Methodologies used in the Agile approach
Agile is a methodology for project management and software development. It avoids downtime and complications in the process of software creation and promotes greater interaction between developers and clients. The peculiarity of this approach is the organization of work on the project. It is not created simultaneously for all the points but is divided into small blocks. This option allows for productive work and information exchange between teams of specialists who are involved in the implementation of a certain part of the product. In the process of work, the results are regularly reviewed, and the progress of implementation is monitored. This allows, if necessary, to quickly change the plans, to adjust them to current demands.
The concept of Agile is based on four core values:
– people’s interests and needs take precedence over processes;
– a working product is more important than detailed technical documentation;
– cooperation with the customer comes first, followed by the provisions in the contract;
– priority of the team’s willingness to change over blind adherence to the points of the original plan.
Agile involves the use of a variety of methods, among them – Scrum. This approach to organizing work involves the interaction in teams of no more than 10 people, where the roles of each participant in the process are clearly defined. The execution of tasks is divided into intervals or iterations, which allows you to monitor the progress of the work and make timely changes.
The agile concept also includes eXtreme Programming methodology, which suggests that the development team should flexibly respond to changing product requirements without losing quality. This approach includes the main points that allow successful implementation of projects:
1. Coding should be performed according to the same principles accepted by the team.
2. Testing. The tests are written by the programmers themselves and this process is ahead of writing the code.
3. Scheduling. A deadline for the completion of the individual iterations and the project as a whole is defined in advance.
4. Listening. Productive dialog between the developers and the clients, during which all the details are discussed.
Crystal Methodologies refers to agile software development methodologies. Projects that are implemented according to this principle must meet the criteria included in the Agile values. Here it is also important to regularly improve the code based on the experience of past development, as well as to regularly exchange ideas with team members.
Despite the variety of methodologies, Agile is not applicable to all projects, it all depends on the specifics and the final goal of the work. However, following this concept promotes the involvement of each participant in the process, which improves the quality of the created product. In addition, to follow all the principles of Agile and to succeed in development, the team must have some experience and already know how to interact with each other.
