More and more firms choose to outsource their IT operations and functions. IT outsourcing grows each year. The Gartner report announced that firms spent $3.8 billion dollars on IT outsourcing in 2019. They expect that the trend will continue. Companies aiming for digital transformation need partners and tools. They need tools that they cannot build in-house with speed and accuracy.
Every business starting software development must ask themselves what will serve them better, in-house or outsourcing? There is not a simple answer to the question. Making the choice to develop in-house or to outsource will have long-term consequences.
Every startup needs a great idea. Something unique and compelling. Startup businesses succeed when they find a customer need that they can fulfill. Startup businesses and independent software developers constantly search for just such needs.
An unlimited budget would make many teams very happy. But that approach has pitfalls. If the team works without much oversight or customer input, they may waste money. They might create features that the customers won’t use.
These days, most software development teams choose Agile methodology to organize their work. The Agile vs. Waterfall debate still rages, though. Many people question whether Agile works better than Waterfall in all circumstances. Does Agile deliver great ROI? Does Agile help teams work faster? Let’s take a close look at both Agile and Waterfall. We will examine the merits and drawbacks of each approach.
In traditional software development, teams would describe the amount of work they had in hours. But Agile software development teams have a better way. Agile teams use Story Points to estimate the work they have ahead of them. Let’s take a closer look at Story Points and hours, and examine the benefits of Story Points.
We've covered the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and the Agile development framework. Now it's time to look at different methodologies and approaches to their implementation. There are several, but we'll focus in this article on just two of them, Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP). We'll look at the differences between them and how they can even be used together for even better results.
Agile Scrum teams break down large development projects into small bursts of activity, called Sprints. A Sprint in Agile is a short, time-boxed period where a software development team completes work. They choose which items and fixes they will tackle in Sprint Planning Meetings. The Sprint cycle sits at the very center of Agile methodology.