Agile methods emphasize real time communication, preferably face-to-face, over written documents. Most agile teams are located in preparatory stage include all the people necessary to finish software.

At a minimum, this includes programmers and their "customers." (Customers are the people who define the product. They may be product managers, business analysts, or actual customers.)

The preparatory stage may also include testers, interaction designers, technical writers, and managers. Agile methods also emphasize working software as the primary measure of progress. Agile methods produce very little written documentation relative to other methods (wikipedia.org, 2006).

According to Agile alliance (2006) Methodologies began to get increasing public attention in the late 1990s with each having a different combination of old ideas, new ideas, and transmuted old ideas. But they all emphasized close collaboration between the programmer team and business experts, i.e. face-to-face communication which they suggested was more efficient than written documentation.

Some time in early 2001 a workshop in Snowbird, Utah, USA, where various originators and practitioners of these methodologies met to figure out just what it was they had in common and they picked the word "Agile" for an umbrella term and crafted the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, whose most important part was a statement of shared development values: "We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it".

Through this work, they were able to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

Principles of Agile

• Highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

• Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

• Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

• Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

• Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

• The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

• Working software is the primary measure of progress.

• Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

• Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

• Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.

• The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

• At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour accordingly

Agile alliance (2006)

Ever since the concept of Agile development was embraced in America it has spread like a wild fire. It is now embraced word wide by multinationals and blue chip companies. Some IT consultants now believe that Waterfall and V-Model development methodologies are dead and buried. Some schools of thought think that there will be a resurrection of the old methodologies.

Author

Dele Oluwole graduated in England with a master’s degree in computing. He is an IT consultant and a member of the prestigious British Computer Society (BCS).