What is a real life example of agile?

Real-Life Example of Agile: Developing a Mobile Banking App

Let’s take the development of a mobile banking app as a real-life example of how Agile methodology works in practice. This example demonstrates how Agile principles like iterative development, collaboration, and continuous feedback are applied in real-world projects.

Initial Project: Mobile Banking App

A bank wants to create a mobile app that allows users to perform essential functions like checking account balances, transferring money, and paying bills. Instead of trying to deliver the entire app at once (as would happen in a traditional "waterfall" approach), the team decides to use Agile to deliver the app incrementally, allowing feedback and adaptation at each stage.

Step-by-Step Agile Approach

1. Product Backlog Creation The product owner creates a product backlog, listing all the features the app should have, like:

• User authentication (login and registration)
• View account balances
• Money transfers
• Bill payments
• Transaction history
• Push notifications for transactions

The product owner prioritizes these based on business needs and customer value. For example, user authentication and viewing account balances might be the highest priority, while push notifications could be lower.

2. Sprint Planning The team holds a Sprint Planning meeting to decide which features to work on during the first sprint. The team selects the highest priority features, such as:

• As a user, I want to register and log into the app.
• As a user, I want to view my account balances.

They estimate the time needed and decide they can complete these user stories within a two-week sprint.

3. Development in Sprints During the sprint, the team works on building the registration, login, and account balance features. They hold daily stand-up meetings to share progress, discuss obstacles, and ensure alignment. The development team writes the code, tests the features, and integrates everything as part of the product.

4. Sprint Review and Feedback At the end of the sprint, the team holds a Sprint Review, where they demonstrate the login and account balance features to stakeholders and the product owner. Stakeholders provide feedback, such as improving the login process to make it faster.

5. Sprint Retrospective The team then holds a Sprint Retrospective to reflect on how the sprint went. They discuss what went well (e.g., communication was effective), what didn’t (e.g., testing took longer than expected), and how they can improve in the next sprint.

6. Next Sprint Based on the feedback and priorities, the team plans the next sprint. They might now work on the money transfer feature, while also improving the login feature based on stakeholder feedback.

7. Continuous Delivery and Improvement After a few sprints, the team has delivered the core features (login, account balance, money transfer). They release the app to a small group of customers to get real-world feedback. Using Agile, they continue to develop and release new features (e.g., bill payments, transaction history) in subsequent sprints while continuously improving the app based on user feedback.

Key Agile Practices in This Example

• Iterative Development: The app is built incrementally, with small, usable features being delivered every few weeks (sprints), instead of delivering everything at the end.
• Customer Collaboration: The team regularly interacts with stakeholders and customers to gather feedback, which shapes the product.
• Flexibility: The team adapts based on feedback. For example, after users tested the app, they might reprioritize features or make adjustments to existing ones.
• Continuous Improvement: Through sprint retrospectives, the team continually reflects on how they can improve their processes, making future sprints more efficient.

Benefits of Using Agile in This Example

• Faster Time to Market: The bank doesn’t need to wait for the entire app to be completed to release it. Core features like login and account balance are released early, allowing customers to use them while other features are still in development.
• Flexibility to Adapt: The development team can quickly adjust to changing customer needs or business priorities, such as adding a feature to support two-factor authentication if required by regulators.
• Improved Quality: Continuous testing and feedback ensure that any bugs or usability issues are caught early, improving the overall quality of the app.

Conclusion

In this real-life example of developing a mobile banking app, Agile allows the team to deliver value incrementally, respond to feedback quickly, and continuously improve the product. This iterative approach ensures that customers start using the product sooner while the team refines and adds new features over time.