2010 17 May
Understanding Success
The traditional definition of success is the delivery on time, on budget, and according to specification. [Standish]
Agile Methodology
When developing software, there are two basic approaches to planning: waterfall and agile.
In the waterfall model, the project is planned, Scheduled, Built, Tested, and then Deployed, the larger the project, the more problematic the waterfall method. While in the agile methodologies there is quick iterations form planning to deployment, must often once a week, what makes the life cycle management easier and more AGILE.
What does it mean to “be agile”?
The answer is more complicated than you might think. Agile development isn’t a specific process you can follow.
Agile development is a philosophy. It’s a way of thinking about software development. The canonical description of this way of thinking is the Agile Manifesto:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
History
The agile software movement began in 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was written by a group of software development luminaries including Kent Beck, Ward Cunningham and Martin Fowler, among others. These thought leaders held a conference early that year to address the cumbersome, heavy methodologies that the industry had used for decades. The result was the agile software movement.
10 Key Principles of Agile Software Development
Agile development is a different way of managing software development projects. 10 Key Principles of Agile Software Development, and how it fundamentally differs from a more traditional waterfall approach to software development, are as follows:
- Active user involvement is imperative
- The team must be empowered to make decisions
- Requirement evolve with a fixed time scale
- Capture requirements at a high level
- Develop small, incremental releases and iterate (How do u eat an elephant?)
- Focus on frequent delivery of products
- Complete each feature before moving on to the next
- Apply the 80/20 rule
- Testing is integrated throughout the project lifecycle – test early and often
- A collaborative & cooperative approach between all stakeholders is essential (No Place For Snipers!)
