Agile has been transforming the software industry in more ways than one for over a decade. Many software companies in UAE have adopted Agile this year, building cross-functional teams for better efficiency, and facilitating holistic cross-team communication.

What’s wrong with the traditional approach?

Traditionally, software development companies follow a structural approach when undertaking projects. The product development will be primarily driven by the schedule, timeline, and budget. So developers, requirements specialists, and testers won’t be communicating much. Whenever they do, they will be speaking for their respective teams and not holistically for the product itself. 

Essentially there will be a barrier between the requirements analysis team, dev team, and QA team. They will be reporting to their team leads and will only be focused on their objectives and progress as a team rather than taking the overall progress of the project into account. 

Separate functional teams = lack of effective communication.

This normally isn’t a problem for organizations providing agile software development services however, as they would be nurturing a culture with cross-functional teams and optimal collaboration. 

Ensuring effective communication between testers, developers, and requirements specialists

• Utilize an Agile framework: Agile frameworks like Scrum can come in handy here enabling natural communication between all team members. A Scrum ecosystem will have cross-functional teams with common goal(s) that will reminded to them every day during the daily meetings. With each increment, Scrum pushes the team closer to the goal without compromising on quality. This is one of the reasons why Scrum is what experts in the Software testing Dubai industry recommend the most today. 
  
• Building teams for the product: Rather than forming a team based on the schedule and timeline, it’s a better approach to build a team based on the expertise required for the project. Various professionals with expertise in various techniques and technologies and experience in management can be part of one single team working on one common goal. Such an approach would also ensure proper communication between team members. 
  
• Educate team members to not to blame each other: People blaming each other is a pretty common occurrence between testers and developers. Blaming each other can cause bitterness between members and can negatively impact how they communicate to solve problems together. Managers should take care to call out a team member trying to put the blame on another, dissolve the situation quickly while maintaining team coherence. 
  

Conclusion

Cross-functional teams are more productive, and that is what Agile helps enterprises build. Many enterprises think adopting Agile with expert supervision is enough to get things going. But for Agile to be effective, the whole team will have to be educated on the concept. The enterprise will have to cultivate a culture that adapts to what an Agile approach recommends.