{"id":182,"date":"2012-07-26T16:00:28","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.devexperts.com\/?p=182"},"modified":"2022-05-18T11:02:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T11:02:11","slug":"agile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devexperts.com\/blog\/agile\/","title":{"rendered":"The Agile Approach in Software Development: Why Should You Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”<\/p> Manifesto for Agile Software Development, 2001 <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, Agile methodology has become increasingly popular in the software industry. The reason is simple\u2014 the Agile approach results in increased customer satisfaction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a consequence, this increases the competitiveness of the development company, and both sides win. As the software market continues to develop and software products and technologies keep expanding into more web and mobile applications, there is a rapidly increasing demand for functionality and quality in developed software, time-to-market and speed of response to customer\u2019s needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These days customer of software development services can no longer afford himself to ignore the question of how organized the production process is in the development company so that they can know what to expect and when. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what does “Agile” mean in software development? Is this just another buzzword, or a real chance to meet these new challenges? How it can affect the customer’s business and their ROI? Let\u2019s examine this in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile methodology is primarily about software development in a world of changing business needs and, consequently, the changing requirements of the product in development. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in the field of financial software this trend is especially evident. Exchanges change the rules for calculating their fees, introduce new trading instruments and supply increasingly diverse analytical data. Regulators adjust various regulations imposed on market participants, introducing new constraints and modifying existing ones. Brokerages and banks provide customers with new services for managing their assets, trading on exchanges and the FOREX market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under such circumstances, the expectations of the customer and his vision of the software product can change dramatically during the development of the project. Similarly, the software requirements are influenced by the very IT industry itself. The emergence of new mobile devices and tablets; an increase in the popularity of social networks; the growing capabilities of hardware and networks \u2014 these advances must all be met with an appropriate response in the software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional \u00abWaterfall\u00bb model of software development that arose in past years involves the sequential execution of the individual phases of the project. There is a linear path of development from start to finish, beginning with an analysis of the project\u2019s requirements. Once all requirements are established and confirmed by customer, technical solutions are developed, followed by the actual writing of code. Finally the development concludes with comprehensive testing, documentation and the delivery of the completed software product. Obviously, in this approach it is very difficult\u2014or even impossible\u2014to change individual requirements during late stages of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation is comparable to building a house. When the foundation is laid and the walls built, you cannot change the floor plan, or make any other serious modifications to the design without having to start over again from scratch. In fact, after agreeing on the building design, the client is basically eliminated from the process, and simply gets handed the keys to the finished house that they ordered once it is done. It is difficult to come up with any viable alternative in the building industry, but in the software industry other approaches are feasible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Agile approach offers an alternative that allows one to adapt the model of software development to the reality of rapidly changing business needs. The basic principles of Agile development from the perspective of the customer are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n