Triple Track Agile approach, the evolution of agile methods

Companies working with technology and innovation understand that there are several methodologies available for the development of products, processes or services. Triple Track Agile (TTA) is one of these approaches, a way to prepare the business to develop what is relevant for their user, while quickly adapting in a scenario made up of constant change and uncertainties.

But what is the Triple Track Agile? It consists of an agile methodology proposed by ilegra which adds a new stage to the dual-track model. Therefore, the development goes through three phases that provide feedback to one another, even though they have the following initial sequence.

Foundation

Team composed by architects, it is the first track to start. It is responsible for understanding the company strategy, the macros goals, and for identifying the main challenges that can present risks. Besides, it is responsible for enabling the discovery and delivery stages with tools, insights, and other artifacts.

Some of the work of this stage is focused on scalability of solutions, architecture, DevOps, new technologies, test platforms, technologies that aim at unlock deliveries from other tracks, data collection about users, research in depth, and so forth.

Discovery

The discovery multidisciplinary team is formed by business analysts, software architects, UX Research and UX Designers. Together, they are responsible for looking more deeply into the problems to be solved. Aligned with the company’s strategy, the Discovery team embarks on a series of tests, interviews and concept sampling, in order to quickly validate the proposed ideas. The result of this work are artifacts that make sense from the perspective of the business, user and technology.

The focus is on quickly discovering and learning what are the main problems and needs that users have and what would be the most appropriate solutions, avoiding waste of time in developing and delivering an obsolete product. Here, it is essential that ideas are validated or discarded, based on user feedback, and that they are in harmony with business needs. The identification and correction of errors, in this phase, generates savings in the development stage, therefore, Discovery is focused on learning fast.

In addition, this track draws ways to collect data and metrics that can help with product decision making, guiding data culture and providing better product predictions. Finally, at Discovery, technical feasibility issues are also addressed, with a focus on practical issues, such as whether there are APIs that meet the needs of the business or whether it is possible to develop layouts with existing technologies.

Delivery

With the strategy designed and validated with Discovery, the Delivery team, formed by Software Engineers, is responsible for delivering the software, using agile methods to give visibility and predictability about the completion of the work.

In this stage, the objective is to deliver the software in the correct way, relying on practices that ensure that the product to be produced has less chances of bugs and is built in the most appropriate way to meet the established needs. It is on this track that test cultures are approached (such as unit testing, integration and stress), as well as planning how to develop the product with the best software design practices.

In summary, the Delivery stage aims to deliver the software as soon as possible and with the greatest possible confidence, ensuring quality and sustainability of the system, doing this in a frequent and consistent manner.

Triple Track Agile is an ilegra toolbox for navigating and producing the best result in a VUCA world: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

Nowadays, it is not enough to just develop the software. More often than not, it is necessary to create the tools themselves, so yes, it means to develop the product that will reach the end user. It is also necessary to design an architecture that can handle the number of simultaneous users, without unnecessarily increasing infrastructure costs.

How do you know if the proposed solution to the problem makes sense to users? How to decrease the uncertainties and rework of the development team? These are questions that the Triple Track Agile methodology is set out to investigate.

A new way of thinking about processes

In several processes, companies are used to working with projects that have a beginning, middle and end, using the cascade model to manage and measure results, such as: if the scope was met, if it happened within the deadline and within the initially planned budget.

But, considering the current scenario, in which situations change quickly and in which we head for an uncertain destination – the Covid-19 pandemic is a clear example of the VUCA world -, the cascade models become ineffective. This is because the work is no longer linear, and the challenges require a multidisciplinary perspective, being approached in a more dynamic and collaborative way.

Considering all of this, the Triple Track Agile approach has a number of tools that make the job easier:

• Stages provide feedback to one another and are formed by multidisciplinary teams;
• Lean and agile as the basis for the work on the three tracks;
• Product Culture as a new way of thinking about the work being done and measuring its success, in addition to placing the user at the center of decisions.

Unlike the linear waterfall model and its premise that the work moves to the next phase as soon as it is completed, in the TTA model each track learns from the other, generating continuous improvement and more assertive work.

Interested in learning more about the practical results of the Triple Track Agile methodology? Read more in the article Remote squads: accelerated development of digital products.