Scrum (see method overview) is often used in software development when designs already exist or a rough backlog for a so-called MVP – a “Minimum Viable Product” – already exists (see method overview). This designates the first minimal version of a product, with which one can create a value and already collect first feedback.
But is it possible to develop software in an agile way if the business model has yet to be explored or the necessary designs have not yet been created? Can you combine agile implementation together with methods like Design Thinking (see method overview) and Lean Startup?
The answer is “Yes!” – and Dual-Track Agile is a great way to combine these strands.
Dual-Track Agile is divided – as the name suggests – into two parallel “tracks”: one each for “Discovery” and “Delivery”. In the Discovery Track, activities from Design Thinking and Lean Startup take place to explore problems, generate ideas/solution proposals, prototype, test and validate. The delivery track is then about implementing the validated ideas in an agile manner. This ensures that only the validated ideas from the Discovery Track are implemented.
So, in a way, these tracks inspire each other. On the one hand, requirements and validated results and learnings are created in the Discovery Track and provide the basis for implementation in the Delivery Track. But the agile implementation by the Delivery Track can of course also feed results back to the Discovery Track – e.g., the Discovery Track can be used for the development of new products. Learnings from the implementation or, subsequently, the real measured data from the productive environment in which the results were implemented.