Speaker 1: Alex has just completed his graduation from Stanford University. One fine day, he receives a mail from Star Trek Technologies for an interview for the designation of a software engineer, as referred by the university. Alex was really happy and excited about this, and starts preparing for his interview next week. While he was preparing, Alex came across the term, downtime. Alex has no idea. What is a downtime? He decided to seek help from his uncle John, a software engineer. John explained that downtime is a specific timeframe allocated to deploy or update changes for a software product in a real-time environment. And this happens because most of the softwares we use today are developed using the waterfall model. For example, Cisco, one of the popular leaders in IT and networking globally, is using Agile methodology for their subscription billing platform, SBP. As it was originally developed using the waterfall model. After adopting the Agile methodology, Cisco's product improved its overall efficiency, where defects were reduced by 40% compared to the previous releases, and defect removal efficiency increased by 14%. Upon explaining what downtime is, John further added that downtime is a small part of the waterfall model. It is the traditional way of developing softwares using a software development lifecycle, where the whole product is treated as one single unit, and the development of one phase starts only after the completion of the previous phase. Adding new features or updating the existing feature in a waterfall model-based product needs a specific timeframe known as downtime to avoid disturbance in the workflow of an organization, where applying changes in a waterfall-based product might produce irrelevant results or product failure. The waterfall model is the earliest or the traditional model used for software development, where the output of one phase acts as the input for the preceding phase, consisting of a series of steps, where each phase has specific deliverables that act as the input for the next phase as it avoids overlapping of phases, as these phases are dependent on each other. This method is simple and easy to understand, where prerequisites are pre-known, documented earlier, and technology remains static, where there is no need for ambiguous requirements due to the delay in software delivery. In contrast, the final version is available only after completing the entire software lifecycle process, with any deviations if available. Changes in the waterfall model contain high risk, as changes include a new, revised version of the entire software running the entire series of steps again and again. For example, a tap-and-pay machine, where the machine first validates whether the customer's account is funded with sufficient funds or not, and then initiates the transaction for money transfer. Unless the validation is processed, the transaction cannot be initiated. Alex was curious and asked Uncle John is there any way to overcome the drawbacks of the waterfall model? John replies, yes. Agile methodology was introduced to overcome the problems faced in the waterfall model, where Agile-based products are developed by breaking the entire product process into microservices or phases, which is faster to execute and deploy changes on the go. There is no need to worry about other or previous tasks while working on one particular phase, avoiding product failure. Agile-based products don't require any particular time frame, downtime, to deploy changes. Unlike the waterfall model, where the whole product is treated as one single unit, and each process is dependent on the preceding processes where deploying changes leads to downtime. How Agile products are developed? Agile-based products are developed using the Agile lifecycle. At first, the developed product is implemented in an actual working environment for reviews from clients and stakeholders to check its deliverables and functionality. After client reviews, the official product is launched in a real-time working environment, where Agile methodology focuses on satisfying the consumer needs by efficiently utilizing the resources and avoiding additional risks or deviations in the product. For example, providing a trial beta version of the software for the end user to experience the software towards its deliverables and results will be helpful in refining and reviewing the product, like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, etc. After understanding all about Agile methodology, Alex asks Uncle John, are companies implementing Agile in their workspace nowadays? John replies, yes. Companies are moving towards Agile methodology due to its flexibility and advantages over traditional systems. By adopting Agile for their Sony Interactive environment, Sony noticed a major difference where there was a reduced planning time by 28% with their framework, and downtime was reduced to the maximum, which made the company save $30 million a year. So here's a question for you. What makes Agile different from Waterfall model? A. It is dependent on microservices. B. Agile consumes more time. C. The process is broken down into several phases. D. None of the above. Please give it a thought and post your answers in the comment section below. Three lucky winners will receive Amazon gift vouchers. Agile methodology aims to meet the consumer's requirements to the maximum in deploying changes in a rapidly developing environment, where Agile Manifesto principles brings an innovative set of rules and protocols to help developers overcome the challenges faced in the traditional practices, Waterfall model, making Agile flexible and efficient. We hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, a thumbs up would be really appreciated. Here's a reminder to subscribe to our channel and click on the bell icon for more on the latest technologies and trends. Thank you for watching and stay tuned for more from Simply Learn.