If you’re looking to see quick value from your IT projects, it might be time to rethink your approach. Rather than treating your IT project like a long marathon, consider breaking it down into short sprints that help you reach specific milestones quickly. 

For years, businesses have relied on the “waterfall” methodology to deliver IT projects on time and within budget. Here’s how it typically works: 

1. Gather and document user and business requirements 
2. Design a solution with the right technical resources 
3. Develop the solution 
4. Run User Acceptance Testing (UAT) 
5. Roll it out into production 

While waterfall has been the standard approach, it’s not without its challenges. Here are the top three issues we see: 

1) Time to Value

Waterfall projects can take months, sometimes even longer, to deliver. You might meet the “on-time” goal, but it could be too late to provide any real return on investment. The reality is that the “time to value” is often far too long. 

2) Overloading with Features

To avoid missing out on future opportunities, businesses often try to pack too many features into one project. While it might seem like a good idea at first, adding every possible “nice-to-have” feature only increases complexity, cost, and time—without guaranteeing more value.

Difficulty Adapting to Change

The waterfall approach doesn’t handle change well, and we all know how quickly business needs can evolve. By the time the project reaches User Acceptance Testing (UAT), the business and user requirements may have shifted significantly, making it difficult to adapt. 

So, is there a better way to deliver IT projects? Absolutely. Enter Agile. 

Why Agile Works Better for Quick Value 

Agile is all about flexibility, speed, and delivering results in smaller, achievable chunks. Here’s how Agile differs from the traditional waterfall approach: 

• Prioritize high-value requirements first: Instead of trying to deliver everything at once, focus on what will give the most value right away. 
• Break the project into sprints: Agile uses short, focused development cycles, known as “Sprints,” which typically last between 2 weeks to 2 months. 
• Deliver value with every Sprint: At the end of each Sprint, you have a functional solution ready for use. If more value is needed, simply kick off the next Sprint. If not, you can stop. 

Agile’s rapid, collaborative approach enables us to deliver working systems that drive significant business value in under a month. 

How Agile Handles Change So Well 

Agile is designed to be highly adaptable, which is especially valuable in dynamic business environments. For example, it works wonders for Client Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, which often need to evolve quickly. 

Here’s why Agile thrives in these situations: 

• Prototyping Approach: During each Sprint, a working model of the solution is presented, allowing users to interact with it while it’s still in development. This gives them a chance to see its potential and offer valuable feedback that can optimize the solution. 
• Fast Turnarounds: Unlike traditional IT projects that can take months to deliver, Agile enables rapid progress. And if priorities change, those adjustments can be incorporated into the next Sprint. 

You no longer have to wait months to see value from your IT projects. 

If you feel your IT projects are taking too long, not delivering value fast enough, or never quite align with your actual needs, we can help. 

Feel free to contact us at business@ecleva.com or visit our website www.ecleva.com to learn more. 

So is there another way to deliver IT projects? There is. It’s called “Agile”. As its name implies it’s all about being nimble, flexible and fast moving

“Agile” is different because it is a very tightly targeted approach, with achievable goals:

• You identify the requirements that will deliver the most value
• You deliver to those requirements first
• You do that via a series of short, discrete development cycles called “Sprints”. Each Sprint is of a fixed duration, usually between 2 weeks to 2 months.
• You deliver a useable solution at the end of each Sprint.
• If there is more value to be delivered then you kick-off another Sprint. If the extra value isn’t significant enough you stop.

“Agile” is short, sharp, multifunction team based effort which we have been using to deliver functioning systems with significant business value in under a month.

“Agile” is designed to handle change very well. As such it is really well suited for solutions that need to respond to change – Client Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, for example.

There are two main reasons for this.

Agile takes a prototyping approach. It puts out a working model during a Sprint, so users get to interact with the solution as it is being developed. This means users get to understand what the solution can do for them. It allows them to generate new ideas on how to get value from the solution and optimise functionality.

As well, Agile is fast. Users don’t need to wait six months. And it’s not final. If something new comes up or priorities change then those changes can be incorporated in the next Sprint.

You don’t have to be stuck with long IT projects that take months to deliver value.

If you feel your projects are taking too long, not delivering value quickly enough or always seem to be out of synch with what you really need, you should give us a call.

Visit our website or if you have any query than don’t hesitate to Contact us.