Which Agile Technique or Tool would be the right fit for software development Projects?

A change in outlook is required in Agile methodologies as compared to other traditional approaches. The fundamental focus in Agile is to achieve maximum business value as compared to the scope in Waterfall methods. In Agile, quality and constraints can be changed to realize the main objective of accomplishing maximum business value  while in Waterfall, cost and schedule are altered to ensure the desired scope is achieved.
The Waterfall model will fit for well-organized and foreseeable projects wherein accurate estimation and well demarcated project requirements are prevalent. However, these types of projects are on the decline in many organizations and industries. Why the decline? Shifting requirements from customers’ impacted businesses to urgently adapt and contemplate objectively the pros and cons of their delivery methods.
In software development projects, Agile techniques and tools matter a lot – in choosing those tools which would be a perfect fit in consonance with their project features and requirements, vision and mission statements, organizational culture and structure.
Kanban accentuates just-in-time (JIT) delivery and strive to prevent overburdening developers. The pull principle is made use of by Kanban in the creation of task queues. The tasks are exhibited using visual aids. On the basis of availability of capacity, the developers pull tasks from the queue. Kanban as a visual management process and the Kanban method, which can be defined as incremental evolutionary process management are the two broad types of Kanban.
Lean Kanban is a set of values and principles summary on how to get success with product development. Whereas, Kanban is a process tool through which these values and principles are put into practice.
Scrum’s adaptability to change that form its core principle benefits intricate projects with uncertainty of a higher magnitude wherein undertaking long-term projections and estimations would definitely entail high risk. Scrum works best for projects wherein project requirements in the longer run are almost uncertain, the projects get impacted by the rapidly fluctuating market dynamics, and where teams would be expected of to have more flexibility.
The prime focus of Crystal family of methodologies toward efficiency, osmotic communication between team members and feedback-based learning for future operations can be adopted by teams if it suits their requirements pertaining to the project.
Extreme Programming is an Agile practice premeditated to improve software quality and responsiveness as per changing customer wants. It is characterized by a flat management structure. It has a few definitive features such as pair programming, unit testing of all code, and frequent communication with customers and programmers.
There is no magic rule that a team needs to use a particular Agile tool ‘only’ as that would depend on the project features and requirements, and how they are going to manage it.

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Advantages of using SCRUM

As with other certifications such as ITIL, PRINCE2 or PMP, SCRUM can also be described as an additional way in which organizations can achieve their goal of providing the best services or products to their customers. A new service which has to be designed or modification of an existing service can be termed as projects by organizations. But these so-called projects can become restrained due to shortage of time, resources, financial cost, and various challenges which can make an organization vulnerable to improper planning, execution, management and succession of projects. Organizations have henceforth formulated different methodologies for proper project management.

As with ITIL, Scrum has become one of the most sought-after methodologies to be implemented for success of a project. One of the advantages of Scrum is that it ensures transparency for communication where the conversation becomes easy for collective accountability and consistent progress.

Every methodology will have a special feature by which the challenges related to a project can be met. The benefits of Scrum are the usage of self-empowered, well-organized and across-department teams who can divide a project into little work cycles known popularly as Sprints.

Similar to the beginning of any project, the Scrum cycle also begins via a stakeholder meeting in which the details are explained to the delegate called as “Project Vision.” A Prioritized Product Backlog is then designed and developed by the Product Owner. The Backlog consists of a list of project and business requirements according to their priorities in the formula of user stories.

A Sprint is usually begun with a “Sprint Planning Meeting” and during the discussion high priority issues and stories will be included in the sprint. The time-limit of a Sprint will be between one and six weeks and will involve the Scrum team.

The highlights of the meeting will be the short, to-the-point stand-up meetings which will be conducted and the SCRUM team will discuss the daily progress of the project. When the time-limit is concluded, a Sprint review meeting is conducted and the Product Owner and concerned stakeholders will be provided updates and demonstrations regarding the Deliverables. The Product Owner has the option to accept the Deliverables provided they meet the accepted criteria or reject it if they do not meet the concerned guidelines.

The conclusion of the Sprint Cycle is the “Retrospect Sprint Meeting” in which the team suggests ways on improving the processes and their performance in moving forward into the subsequent Sprint.

Organizations that have used Scrum in their projects, vouch for its many benefits, some of them, adaptability, transparency, continuous improvement, motivation, faster problem resolution, and innovative environment.

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