The word ‘Agile,’ as per the English Dictionary, refers to the ability to move fast and smoothly. As a result, an agile approach is used so that teams may move rapidly and smoothly through the software development process.

For a good purpose: agile software development enables frequent iterative product deployments to the market. From time to time, it assists in accommodating modifications based on input from real users. These improvements may be applied and provided in succeeding iterations, assisting the product’s maturation. However, Agile’s objective isn’t only to raise the frequency and speed with which software is delivered. The goal is to move quickly yet comfortably. And method brings ease.

Although there are many other agile approaches, Scrum is the most extensively utilized agile methodology in software development organizations. Therefore, in this article, we’ll focus on the Agile Scrum methodology’s best practices.

Agile software development also provides for a great deal of freedom in how principles are implemented. As a result, the core of agile scrum methodology is often lost in the process of adapting it to the company culture and operations.

10 Best Practices of Agile Methodology

Let’s take a look at some of the most widely appreciated scrum practices that, when adopted, will ensure that the company’s operations are streamlined for maximum efficiency.

• Well-coordinated development and testing teams

There should be no distinction between development and quality assurance teams in Agile Scrum teams. Developers, testers, and the scrum master are all intended to work as one team to ensure that the product is a triumph.

Every sprint focuses on completing a product, and Development and QA collaborate to get it in a form that the customer can evaluate. At the same time, the scrum master ensures that the team stays on track and completes the most critical tasks on time.

• Increased Quality Assurance (QA) engagement

Testing must also be done in phases since agile software development using Scrum encourages working on the product in iterations throughout each cycle. The goal is to test the work of developers who are working on the same sprint. As a result, QA must be included in all user-story comprehension sessions as well as sprint demonstrations from the start of each sprint.

Making QA engage in the early phases of development guarantees a lower amount of bugs in the later stages. Including QA from the beginning ensures that there are no significant shocks at the end.

• Identifying risks and barriers

The agile approach enables teams to plan ahead of time for any potential distractions that may arise during an iteration. During Scrum, the team may miss discussing the risks and barriers when preparing the sprint and get overwhelmed by the sprint backlog, high priority bugs, or urgent client improvement requests.

The delivery team should aim to predict the amount of work required to deal with risks and barriers and plan end deliverables appropriately to minimize any last-minute surprises.

• Team cooperation on a more regular basis

Short daily meetings between the teams are recommended in agile software development using Scrum. Every day, these sessions help the team re-evaluate their progress and change the sprint target appropriately.

Every day in Scrum, there are standup meetings. These sessions aid in the management of the delivery team’s focus since any roadblocks may be identified and dealt with on the same day they are encountered. Team members may also learn about one other’s development and are encouraged to disclose any inhibitions they may have.

• Velocity Inspections

The Agile methodology aids in determining the team’s ability to produce user stories. It’s usually computed by counting how many user stories the team has completed in the first three to four iterations.

This assists the project team in forecasting the number of user stories that the team can deliver and effectively create future sprint backlogs based on the capacity evaluated earlier by the velocity metric.

• Sprint Backlog with little or no variance

One of the agile best practices is to maintain the sprint backlog as static as possible to keep the team focused and guarantee timely delivery unless a critical bug or feature must be addressed.

In Scrum Methodology, a significant amount of time is spent arranging this during sprint planning sessions to ensure that only the approved user stories/tasks are completed throughout the iteration.

• Maintaining the product and sprint backlog distinct

The product backlog is the comprehensive list of work that must be completed before the product is eligible for final delivery. In contrast, the sprint backlog is the collection of activities that will be completed within a specific sprint.

Keeping the product backlog and sprint backlog distinct is a suggested agile best practice.

The goal is to divide the entire list of product functionalities and user stories from the subset that will be executed in each sprint. This creates a clear distinction between what the delivery team is assumed to produce throughout numerous sprints and what the team is required to provide after a sprint.

• Prioritization of User Story & Timeboxing Tasks

According to one of the agile best practices that are usually suggested, user stories and features should always be prioritized focused on the business value they provide and the risks associated with developing them. This method allows the product owner and other stakeholders to assess the financial worth of each user story, allowing the most valuable user story to be realized first.

Timeboxing tasks or user stories keeps everyone on track and responsible for completing them, which might otherwise take an endless amount of time.

• Customer participation following each sprint

One of the key objectives of agile development is to make the product ready for the client in iterations and obtain feedback throughout each one. Agile can only be effective if collecting client or customer feedback after each sprint is given the attention it deserves.

• Automatic Regression Test Suites

Various iterations on the same product premised on user input mean several changes are made, which means a lot of effort is spent running the same logic and regression suites numerous times. These sanity and regression suites should be automated, according to Agile. Due to frequent code changes, having these tests automated considerably decreases the time and effort spent on repetitive testing. Learn why you should automate your regression tests.

To conclude, the aforementioned best practices are followed by an organization that chooses to adopt Agile Scrum methodology for software development and seeks to accomplish rapid and frequent market deliveries. If you want to master the Scrum methodologies, invest in Simplilearn’s certified scrum master certification. This state-of-the-art online two-day Scrum training course will thoroughly equip you with a detailed outline of the Scrum structure for Agile Project management. So, whether you’re a team member/manager of a Scrum team, a team transitioning to Scrum, or a professional interested in pursuing a career as a Certified ScrumMaster, this is the ideal training course for you.