Importance of Agile Methodology in Software Development

Importance of Agile Methodology in Software Development Scroll Down to Read Software development processes like Agile methodology have proven themselves useful for software development companies. Companies are constantly looking for ways to improve software quality frequently and provide the best solution to their clients.  In today’s fast-paced world, businesses should be always prepared for the customers’ rapidly evolving needs. And without a proper strategy or framework, it is difficult for companies to keep up with customers’ demands. To maintain customer satisfaction and prevent losses, companies are investing heavily in agile. The benefits of scaling agile frameworks in software teams are required for staying competitive in the market. What is Agile Methodology? The meaning of agile in software development is the ability to respond to swift changes. As a popular choice among software developers, agile methodology processes assist in completing projects successfully and quickly. Methods like the waterfall model in the conventional software development process are time-consuming.  The agile methodology is composed of a series of iterative and incremental methods of software development. Popular methodologies involve continuous planning, testing, integration, and fast feedback loops. Thereby, making it possible to deliver a working product for customers to work with. Moreover, the flexibility and adjustability make agile methodologies suitable for adapting to project needs. Agile methodology is designed to prevent common development issues and focuses on making on-spot decisions. Thereby, increasing the efficiency of the software development team members. The lightweight framework helps the development team in handling complex technical landscapes while ensuring continuous delivery. Thus, reducing the overall risks involved in the development of software. Types of Agile Methodology There are several types of agile methodologies that follow the agile mindset. However, some of the most popular and mainstream methodologies are listed below.  Scrum One of the most popular out of the many types, Scrum is a lightweight framework of Agile Project Management. It is used for controlling iterative and incremental projects.  The product owner is responsible for creating a list of product backlogs that contain bug fixes, features, etc. And with the help of the Scrum team working together, they aim to deliver a successful working system during each sprint. As each sprint ends, the product backlog is reset to select new deliverable functions for the next sprint. Scrum is a simple yet highly effective method. Moreover,  it incorporates many of the overarching Agile practices. As a result, its popularity grew over time.   Crystal Out of all Crystal is the most lightweight and adaptable methodology. The Crystal methodology is based on the idea that every project has unique characteristics that require customization. Thus, this methodology is divided into various categories like Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow, Crystal Red, and more. The distinction of each category is based on the size/ number of team members. Crystal methodology focuses on principles like interaction and communication of people working on Agile projects, community skills, teamwork, and talents. The main intention is to deliver the best software development process.   Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) The Dynamic systems development method or DSDM provides a framework for building and maintaining systems. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) approach of DSDM makes it dynamic.  It focuses on creating, planning, executing, managing, and scaling the software development procedure in a very short period. The main objective of this methodology is to deliver quality products on time while making new adjustments.  DSDM is based on its eight principles which are: The top priority on quality Collaboration Continuous on-time rapid delivery Continuous and clear communication Demonstrated control Iterative and incremental development Reversible changes Focus on business need   Extreme Programming (XP) The Extreme Programming methodology is a supportive and lightweight framework that ensures high-quality software and maximum productivity. This type of Agile methodology is generally used with Scrum and focuses on continuous delivery with speed. Extreme programming is responsible for improving continuous planning and testing, fast feedback loops, and enhanced customer involvement.  The main objective of Extreme Programming is to improve the software quality and responsiveness while making adjustments to customer requirements. Since it is based on communication, feedback, simplicity, and courage. Customers collaborate with the development team to prioritize their user stories.    Lean This is another iterative method that makes use of a value stream mapping to ensure that customers are satisfied. Although it is flexible, it does have a few guidelines or principles like: Enhancing Knowledge Team Empowerment Faster Deliveries Removing unnecessary things Quality over anything Differing commitments Integrity development This methodology aims to provide fast and efficient software development by maintaining proper feedback between customers and programmers. And to achieve this, teams are provided with clearance to make their own decisions.  The lean methodology incorporates only those features which are truly valuable to the customers and eliminates other non-essential features. As a result, it saves up time and money and ensures every team member is productive.   Kanban It is an agile method that manages product creation and prioritizes continuous delivery using its highly visual workflow management method. Kanban creates a stress-free environment in the software development lifecycle (SDLC).  Kanban projects are supervised using a Kanban Board, which helps in depicting the software development process. As a result, it increases visibility for teams to track progress through every stage.    Feature-driven development (FDD) It is a perfect composition of software engineering practices such as code ownership, developing by feature, and domain object modeling. FDD is a lightweight, agile process that is iterative and accumulative. The major objective of FDD is to deliver an operational, stable, and fully functional product on time. The 12 Principles of Agile Methodology A couple of decades back in 2001 developers were looking for new ways of software development. The founders of Agile came up with a manifesto based on 12 principles which are:   Providing quick software releases through continuous delivery to ensure customer satisfaction. Software development teams must be capable of providing frequent software updates and releases. Customer demands are a top priority even after the successful completion of tasks Ensure… Continue reading Importance of Agile Methodology in Software Development

Angular vs React: Which JS Framework Should You Choose?

Angular vs React: Which JS Framework Should You Choose? Scroll Down to Read While working with JavaScript Frameworks you must have faced the dilemma of Angular vs React and which framework is better. Although in JavaScript, there are numerous frameworks to work with. However, there are two platforms that are used the most- Angular and React. And choosing one between them can be a mind baffling task. In this article, we’ll guide you through these two frameworks, and which one to use for the web development process.   What is JavaScript Framework? Before diving into the features of Angular and React, let us first understand what a JavaScript framework is. A JavaScript(JS) framework is made up of JavaScript code libraries containing pre-written codes used in daily programming tasks. It acts as a template that assists you in creating web applications by shortening those extensive processes.  Creating a web application or website is not an ordinary task. It requires thousands of lines of codes and sometimes even more. And some of these codes are repetitive. JavaScript frameworks eliminate this repetitive process, allowing web application development to be more efficient.  Popular JavaScript Frontend Frameworks As we know JavaScript is the most popular and widely used programming language. It is used for both client-side as well as server-side coding. Hence, it is equipped with more frameworks than any other programming language. Such as Angular, React, Vue, Ember, jQuery, Semantic-UI, Svelte, and others.   However, today we will discuss the two most popular frameworks and which one to use in web application development. Angular Created by Google, Angular is a full-fledged open-source JavaScript framework with the best-integrated JavaScript libraries and features. Therefore, it is a popular choice for developing large-scale and complex web applications.  The practical uses of Angular mostly dictate to development of web and mobile apps along with web pages. Developers use this framework to build progressive web applications, single-page web applications, and hybrid apps.  Big brands like Xbox, Forbes, BMW use the Angular framework for their web development. React React.js is an efficient and flexible open-source JavaScript library built using JSX. Although technically it is a JS library it is commonly mistaken as a web framework.   Facebook created React to build a richer and more responsive user experience using its predictable and easy-to-debug JS code.  So that developers can easily create interactive and complex UIs using their component-based and declarative traits.  Its Virtual-DOM (Document object model) feature allows faster updates without having to rewrite the HTML doc. Besides Facebook, other tech giants such as Netflix, Uber, Dropbox also use React for building user interfaces. Angular vs React: Comparison Both Angular and React have their specific characteristics which make them fundamentally different. Let’s compare these two over some common ground factors     Componentization The ideal goal of componentization is to confine front-end features into encapsulated components. React used the same principle in its component-based web-development revolution back in 2013. It demonstrated that websites and mobile apps can use a component-based architecture at scale. Soon this componentization feature was embraced by Google to revamp Angular JS into Angular 2.  Both the frameworks use componentization but they differ on one single note. Angular is a full-fledged development framework. The components are functions that allow modification of service, directive, or filter before its usage. They allow us to pull necessary metadata by identifying modules from components. In contrast, React components are JSX files containing both JavaScript and HTML coding in a single file. And depending on the need of the developer, the components can be either class-based or pure functions.  Performance On the basis of performance, both of them are great for front-end development. But there is one major difference between these two.  React uses a virtual Document Object Model (DOM). It allows changing document layouts, contents, etc without rewriting the entire HTML document. Besides virtual DOM being lightweight, the binding process in React is unidirectional. As a result, the load on the browser is significantly less and the performance is better. Whereas the performance of Angular is slightly slower due to its bidirectional data binding. The real DOM feature slows apps when it deals with a large number of data requests. However, due to its constant upgrades, the performance of Angular has improved than it was before.   Language React uses JavaScript ES6+ which is integrated with JSX script. React can be augmented with Babel, a code translation tool, to compile JSX code in a browser.  Whereas Angular uses Typescript which is a superset of JS. TypeScript is more compact and easier in detecting typos and navigating the code. Additionally, typescript codes can be directly debugged within a web browser. Universality React Framework is used for both single-page and multiple-page web applications as well as mobile application development. However, for mobile application development React uses an additional framework called React Native.  Angular also shares the same features as React in this category. It is used for both web and mobile app development. However, in Angular, most of the work is done by Ionic. Similar to React Native, Angular also uses a mobile development framework – NativeScript. Self-Sufficiency Angular is a full-fledged framework capable of web development without the support of any additional libraries. Functions like data binding, project generation, component-based routing, form validation, and dependency injection are implemented within the Angular package.  However, with React things are a little bit different. React needs additional libraries like Redux, React Router, or Helmet to implement the above-mentioned functions.    Learning Curve As we have already discussed, Angular is a full-fledged framework. Therefore, to use Angular developers need to be well acknowledged in TypeScript, MVC, and several concepts. Moreover, it is harder to understand due to complexities like intricate component management and unnecessary syntax.  Whereas React provides learning and building apps is comparatively easy. All you need to know for React is JavaScript. Hence, it is more preferred by beginners. Community The React community is more supportive than Angular on GitHub and GitLab. Due to its active… Continue reading Angular vs React: Which JS Framework Should You Choose?

Futureproof hybrid cloud platform for modern apps

Futureproof hybrid cloud platform for modern apps Scroll Down to Read The past few years have seen a significant inclination of major enterprises towards the hybrid cloud platform. Digitization has forced the hands of businesses to reconsider utilizing the hybrid cloud approach. And after COVID-19, our lives have become entirely dependent on technology. Hence, due to such lifestyle and career choices, enterprises are constantly adopting new-age technological tools like cloud platforms.    Gartner predicted that by 2024 approximately 45% of the expenses of IT will switch from traditional solutions to cloud-based solutions. The world is witnessing an increase in demands for technological advancements, faster delivery of applications and services. To gain agility and stay ahead in the competition most organizations prefer hybrid cloud infrastructure.    Besides improving business efficiency, hybrid cloud infrastructure can also pose some challenges in terms of management and operations. Before we get started on future-proof hybrid cloud strategies. Let us understand what a hybrid cloud is first. What is a Hybrid Cloud Platform? A hybrid cloud platform is a combination of on-premises public and private clouds. Hybrid clouds deliver the best of both by switching platforms and transferring workload between them. In hybrid cloud platforms, both private and public clouds work in sync with the help of hybrid cloud management tools.    In general, hybrid clouds connect on-premises data centers to public clouds. The hybrid cloud allows enterprises to choose between platforms that provide the best performance, security for hosting data and applications. It is cheaper to run big data applications on public clouds than on sensitive data. It makes more sense to keep sensitive data in the private cloud.    Hybrid cloud solutions provide access to a single pool of resources that can be shared seamlessly. This supports an enterprise’s effort of digital transformation along with modern application strategies. Hybrid Cloud Architecture Managing overall public and private cloud resources is more convenient rather than managing individual cloud platforms. As a result, the processes are simplified by reducing redundancies.    The basic components required to form a hybrid cloud architecture are: Public Infrastructure as a Service Platform (Iaas) It provides public cloud services for storing data and networking resources. The most used IaaS platforms are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Private Cloud Platforms and On-Premises Infrastructure Private clouds act as an on-demand cloud deployment model. It includes major hardware components like on-premises data centers, servers, storage, and networking equipment.   Management Tools Any cloud infrastructure’s important concern is its security. These different sets of tools allow businesses to keep a tab on the performance and storage capacity of hybrid cloud environments. Hybrid cloud management tools use the concept of open-source IaaS integrated with public cloud platforms.  Network Connection For a successful hybrid cloud strategy, it is important to have a strong network connection. It is mostly accomplished by using application programming interfaces (APIs), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), and wide area networks (WANs).   Benefits of Hybrid Cloud The implementation of Hybrid cloud computing offers several benefits to enterprises. Flexibility Generally, a hybrid cloud platform uses both traditional systems as well as the latest cloud technology. The load balancing feature allows enterprises to seamlessly migrate workloads to the new cloud environment. Hybrid clouds allow organizations to scale up and down according to need. Thus, allowing them to adapt to changing business demands quickly. Cost-Effective Private clouds use on-premise infrastructure that requires immense capital investment to deploy and maintain. Whereas hybrid clouds let organizations divide and run workloads between environments that prove to be cost-effective. Agility and Scalability Although private cloud platforms are highly agile in terms of provisioning and scaling, on-premise data centers have fewer resources available. This could be a problem when there is an increase in workload or a spike in demands. With hybrid clouds, you can easily migrate local workload from private infrastructure to public infrastructure. Security and compliance Security is one of the biggest concerns for IT organizations. In the case of public cloud environments, businesses do not have any control over cloud infrastructure. The entire infrastructure is the exclusive property of the provider. Organizations have a higher risk of losing data in event of a security breach.    Therefore it makes sense to keep sensitive data in a private environment while operating workloads in the cloud or vice versa. Since certain multinational organizations have restrictions on the migration of certain workloads.   Hybrid Cloud Challenges And Strategies To Overcome Them Hybrid cloud platforms are a solution for rapid product deployment, agility, and integration of private environments with public infrastructure. However, implementing hybrid cloud platforms is one giant step for IT enterprises. Discarding traditional solutions overnight is not child’s play and is nearly impossible.  Some of the most significant challenges faced by organizations are: Compatibility The first and foremost challenge in adopting hybrid cloud solutions is the compatibility of existing applications with the cloud platform. To successfully implement the hybrid cloud infrastructure organizations need to modernize applications that are incompatible with the cloud platform.    Migration from a private environment to a hybrid cloud system is a time-consuming process. The easiest method of modernization of legacy applications is through “lift and shift”. It involves moving the application without altering the data or the application. The location of the application i.e the public or private cloud system depends on the workload requirements.   If organizations want to restructure the code of the existing application or improve business continuity. In that case, organizations can modify their applications in order to adapt them to a new environment using refactoring migration. Security  Each day tons of data are moving to the cloud, which is why organizations must have strategies to protect them. A typical hybrid cloud model involves transferring data between public and private clouds. Therefore it is easy for intruders to steal your data in the event of a security breach.     To overcome data privacy and security breach problems organizations need to implement strategies. Such as using endpoint verification protocols,… Continue reading Futureproof hybrid cloud platform for modern apps