Help you find love, a pet, clothes you have seen in a magazine, holidays, car, yacht or a flat to rent. Pay your bills, buy, sell, connect you with the world. Make virtual tattoos, videos, draw, play Pokemons and teach you languages.
3. Flexibility: you can change what you wish, fast
People are all about change in mobile. Because best custom software development services companies work in Scrum and Agile, which means 2-week-long mini-projects (Sprints), they can iterate and embrace any change you want be it in design, functionalities, technology or scope. They analyze, run tests and change, adapt, improve. Learning is living in mobile.
4. Real-life example: HelloFresh
HelloFresh (international healthy-diet-and-family-cooking unicorn present on three continents and valued at $2.9B) has been Miquido’s client for the second year now, among other services, with an app allowing users to create shopping lists and order them online to prepare exquisite home-made meals.
Not to get a word out about the project details, Miquido’s responsiveness, creativity, and flexibility helped the client to grow and reach even more customers both on iOS and Android. Enough said: our mobile HelloFresh project driven by Agile management has been named “Most Innovative” in Google Best apps of 2016.
Wouldn’t you want that for your business, too?
