Agile Principles 1/2

The Agile principles were developed during the middle of the last decade, in order to have an adaptive method of software development. For those who may not have been in the industry then, this was around the time that the internet started taking off and becoming a reality for the home user.

Due to this it was found that the traditional waterfall model was very inflexible and consumed too much time. Further the only customer interaction was either in the beginning or at the end when the software was tested. With internet developments at the time having to constantly change this caused huge problems. Thus the foundation of agile was determined in 2001 and contained 10 principles of agile.

The 10 Agile Principles

1.0 User Involvement

This agile principle emphasizes the continuous user interaction at every stage of the software development. As such one of the users or the customer is an essential part of the agile team. This helps the team in understanding the project management requirementsin detail and prioritizing them.

Day to day communication with the user ensures that the product development is kept within the business requirements documentation, and that even a slight change in requirements can be included during the development process. This basically means that in theory the user is responsible for the end product delivered.

2.0 An Empowered Team

This is the most important agile principle. It states that only a self sufficient and responsible team can make the necessary decisions. Therefore in order to make Agile work in reality, the team needs to include all the people required to make a decision during a software development life cycle model. This will include team members from various functions and different levels of seniority all of whom need to work as one team.

According to Agile methodology they are given the right to make the necessary changes in the software in order to meet the changing requirements. Hence whenever there is a suggestion for improvement from the customer, it is incorporated then and there by the empowered team.

3.0 Time

Since time is an important factor in the agile process of software development, time management is an important agile principle. There can be numerous changes in the software. However, the software development time has to be finite as does the cost. Well that is the theory. As we all know, in practice both tend to slip as requirements keep changing with the result that the project either fails or doesn’t deliver what is required.

4.0 High level Capturing of User Methodology

In agile methodology, the final outcome of the customer has to be understood before beginning the software development. However, unlike the traditional waterfall method, the planning stage does not consume much time, as changes are allowed during the software development.

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