Introduction
Comparison
Processes
General
Collaboration
Contracts
Other Topics
Comparison to Traditional Development
In my on-going quest to answer the question "What is agile development?", here is a point-by-point comparison with traditional development.
I'll label the traditional approach with "T", and the agile approach with "A"...
Iterative vs Waterfall
T: Serial ("waterfall") development is best (or at least normal/acceptable)
A: Always use iterative development
Workflow
T: Design, Build and Test follow each other, in that order
A: Design, Build and Test influence each other, so they should be concurrent and iterative
Requirements Quality
To ensure requirements are well-defined and well-understood:
T: document them thoroughly; users see the system when finished
A: document them concisely; users see the system early and often
Knowledge Transfer
To ensure everyone understands the system:
T: Place importance on written documentation
A: Place importance on frequent verbal communication; regular working releases; and clear, readable source code
Team Composition
T: Team members should be specialists (BA, Designer, Developer, Tester etc)
Team Size
A successful process is one that:
T: Organises a large team
A: Gets the same output from a small team
Planning
T: Make a Gantt Chart at the start; maintain it during the project
A: Make a Task/Feature List at the start; maintain it during the project
Monitoring
Measure progress:
T: against the Plan
A: against the Task/Feature List (tracking which ones are completed). But don't just monitor your progress; also monitor the quality of that progress by testing and releasing regularly.
Managing Change
It's hard to change software that's already written, so:
T: Control or minimise change
Predicting Completion
Predict final completion date and cost using:
T: the updated Gantt Chart
A: the team's progress to date
Process Definition
To help people successfully follow it, the development process should be:
T: thoroughly documented
A: concise and memorable
Process Improvement
Process improvement is best driven by:
T: metrics
A: the people involved
Philosophy
T: Software development is a construction process, so making detailed plans is advisable.
A: Software development is a creative process, so making detailed plans is unrealistic.
Instead, agile processes make less-detailed plans (often like this) and manage risk through iteration, continuous quality control, and feedback.
Success is
T: Meeting the initial predictions of cost and schedule
Page History: Created 29 Dec 05
Last Updated 10 Mar 2006
Copyright (c) 2003-2007, John Rusk.