The motivation of the agile approach has already been demonstrated by the choice of name: Agile means quick or agile and refers to reacting quickly to changing conditions.
Agile software projects e.g. in web and app development detach from the classic waterfall model and its variations. Instead of the fixed sequence „specification, design and implementation“, the project is carried out in very close and direct cooperation with the client. The specification is successive during the realisation.
An important advantage of agile software projects is the cooperation with the client. The customer gets what he needs, not what he has specified in the beginning. This is an important advantage for projects where requirements are unclear or where influences by changing external conditions exist.
Another advantage is the reduction of bureaucratic structures. For example, fewer documents have to be created and maintained. A typical criticism of classical process models is the distance to the customer or user. While the specification is still in close cooperation, the customer can hardly influence the design of the product during the realisation. However agile software development tries to get by with less explicit rules.
The goal of agile software development is to make the development process more flexible and leaner. In developing the focus should be more on the objectives to be achieved and engaged in technical and social problems in software development .
Agile software development is a counter-movement to heavyweight, bureaucratic and from the outside regulated, traditional software development processes: it emphasizes rules that arise only through the team work of the development group and are hence actually necessary and beneficial.
More concretely, this view is shown in the „Agile Manifesto“. In 2001, leaders of the agile software development movement met and developed the Agile Manifesto. The signatories included not only the Scrum co-founders Mike Beedle, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, but also Kent Beck (XP), Alistair Cockburn (Crystal), Ward Cunningham , Martin Fowler, Ron Jeffries , Andrew Hunt ( Pragmatic Programmer ) Robert C. Martin and Dave Thomas ( Ruby on Rails) .
The key messages of the Manifesto are deliberately kept short and somewhat „bold“.
Well-defined development processes and sophisticated development tools are quite important. More Important however, is the qualification of employees and efficient communication between them, because any development stands and falls with the team’s abilities. The team members should define the agile process and adapt it to the specific needs .
A well-written documentation can be helpful, but the real goal of development is the finished software. All activities serve only one purpose: to develop acceptable and executable software. The knowledge transfer from human to human is priority. Likewise, the individual phases of development can not be strictly separated, as this is hardly possible in the real world: design, documentation and tests – where necessary – should form a unit. Executable software is the most important progress measure, not extensive documentation.
The customer’s satisfaction is the most important measure of development success. Working with the customer must be the focus. Only when a customer has seen and used the system, he is really able to explicitly formulate how his system should look like in detail and where adaptation is needed.
In the course of a development project, requirements and constraints change as well as the understanding of the problem by the customer and the developer. The team needs to react quickly – and above all – want it. Changes or the inability of customers to be able to formulate the complete requirements in detail at the beginning of the development, should not be construed as a lack of expertise or as “ stupidity “ of the customer.
To sum up, „classic“ project characteristics are not unimportant. Plans, contracts and documentation, for example, have to be there, However, they shouldn´t cumber agile work.
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