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Benefits of Agile Development
Agile methods grew out of the real-life project experiences of leading software professionals who had experienced the challenges and limitations of traditional waterfall development on project after project. The approach promoted by agile development is in direct response to the issue associated with traditional software development – both in terms of overall philosophy as well as specific processes.
Agile development, in its simplest form, offers a lightweight framework for helping teams, given a constantly evolving functional and technical landscape, maintain a focus on the rapid delivery of business value (i.e., “bang for the buck”). As a result of this focus and its associated benefits, organizations are capable of significantly reducing the overall risk associated with software development.
In particular, agile development accelerates the delivery of initial business value, and through a process of continuous planning and feedback, is able to ensure that value is continuing to be maximized throughout the development process. As a result of this iterative planning and feedback loop, teams are able to continuously align the delivered software with desired business needs, easily adapting to changing requirements throughout the process. By measuring and evaluating status based on the undeniable truth of working, testing software, much more accurate visibility into the actual progress of projects is available. And finally, as a result of following an agile process, at the conclusion of a project is a software system that much better addresses the business and customer needs.
The diagram below displays the differences between agile and waterfall development processes. By delivering working, tested, deployable software on an incremental basis, agile development delivers increased value, visibility, and adaptability much earlier in the lifecycle, significantly reducing project risk.
Agile Development Value Proposition
