Agile Methodology – the Key to Successful Software Development
13 December 202116 August 2013 | Software
Companies turn to outsourcing for different reasons, which include: the attractiveness of the labor costs, overcoming the shortage of professionals, dedicated software development teams, flexible staffing. They also face a series of setbacks in the process, such as: cultural differences, time zone differences, communication issues.
Agile development is the new trend in the outsourcing process and has been proposed as an effective alternative to the previous models. Meeting the requirements and overcoming the challenges of today`s high-tech environment can be achieved with Agile, which focuses on improving the way in which software is delivered and solving some of the common problems of software delivery.
Agile Development is an umbrella term for several software development methodologies, the most popular of them including:
- Extreme Programming (XP)
- Scrum
- Crystal
- Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)
- Lean Development
- Feature-Driven Development (FDD).
The rapid development of the IT industry sent the waterfall methodology on a downward trend due to its inability to meet the continuously changing requirements of this highly dynamic field.
Agile has won the race! It is absolutely clear that Agile is turning into a mainstream methodology and Waterfall will soon be consigned to history. Living proof of this trend is Microsoft itself, where brilliant managers and engineers work together to improve the Agile methodology, relying on iterative development for many of their products.
It is important to mention that the Agile methodology will not fix a bad project vision, an impossible task, or a lack of skilled personnel.
The Benefits of Implementing the Agile Method
The Agile methodologies involve continuous planning, testing, integration, and other forms of continuous evolution of both the project and the software. These practices have been combined in a way that makes them easy to understand and adopt. The most important feature of the Agile methods is that they all focus on empowering people to collaborate and make decisions together quickly and effectively. Listed next are several of the main benefits the Agile methodology brings to both parties of an outsourcing partnership:
- Promotes productivity at all stages of the process
- Allows for continual innovation and improvement to meet the overall end goal.
- Reduces time to market.
- Requires continuous collaboration and involvement from the stakeholders.
