How a Project Manager Can Increase Software Quality With Agile Practices

Quality is the pillar that supports any software product. If a platform works poorly, both the business and the customers fail, as they do not get what they are looking for or satisfy their most immediate needs. That's why, as customer demands and market competitiveness increase, software teams must adapt quickly to deliver high-quality products.

In this scenario, Agile practices can make an important difference and are the basis of project managers today, since they can not only improve efficiency through the Agile methodology but also promote software quality in a notable way.

Keys to Agile Practices

“Agile is an iterative, introspective, and adaptive project management methodology. In an Agile practice, a project is divided into subprojects. These are usually called sprints. At the end of each sprint, stakeholders and the team review their work, make adjustments for the next sprint, and iterate until complete. The goal of Agile is the constant and incremental delivery of value throughout the project, instead of doing it all at once at the end,” they explained about this methodology in a Forbes article.

Agile methodologies focus on flexibility, collaboration, and continuous delivery of value. Instead of following a rigid plan, Agile teams take an iterative and incremental approach. This allows us to respond in an Agile manner to changes in requirements and market needs.

But How Exactly Do These Practices Contribute To Improving Software Quality?

1. Iterative and Incremental Deliveries

“Iterative delivery means that a team delivers work frequently rather than doing it all at once. Incremental means they deliver it in small packages of end-to-end functionality that is usable. After all, the only thing better than a great product is a great product that improves frequently,” they detailed on the Scrum portal, one of the most used Agile methodologies.

This allows:

• Continuous feedback: Teams receive early and frequent feedback from end users and other stakeholders. This makes it easier to identify and fix errors early before they become costly problems.
• Constant improvement: Each iteration offers an opportunity to improve the product and adjust processes, allowing for a continuous focus on quality.

2. Prioritization of Requirements and Value

One of the key principles of Agile is prioritizing the product backlog based on customer value.

“Scrum uses value-based prioritization as one of the core principles that drives the structure and functionality of the entire Scrum framework. It benefits projects through adaptability and iterative development of the product or service. More importantly, Scrum aims to deliver a valuable product or service to the customer early and continuously,” they noted in the Scrum Study.

Project managers must:

• Collaborate with stakeholders: Work closely with customers and other stakeholders to identify and prioritize the features that provide the most value.
• Adapt team focus: Ensure the team focuses on the most critical tasks that improve product quality and maximize delivered value.

3. Integrated Testing and Automation

Integrating continuous testing into the development cycle is essential in Agile.

Testing is accomplished through:

• Testing in each iteration: Testing is not reserved for the end of the development cycle. In Agile, software is tested during each sprint, allowing for early detection of defects.
• Test automation: Implementing automated testing tools allows for faster and more frequent testing, ensuring that new code does not break existing functionality.

4. Collaboration and Constant Communication

In an Agile environment, open communication and collaboration are essential. “Agile methodologies value people and human interactions over processes and tools. Agile approaches help teams keep the focus on team members by allowing communication to occur fluidly and naturally as the need arises. And when team members can communicate freely and naturally, they can collaborate more effectively”, they detailed in a GitLab article.

In this sense, among the responsibilities of project managers are:

• Facilitate communication between teams: Promote daily stand-ups and sprint reviews to keep all team members informed and aligned.
• Remove barriers: Act as facilitators to remove obstacles that may slow down the team, ensuring efficient workflow.

5. Promotion of a Culture of Continuous Improvement

Agile project managers must instill a continuous improvement mindset within the team, including:

• Regular retrospectives: Hold retrospective meetings at the end of each sprint to reflect on what worked well and what can be improved.
• Adoption of best practices: Promote the adoption of techniques and tools that improve the quality of development, such as code refactoring, test-driven development (TDD), and continuous integration (CI).

“Unlike waterfall project management, which is a sequential approach to project execution, continuous improvement allows you to make constant adjustments to meet changing project demands. These small adjustments and changes you make are part of the continuous improvement process,” they explained in an Atlassian article.

6. Team Empowerment

In Agile, there is a strong emphasis on team empowerment. Project managers must:

• Delegate responsibility: Allow teams to have autonomy in making decisions related to software development and quality.
• Foster product ownership: Encourage team members to feel shared responsibility for the quality of the final product.

Adopting and applying Agile practices is not just a matter of following a set of procedures; is a philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement, collaboration, and value delivery. For project managers, the challenge lies in leading their teams with these practices, ensuring that each development cycle not only meets customer requirements but also constantly improves software quality.

Successful implementation of Agile methodologies can transform the way software is developed, providing more robust products, with fewer defects and greater customer satisfaction. As a project manager, embracing Agile can be the way to raise software quality and take your team to the next level of excellence.