Technological advancements introduced Software as a Service to the green technology sector. This industry rapid growth means agile product development will help to launch solutions faster.

The move toward agile product development allows companies active in these sectors to keep pace with the ever-changing landscape and trends in sustainability.

Agile product development is a project management style that allows companies to respond quickly to market changes and consumer needs. We will look more closely at what this means in reality and how it impacts clean and green SaaS products.

What is Agile Product Development?

Agile product development refers to an iterative approach to software development. It emphasizes flexibility, customer collaboration, and cross-functional teams. The process involves breaking down a project into small manageable pieces, called sprints, to deliver a high-quality product quickly.

"Sprints" are usually a time-limited period where the team works to complete the task. These can be intense and focused and are great for getting everyone to collaborate for the greater good of the project. A sprint will often last for between two weeks and a month, and during the sprint, the product owner should step back and allow the team to do the work. The focus and scope of the sprint will have been agreed upon at a planning meeting beforehand. 

During a sprint, there will often be daily meetings where different parts of the team stand up and report on their progress. As a result, the whole team has a cohesive picture of how the other parts of the entire project are developing.

Using this approach, developers work closely with other team members, including business analysts, project managers, designers, and quality assurance testers, to ensure the product meets customer needs.

Common Misconceptions about Agile Product Development

A substantial and recurring misconception about Agile product development is that it needs to be more timely and often needs more documentation. This is a view that is inconsistent with the current reality, and it is not an excuse for poor planning or testing. The Agile method makes for better and tighter coding because of the multiple iterations and tests required throughout the development cycle.

The Agile development model has largely replaced the traditional development model known as the "waterfall" model. The waterfall model can be pictured as each step flowing into the next, with each part of the team playing their role sequentially. With Agile methodology, the team members work simultaneously, which can be much more efficient.

There is a misconception that Agile projects never come to an end. They keep iterating and improving throughout the product's lifecycle, which can seem a lot longer than many projects. 

While some projects go on for a considerable time, in most cases, the final step is the project's retirement. This typically comes when continuing with development meets the point of diminishing returns.

How Does Agile Product Development Benefit Clean and Green SaaS Businesses?

Agile product development methodologies provide a framework for software development that enables teams to respond promptly to market changes and customer feedback. 

The upshot of this for clean and green SaaS businesses is that they can build software products that meet business needs efficiently and contribute to the planet's sustainable future while staying ahead in a crowded SaaS market. 

The flexible, collaborative, transparent, and continuous improvement approach of agile development aligns perfectly with the values and vision of clean and green SaaS businesses.

Agile Product Development Lifecycle in SaaS

A lifecycle in Agile product development refers to a series of structured stages that are worked through to create the product. These phases are concept, inception, iteration, release, maintenance, and retirement.

Phase 1: Problem statement and hypothesis definition

The concept stage is arguably the most essential stage of the whole project, and getting this correct will set solid foundations. This is the stage for establishing the project's scope, including the essential requirements that should be included and the proposed results.

In this stage, it’s crucial to define ecosystem problems and challenge green start-ups in the environment. From the problem definitions, defining the hypothesis is even more critical in these types of endeavors. The theory can start from “We believe that by doing x, we could achieve y”.

Based on the given problem and hypothesis, it’s worth defining HOW the assumption can be tackled to test it and check if the business made a correct assumption and can validate the idea behind the solution for the problem.

Phase 2: Iteration Planning

The planning stage is where the greentech startup can incorporate iterative ways of working and lean management methods. The hypothesis defined in Phase 1 will now be broken down into iterations. It’s helpful to combine it with the MVP concept. MVP stands for Minimum Valuable Product. In the startup world, thinking about efficiencies and effectiveness is even more critical than in established businesses that have reached the scale. Hence, MVP comes in handy. You can use this concept as the expectations-setting method. Even if your solution proposition is complex, we encourage you to break it down. Think about what you have to evaluate first that will bring you a step closer to answering the hypothesis. That’s why it’s helpful to set MVP development for three months, for example.

In other words, you would say:

OR

Once you’ve got these answers, design your iterations. This is where you would follow the assumption to run 1-4 weeks Sprints. Each Sprint would have a goal defined. After each Sprint, you would be getting closer (creating increments), which would help you reach the MVP and solution in three months.

This stage also involves other aspects of the project start preparation. You’d be bringing on board the best people available to be on the software development team and releasing the necessary resources and tools that they will need to proceed. You’d configure project management tools that support agile working methods such as Jira, Monday. You’d have the vision, roadmap for three months, and teams of experts to work on the solution, tools, and methods.

That is a solid start to iterative product development.

Phase 3: Iteration

The iteration phase is usually the longest and most intensive phase, as the bulk of the work is done here. The developers will work with others, such as the UX team, to assemble a bare-bones functionality that can be built upon by the end of the first sprint.

They will continue to iterate from there and add features throughout the process, sharing information transparently across the teams involved through daily meetings during each sprint. Creating working software at this stage is one of the critical advantages of the Agile model.

Each sprint ends with a demonstration of what was created and developed by the team. It helps to collect feedback from other people in the company and, based on it, refine the way forward in developing the solution.

Iterative product development has continuous inspection and adaptation built in.

It means that after each iteration, teams get together to discuss what is working well in their collaboration, communication, and productivity. Based on that, they define the areas of improvement.  

Phase 4: Release

The product will be largely complete at this stage, and the Quality Assurance team will be tested rigorously for any bugs in the software. The software development teams will liaise with them and fix bugs as they are identified. User training and documentation will also be added at this phase so the product can be released. 

With iterative product and solution development, you want to cover testing and bug fixes in a single iteration (sprint). In the ideal case, you won’t leave the testing to the end of the solution and MVP development unless you want to run system tests before the final launch. However, to embrace agile and iterative development, you need to have development, testing, and bug fixes covered in a single interaction. This way, you create a functional increment at the end of the iteration. If you decide to show something to the customer, it’s ready to be shown and collect feedback as you move on with the solution development. 

Phase 5: Maintenance

There are many ways to carry out this phase, and it is essential to ensure that users have access to a robust product throughout the entire life cycle. This means patching bugs and vulnerabilities as they are identified, and new iterations may be necessary to keep the product performing at the level customers expect it to.

Assuming your MVP is in productive use by first customers, your challenges shift. Now, you need ongoing maintenance of the first version, in parallel to building up the next version, and continuing collecting customer feedback.

Additionally, you might need a way to give customers a channel to raise support tickets. You can consider a simple email channel where customers can send their requests and feedback. If you want to start building more robust, reliable, and valuable tools in the long run, Jira Service Management can be your tool to go.