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What is the agile software development methodology like?

Agile software development is not only of interest to IT programmers and enthusiasts. In fact, in the search for competitive advantages to deal with such fierce markets, several companies have found this practice to be an important strategic tool. There are, however, a great many doubts that permeate this subject.

After all, what exactly is an agile development methodology? What are the assumptions surrounding the process? Are the differences between each method really significant? What are the main trends we should be aware of?

We designed this article to answer these questions, showing you everything you should understand about agile development and its impacts on organizations. Why not take a look?!

What is the agile development methodology?

The agile methodology comprises a set of practices to create software efficiently and quickly. However, understanding exactly what this means involves looking at the origin of this process. After all, terms like efficiency and speed are common in any type of software creation strategy. So what’s new?

The essential factor is to understand the philosophy behind agile. This is a fundamental change in the mindset of professionals within the area, which happened after the launch of the Agile Manifesto in 2001.

After a few decades of computing’s rise as an important tool for technological evolution, experts within the area got together to discuss how development could be optimized. From that, a new way of thinking about the subject was established, which was named as the Agile Philosophy.

In a round about way, this new perception points out that it is more beneficial to prioritize individuals and interactions rather than processes and tools. In other words, it is better to invest in collaboration with customers, partners and sponsors than to work around defined processes and acquired tools.

It’s about prioritizing working software before creating the comprehensive documentation that guides the process of building it. To better understand the intricacies of this change in direction, it is important to know the premises of this methodology.

What are the premises of the agile philosophy?

The Agile Manifesto is a declaration in which certain values that are ​​considered essential for a more efficient and speedy software development, are highlighted. The focus on people rather than processes and the workings of software rather than extensive documentation, mentioned earlier, are some of the said highlights.

To complement this, it is also important that we highlight two other values. Firstly, there is the issue of collaboration with the customer. Scholars on the subject noticed that contract negotiation made the development structure more rigid: an attempt was made to elaborate a project with a broad and comprehensive scope, but this compromised both the delivery time and the efficiency itself.

Therefore, the proposal is to bring in the main stakeholders in the project — that is, the customers — so that they are involved in the development. This brings us to the second point: prioritizing quick response to change rather than following a rigid plan.

With the customer close by, it is possible to identify new demands and software improvement needs, more quickly. As a result, the project is improved throughout its creation: a prototype is delivered, the customer tests it and provides feedback, the developers continue the work and the project proceeds to a new stage.

All of this brings us to an essential characteristic of agile methodologies: the importance of putting the software to work. In the past, the product was delivered fully developed. Now, even in a prototype version, it is quickly put into operation to be later developed and improved in a fast and flexible way.

This does not mean, however, that all methods (workflows) propose the same management and development structure.

What are the different kinds of methodology?

There are several methods to develop software following the values ​​of the agile philosophy. Some of them, however, have stood out and gained more space in the market. This is the case of both Scrum and eXtreameProgramming (XP).

Scrum

The term “scrum”, was borrowed from the sport of rugby and refers to the restart of the match after an interruption. In the agile development environment, this means resuming the process after a specific action.

Within a scrum, projects are divided into stages, or sprints. Each sprint is a cycle with a duration, or “time box” of usually one month. The goal is to enable the delivery of prototypes that get up and running in a short period of time. Meanwhile the project is tested and improvements, addition and removal of features, revisions etc. are made.

At each new stage, a planning meeting is held with employees, customers any others involved, to prepare for the next sprint.

XP (Extreme Programming)

The efficiency of XP is evident, given the fact that the method dates back to 1990 and has been adapted to the agile philosophy to continue producing great results. Roughly speaking, it is based on three main pillars: agility in development, quality in the delivered product and economy of resources.

To achieve this, it proposes the adoption of the following values:

• Feedback
• Respect
• Courage
• Communication
• Simplicity

The method delves into some practices aimed at strengthening these values.

What are the main trends or methods of use?

As much as the Agile Manifesto is a major milestone, the market hasn’t been stagnant since. Digital transformation and technological evolution as a whole are factors that cause great impacts, especially in the way of thinking about software development. In this regard, one of the main trends that has grown recently, is the use of DevOps. Never heard of it? Let’s take a look at what it is.

DevOps

DevOps is a trend towards process automation, building optimization and release of data. Its objective is not only to achieve better results in the current model for execution of activities, but to propose a change in the way we think about these activities and interactions with customers.

This method adopts metrics, monitoring schemes, virtualized processes and cloud computing. The big difference is its ability to take communication between developers and customers to the next level.

Design Thinking

Another important trend is Design Thinking, a method that seeks to understand requirements and identify opportunities for innovation. It has a very agile approach to the process of designing and also to the understanding and validation of ideas.

These are methods that, like other tools, can be combined to promote even better results. At this point, it is also worth highlighting the importance of a manager who understands the agile philosophy well. It is also important that they master different frameworks and are able to engage the team in working closely with the client.

There is a strong movement towards agile that comes with a great many opportunities. So be on the lookout for new trends and put agile development to work for you. The results, as you can see here, are extremely beneficial to all stakeholders!

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