Critical Review : Agile Methods Essay

Agile team tries to build a product that meets the customer’s intent rather than the detailed description provided in the traditional methods, thus in the Agile PM customer becomes one of the team guide and member.

Introduction to Agile Methods by Hayes and Andrews gives detailed-oriented information about different aspects of agile methods like why there is a need for new software development processes and pitfalls of traditionally methodologies and how this lead to emergence of agile methods. They describe various existing agile methods but describes only one in great detailed – Extreme Programming(XP). They define Extreme Programming as agile, adaptive software methodology having well defined values - Communication, Simplicity, Feedback, and Courage. Failing in achieving this values will result in failing Extreme Programming. Extreme Programming is used only when you have complete understanding of the business and requirements. Extreme Programming follow a series of iteration to deliver the final project. Initially the story heard from the customer is broken down into smaller stories such that the developers can assign time to develop that stories and then its deliver to the customers for feedback. Coach plays a vital role in Extreme Programming. Afterwards Hayes and Andrews describe how XP differs from traditional methodologies. They also explain the common misconception about Extreme Programming is spread around the world. There are only fewer companies in the world that uses Extreme Programming because people are afraid of changing to new methods.

Furthermore, the way by which these methodologies work is quite simple, they essentially serve as blueprint for project managers. Blueprints that specify what tasks should be tackled and in which order. For instance, under the agile software development methodology a lot emphasis is

The most well-known methods of agile development include agile modeling, agile unified process (AUP), adaptive software development (ASD), Scrum, Lean software development, Crystal Clear Methods, Extreme programming (XP) and son on. Each method has its own characteristic and advantages.

“Agile” was first introduced in 2001, by a team of software engineers looking to improve their adaptiveness and responsiveness to ever-changing requirements. Not knowing where to begin, the team began by formulating principles, which they would use to guide their new development process. Which, in turn, lead to the creation of the Agile Manifesto, and thus a new methodology was born.

The Agile Methodology Principles makes the development much faster because the primary importance is given to the customer satisfaction and continuously delivers product. Even though requirements change at the ending phase the product is developed. The Agile development insist the self-organizing team which can create requirements, best architectures, best models. The Agile development promotes a distinct way of thinking to build things and methods to deliver continuous improvement of product. It facilitates to make best practices and decisions together. It a development to promote the adaptive planning, continuous improvement, evolutionary development and delivery, and required time to complete work. It encourages for rapid response to change in the whole development cycle. The project team prefers agile development to move in a creative and quick way. The project progress also depends on working software and project environment and support is provided and built by the individuals. They promote the sustainable environment. Constant attention is provided to the technical excellence and best models are given by the agile methodology. This principle helps the project team members

One of the initial steps in researching a problem is to know exactly what the problem is and compose a problem statement that unambiguously identifies and defines the problem to research. Sekaran (2003) said, “No amount of good research can find solutions to the situation, if the critical issue or the problem to be studied is not clearly pinpointed” (p. 69). The area of research for this paper focuses on software development, in particular, the study of agile software development methodologies and if these methodologies are successful in delivering software on time, within budget, and includes the requested features.

Using the Agile approach enabled us to organize the software project into chorological order from the User Requirements to the End product. The requirements were formed by meeting our client Fernando on regular bases discussing the requirements of the program. He would assure

In other words, how can PMO and agile live together in an organization? Therefore, the target of this paper is to address the issues and clarify the relationship between the PMO and Agile methodology.

Agile methodologies promote a structured project management process that encourages self-organisations, accountability and teamwork. These are the best practices that allow customer needs and company goals to be developed through rapid delivery of high quality software and a clear business approach. The software development is based on iterative development that consists of various procedures (cPrime, 2016).

There is a cross section of projects ranging from a few weeks to a few years. There are also a wide cross section of customers, those capable of articulating clearly their requirements and the ones that are not clear on their requirements and the overall outcome to be achieved. The level of programmers within the Information Technology Department, where development work is executed, range from intermediate to advance or above average programming competence. The Waterfall approach is easier to manage and can be utilized for projects where there are clear requirements and the project is determined to be a long term one. Also, this method may be best suited given the organization’s requirements for thorough documentation and project accountability, when it comes to budget and cost. The Agile methodology can be used for projects where the requirements as well as the expectation from the end product are not as clear. The developers that are above average in terms of their competence can also use this method. In addition, the Agile method is also best suited for the projects that would require rapid

Agile techniques should be used to solve the current issues faced by the company as agile techniques normally being used by the software industry help the business to act in response under the unpredictable situations faced. In Agile methodologies opportunities are been provided to evaluate whether the project is under the direction all through its development cycle. All this is being accomplished with the help of regular tempo kept in work, and the teams must show a product which is having the desired potential.

The agile software methodology uses teams that are self-organized and can develop incremental periods of work rather than working for long periods of time. Having face-to-face collaboration is preferable over written documentation. It tends to be more adhesive and produces better products in the end. Having the ability to change the direction/plan at any point during the project is possible. If change is not accommodated throughout the project, the team will not have set realistic expectations and it will be difficult to meet the anticipated deadline time period. The agile methodologies value the individual and interactions between the team over processes and other tools. When the agile software development approach is used, the team is

This paper describes Agile development methodologies and their benefits. Section II presents key elements of Agile. Section III presents benefits of Agile development methodologies over traditional waterfall methodologies.

Software development is one of the highest demands in all over the world. We use software development techniques to solve the problems and to satisfy customers. Agile software development is a conceptual framework for software; it is also a group of software development methods based on iterative development. In 2001, agile software development was created by seventeen people with a desire to find alternative approaches to software development. The most important thing about agile methods are team work, conveying information to the team, face to face conversation, and satisfy the customer. There are various methodologies but I am going to describe the most popular ones.