Agile Development
The AGILE software development methodology is one of the simplest and most effective processes for turning a vision of a business need into software solutions.
The AGILE methodology is a practice that promotes continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the project’s software development life cycle. In the Agile model, both development and testing activities are concurrent, unlike the Waterfall model.
The AGILE software development methodology emphasizes four core values:
- Individual and team interactions Vs. Processes and tools.
- Software operation Vs. Complete documentation.
- Collaboration with the customer Vs. Contract negotiation.
- Responding to change vs. following a fixed plan.
Advantages of the AGILE development
AGILE is a term used to describe software development approaches that apply continuous planning, learning, improvement, team collaboration, evolutionary development and early delivery. Its main benefits include:
High stakeholder involvement
Agile offers multiple opportunities for stakeholder and team involvement – before, during and after each sprint. By involving the customer in every step of the project, there is a high degree of collaboration between the customer and the project team.
Focuses on business value
By enabling the customer to determine the priority of features and functionality, the team understands what is most important to the customer’s business, and can deliver those that provide the greatest business value.
Early and predictable delivery
Using a preset schedule new features and functionality are delivered quickly and frequently, with a high level of predictability. This also provides the opportunity to release or test software ahead of schedule if there is sufficient business value.
Predictable and scheduled costs
The cost is predictable and limited to the amount of work the team can perform on the agreed schedule. This makes it easier for the customer to understand the approximate cost of each feature and functionality, which improves decision making on prioritizing changes and upgrades.
Enables the change
While the team should focus on delivering an agreed subset of the product features during each iteration, there is the opportunity to constantly refine and reprioritize the product set. New or modified elements can be planned for the next iteration, providing the opportunity to introduce changes within a few weeks.
Clarity
An Agile approach provides a unique opportunity for customers to participate in the entire project, from prioritization of new software features and functionality to iteration planning and software release review sessions with new features.
Focuses on users
By focusing features on the needs of real users, each feature delivers value incrementally. This also provides the opportunity to beta test the software after each Sprint, gaining valuable feedback early in the project and providing the ability to make changes as needed.
Improves Quality
By breaking the project into manageable units, the project team can focus on high-quality development, testing and collaboration. In addition, by producing intermediate releases frequently and performing tests and reviews during each iteration, quality is improved by finding and fixing defects quickly and identifying mismatches to expectations early.