Role Of Agile Methodology In Financial Services Industry

Financial institutions are going through multiple changes in the field of technology platforms, financial systems, risk management systems, etc. to deliver customer-oriented services in a short span of time. The industry is focusing on enhancing its operations by infusing advanced technologies to reduce financial risks, identify the latest financial trends, tracking accounts and balances, and many other important aspects of the industry. To overcome the diverse market challenges and improve efficiency in operation, the financial services industry is shifting towards the use of Agile Methodology to enhance their IT operations and sustaining revenue growth.

Agile refers to a process of developing software that aims at promoting continuous iteration of software development and testing process through collaborating the efforts of cross-functional teams and the end-users. This technology operates with adaptive planning and development that helps the industries to rapidly respond to change with the use of its flexible applications and tools.

Agile methodologies have the ability to create the software as per the needs of the end-users and reduce the risk of threats and errors while the applications are in the development stage. These methodologies enable the financial entities to upgrade their software as per the changing market needs and ensure risk management throughout the process.

Apart from ensuring flexibility in the operations, agile software development enables the financial industry to regulate its operations as per the rules and regulations by integrating compliance in their daily operations. This methodology enables reporting and data submission that help the organization to expand its operations and customer base. The financial institutions are restructuring their bureaucratic approaches by embracing agile methodologies that help them to enhance collaboration and innovation in the operations.

The use of agile methodologies has enabled the financial industry to remove hierarchies and provide more accountability and authority to the teams. It also allows the industry to maximize customer satisfaction and focus on customer outcomes by eliminating hierarchical ways of operations.

This methodology develops a seamless interface to upgrade and maintain the financial system infrastructure dynamically with multiple peripheral systems, which has made the development process efficient and effective. Agile software development methodologies help in eliminating software defects and ensures shorter development time that enables efficient banking and other financial services.

The use of agile development methodologies enables the financial institutions to attract highly skilled developers that enable them to match their products with the customers’ preferences and alter the features as and when required. These methodologies imitate domain knowledge by consuming internal data and enable faster decision making, which, in turn, helps in transforming the financial landscape as per the recent trends and requirements. The enterprise architecture has become flexible by reducing silos by collaborating IT applications and business strategies with the use of advanced application tools and supports delivery across multiple channels.

Agile methods enable the information technology experts to clearly identify the strategic goals and allow the members to systematically monitor the processes and match the operations with the set standards. Fintech banks and financial institutions are rapidly growing with the use of agile applications and tools and making the operations shift towards a digital environment.

Agile development methodologies ensure the delivery of a high-quality product by regulating frequent checkups to look for the progress of the product during the development process. The daily testing and continuous integration in the development process help the developers to address issues at the earliest and rectify them rapidly.

Agile has revolutionized the operations of online and mobile banking by making the process customer-oriented and eliminating the shortcomings of traditional technologies. Also, using agile methodology in a financial services firm helps them to improvise the velocity and incorporate better customer feedback operations. This leads to enhanced customer satisfaction which helps the organization to stay competitive and lead from the forefront. Apart from enhancing the product development process, agile methodologies also help financial institutions to keep pace with the marketplace realities and offer a greater return on information technology investment.

Although agile software development methodology offers a huge number of advantages to financial institutions, its success depends on how the organizations are using it in their process. It is advisable to merge agile methodology with other lean requirements to make the delivery process quick and feasible. This involves analyzing web designs, data architecture, user interface, and other important components.

Agile has the ability to run on multiple projects that are developed for long-time horizons and map the requirements by analyzing diverse prospects of the industry. The use of agile for long-term projects enables the financial institutions to strengthen their IT department and give developers an opportunity to bring innovation in the process and study diverse trends with the use of advanced tools and applications.

The IT application has gone through a major change and the financial institutions are rapidly shifting towards the use of agile methodologies to meet their long-term goals efficiently and to make the online baking process error-free.

Agile has made it possible for the financial institution to align all the important aspects that help them to enhance the value of diverse business functions with the use of a data-driven project management system across various teams.

Agile enables the organization to set realistic goals regarding the deliverables and testing process which helps them to monitor multiple aspects of the project, that includes, coaching, training, adding pilot projects, etc. The clients can be present throughout the project with the use of agile methodologies which leads to transparency and gives the benefit of prioritizing features as per the changing demands of the clients. The financial organizations are embracing this technology by looking at the benefits that it offers and it can certainly be said that agile is here to stay as it has the potential to change the dynamics of the financial institutions by offering various innovative opportunities to the IT department.