Agile Software Development

What is Agile Software Development?

Agile Software Development is a methodology that concentrates on making constant deliveries of minor incremental improvements. This approach stands in contrast to the traditional Waterfall development method that focuses on big releases with a longer downtime between them.

What is the Agile Manifesto?

Agile Manifesto is a statement by a group of 17 individual Agile practitioners, calling themselves “Agile Alliance”.

“We are discovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. With this work, we have come to value:

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
  • Working software over comprehensive documentation
  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
  • Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

What are the characteristics of agile development?

Agile development is iterative and adaptive – it goes in short cycles of development, testing, and release phases, which makes faster delivery possible,  shortening user feedback that provides the next development cycle. Short loops allow Agile teams to quickly course-correct any processes based on customers’ requirements – that is what makes Agile essential for startups.

Agile development is nothing without constant communication through public kanban boards and daily standup meetings, that remove roadblocks and clear interdependencies. Colocation has always been expounded as a benefit of agile methodology, but online channels have enabled distributed teams to work in an agile fashion efficiently.

When to use the Agile Model?

  • When the solutions require frequent changes  – f.e. during the MVP stage of the new product.
  • When you have a highly qualified and experienced team – be sure they are loaded with the tasks.
  • When there is an opportunity for ongoing meetings with the customer – after receiving the feedback, the team will be ready to implement any changes as fast as possible.
  • When project size is small – precise planning and control will pay off in the future.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Agile Software Development

What place takes the documentation in the Agile?

Agile takes a “just barely good enough” approach to documentation. Documentation should neither be too lacking nor too detailed, making it unhelpful or hard to maintain and update with the codebase.

It both can be a pro and a con of the solution development.

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