Agile Software Development: The Basics

Agile Software Development: The Basics

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Agile software development is a set of software development methodologies employed by a number of software companies worldwide to increase the efficiency of their processes, save time and money, and maintain quality control over their products. Unlike the old ways of software development where the setup was quite compartmentalized and people worked in groups with little interaction between those groups, agile development is all about collaboration among cross-functional teams.

The brains behind agile software development created what is called the Agile Manifesto, which outlines values that have been narrowed down to four essential points people, delivery, involvement and adaptability. The goal is to reduce costs and get the right products to the market faster. When we say the right product, this means the product possesses features the end user actually needs and wants.

Historically, a lot of software companies have made the mistake of producing software that does not really address their target markets needs. Either the product has too many frills that will end up not being used, or it lacks certain features the customer is looking for. This is where your brains or your people come into the picture as far as agile software development is concerned. These individuals must band together to discuss their vision and goal for the product, and who exactly they are building this for. What does their target market really want? And how can they make it work? When youve determined all those things regarding the product, the developers can now estimate what they need to do and what the requirements are in order to come up with the end product.

The second point or value of the Agile Manifesto is delivery, which is about working software over comprehensive documentation. This is essentially about building the right product (the one that your customers will truly appreciate and utilize) and maintaining a high standard of quality. Starting with the product backlog, which lists all requirements and stays and evolves with the project, there are a set of priorities that needs to be followed and that indicates what item needs to be released first.

The next value in the Agile Manifesto is involvement or customer collaboration. Before the days of agile software development, many companies produced software with little to no frequent collaboration with the client. A client would specify what he wanted, sign the contract with the software development company, and will be seen again only when the product is out. But for this methodology, its all about transparency and active collaboration with the client even during the production process. The client and everybody else involved in the project will have to be informed and updated on all points happening in the project. Simply put, people need to know what is going on throughout the project. This can be facilitated using charts, spreadsheets and similar platforms.
And finally, adaptability is about responding to changes during the course of the project. Some variables cant just be predicted in the business environment, so the overseers of the project and the client need to look at the plans and reprioritize elements in the backlog to adapt accordingly.

In summation, agile software development means creating the right product using faster, less costly and more flexible methods and delivering it in a timely fashion.

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P.S: Agile manifesto authors reveal how to get management and clients to adopt agile software development. Click here to watch FREE video now: http://agiletv.co.uk/exclusive



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