Software Development : The Agile Development Methodology

“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 with scrum-based approach has worked effectively for our organization because it is flexible and iterative with continuous feedback and constant communication and favored by frequent and short delivery schedules (Chang, 2010). This approach brings about a high level of competence and high level of motivation to work. It also instills discipline and respect for time by

Scrum Agile Methodologies is the most popular of the methodologies. It is an outline that uses fixed sprints. Once a sprints has ended, a scrum team works together with a new one which starts until the projected is finished. The team consists of:

It has been observed that in software development, change is unavoidable and must be accommodated for in the life cycle. A number of alternative process models have been introduced in order to attempt to fix the issues in the Waterfall model. An early modification to the standard Waterfall method introduced prototyping as a feedback and discovery mechanism to identify misunderstandings and omissions early on in the process (Neill, 2004). Other process models attempted to further get rid of the risks of misunderstandings by breaking down projects

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.

Agile is an iterative and incremental (evolutionary) approach to software development which is performed in a highly collaborative manner by self-organizing teams within an effective governance framework, with "just enough" ceremony, that produces high quality solutions, in a cost effective and timely manner which meets the changing needs of its stakeholders [1].

Over the last several years, agile software development processes have become increasingly popular. According to Fowler (2003), the agile software engineering processes attempt to enable more flexible and adaptive software development than the traditional software engineering processes offer.

In conclusion, agile software development is a very exciting and useful approach, although some project suit agile more than others. The collaboration and visibility can provide a much better and rewarding experience for the team to develop software products. Over the last years, many companies dramatically improved their performances

There are a number of software engineers who advocate this approach and there are huge software development organizations that prefer agile approach to use than other traditional methodologies. According to Andrew Begel and Nachiappan Nagappan [2] from more than two decade agile software methodology is gaining acceptance by the professionals since 1990. Due to fast changing technology, common customer can not define his needs properly. New approaches and methodologies were needed able to define changing requirements properly. Traditional methods such as waterfall model are not able to deal with real ways software engineering functions in software development. Some group of software consultants signed the agile SD manifesto in 2001. This was the era when agile software development was basically emerged. Main benefit of this approach is to promote and develop the response and speed of software development to change the requirement as well as deadlines [3] [4]. There are many agile methods used in agile software methods. The most known method is extreme programming generally called XP. Some others are Dynamic Software Development Methods DSDN, Scrum and Crystal. These mentioned methods can be considered as a new idea plan that is based on the traditional methods. Basic description of software development methodologies is given bellow as.

In a paper titled “Software Development Lifecycle Models”, Nayan B. Ruparelia describes many of the different options when developing software including the Waterfall model. The Waterfall model was one of the first true models documented for software development and “has underpinned all other models” (Ruparelia 2010) since inception. Originally developed by Herbert Benington in 1956 and later adjusted by Winston Royce in 1970 (Ruparelia 2010), the Waterfall method became an important and widely used process to get software into the workplace. The model follows a pattern of evaluation, requirements, analysis, design, development, validation, and deployment. Royce’s model also allowed for “iterative feedback” (Ruparelia 2010) that allowed a group to move to a preceding step if feedback was needed. One of the key tenants of the Waterfall method is heavy planning and documenting with a key goal of minimizing risk during coding. Also, collaboration is low across phases as each group in a phase would play a different part in terms of requirements and validation. Traditionally, the Waterfall model is used to develop large and complex software rollouts that require different experience levels and backgrounds to accomplish the overarching goal. Once the software is coded and deployed, the documentation allows for better understanding of what took place if a process needed to be revisited. Other variations of the Waterfall model have been documented but the original version is

Agility means the ability to move quickly and easily. “Agile” is a collective term for methodologies and practices that evolved in recent years to increase the relevance, quality, flexibility and business value of software solutions. These adaptive management approaches are specifically intended to address the problems that have historically plagued software development and service delivery activities in the IT industry – including budget overruns, missed deadlines, low-quality outputs, and dissatisfied users. It is an iterative approach to software development that builds software incrementally from the start of the project, unlike waterfall approach of trying to deliver it all at once near the end. It works by breaking projects down into little bits of user functionality called user stories prioritizing them, and then continuously delivering them in short cycles called iterations. It promotes adaptive planning, progressive development, early delivery, continuous improvement, and encourages rapid and flexible response to change. The concept of agile working has been adopted by many organizations, which have realized that lengthy decision-making processes are no longer fit for purpose in a world of complex and continuous change. Agile development provides opportunities to assess the direction throughout the development lifecycle. The paradigm shift and failure of waterfall model in large size projects, led to the evolution of new evolutionary methods including agile software

Agile software development is a collection of software development methods where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration among self-organizing and cross-functional teams. It promotes flexible planning, progressive development,

The basic idea of this agile software development life cycle is to develop a system or a process through repeated cycles with smaller portions at a time. This will help the software developers to have a good understanding of what they have learnt during the development phases than the earlier versions of the system. The possible advantage of the iterative and the incremental model combined is that with each and every iteration design modifications are to be made and new

I selected this topic because it is vital to anyone who wants to develop software to understand the various types of software development models. Software development models guide developers from start to finish for any given project. They encompass areas of development such as research, planning, design, coding, testing, setup, and maintenance (Liviu, 2014, pg.39-40). Various software models exist so it is also important for developers to know how to select the proper one that will be the most effective for their particular project. Although many models exist, for this review I will focus on two of the most commonly used software development models, which are the waterfall model, and the incremental model. HOW EACH MODEL WORKS. In this

Most of the agile methods try to reduce risk by developing software in short time boxes, known as iterations, which usually last for one to four weeks. Each iteration is like a mini software project of its specific, and contains all the tasks required to release the mini-increment of new functionality: planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, testing, and documentation. Whereas iteration won’t be adding required functionality to permit releasing the product, an agile software project anticipates to be able to release new software by the end of each iteration. At the end of each iteration, the team reassesses project