• Organise

How Brightec's agile approach helps us deliver projects on time and within budget?

At its core, agile is about continuous improvement, collaboration, and the ability to adapt to changing requirements. Here's how we bring these principles to life.

For us, Agile is a philosophy that influences every part of our work.

Whether we're working on a front-end app project or collaborating with external teams, our agile methodology ensures that creativity, flexibility, and efficiency go hand-in-hand. This blog explains the tools and methodology we utilise.

Sprint refinement: Prioritising and breaking down work

Each sprint at Brightec begins with a crucial sprint refinement session. This is where we clarify the project backlog, refine user stories, and break down larger features into smaller, actionable tasks. For instance, during our recent work with one of our main clients, a pension provider, we faced the challenge of rolling out a complex authentication system. We continuously refined our approach, broke the work into manageable chunks, and aligned the team on achievable goals. This approach allowed us to ensure that we met the base requirements while striving for stretch goals—ensuring flexibility and a focus on delivering quality.  Click here to read more about one of our pension app development projects

Sprint planning: Clear goals and expectations

At the start of each sprint we gather as a team to outline the tasks and goals for the upcoming cycle. We work in two week cycles for long-term projects. We always ensure the whole project team is engaged in discussions so there is clarity around expectations and what’s achievable. We never want to over promise, or under deliver.

Daily standups: Focused and transparent

We believe in keeping communication short and to the point. Our daily standups are a key part of this, lasting just 15 minutes. They’re open to the client team, reinforcing transparency and honesty across the board. These quick check-ins are a chance to discuss progress, review actions, and realign priorities for the sprint. This regular communication helps us identify blockers early so we can stay on track.

Cross-functional collaboration: Breaking down silos

To deliver truly integrated solutions, we rely on close collaboration with all other teams. For example, during our work with Waterstones, we combined teams from both Brightec and Waterstones into a unified squad. This collaborative setup included designers, testers, engineers, product managers, and delivery managers from both sides. The goal? To work as one cohesive team, sharing knowledge and driving progress together.

At Brightec, we call this value Inspirational Companions—we believe in sharing our expertise, inspiring others, and building strong relationships that help us deliver better products. Click here to read about our work on the award-winning Waterstones app.

Iterative development: Small wins, big impact

We break development down into smaller, incremental chunks. This allows us to release improvements frequently, gather user feedback, and adjust based on real data. You don’t have to wait until the end of the project to see your digital product come to life.

In 2024 , we set a goal to release at the end of every sprint with one of our key clients, Virgin Trains Ticketing. , The result? There were 24 successful releases in total over the year. This iterative approach keeps momentum high and ensures that our work remains aligned with user needs. Click here to find out more about the Virgin Trains Ticketing app development project.

Sprint retrospectives: Reflecting and evolving

After every sprint, the team gathers to reflect on what went well, what wasn’t seen as a success, and what could be improved. This process is essential for fostering a culture of continuous improvement. We believe being able to give and recieve feedback regularly is essential to the creative process.

Our value Collective Responsibility,is a driving force in why we often choose to run joint retrospectives with the client, giving the entire team the opportunity to learn, grow, and support each other in success.

A retrospective always ends with a set of actionable items, clear owners, and agreed deadlines.

Flexible adjustments: Embracing change

One of the core principles of agile is the ability to adapt to change. For app development, this means being ready to pivot when new requirements emerge. Whether it’s a shift in branding, new accessibility standards, or a change in end goals, our team is prepared to adjust scope and timelines to stay aligned with the evolving vision. Flexibility allows us to stay on course and deliver value even when the landscape changes.

This also crosses over to changes in team size, structure, and service offering. In the last quarter of 2024 we moved from having two large squads working consistently across the app of one of our enterprise clients, to a new Managed Service offering to scale down in preparation for the next roadmap. We have now supported a number of months of maintenance mode that has focused on production reliability, small changes, and monitoring and reporting of the app health and performance - ready to scale back up with the client's fresh ambition.

End of project delivery: Wrapping up and reflecting

At the end of a project, we focus on delivering a front-end that is responsive, accessible, and meets user expectations. Post-launch, the team stays involved, monitoring user behavior and analyzing data to ensure the product continues to meet objectives. In some cases, we also provide a transition phase where we hand over the code to the client’s team, ensuring they have all the necessary documentation, training, and support to maintain the product moving forward.

Meeting cadence: Keeping it lean and focused

To ensure communication stays clear and purposeful, we maintain a regular meeting cadence:

• Daily Standups

• Fortnightly Sprint Planning and Refinement

• Fortnightly Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives

• Ad-Hoc Meetings (as needed)

Each meeting is designed to focus on outcomes, not just process. We strive to keep meetings brief and productive, with clear agendas and defined outcomes. Read more on how we run productive meetings.

Reducing administrative overload

While communication is key, it’s important to minimise administrative burdens. Here’s how we keep things efficient:

• Clear roles and responsibilities: Everyone in the team knows their role and we ensure the client understands each of their responsibilities - and that we know the same for their team.

• Lean meetings: Meetings will be kept as brief as possible with the focus remaining on people and outcomes rather than process. We ensure that only necessary team members are involved, and every meeting has a clear agenda with a defined outcome.

Asynchronous updates: For non-urgent communication, we use Slack, Teams, and Jira to share updates without overwhelming team members with back-to-back meetings.

Transparent reporting and honest feedback

To maintain transparency and avoid communication blind spots, we track progress using Miro and Jira, sending regular updates on project health, budget, and scope progression. We also leverage daily standups, retrospectives, and sprint reviews to gather feedback and address any blockers early on, reducing the need for excessive formal reports.

By using these communication practices, we ensure that everyone on the team is heard, collaboration flows smoothly, and we avoid unnecessary administrative tasks that can slow down progress.

Conclusion: Building a healthy, productive team environment

Our agile approach is about more than just following a set of processes—it's creating an environment where communication is transparent, feedback is honest, and collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. By embracing flexibility, prioritising clarity, and focusing on continuous improvement, we can deliver exceptional products without overloading our team with administrative work. The result? A healthy, productive team that values respect, trust, and creativity—delivering the best outcomes for our clients and users.