Practical Agile
Our Software Development Process
Our Software Development Process
What is a practical agile approach to software development? At Zibtek, it’s a combination of:
Principles and practices that can easily be combined with a variety of approaches.
High-trust, self-organized teams who understand specific business needs.
Staying focused on the rapid development and deployment of software.
At Zibtek, good software development starts with a great idea. From concept to solution, we work with you to plan, develop, test, deliver, and assess your software needs. Our practical approach transforms the agile process from a mystifying undertaking to one where transparency and communication keep our clients happy!
Pre-Project Consultation
Preventing failure during the software development process begins with avoiding failure in the planning stage. Each project starts with a solid strategy used to build out a complete proposal and becomes the launch point for development. To determine your goals and objectives, we consult with you to better understand what you do and what you want to accomplish.
Assess Fit
Are we the right cultural fit for each other? Can we deliver the product you want and deserve?
Refine Idea
We ask questions—lots of questions! We want to fully understand your technology roadmap and validate your assumptions.
Budget
We work with you to establish a responsible budget that incorporates a comprehensive plan. We then build a proposal within the agreed-upon budget.
Step: 1
Strategy
Based on budget and schedule requirements, as well as team availability, we build a project plan. It starts with using your core business objectives to outline a high-level plan that achieves your goals and removes as much uncertainty as possible. We define:
The nature of the project and its inherent challenges.
How we’ll deal with those challenges.
Which additional actions or are needed to execute the plan.
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Project Ideation
Understanding your business goals is at the core of what we do. Every software development project starts with a central idea—a “problem statement” that drives the conversation. Before moving forward, we make sure we understand all:
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Actionable objectives
Tasks
Deliverables
Priorities
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Research
A good business plan is only worth the results it delivers! If the plan isn’t doable, the work isn’t worth doing, either. Our project team meets with your stakeholders to discuss how to achieve your strategic goals.
We define specific functionalities required by users.
Conduct research and consult third-party vendors when necessary.
We want you to come away from this step with clear ideas of what the end product will be, who it will be for, and how the preliminary plan will guide the project.
Step: 2
Design & Architecture
This is where the end product’s look, feel, and function come into focus. We:
This is where the end product’s look, feel, and function come into focus. We:
Review designs with our engineering team every week.
Determine best-fit software development architecture.
Already have designs? No problem! We’ll evaluate them for completeness and make sure all the required functionality’s in place. Our in-house design team has you covered!
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Wireframes, prototyping and testing
Our team includes UX designers who know the importance of visually compelling experiences. We work closely with you to:
Leverage powerful tools and clear processes for building the desired user experience.
Receive and process feedback before making the greater investment that comes with building the application.
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Planning
Once core objectives are confirmed, we:
Define key components of delivery.
Identify internal resources that best fit your process.
Indicate major features and dependencies.
Share requirements with the broader team to make objectives clear.
Architecture
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to software development. Different needs call for individual technologies. Our deep experience with a diverse range of technologies helps us:
Assess the technology’s long-term viability for a given project.
Determine if the best decision is choosing stability and cost over new and unproven.
Assess the feasibility of using one technology over another.
One of our senior tech leads with extensive industry experience is engaged at this stage to help determine the functionality and architecture of the software to be built.
Step: 3
Development
With a clear vision for design and functionality, a call is initiated with you, the project manager, and the developers.
Objectives are restated.
Communication methods are confirmed.
Each engineering team is paired with a senior tech lead and project manager.
All Zibtek projects are supervised by the solutions architect, so you’re never without support if an issue arises. Our tech leads have eight to fifteen years of experience and, to ensure quality stays high, are limited to a set number of projects at any given time.
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Agile Development
To drive superior results for our clients, the majority of our projects employ a practical agile methodology. In an agile process, the team’s efficiency closely correlates with how much visibility and structure the project manager has.
Sprints
We work in sprints which are small, targeted allotments of development time that allow engineers to solve problems more collaboratively. The key benefits offered by sprints’ structured flexibility include:
Measured adaptation to change.
Incorporation of new ideas.
Improve project predictability.
Better control.
Superior quality product.
With their structured standups, consistent evaluation, peer code reviews, and rapid issue resolution, sprints are a continuous improvement approach that keeps you engaged in every step of the process. You can regularly review the progress of your software development and provide feedback.
Communications
Quality, consistent communications throughout a project’s lifecycle ensure your needs and expectations are met.
Big or small, every team and each member reports daily on their activity.
Project and delivery managers drive internal and external communication to bridge the divide between technical and non-technical resources for your team.
To ensure technical strength, every project manager pairs with a senior tech lead. On every project, we use project management tools to:
Share daily written status updates.
Track individual engineer tasks.
Provide access to shared documents and files.
Report and resolve bugs.
Step: 4
Launch
From server setup to data storage and deployment, we support your team through launch. And if your software application requires deployment to the app store, we handle that, too!
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Deployment
During the development process we set up multiple environments that allow team members to:
Deploy quickly.
Show you everything that’s happening.
Showing work results in a client-facing development environment helps identify visual and technical issues more quickly, which results in a better product.
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Planning
When called for, we:
Automate deployments.
Structure development ecosystems to be scalable.
The goal is to automate testing of features to ensure operability once new code is added. Project managers and in-house QA engineers review user stories (informal, general explanations of software features) before the work reaches production.
Step: 5
Maintenance
It’s launch time! We work with you to:
Mitigate launch risks.
Plan resources around hyper-care and prep infrastructure as appropriate.
Moving forward, we accept feedback and keep you flexible as your business grows by:
Structuring new feature rollouts.
Handling support inquiries.
Tackling new features required by your users.
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