How To Improve Agile Product Delivery?

Product delivery is at the core of every product and delivering a product that is of high quality and sustainable is the ultimate aim of any product development team. And the customer is the focus of all development and delivery activities. Everything revolves around customers' needs. From pre-planning to product delivery, the Product Managers, as well as their teams, have only one thing in mind - to align the product with the customer's requirement. This is particularly true of Agile product delivery. The customer is the center of all the activities and the teams strive hard to meet customer expectations. But it requires a whole lot of planning, gathering resources, coordination with all the stakeholders, and of course proper tools for successful product delivery. You may face several impediments or unexpected roadblocks in your journey of Agile product delivery. This may cause delays and lead to missing deadlines which in turn incur the displeasure of your customers. So there is always a need for improvement in Agile product delivery and the obvious question is "how to improve Agile product delivery".

This is what this article is all about. We are going to discuss the ways with which you can make improvements and have a smoother Agile product delivery. But before jumping straight into the Agile product delivery improvement methods, it will be better if we understand what Agile product delivery actually is.

Agile Product Delivery 

In simple terms, Agile product delivery is a method through which organizations design, create, and then ensure continuous delivery of products or services for their customers. Changes happen rapidly in today's world in any field, changes occur quite regularly and innovation is the name of the game. Customers are always hungry for innovative products and services and the ability of the organizations to deliver these at the right time is their key to success. So every organization has to use customer-centric methods to compete in the market. The key is to deliver the right product to the customer on time. And to ensure this, companies need to balance their focus on implementation with their focus on the customer. This is what Agile product delivery is all about. And companies are always on the lookout for ways to improve Agile product delivery. Let's get to that.

How To Improve Agile Product Delivery

When we talk of improvement in Agile product delivery, we have to look at the whole process. Care has to be taken right from the pre planning stage to ensure that we can smoothen the process as much as possible, except for some unforeseen obstacles like turnover of team members or changes in deadlines. Let's first discuss what can be done at the pre-planning stage to improve the Agile product delivery.

If you apply the Agile methodology at the pre planning stage itself, it will reduce the risks that may cause the failure of the project. This is so because Agile lays emphasis on handling the change. Collaboration, which is intrinsic to Agile methods, makes sure that teams are in complete harmony and they connect with all the stakeholders. Of more importance is the understanding of the vision by the team that has prompted the planning for that particular product or service. The more they align with the vision, the better will be the Agile product delivery. 

 Let’s now look at improving the Agile product delivery during the main process. The success of Agile product delivery largely depends on how well and quickly your team can respond to changes. It's easier to go straight to Agile methodology. But not every method in Agile will work for every project. So, you have to see what fits where. Below are some of the ways in which you can improve your Agile product delivery.

1. Keep Re-Estimating

Whatever estimation techniques you might be using, none gives you 100% accurate results. There is always a margin of error. So, you can't call any estimate final until the whole project has been completed. That is why re-estimation is so important. You have to keep estimating again and again. You may feel satisfied with the estimates drawn by your team and may even share them with your customer. But at some stage, you may face that unpredictable thing called change. There may be changes in design or in timelines. This may compel you to rework your estimates. And even if these things don't change, your and your team's perception of what and how you are making may have to change during the process as you make progress. Once again, there will be a need to have a relook at your estimates. So, it is important to keep re-estimating at different points during the process so that changes are accounted for and any obstacles are taken care of.

2. Keep The Team Environment Light And Easy

It is a well-established fact that happy people are more productive. People leaving in the middle of a project means a huge cost for the organization not just in terms of money but also in time and expertise. Replacing an expert team member with an equally expert person means a loss of precious time which may lead to missed deadlines. Therefore, it is not only important but also essential that your team doesn't take the work as a burden. When your client pressurizes you to deliver quickly, asking the team to work overtime to deliver the product may be a natural reaction. It may produce immediate results but in the long run, it may prove counterproductive as the team may become a victim of fast burnout. Your team might work extra hours but their focus and energy may waiver. This may impact their coordination too. Here a tool like Extreme Programming (XP) is very useful. This helps in maintaining a regular pattern of work thus keeping the team happy and they work in a light and easy environment and become more productive without feeling any pressure. With a satisfied team, you can expect to meet product delivery deadlines.

3. Collaboration With Clients

There is no doubt that you and your team's close collaboration and regular contact with customers is very important and that should be maintained at all times. After all, a good word of appreciation will be a great motivator for you as well as your team. When your team is in direct touch with the customer, it hears both good and bad from the customer. While the good words will inspire them, bad things said to them may discourage them and they may feel demotivated. The client may even start putting pressure on them for various things or may start questioning the progress. Here, special care needs to be taken. You should choose to detach the team from the client and someone else may be deputed to pass on the client's message to them. This will keep them insulated from any negativity caused by the client's behavior or words. And they will continue to work as productively as before.

4. Release Regularly

No one will dispute the fact that delivering the product to the customer at the earliest is incredibly beneficial. This not only keeps the customer expectations under check but also exhibits the value addition you have done. It helps to release regularly as it gets you regular feedback also. If you keep releasing regularly you will have another benefit. It will help you in assessing the reliability of your release process. You can fix the bug immediately if you see a release taking too long a time. Moreover, if you have to spend less time on fixing releasing issues, you will have more time to focus on delivery issues, thus hastening the delivery process and earning you the appreciation and goodwill of your customer. And there is one more important thing to keep in mind. You must keep updating a live product. Because if after some time, maybe months or years later, the client wants you to add certain new features to their product, the codebase, if not regularly updated, will be outdated, and updating the product will cost a lot of money. So it is better to keep updating than to be caught napping when the time for updating comes.

5. Documenting Everything Helps

A practice prevalent in most organizations today is that they support a product for some time after it has been built. There is n number of products coming into the industry every day and this may result in product teams seeing a huge turnover. People switching companies, and looking for better projects are commonplace these days. And this could gravely affect the after support for a product particularly if anyone who has been associated with the product from conception to delivery leaves the team. In today's competitive world where keeping the costs low is a top priority, this unexpected cost addition may mean the difference between profit and loss. This is where documenting assumes significance. If you keep documenting your product while it is being built, it will save you a lot of hassles later. Any new person, who is not acquainted with that codebase, can use it if there is proper documentation. So, the support to the product will flow unhindered as the new man will be able to fix any issues arising in support easily and without any hassles. This will save costs also for the organization.

So, you can see how these small-small things add up to make Agile product delivery smoother and faster. We hope now you know how to improve Agile product delivery. These are not the only methods by which you can make your Agile product delivery better but we have tried to highlight the most effective ways of improving the Agile product delivery. You can try any new ideas also that you may come across. 

References

1. https://medium.com/ostmodern/7-practical-agile-tips-to-improve-product-delivery-c01ebba746f1
2. https://www.scaledagileframework.com/agile-product-delivery/