Let's Get Agile: How to be truly agile with a modern enterprise platform

As it turns out, developers have pretty strong opinions on Agile methodologies. Some say they appreciate the flexibility in expectations and increased communication. Others claim Agile leads to a lack of commitment and accountability; it's a fast track to micromanagement and burnout.

Regardless of your own personal feelings on Agile, chances are good that if you work in software development, you're following an Agile framework, at least in theory. (Some developers say their team’s approach is just three waterfalls in a trench coat masquerading as Agile.)

Agile emphasizes dynamic, iterative workflows, close collaboration, and frequent stakeholder input—all good things when it comes to getting things done. While it has its flaws, it’s held up as the leading approach to software development due to its efficiency and, well, agility.

But while you can have the most productive Scrum master, the most cross-functional, collaborative teams, and the most flexible, communicative stakeholders, without the right tools, you’re not going to be as agile as you (or your customers) would like.

More Efficient at Every Stage

Modern enterprise platforms are built with a focus on efficiency. Speed-to-market is key, as are minimizing resource waste and keeping costs low. No-code development and AI-powered capabilities are embedded directly into platforms to help you meet these demands. Platforms are also future-proof, meaning they evolve as new technologies emerge.

Your ultimate goal is faster, smarter, cheaper development. Something something work smarter, not harder, right? Platforms enable you to develop—and deliver—with true agility.

Here’s how platforms help you crank up the agility (while avoiding a Scrum circus) every step of the way:

The Ideation/Planning Stage

You shouldn’t have to feel like you’re reinventing the wheel every time you start a new dev project. Much of the planning stage can be done faster (or skipped all together) with the help of the right platform.

Use an AI-powered platform to:

• Rapidly prototype and test ideas without writing extensive code.
  • Teams can validate concepts early, gather feedback, and pivot faster—without sinking time into full builds.
• Estimate time and budget requirements based on past projects by creating a timeline, identifying critical milestones, and outlining an initial release plan.
  • Both time and cost are significantly reduced when using a platform.
• Prioritize features, identify potential gaps in logic or your data model, and auto-generate parts of the app structure.
  • This gives teams a head start during planning and backlog grooming.
• Predict and prevent risks by leveraging insights from past projects.
• Incorporate industry-specific requirements—such as security best practices and regulatory compliance—into design documentation before development begins.

The Iteration Stage

What if you could completely skip the most tedious part of the development process? If you immediately thought about never having to write code again, we’re on the same page. The most efficient way to reduce the length of your sprints is with a no-code platform.

Use a no-code platform to:

• Use AI to build applications, create dashboards, and design workflows based on your unique specs and end-user goals.
• Leverage a modular, composable architecture with "starter kit" apps designed with best practices in mind for faster customization.
  • Make changes in real time without risky systems-wide updates that interrupt your team's workflow.
• Use drag-and-drop features and pre-built templates to build custom applications.
• Reuse and share components and logic with your dev team.
  • Only build once to maintain consistency and reduce duplication efforts.
• Get business users involved in solving their own problems.
  • Result: More purpose-driven solutions.
• Take advantage of ready-to-use API connectors and integration tools.
  • Move fast, try new things, and recover quickly with embedded version control and history features.

The Testing Stage

Iteration is complete, and you're eager to get that puppy deployed. Good thing nearly every aspect of the testing stage can be accelerated, if you have a platform.

Use a modern platform to:

• Automate continuous usability testing with machine learning.
• Detect bugs and security vulnerabilities with anomaly detection.
  • Get real-time alerts or automate fixes.
• Generate interactive reports and data visualizations showing trial run results.

The Production Stage

So you've got the green light to deploy. Excellent. Sadly, you can't sit back and relax just yet. You can, however, be more efficient in how you monitor and maintain your software operations.

Use a cloud-native platform to:

• Accelerate production with cloud-based rapid deployment.
• Push out new updates and features without disruption or downtime.
• Detect issues in real time with always-on auditing.
• Automate server patches and dependency tracking.
• Create reports and analyze performance analytics to improve future sprints.
• Support future growth, improving with each iteration.

Live Up to that Agile Manifesto

Every developer approaches Agile a bit differently, with varying levels of adherence. Regardless of your specific methodology and terminology, your goal is to satisfy the customer through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software. (Yes, we did take that directly from the official Agile Manifesto.) But even the best developers need the right tools. Modern platforms were created to address the bottlenecks of traditional dev cycles, enabling you to deliver valuable software time and time again.

Whether you’re looking for a legacy replatform, want to build from the ground up, or simply add functionality to your base software build, a modern enterprise platform streamlines the development process to optimize your Agile.

Nextworld’s no-code platform simplifies the most tedious parts of development without compromising flexibility and scalability. Build and tailor enterprise-grade software and applications with advanced logic and automation with Nextworld.

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If you're ready to crank up the agility of your Agile software development, request a 30-day free trial and see for yourself how the Nextworld Platform can help your team sprint through dev cycles.

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