Vertical slicing sounds like something out of a chef's book. However, it might just be what your software needs to get it up and going. This is a powerful building approach in software development that ensures your team builds and pushes out valuable and functional features consistently. No bits and pieces to puzzle together, just features that simply work.
What Is Vertical Slicing?
Digging deeper, vertical slicing is all about breaking down a task into manageable pieces where each of them builds up to one complete functionality. One function is split into multiple tasks and you complete the tasks to finish off the function and you do it one function at a time.
Unlike horizontal slicing where tasks are at technical layers like the backend, frontend, and database, vertical is more catered towards delivering end-to-end functionalities per cycle. Each slice will include multiple layers of every core component from UI, logic, and database and the final product of these slices is to produce small but fully functional pieces of applications. One of the reasons why this has become a preferred approach is how quick and efficient you can deliver meaningful value as a function compared to other approaches that need a majority of the entirety to be completed to form productive functions.
Why Vertical Slicing Is Important
Delivers Value Faster
With vertical slices teams can deliver functionality by functionality, incrementally and ultimately deliver better value to users on a quicker path instead of waiting for all backend, frontend, and data work to finish. Getting things to your user has never been more streamlined, and efficient in both work and finances while also delivering functional true value.
Improves Collaboration
Vertical slicing promotes cross-functional efforts. As each slice work closely with different parts of the stack and team members from a variety of backgrounds, the collaborative efforts can go sky-high. It's about breaking silos, encouraging knowledge sharing, and coming together for an overall complete and diverse output that addresses all the needs around it.
Enhances Feedback Loops
Delivering small, functional pieces of software enables teams to gather feedback earlier in the development process. This feedback is invaluable, as it allows teams to make adjustments before too much work has been invested in a particular direction. This iterative process reduces the risk of building something that doesn't meet user needs.
Increases Focus on User Needs
Vertical slicing helps keep the team focused on delivering value to the user. By ensuring each slice has user-facing functionality, teams are reminded that the goal is to solve real-world problems, not just to complete technical tasks. This user-centric approach often leads to better product outcomes.
Simplifies Testing and Debugging
Smaller, self-contained slices are easier to test and debug. Since each slice represents a complete piece of functionality, testing can be more focused and effective. Additionally, if something goes wrong, it's easier to isolate the problem to a specific slice, reducing the complexity of troubleshooting.
Encourages Incremental Progress
Vertical slicing aligns well with the concept of incremental development. Instead of waiting for a "big bang" release, teams can release smaller features more frequently. This incremental approach allows for continuous delivery and can lead to faster time-to-market.
How to Implement Vertical Slicing
To implement vertical slicing, start by breaking down your features into user stories that represent complete units of functionality. For each story, identify the work needed across all layers of the application. Make sure each slice is small enough to be completed in a short time frame, ideally within a sprint.
Examples
Building a Feedback Form for a Mobile App
If you’re developing a customer feedback feature for a mobile app, vertical slicing can help you get a basic version out quickly.
- First Slice: Implement a simple feedback form that lets users submit their feedback, which is then sent to your server and stored in a database.
- Next Slices: Add features like viewing past feedback, categorizing feedback, or sending notifications when new feedback is received.
By releasing a basic feedback feature early, you allow users to start interacting with it, giving you insights on what to improve next.
Implementing Login and Authentication for a SaaS Application
Suppose you need to add user login functionality to a SaaS app. Instead of just designing the login UI first and then moving to the back end, you use vertical slicing to create a complete, working login feature right away.
- First Slice: Users can log in using a basic form, and their credentials are checked against a database. This slice includes the front-end form, the back-end logic for authentication, and the database integration.
- Next Slices: Add additional features like password recovery, multi-factor authentication, and social media logins.
This allows you to start onboarding users early while you continue to enhance the login system.
Conclusion
Vertical slicing is a game changer for teams who want to deliver functional value at an incredible efficiency. This approach is all about getting one function done at a time getting it out of the way and moving to the next where each functionality pushed out delivers actual value. While your functionality gets built through the entirety of your tech stack, frontend, backend, and data team, your product also go through a variety of uses by different people from different disciplines which really helps your functionality actually cover areas you might have missed as a frontend developer, back end or even as a data person.
This is also one of the easiest ways to debug your solution rather than handling a whole completely mass-project. Dissect your work and chores one functionality at a time and build incrementally, making sure your clients have a product to work with and consistent rounds of upgrades through and through bringing agile development cycles a whole new level of efficiency.