Key principles of Agile
- close involvement of the end users
- frequent communication between the project team and business experts,
- and regular delivery of production quality functionality.
Agile takes a flexible approach to development. A high priority is "to satisfy the user through early and continuous delivery of valuable software".
Changing requirements
Business requirements will change over the course of the development proces which means that the project customer must be involved along the entire process.
Write-up
Agile does not call for every requirement to be written down in stone before starting design, coding and testing. In anticipation of changing requirements, Agile processes calls for projects to be broken down into smaller, bite-sized modules, or sprints, each of which is worked and finished on as a separate entity. The customer is also tapped for knowledge along the way to ensure that any changes in requirements can be applied at the earliest stage.
The SnippetShop work methodology: a Scrum variant
There are various development methods that fall under the Agile banner, including Scrum (see side panel). The SnippetShop uses a variant of Scrum. Scrum's adaptive approach begins with a 'product backlog' - a list of customer requirements. Each element of the backlog is prioritised as to what is most likely to deliver value, and the highest is worked on first. Under Scrum, each sprint is of short, fixed duration. Each sprint starts with a planning meeting, where the project team plan out the work they commit to completing. During an sprint, each day begins with a 15-minute meeting to communicate progress and obstacles.
Sample project
You can have a look at our life development process if you like....
