Sep 22nd, 2024
Failing Fast: The Key to Agile Software Development
“Fail fast” was a phrase coined by Mark Zuckerberg to describe Facebook’s approach to agile software development. Since the phrase became part of the lexicon, it and Zuckerberg have been scrutinized for the seemingly throwaway attitude it promotes.
But “fail fast” still has its place in agile software development. The “fail fast, fail early” mentality encourages devs and product teams to test their assumptions, iterate quickly, listen to customer feedback, and constantly reinvent and revise their product to meet growing expectations.
What is Fail Fast in Agile Software Development?
Fail Fast is a principle in agile software development that involves testing your software application ideas and assumptions early, before deployment. This method entails evaluating small ideas in segments to assess performance, thereby preventing high costs and significant failures later.
Why is it Key to Validate Assumptions with Software Development?
Building software is expensive. The up-front cost of software development is high if you want a good, quality product with few crashes, high availability, robust security, and a responsive interface. So, it is important to ensure that before you invest in all that work, you are building something people want.
While market research and studying previous examples of what you are making is important, there really is no way to know how customers will respond to your product until you put it in front of them. So, you need to put it in front of them as early in the process as possible.
An MVP (Minimum Viable Product) or a prototype that encapsulates the core features of your product in a way that users can test and respond to is one of the most valuable steps to incorporate into your build cycle.
Identify technical challenges early in the SDLC
Not only does getting something in front of users early help you figure out exactly what you should be building, it also helps you discover potential pitfalls and technical issues. The tech stack you’ve chosen might not quite fit the requirements of the product. Your devs may not be familiar with the tools you’ve chosen. There may be additional scoping that needs to happen to flesh out features that turn out to be more complicated than expected.
What is the benefit of Failing Fast in Agile Software Development
If you get your MVP or prototype together, only to put it in front of customers and realize it doesn’t work or worse, if you can’t even get the MVP or prototype built because the technical challenges are too difficult to overcome, guess what? That’s a good thing.
It’s far better to spend a few weeks mocking up a prototype or building a very basic version of your product than it is to spend months on a new feature, only to release it and have it failed.
Benefits Of Failing Fast in Agile Software Development
- Bug Detection: Spotting and fixing bugs early in the software development process.
- Cost Efficiency: Ignored and unresolved defects in a project build up over time, resulting in higher damage and expenses.
- Enhanced Quality: Guarantees the functionality, performance, and security of software applications.
- Rapid Feedback: Issues can be swiftly addressed, and feedback can be smoothly incorporated into the development cycle.
- Fostering Innovation: Promoting quick failure encourages continuous learning, innovation, and ongoing improvement.
The cost benefits of failing early in the agile software development
It may seem counterintuitive that building something that doesn’t work saves you money—after all, wasn’t all that time spent building the product wasted? Wasn’t the money you paid the devs to build it wasted? Well, yes, kind of. But the amount of money you could have spent building something bigger and more complicated that also failed is far higher.
Not only that, you gained valuable insight into the needs and expectations of your customers—and that is incredibly valuable data that will be useful not only on your second iteration of this project, but on every single new feature you build down the road.
Do iterations happen quicker during the second try at a software project?
Of course. Once you’ve built an MVP or prototype that failed, you not only gain valuable knowledge about how to fix the product, but you’re also starting that second iteration with the experience MVP development behind you. Features can be scrapped or scoped back. The tech stack can be streamlined. Communication about expectations can happen more efficiently.
What is the best way to recover from failing on a software project?
Infusing your company culture with the “fail fast” mentality is an excellent way to help devs and product teams recover from failure. The expectation of agile software development is that not everything will work, and we treat failure as a learning experience. Making this clear from the get-go allows teams to see the failure as a positive, recover quickly and move on, rather than dwelling on the failure as a negative.
Bottom Line
“Fail fast, fail early” can be an incredibly powerful mindset to instill in your software development team. It allows you to build quickly, encourages you to test often, puts you in touch with users, and saves you time and money in the long run.
