It’s estimated that 91% of organizations state that Agile is their strategic priority.
Additionally, 81% of agile teams report using some form of Scrum – including Scrumban or hybrid Scrum models – as their go-to methodology when pushing towards an optimal solution.
Agile software development methodology is a philosophy centered on iterative and incremental development processes, where teams strive towards their goals within time-boxed sprint cycles.
Lean Development similarly seeks continual process optimization yet looks more into eliminating waste, such as human effort or equipment needed, and reducing timeframe demands by focusing heavily on space conservation. These two differing approaches can unlock unique possibilities within any ecommerce enterprise.
Unveiling Crowdbotics' Journey to Agile Methodology Adoption
Crowdbotics is an ecommerce enterprise that decided to put its product management practices under the microscope and apply the Agile approach. On their website, Crowdbotics state that to make this transition, they implemented a dedicated scrum team structure as part of their main Agile methodologies. The scrum team consisted of a Scrum master, two developers located overseas, and connected via call conference for dailies and sprint planning. Business owners needed to make themselves aware of these processes which then also provided invaluable feedback. The teams got trained on Agile methodology through playing Artist and LEGO city games – where they could simulate real-life experiences and keep events interactive. By the end, they were more efficient and had better communication and resolve skills to bring quality products faster to customers.
Implementing Agile and Lean Approaches in Ecommerce
Lean-focused tactics provide internal control over how much money goes into inventory by carefully managing stock levels based on what customers are likely to do through predictive analytics and historical data. In addition, as stated by Skuvault, implementing lean inventory management allows ecommerce stores to reduce their costs as they keep more skeletal stock levels with less need for warehousing and transportation services. With lean inventory, ecommerce stores have more working capital available, thus allowing them to invest in other areas of the business or pursue growth opportunities. For this purpose, implementing a lean portfolio management strategy could prove beneficial, as the benefits of implementing a lean portfolio management strategy include obtaining clear objectives, strategic themes, and investment candidates so that firms can better manage expectations and achieve goals.
The Agile methodology has been gaining traction for its capacity to allow faster development speed than conventional programs. Blunt explains that Agile lets developers bypass unnecessary features by paying close attention to customer response, like Buffer, which used nothing more than a landing page when they launched their product with success. Further, product quality and interactions between stakeholders across development teams throughout a product’s life cycle are improved. Finally, perhaps one of the most advantageous aspects is its flexibility compared to the traditional Waterfall model. When working with limited capacity and resources, Agile's methodology has proven resilient even in quickly modifying environments where requirements change frequently or customers want different versions of a product than initially predicted.
By utilizing Agile and Lean approaches in workflows, ecommerce companies are poised to benefit significantly by seeing faster returns on investment through increased speeds of product launches, reducing avoidable errors, and ensuring ultimate team-wide communication.
