Agile Software Development Case Study

Processes for developing software for companies have evolved over time due to the constant pressures of competition in todays business world. Competition has become fierce due to the power of computers and use of technology to develop programs that can design products, search data and provide user interfaces. In the beginning much of the development of this software was created with traditional practices that had time tested success in much of the business world. The waterfall method of development follows a linear and sequential design, it is easy to follow but less flexible. Over time though new processes have been developed that are believed to be more relevant to software development and provide greater flexibility. Agile methods

Because of this focus on value, agile software development allows organizations to significantly reduce the overall risk associated with software development. Agile software development is built on a collaborative effort of cross-functional teams as well as the needs and feedback of the customer. It advocates adaptive planning and continuous improvement between groups while also having rapid and flexible response to changes from customers and other intercompany group’s needs. In the article, A Reflection on Agile Requirements Engineering: Solutions Brought and Challenges Posed by I. Inayat (2015), the ability of agile processes to solve traditional problems is noted. One of the biggest problems solved is communication between groups called the communication gap by making groups work closely together with a group meeting called scrum. Scrum works to create transparency between work teams and to exchange needs of particular teams, so they can complete their part of the project with feedback of other teams. There is little lag time or misinterpretations between decisions that a more traditional route such as the water fall may face. What is more important about agile methods is that they all focus on

In software development it tends to be inflexible and progress flows in one direction through the phases of conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, deployment and maintenance. The traditional method sounds much more time consuming compared to the agile system. That is because agile system fails to provide concrete time frames management can work with and give an end date for a finished product. The article by Phillip A. Laplante and Colin J. Neill (2004) called The Demise of the Waterfall Model Is Imminent” and Other Urban Myths describes how traditional methods like the waterfall are still relevant to today’s software development methods. This model of development works best when requirements of the customer are set, stable, and fully evolved before work begins. A phase is revisited only if software created in that phase fails and the next phase cannot be moved to unless everything has been verified. This can become a problem if something fails and a deadline must be met. Uninformed management and incompetent staff, moving targets of requirements, target platforms and technologies changing overtime also create problems for the waterfall technique. Where an agile process is adaptable for those problems based on communication, the waterfall process focuses on documentation. The water fall documentation helps explain and show simple design process phases, so others