AGILE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Agile product development refers to a set of product development practices and methods
based on the principles and values of the Agile Manifesto. In Agile product development,
teams build products using short iterations that enable continuous feedback and rapid
improvement.
The Agile methodology is an iterative approach to project management that focuses on
breaking down projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. Compared to traditional project
management approaches like Waterfall, Agile prioritizes speed, flexibility, cross-team
collaboration, and frequent feedback. Teams continuously evaluate requirements, progress,
and results, so they can respond to change quickly.
The product development process is divided into sprints or iterations—short and periodic
time frames that usually last from one to four weeks. Each sprint starts with a planning
meeting where cross-functional teams come together to discuss and prioritize the work that
needs to be done.
Every iteration is like a small project that includes all the stages of the product development
process, from product discovery to release. Once the sprint ends, the product team presents a
working product, or Minimum Viable Product (MVP), to customers and stakeholders. The
goal is to create something simple that they can iterate on based on users’ feedback. It might
take multiple iterations before launching the final feature or product to market.

The agile product development process

Agile became popular in 2001 when a group of 17 software developers published the
Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Their goal was to optimize the software
development process and find a way to quickly identify and correct problems.
Although typically associated with software development, the Agile methodology has
successfully expanded to other areas, including product development.

THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF AGILE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT

The Agile Manifesto lays out 12 principles that describe the Agile mindset. Below we’ll
review each of them and explain how they can be adapted to product development.
1. Satisfy customers through early and continuous delivery
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of
valuable software.
Iteration and customer feedback are at the core of the Agile methodology. Product managers
focus on delivering a working product, ideally an MVP, as soon as possible. The goal is to
get feedback from real customers and use those insights to inform future releases and
improve the product.
2. Welcome changing requirements
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change
for the customer’s competitive advantage.
Customer needs, the marketplace, and competition are constantly evolving. In this dynamic
context, companies need to embrace change to remain competitive. While traditional
approaches to product development view changing requirements as a threat, Agile product
teams consider them an opportunity to increase the chance of delivering superior value to the
customer.
3. Deliver working products frequently
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a
preference to the shorter timescale.
Agile product development focuses on shortening the gap between initial planning and
delivery. Delivering working products frequently to customers allows teams to
collect product feedback early, evaluate their course, and make changes if needed.
4. Encourage regular communication
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Agile encourages regular communication and collaboration between product teams and
business stakeholders. Daily stand-ups and sprint planning, review, and retrospective
meetings are just a few ways to bring everyone on the same page and align the product goals
with business objectives.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
Another key aspect of the Agile methodology is to empower individuals and product teams
through autonomy and trust. With the right environment, product management tools, and
support, people will do their best work and produce quality outcomes. The most important
thing is to make sure that everyone understands the product strategy and the underlying
business motivation.
6. Choose face-to-face conversation whenever possible
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation.
Due to the increasing number of distributed or remote teams, 'face-to-face conversation' can
be interpreted as 'synchronous communication.' In the end, the goal behind this principle is to
encourage real-time communication about the product to avoid misunderstandings and
delays.
7. Measure progress with working versions of the final product
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Rather than releasing a final, perfect product, Agile product development involves delivering
many versions of the product until arriving at a final version that meets all the requirements.
The only way to measure progress is to have a working product that users can test out.
8. Promote sustainable product development
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users
should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
Breaking down processes into small and achievable milestones helps product teams set
realistic goals and clear expectations. The idea is to keep team members motivated, improve
work-life balance, and avoid burnout and turnover.
9. Pay attention to technical excellence and good design
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
The goal of Agile is to create not just a working product but also a high-quality solution.
When teams pay attention to the technical quality and design after each iteration, they can fix
issues early and avoid problems in the future.
10. Keep it simple
Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.
This Agile principle invites product teams to focus their efforts on what is essential to create
value. An example of how product teams apply this principle to product development is the
creation of a Minimum Viable Product— an early version of a product with just enough
features to attract early customers and validate the product idea.
11. Self-organizing teams generate the most value
 The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
Self-organizing teams decide as a group how they will accomplish their work, rather than
waiting for a manager to tell them what to do. Giving teams a high-level direction and letting
them organize and manage themself boosts motivation and engagement and speeds up
decision-making.
12. Regularly reflect on how to be more effective
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and
adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Agile is about constant improvement, and this philosophy also applies to processes and
teams. Most Agile frameworks, such as Scrum or Kanban, include a retrospective at the end
of each sprint. This is a great opportunity to evaluate what went well and what didn’t and
understand how to improve the process in the future.
At Maze, after each build cycle, we organize a retrospective with the development team and
stakeholders to discuss what worked and what could be improved. Learn more about our
current product development process.
The pros and cons of agile product development
Like any other development methodology, Agile has its strengths and weaknesses. Here we
outline some of them.

THE PROS
 High flexibility. Continuous delivery and constant iterations allow product teams to adjust or
shift priorities as the project moves forward. Agile teams can adapt to change rapidly and
tailor the product to the customers' expectations.
 Reduced risk. As testing is run at the end of each sprint, product teams can identify problems
early and solve them before they become major issues. The fast feedback loops help them
validate assumptions and understand what adds real value to the customer.
 Faster time-to-market. Agile teams deliver smaller and more frequent releases to customers.
Reducing the time to market gives companies a competitive advantage—they can collect
more frequent feedback and react faster to market changes.

THE CONS
 Less predictability. Agile values responding to change rather than following a plan. The
possibility to adjust requirements and priorities as the project evolves makes it harder to
predict efforts like cost, time, and resources needed.
 More time and dedication. Agile product development demands a considerable commitment
from everyone involved in the project. Cross-functional teams need to communicate and
collaborate on an ongoing basis to evaluate what is working and what needs improvement.
 Lack of long-term planning. An Agile project can run the risk of losing direction, going off
track, or falling behind schedule due to frequently changing requirements.
Key tips for a successful agile product development process
Fast and efficient product development becomes a competitive advantage in an ever-changing
market. By following an Agile methodology, you and your product team will be able to
respond quickly to shifting customer needs and adjust the direction as needed.
More and more companies are recognizing the benefits of Agile product development. But
what are the best ways to transition to an Agile process? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
 Agile is, first and foremost, a mindset. Make sure everyone in the team understands and fully
embraces the Agile values and principles.
 Encourage team members to communicate and collaborate often. The alignment of goals and
priorities is vital for the success of a cross-functional team.
 Promote continuous improvement. Try the Agile approach with smaller projects at first,
experiment with different practices, and discuss what works best for you with your team.
 Test early and often. Incorporate tests at every stage of the product development process to
get real-time feedback that helps you iterate and improve.
 When it comes to software development , quality is everything. Quality
Assurance (QA) is a systematic process that ensures product and service
excellence. A robust QA team examines the requirements to design, develop,
and manufacture reliable products whereby increasing client confidence,
company credibility and the ability to thrive in a competitive environment. We
want to give you some of our best practice tips for the agile QA process .The
agile QA process begins at the inception of the software development life
cycle. From the initial design meeting, through the development phase, to final
testing and hardening of the application. This process is repeated in two-week
sprints until the project is released.

AGILE METRICS
Agile metrics help agile development teams and their management measure the development
process, gauging productivity, work quality, predictability, and health of the team and
products being developed. A key focus of agile metrics is on value delivered to customers –
instead of measuring “what” or “how much” we are doing, we measure how it impacted a
customer.

Types of Agile Metrics

There are three important families of agile metrics:

 Lean metrics – Focus on ensuring a flow of value from the organization to its
customers and eliminating wasteful activities. Common metrics include lead time and
cycle time.
 Kanban metrics – Focus on workflow, organizing and prioritizing work and getting
it done. A common metric is a cumulative flow.
 Scrum metrics – Focus on the predictable delivery of working software to customers.
Common metrics include the burndown chart and team velocity.

The Importance of Agile Testing Metrics

Agile methodologies place a special emphasis on quality because the end goal is delivering
working software to users – buggy or unusable software is not working software. Quality is
also manifested in internal aspects that are not directly visible to customers, such as code
quality, maintainability and technical debt.

Agile testing metrics can help teams measure and visualize the effort spent in software
quality, and to a certain extent, the results of this effort. For example, the escaped defects
metric measures, across versions, sprints or product lines, how many bugs were discovered in
production – whereas ideally bugs should be discovered and fixed during the development
stage.
What makes for a powerful metric in an agile environment?
Agile environments require metrics that are well understood by teams and can help learn and
improve processes.

Here are a few qualities that make a metric powerful, in the sense that it can help drive
positive improvement in an agile team:

 The metric is used by the team – Agile metrics should not be imposed or measured
by management, they should be used voluntarily by agile teams to learn and improve.
 The metric is surrounded by conversation – Metrics should not just be numbers,
they should be the starting point of a conversation about process and roadblocks
affecting the team.
 The metric is part of a specific experiment – Metrics should be used to answer a
specific question about agile processes, not just measured for the sake of
measurement.
 The metric is used in tandem with other metrics – Even a great metric, if used
alone, might lead to tunnel vision, and incentivise teams to maximize that metric at
the expense of all else. Using several metrics together provides a balanced picture of
agile activity.
 The metric is easy to calculate and understand – Metrics that are overly complex
or not fully understood, even if they provide good insights about a team’s work, are
not useful in guiding day-to-day activities.

10 Powerful Agile Metrics

1. Sprint Burndown

The sprint burndown chart visualizes how many story points have been completed during the
sprint and how many remain, and helps forecast if the sprint scope will be completed on time.

Makes it instantly clear how much value a sprint has already delivered and how close we are
to completing our commitment to customers.

2. Agile Velocity

Velocity measures how many story points were completed by a team, on average, over the
past few sprints. It can be used to predict the team’s output in the upcoming sprints.
 Velocity is powerful because it’s a result metric – how much value was actually
delivered to customers in a series of sprints. Be careful not to compare velocity across teams
because story points and definition of done can vary between teams.

3. Lead Time

Lead time measures the total time from the moment a story enters the system (in the
backlog), until it is completed as part of a sprint, or released to customers. It measures the
total time for a requirement to be realized and start earning value – the speed of your value
chain.

lead time is more important than velocity because it measures the entire agile system
from end to end. Reducing lead time means the entire development pipeline is becoming
more efficient.

4. Cycle Time

As illustrated above, the cycle time is a subset of lead time – it measures the time for a task to
go from “started” or “in progress” to “done”. Normally, cycle times should be around half the
sprint length. If cycle times are longer than a sprint, teams are not completing work they
committed to.

A very simple metric that can raise a red flag when items within sprints across your entire
system are not moving forward.

5. Code Coverage

Code coverage measures the percentage of your code which is covered by unit tests. It can be
measured by the number of methods, statements, branches or conditions which are executed
as part of a unit test suite.

Code coverage can be run automatically as part of every build and gives a crude
picture showing how much of the codebase has been tested. A low code coverage almost
always indicates low code quality. However, a high coverage may not equal high quality,
because there are other types of tests – such as UI or integration tests – which are not
counted.
6. Static Code Analysis

While not exactly a metric, this is an automated process that can provide insights into code
quality and clean code from simple errors redundancies. Code quality, while difficult to
define and measure, is known to be a key contributor to software quality in general, and in
particular, software maintainability.

Static code analysis provides a safe baseline for code quality. However, it is no
substitute for human input into code quality, via manual code reviews, pair programming or
other methods.

7. Release Net Promoter Score

Net Promoter Score (NPS), calculated for a software release, measures whether users would
recommend the software to others, do nothing, or recommend against using it. It is an
important gauge of customer satisfaction.

The ultimate test of agile development is providing value to a customer. If customers

are recommending this new release to others, that is a clear indication of success. If not, you
can use this as a warning metric and use other data to understand what’s wrong.

8. Cumulative Flow

This is a kanban metric which shows the status of tasks – in a sprint, a release or across
software teams. It can visualize bottlenecks in the process – a disproportionately large
number of tasks in any of the workflow stages indicates a problem. For example, a big
“bubble” in the chart in a verification or testing stage indicates this stage has insufficient
resources.

As with the burndown chart, the power of this metric is in its visual simplicity – you
can grasp a process in one glance and immediately identify issues. Cumulative flow lets you
catch problems in mid-process before they result in delayed delivery.

9. Failed Deployments

Measures the number of deployments (either to test, production environments, or both). Can
help understand how solid environments are and whether teams are really building potentially
shippable software.

Especially when applied to production environments, this metric can provide a clear
indication that sprints or releases are production ready, or not.

10. Escaped Defects

The number of bugs discovered only after a build or release enters production. Escaped
defects should ideally be zero. Measuring them across releases or teams provides a crude, but
still highly relevant, a measure of deployed software quality.
 Production bugs, especially if frequent, are a problem in the agile process. Just like in
lean manufacturing, we should “stop the production line” and discover what’s wrong.

The Missing Metric: Quality Intelligence

We presented several powerful metrics that provide important insights into the agile process.
However, there is no single metric as clear or powerful as the burndown chart or cycle time,
which can tell us the most important thing: “how good” is the software being built by our
developers.

A new category of tools called Software Quality Intelligence can provide this missing
metric: a clear view of software quality. SeaLights is a platform which combines data about
code changes, production uses and test execution, to provide the following quality metrics:

 Test gap analytics—Identifying areas where the code was recently changed or
executed in production but is untested. Test gaps are the best place to invest resources
to improve quality.
 Quality trend intelligence—Showing which parts of a system are improving in
quality coverage, and which are getting worse—meaning more testing time should be
invested.
 Release quality analytics—SeaLights performs real-time analytics on hundreds of
thousands of test executions, code changes, builds and production events to assess the
readiness of a release. Which build is best and provides the highest quality for users?

FINANCIAL AND PRODUCTION METRICS IN FDD

Feature Driven Development (FDD) is an iterative and incremental software development

methodology. While FDD focuses primarily on the software development process and its
features, financial and production metrics are still relevant, though they may differ from
traditional financial metrics. Here are some financial and production metrics that can be
considered in the context of Feature Driven Development:

Financial Metrics:

1. Cost per Feature: Calculate the cost of developing each feature. This metric helps in
assessing the efficiency of development efforts and budget allocation.
2. Return on Investment (ROI): Evaluate the financial returns generated by features
developed using FDD. This metric is essential for assessing the profitability of
individual features or the project as a whole.
3. Resource Utilization: Measure the utilization of resources, including developer time
and infrastructure costs, to ensure efficient allocation and cost control.
4. Cost Overruns: Monitor and report any deviations from the budget or unexpected
costs that arise during feature development.
5. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Calculate the cost of acquiring new customers
or users, which is particularly relevant for projects involving new features that aim to
attract or retain customers.
6. Revenue per Feature: Assess the revenue generated by individual features. This
metric can be used to prioritize and invest in the development of features that have a
higher potential to drive revenue.

Production Metrics:
 1. Feature Completion Rate: Track the rate at which features are completed and
delivered to the end-users. This helps in measuring the progress of feature
development.
2. Defect Density: Monitor the number of defects or issues found in each feature. Lower
defect density is a sign of higher quality and efficiency in development.
3. Feature Lead Time: Measure the time it takes from the inception of a feature idea to
its implementation and delivery. Reducing lead time can improve overall agility.
4. Feature Cycle Time: Track the time it takes to develop and release a single feature.
This metric can help identify bottlenecks and improve development efficiency.
5. Feature Test Coverage: Measure the extent to which a feature is covered by
automated tests. High test coverage is crucial for maintaining product quality.
6. Feature Feedback Loop Time: Analyze the time it takes to gather user feedback and
make improvements to features. Reducing this time can lead to more customer-centric
development.
7. Feature Dependency Analysis: Identify and assess dependencies between features.
Managing dependencies effectively is essential for maintaining a smooth development
flow.
8. Feature Retrospective Metrics: Collect feedback from development teams on each
feature development cycle to continuously improve the FDD process.
9. Feature Prioritization and Value Metrics: Evaluate how effectively features are
prioritized based on their value to the business or users.

In FDD, these financial and production metrics provide insights into the project's health and
progress, enabling teams and stakeholders to make informed decisions about the development
process and the potential impact on the business. It's important to adapt and select metrics
that align with the goals and objectives of the specific project being managed using FDD.

AGILE QA PROCESS

 Most companies have made the shift from the traditional waterfall development
methodology to an agile process. Agile testing introduces QA into the project
as early as possible to foresee issues, write and execute test cases, and uncover
any gaps in requirements. With the project divided into iterative stages, QA
engineers are able to add focus to the development process and provide rapid,
continuous feedback.

AGILE APPROACH TO QUALITY ASSURANCE

Sprints benefit the client by delivering working software earlier rather than later,
anticipating change, providing better estimates in less time, and allowing for course
corrections instead of completely derailing the project. The QA team can incorporate
lessons learned from previous projects to improve the process for future projects. .
RISK ANALYSISAn important aspect of any QA process is risk analysis. Risk
analysis is defined as the process of identifying and assessing potential risks and their
impact. The process helps organizations avoid and mitigate risks.
 It’s highly unlikely for an application to be 100% bug free, but a dedicated QA
team should attempt to remove or prevent the most problematic bugs.
Understanding all the possible outcomes of a project allows your team to
establish preventive measures that reduce the probability of occurrence.

3. TEST EARLY AND TEST OFTEN

 The agile model aims to incorporate QA at each stage of the project’s lifecycle
to identify issues as early as possible. Within each sprint, QA engineers test
and retest the product with each new feature added. This allows them to
validate that the new features were implemented as expected and to catch any
problems that may have been introduced. Testing early and often leads to the
conservation of time and budget.

4. WHITE-BOX VS. BLACK-BOX

 Black-box testing assumes no knowledge of how a system does what it does. It

only has an understanding of what it should do from the user’s perspective.
White-box testing enables the QA engineer to develop a deeper understanding
of the system’s internals. Armed with this knowledge, the QA engineer can
begin testing much earlier. In an agile QA process, the test engineers need this
extra level of system understanding to validate features as soon as they are
developed.
 White-box testing allows QA teams to anticipate potential error conditions and
develop better test scenarios. Knowing how the system works ensures they have
tested all possible input scenarios. It can also help identify potential security
problems. Perhaps most important: white-box testing encourages close
collaboration between development and QA.

5. AUTOMATE WHEN FEASIBLE

 Automation can help maximize the effectiveness of your QA staff. Since

regression testing can consume a large percentage of the QA team’s time,
automation provides a way to ensure previous deliverables continue to work
while QA engineers focus on testing newly delivered features. Being able to
reliably reproduce tests will free up resources for exploratory testing.
Automation will give your development team the confidence to make changes
to the system with the knowledge that any issues will be identified quickly, and
can be fixed before delivery to the QA team.
 All that being said, it is important to be cautious of over-automating. Your
team should prioritize test cases and then determine which of them should be
automated. Situations in which the data might change or where a scenario isn’t
consistently reproducible may not actually benefit from automation because the
results can cause false failures.
 Implementing automation costs more up front, but saves money in the long run
by increasing efficiency between development and QA teams.
 6. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Understanding the target audience will improve the QA process. Tailoring the
development and QA process around your users needs will enable your team to
build value-driving applications. When you are familiar with who will be using the
actual end-product, you can better prioritize the QA process to save time and
money.

7. TEAMWORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

 Behind each high-quality product, there is a team of professionals that work

incessantly to maintain the high standard of quality upheld by the organization.
Although each team working on the project must take responsibility for
ensuring quality, the primary responsibility for quality rests with the QA team.
The QA team understands what the client needs the system to do and can prove
the client’s satisfaction with the system. Using the Agile QA process, engineers
are the super-sleuths who root out problems and help the team to deliver high-
quality products and ensure client confidence, company credibility and
successful product delivery.

TEST DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT (TDD)

In layman’s terms, Test Driven Development (TDD) is a software development practice that
focuses on creating unit test cases before developing the actual code. It is an iterative
approach combining programming, unit test creation, and refactoring.

 The TDD approach originates from the Agile manifesto principles and Extreme
programming.
 As the name suggests, the test process drives software development.
 Moreover, it’s a structuring practice that enables developers and testers to obtain optimized
code that proves resilient in the long term.
 In TDD, developers create small test cases for every feature based on their initial
understanding. The primary intention of this technique is to modify or write new code only if
the tests fail. This prevents duplication of test scripts.

TEST DRIVEN DEVELOPMENT (TDD) EXAMPLES

1. Calculator Function: When building a calculator function, a TDD approach would

involve writing a test case for the “add” function and then writing the code for the process to
pass that test. Once the “add” function is working correctly, additional test cases would be
written for other functions such as “subtract”, “multiply” and “divide”.
2. User Authentication: When building a user authentication system, a TDD approach
would involve writing a test case for the user login functionality and then writing the code for
the login process to pass that test. Once the login functionality works correctly, additional test
cases will be written for registration, password reset, and account verification.
3. E-commerce Website: When building an e-commerce website, a TDD approach
would involve writing test cases for various features such as product listings, shopping cart
 functionality, and checkout process. Tests would be written to ensure the system works
correctly at each process stage, from adding items to the cart to completing the purchase.

TDD Vs. Traditional Testing

 Approach: TDD is an agile development methodology where tests are written before the
code is developed. In contrast, traditional testing is performed after the code is written.
 Testing Scope: TDD focuses on testing small code units at a time, while traditional testing
covers testing the system as a whole, including integration, functional, and acceptance
testing.
 Iterative: TDD follows an iterative process, where small chunks of code are developed,
tested, and refined until they pass all tests. The code is usually tested once and then refined
based on the results in traditional testing.
 Debugging: TDD aims to catch errors as early as possible in the development process,
making debugging and fixing them easier. Traditional testing, on the other hand, may require
more effort to debug errors that are discovered later in the development process.
 Documentation: TDD documentation typically focuses on the test cases and their results,
while traditional testing documentation may include more detailed information about the
testing process, the test environment, and the system under test.
Overall, TDD offers a more efficient and reliable approach to software development,
ensuring that code is thoroughly tested before being integrated into the system. Traditional
testing, however, may be more appropriate for larger and more complex projects where a
more comprehensive approach to testing is required.

Three Phases of Test Driven Development

1. Create precise tests: Developers need to create exact unit tests to verify the
functionality of specific features. They must ensure that the test compiles so that it can
execute. In most cases, the test is bound to fail. This is a meaningful failure as developers
create compact tests based on their assumptions of how the feature will behave.
2. Correcting the Code: Once a test fails, developers must make the minimal changes
required to update the code to run successfully when re-executed.
3. Refactor the Code: Once the test runs successfully, check for redundancy or any
possible code optimizations to enhance overall performance. Ensure that refactoring does not
affect the external behavior of the program.
The image below represents a high-level TDD approach toward development:

How TDD fits into Agile development?

Agile development demands regular feedback to develop the expected product. In simple
terms, one can also term Agile development as Feedback Driven Development.
There’s a high probability that project requirements may change during the development
sprint cycle. To deal with this and to build products aligned with the client’s changing
requirements, teams need constant feedback to avoid dishing out unusable software. TDD is
built to offer such feedback early on.
TDD’s test-first approach also helps mitigate critical bottlenecks that obstruct the quality and
delivery of software. Based on the constant feedback, bug fixes, and the addition of new
features, the system evolves to ensure that everything works as intended. TDD enhances
collaboration between team members from both the development and QA teams and the
client. Additionally, as the tests are created beforehand, teams don’t need to spend time
recreating extensive test scripts.

Benefits of Test Driven Development (TDD)

1. Fosters the creation of optimized code.

2. It helps developers better analyze and understand client requirements and request
clarity when not adequately defined.
3. Adding and testing new functionalities become much easier in the latter stages of
development.
4. Test coverage under TDD is much higher compared to conventional development
models. The TDD focuses on creating tests for each functionality right from the beginning.
5. It enhances the productivity of the developer and leads to the development of a
codebase that is flexible and easy to maintain.

Frameworks for Test Driven Development

Based on unique programming languages, multiple frameworks support test driven
development. Listed below are a few popular ones.

1. csUnit and NUnit are open source unit testing frameworks for .NET projects.
2. PyUnit and DocTest: Popular Unit testing framework for Python.
3. Junit: Widely used unit testing tool for Java
4. TestNG: Another popular Java testing framework. This framework overcomes the
limitations of Junit.
5. Rspec: A testing framework for Ruby projects

Best Practices for Test Driven Development (TDD)

Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development practice that emphasizes writing
tests before writing the actual code. It follows a cyclical process of writing a failing test,
writing the minimum code to make the test pass, and then refactoring the code. Here are some
best practices to consider when practicing TDD:

1. Start with a clear understanding of requirements: Begin by understanding the

requirements or specifications of the feature you are developing. This will help you write
focused and relevant tests.
2. Write atomic tests: Each test should focus on a specific behavior or functionality.
Keep your tests small and focused, addressing a single aspect of the code. This improves test
readability, maintainability, and allows for easier debugging.
3. Write the simplest test case first: Begin by writing the simplest possible test case
that will fail. This helps you focus on the immediate task and avoids overwhelming yourself
with complex scenarios upfront.
4. Write tests for edge cases: Consider boundary conditions and edge cases when
designing your tests. These are inputs or scenarios that lie at the extremes of the input domain
and often reveal potential bugs or unexpected behavior.
5. Refactor regularly: After a test passes, take time to refactor the code and improve its
design without changing its behavior. This helps maintain clean and maintainable code as the
project progresses.
6. Maintain a fast feedback loop: Your test suite should execute quickly so that you
can receive immediate feedback on the health of your code. Fast feedback allows for faster
development iterations and catches issues early on.
7. Automate your tests: Utilize test automation frameworks and tools to automate the
execution of your tests. This enables you to run tests frequently, easily integrate them into
your development workflow, and ensures consistent and reliable test results.
8. Follow the Red-Green-Refactor cycle: Adhere to the core TDD cycle of writing a
failing test (Red), implementing the minimum code to pass the test (Green), and then
refactoring the code to improve its design (Refactor). Repeat this cycle for each new behavior
or feature.
9. Maintain a comprehensive test suite: Aim to achieve a good balance between unit
tests, integration tests, and acceptance tests. Each test type serves a different purpose and
provides different levels of confidence in the code.
10. Continuously run tests: Integrate your test suite with your development environment
and set up continuous integration (CI) pipelines to automatically execute tests whenever code
changes are made. This ensures that tests are run consistently and helps catch regressions
early.
11. Test failures should guide development: When a test fails, it should guide your
development efforts. Analyze the failure, identify the cause, and fix the code to address the
issue. Test failures are valuable feedback for improving code quality.
Delivering quality products requires debugging and optimization in the development process.
When incorporated correctly, the TDD approach provides numerous benefits, particularly in
bringing cost-efficiency in the long run and delivering true value to businesses.
AGILE APPROACH IN GLOBAL SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
What is Agile software development?

Agile is a type of software development methodology that anticipates the need for flexibility
and applies a level of pragmatism to the delivery of the finished product. Agile software
development requires a cultural shift in many companies because it focuses on the clean
delivery of individual pieces or parts of the software and not on the entire application.

Benefits of Agile include its ability to help teams in an evolving landscape while maintaining
a focus on the efficient delivery of business value. The collaborative culture facilitated by
Agile also improves efficiency throughout the organization as teams work together and
understand their specific roles in the process. Finally, companies using Agile software
development can feel confident that they are releasing a high-quality product because testing
is performed throughout development. This provides the opportunity to make changes as
needed and alert teams to any potential issues.

Agile has largely replaced waterfall as the most popular development methodology in most
companies, but is itself at risk of being eclipsed or consumed by the growing popularity
of DevOps.

The four values of Agile

In 2001, 17 software development professionals gathered to discuss concepts around the idea
of lightweight software development and ended up creating the Agile Manifesto. The
Manifesto outlines the four core values of Agile, and although there has been debate about
whether the Manifesto has outlived its usefulness, it remains at the core of the Agile
movement.

The four core values outlined in the Agile Manifesto are as follows:

Individual interactions are more important than processes and tools. People drive the
development process and respond to business needs. They are the most important part of
development and should be valued above processes and tools. If the processes or tools drive
development, then the team will be less likely to respond and adapt to change and, therefore,
less likely to meet customer needs.

A focus on working software rather than thorough documentation. Before Agile, a large
amount of time was spent documenting the product throughout development for delivery. The
list of documented requirements was lengthy and would cause long delays in the
development process. While Agile does not eliminate the use of documentation, it streamlines
it in a way that provides the developer with only the information that is needed to do the work
-- such as user stories. The Agile Manifesto continues to place value on the process of
documentation, but it places higher value on working software.

Collaboration instead of contract negotiations. Agile focuses on collaboration between the

customer and project manager, rather than negotiations between the two, to work out the
details of delivery. Collaborating with the customer means that they are included throughout
the entire development process, not just at the beginning and end, thus making it easier for
teams to meet the needs of their customers. For example, in Agile, the customer can be
included at different intervals for demos of the product. However, the customer could also be
present and interact with the teams daily, attend all meetings and ensure the product meets
their desires.

A focus on responding to change. Traditional software development used to avoid change

because it was considered an undesired expense. Agile eliminates this idea. The
short iterations in the Agile cycle allow changes to easily be made, helping the team modify
the process to best fit their needs rather than the other way around. Overall, Agile software
development believes change is always a way to improve the project and provide additional
value.

The 12 principles of Agile

The Agile Manifesto also outlined 12 core principles for the development process. They are
as follows:

1. Satisfy customers through early and continuous delivery of valuable work.

2. Break big work down into smaller tasks that can be completed quickly.
3. Recognize that the best work emerges from self-organized teams.
4. Provide motivated individuals with the environment and support they need and trust
them to get the job done.
5. Create processes that promote sustainable efforts.
6. Maintain a constant pace for completed work.
7. Welcome changing requirements, even late in a project.
8. Assemble the project team and business owners on a daily basis throughout the
project.
9. Have the team reflect at regular intervals on how to become more effective, then tune
and adjust behavior accordingly.
10. Measure progress by the amount of completed work.
11. Continually seek excellence.
12. Harness change for a competitive advantage.

he Agile software development cycle

The Agile software development cycle can be broken down into the following six steps:

 concept
 inception
 iteration/construction
 release
 production
 retirement

The first step, concept, involves the identification of business opportunities in each potential
project as well as an estimation of the time and work that will be required to complete the
project. This information can then be used to prioritize projects and discern which ones are
worth pursuing based on technical and economic feasibility.

During the second step, inception, team members are identified, funding is established and
the initial requirements are discussed with the customer. A timeline should also be created
that outlines the various responsibilities of teams and clearly defines when work is expected
to be completed for each sprint. A sprint is a set period of time during which specific work
has to be completed and made ready for review.

A
visualization of the Agile software development cycle
The third step, iteration/construction, is when teams start creating working software based on
requirements and continuous feedback. The Agile software development cycle relies on
iterations -- or single development cycles -- that build upon each other and lead into the next
step of the overall development process until the project is completed. Each iteration typically
lasts between two to four weeks, with a set completion date. The goal is to have a working
product to launch at the end of each iteration.

Multiple iterations occur throughout the development cycle and they each possess their
own workflow. A typical iteration flow consists of the following:

 defining requirements based on the product backlog, sprint backlog and customer and
stakeholder feedback;
 developing software based on the set requirements;
 conducting QA testing, internal and external training and documentation;
 delivering and integrating the working product into production; and
 gathering customer and stakeholder feedback on the iteration in order to define new
requirements for the next sprint.

The fourth step, release, involves final QA testing, resolution of any remaining defects,
finalization of the system and user documentation and, at the end, release of the final iteration
into production.

After the release, the fifth step, production, focuses on the ongoing support necessary to
maintain the software. The development teams must keep the software running smoothly
while also teaching users exactly how to use it. The production phase continues until the
support has ended or the product is planned for retirement.

The final step, retirement, incorporates all end-of-life activities, such as notifying customers
and final migration. The system release must be removed from production. This is usually
done when a system needs to be replaced by a new release or if the system becomes outdated,
unnecessary or starts to go against the business model.

Throughout the Agile cycle, different features can be added to the product backlog, but the
entire process should consist of repeating each step over and over until every item in the
backlog has been satisfied. This makes the Agile cycle more of a loop than a linear process.
At any time, an enterprise can have multiple projects occurring simultaneously with iterations
that are logged on different product lines and a variety of internal and external customers
providing different business needs.

Types of Agile methodologies

The goal of every Agile methodology is to embrace and adapt to change while delivering
working software as efficiently as possible. However, each method varies in the way it
defines the steps of software development. The most widely used Agile methods include the
following:

 Scrum
 Lean software development
 Extreme programming
 Crystal
 Kanban
 Dynamic systems development method
 Feature-driven development