Introduction to Agile Software Development

Better Ways of Developing Software

People in the Agile community recognizes the importance of a team following sound software engineering practices and process in order to develop high quality software. However, it is recognized that many teams find it difficult to provide the sort of value their business wants when applying traditional types of documentation driven, heavyweight process.

Accordingly alternative approaches to Software Engineering have been proposed based on processes that are collectively known as Agile. They are typically concerned with:

Helping people decide for themselves how work together effectively rather than imposing tools and process upon them Producing valuable software rather than long documents and extensive models Working closely with customers to satisfy their needs rather than arguing about the fine print of a specification or contract Embracing change throughout the project rather than insisting than everything is fixed in stone at the beginning of a project

Addison-Wesley ISBN-10 0-321-15078-3

Find out more about the aims and objectives of Agile approaches like Extreme Programming by reading the Manifesto for Agile Software Development or visiting the Agile Alliance website.