CSC/ECE 517 Fall 2009/wiki3 7 f1

This wikipedia article focuses on how Agile software development methodology can complement other traditional design methodologies like the waterfall model. We take a few software development practices from the customer, management and development points of view, focus on the limitations of the traditional software development model and discuss how agile development methodologies can be used to complement/overcome its limitations.

Agile vs Traditional Methodologies

The agile manifesto focuses on

• 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, agile values the items on the left more. The items on the right are what the traditional design methodologies emphasise on.

Advantages of the agile method

• Once a stage is completed in the Waterfall method, there is no going back, since most software designed and implemented under the waterfall method is hard to change according to time and user needs. The problem can only be fixed by going back and designing an entirely new system, a very costly and inefficient method. Whereas, Agile methods adapt to change, as at the end of each stage, the logical programme, designed to cope and adapt to new ideas from the outset, allows changes to be made easily. With Agile, changes can be made if necessary without getting the entire programme rewritten. This approach not only reduces overheads, it also helps in the upgrading of programmes.

• Another Agile method advantage is one has a launchable product at the end of each tested stage. This ensures bugs are caught and eliminated in the development cycle, and the product is double tested again after the first bug elimination. This is not possible for the Waterfall method, since the product is tested only at the very end, which means any bugs found results in the entire programme having to be re-written.

• Agile’s modular nature means employing better suited object-oriented designs and programmes, which means one always has a working model for timely release even when it does not always entirely match customer specifications. Whereas, there is only one main release in the waterfall method and any problems or delays mean highly dissatisfied customers.

• Agile methods allow for specification changes as per end-user’s requirements, spelling customer satisfaction. As already mentioned, this is not possible when the waterfall method is employed, since any changes to be made means the project has to be started all over again.

• However, both methods do allow for a sort of departmentalization e.g. in waterfall departmentalization is done at each stage. As for Agile, each coding module can be delegated to separate groups. This allows for several parts of the project to be done at the same time, though departmentalization is more effectively used in Agile methodologies.

Challenges in Applying Agile Methodologies

• [3] researches about the challenges in applying agile and concludes by introducing a set of new and modified development practices, which will help in developing a large agile project. One of the aspects common to many agile development methodologies is that the entire team (business analysts, developers, and testers) collaborate very heavily. With a large project, this type of collaboration is difficult at best. Teams tend to break up into subteams for better communication. The downside to subteams is the possibility that the subteams build stove-piped sub-systems if communication is insufficient among the teams. Problems of consistency and duplication may go undiscovered. Of course, there are other practices that help alleviate these problems such as rotating team members among the subteams, having an overall design document, etc. The different subteams may result in a non-homogeneous and inconsistent architecture.

• Many of the solutions agile methods promote, draw on a limited set of techniques for managing organizations and understanding customers. [7] focuses on incorporating customer-centered techniques such as Contextual Design to provide additional solutions to the real problems recognized by agile methods. These solutions work in combination with agile methods’ strengths resulting in a process that incorporates the customer voice, provides room for UI and user interaction design, and can address significantly large projects.

References

1. XP 2006 Website
2. Agile Development Conference
3. Experience Paper: Applying Agile to Large Projects: New Agile Software Development Practices for Large Projects- Ahmed Elshamy and Amr Elssamadisy
4. Research Paper: Comparative Analysis of Job Satisfaction in Agile and Non-Agile Software Development Teams- Grigori Melnik, Frank Maurer
5. Rolling the DICE for agile software projects- Bartlomiej Ziolkowski, Geoffrey Drake
6. Incorporating Learning and Expected Cost of Change in Prioritizing Features on Agile Projects- Scott Harris, Mike Cohn
7. An Agile User-Centered Method: Rapid Contextual Design- Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt, Lisa Baker