Agile software development

What is Agile?

Agile is a form of project management, and particularly applies to software
projects.

Some of the original ideas behind this can be found in the Agile
Manifesto. We didn’t invent this, but have adapted it to our needs.

It comes in two main flavours which we take aspects from: XP (eXtreme
Programming) and Scrum.

Why Agile?

The alternative, and traditional method of running software projects is called
"Waterfall". In speaking about the benefits of using Agile, it is worth
comparing it with this approach.

In traditional software projects, much time is spent on building requirement
documents and the application is then built on top of this plan. If
requirements are left out of the start up phase they are generally picked up
late in the process, by which point they may be awkward and costly to
implement.

Agile methodology acknowledges that the most useful features of an application
are often only discovered by using what already exists, and thus delivers
working software to the client at regular intervals. This means that in each
iteration meeting, a certain level of QA is carried out by the people who will
ultimately be using the application. This approach encourages greater
collaboration and ownership of key stakeholders and removes unwanted layers of
inefficiency. It also provides project managers visibility of the development
cycle without over loading on information.

Some of the points which stand out are:

• Change/iterative improvement
• Timeboxing
• Collaboration versus adversarial
• Opportunities to explore new ideas
• Ability to change priorities easily
• Regular access to demonstrations of working software

We feel that offers real improvements on the actual products being created,
and makes the process more enjoyable for all involved.

Check out how we implement Agile.