Agile Process

Agile Process
• Rapid development and delivery is now often the most important
requirement for software systems
• Businesses operate in a fast –changing requirement and it is practically
impossible to produce a set of stable software requirements
• Software has to evolve quickly to reflect changing business needs.
• Rapid software development
• Specification, design and implementation are inter-leaved
• System is developed as a series of versions with stakeholders involved in
version evaluation
• User interfaces are often developed using an IDE and graphical toolset.
Agile Process
• Dissatisfaction with the overheads involved in software design methods of the
1980s and 1990s led to the creation of agile methods. These methods:
• Focus on the code rather than the design
• Are based on an iterative approach to software development
• Are intended to deliver working software quickly and evolve this quickly to meet changing
requirements.
• The aim of agile methods is to reduce overheads in the software process (e.g. by
limiting documentation) and to be able to respond quickly to changing
requirements without excessive rework.
Agile Manifesto
• We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it
and helping others do it. Through this work we have come 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
• That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the
items on the left more.
Agile Principles
Agile Methods Applicability
• Product development where a software company is developing a
small or medium-sized product for sale.
• Custom system development within an organization, where there is a
clear commitment from the customer to become involved in the
development process and where there are not a lot of external rules
and regulations that affect the software.
• Because of their focus on small, tightly-integrated teams, there are
problems in scaling agile methods to large systems.
Problems with the Agile Process
• It can be difficult to keep the interest of customers who are involved
in the process.
• Team members may be unsuited to the intense involvement that
characterises agile methods.
• Prioritising changes can be difficult where there are multiple
stakeholders.
• Maintaining simplicity requires extra work.
• Contracts may be a problem as with other approaches to iterative
development.
Problems with the Agile Process
• Most organizations spend more on maintaining existing software than
they do on new software development. So, if agile methods are to be
successful, they have to support maintenance as well as original
development.
• Two key issues:
• Are systems that are developed using an agile approach maintainable, given
the emphasis in the development process of minimizing formal
documentation?
• Can agile methods be used effectively for evolving a system in response to
customer change requests?
• Problems may arise if original development team cannot be
maintained.
Difference Between Plan Driven and Agile
Process
• Plan-driven development
• A plan-driven approach to software engineering is based around separate
development stages with the outputs to be produced at each of these stages
planned in advance.
• Not necessarily waterfall model – plan-driven, incremental development is
possible
• Iteration occurs within activities.
• Agile development
• Specification, design, implementation and testing are inter-leaved and the
outputs from the development process are decided through a process of
negotiation during the software development process.
Plan based development and Agile
development
Issues Invovled
• Most projects include elements of plan-driven and agile processes.
Deciding on the balance depends on:
• Is it important to have a very detailed specification and design before moving
to implementation? If so, you probably need to use a plan-driven approach.
• Is an incremental delivery strategy, where you deliver the software to
customers and get rapid feedback from them, realistic? If so, consider using
agile methods.
• How large is the system that is being developed? Agile methods are most
effective when the system can be developed with a small co-located team
who can communicate informally. This may not be possible for large systems
that require larger development teams so a plan-driven approach may have to
be used
Issues Involved
• What type of system is being developed?
• Plan-driven approaches may be required for systems that require a lot of analysis before
implementation (e.g. real-time system with complex timing requirements).
• What is the expected system lifetime?
• Long-lifetime systems may require more design documentation to communicate the
original intentions of the system developers to the support team.
• What technologies are available to support system development?
• Agile methods rely on good tools to keep track of an evolving design
• How is the development team organized?
• If the development team is distributed or if part of the development is being outsourced,
then you may need to develop design documents to communicate across the
development teams.
Issues Involved
• Are there cultural or organizational issues that may affect the system
development?
• Traditional engineering organizations have a culture of plan-based development, as this is
the norm in engineering.
• How good are the designers and programmers in the development team?
• It is sometimes argued that agile methods require higher skill levels than plan-based
approaches in which programmers simply translate a detailed design into code
• Is the system subject to external regulation?
• If a system has to be approved by an external regulator (e.g. the FAA approve software
that is critical to the operation of an aircraft) then you will probably be required to
produce detailed documentation as part of the system safety case.
Reference
• Ian Sommerville, Software Engineering, Pearson education, 9th
edition
• Wikipedia