In 2001 seventeen people got together to discuss a better way to develop software, these people coined the term “agile” and developed the agile manifesto to describe a re-focused approach to software development. The main values of this new approach were:

• Value individuals and interaction over process and tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change rather than following a plan

“Agile development uses feedback to make constant adjustments in a highly collaborative environment.”

Basically it was a shift from a plan based approach to a more continuous natural style. You expect the requirements to change even late in the project and that is ok as you have a flexible results driven approach; responding to change is more important to following a plan.

The project is released in small phases to the client with constant feedback from the client to check you are on the right track. Constant communication between the team, the client and the business decision makers are crucial to the success of the project. Success is determined by working software that the fulfils the users needs.

So how do you know if you are an agile company? I will detailing my thoghts on that in the next post.

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