Agile Software Development

Koushik Krishna
Jul 28, 2017 · 2 min read

World of computers advanced very rapidly in terms of processing speed, memory, compactness. This also increased the complexity of the projects in computers. Different system development lifecycle emerged. The most famous being the Waterfall Process. The idea was to first document all software requirements the create design, write the code, test, fix bugs and deliver the system. This did not always work well, so during the following decades iterative development was introduced. Iterative development is like the original framework, but instead of one development cycle, it added iterations. This limited the scope for each round.

These approaches come from the way that we deal our day to day problems. But in practical when the problem gets complex these methodologies don’t turn out to be working very well. The underlying problem was that the belief that it is possible to specify software requirements in advance. This demand for more flexible frameworks and processes grew with software development as a whole.

Agile development considers that the methodologies must be lightweight, unlike the traditional development methodologies. Principles quoted are as follow:

  1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
  2. Working software over comprehensive documentation.
  3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
  4. Responding to change over following a plan.

To achieve these principles following patterns are observed in development process

  1. Short iterations.
  2. Rigid Planning.
  3. Daily follow up.
  4. Openness to change.
  5. Minimum documentation.

While it has strong roots in software development, it is used in different industries. Agile is not ad hoc. Light weight does not mean careless. Rather agile teams are often at least if not more disciplined than traditional teams. Other typical patterns are software engineering practices such as continuous building and testing of software.

Written by

Product Engineer at Go-Jek

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