Traditionally software development is a complex and costly process. However variation in customer expectation is the most common problem faced by software developers. After the software is developed, most of the time it is seen that either the consumer wants some change or not satisfied at all with the software (Reijonen et al. 2015). However there was very little or no scope for the organizations to integrate the change into the product already delivered. Hence there was need for change to the traditional software development methodology.
This set the context for Agile Manifesto brought in market in 2001. The Agile Manifesto was aimed at completely redefine the way organizations and developers approach software development (Bocken and Short 2016). The feature that made the method so popular was its ability to integrate the consumer opinion at each and every step of the development process.
It basically divides the development process into various iterations and milestones and those milestones are then completed into iterations. After each iteration is completed, it is then reviewed by the customer (Laukkanen 2015). Once the customer approves it then only the next iteration is started. Otherwise if the customer is not satisfied and wants some changes, the next iteration is not stated. After an iteration is approved by the customer and if the customer is fully satisfied with that, then only the next iteration is started.
This provides a clear overview of the customer overview as well consumer requirement which resulted in a more productive software development with enhance customer satisfaction which the previous software development methodology lacked in (Laukkanen 2015).
Although after it’s widely acceptability in the industry and software developers’ most preferred choice for designing scalable and productive software, it is worth reviewing if the agile method is still as relevant at it was before.
While some of the principles of the agile method is outdated, some are as relevant as it was in 2001.
Principles that are not relevant:
One important thing here to note that the context of software development has evolved a lot both in terms of complexity and requirement. It is not very difficult to recognize either if the nature of the industry is analysed in the past few years. It will be very clear that although software development was still a complex thing back in 2001, but not as complex compared to modern standard. Mobile application development was not a factor, even the social media which very much defines this modern era was not a thing back then.
Cloud computing was not even conceptualized, although today it is an industry standard (Porterfield 2015). As the process of the industry has changed a lot it is very much common to ask if the principles of agile method is still relevant or not. The simple answer is not and it is very much outdated as the software development is way more complex compared to the standard of 2001.
Respond to change over planning:
The volume in which the software is developed is no match with that of 2001 standard. The agile method does not address that effectively. According to the agile method, respond to change is more important than execution of plan. It is one of the four core values of the agile method and this is not at all compatible with the modern approach of software development (Raisch 2016). As in today’s standard, planning is an important aspect of software development as the number of software and the complexity of the software has both increased a lot. Hence it is important to have proper planning for software development and it is not a smart approach to avoid that.
Preference for face-to-face communication:
The scope of many software projects at larger scale is not compatible with some of the principles of the agile method. Agile method specifies that the communication to and within the development should be in face-to-face mode as it is most effective and efficient (Warren 2017). However this approach is not effective today as project managers need to communicate with teams distributed geographically. Hence face-to-face mode of communication is just not effective at all. Hence this principle of the method is outdated as well.
Principles that are relevant:
Prioritize consumer role:
The agile method prioritize the role of consumer in the software development process. According to the method customer opinion has an important role to play in the software development. The role of customer is no less than that of the developers (Chan 2014). It even specifies that customer collaboration is more important than contract negotiation. However what the method was not able to specify, is what the level of dominance of consumer opinion has today in projects. Consumer today are more vocal than ever before.
With the development of social media, consumer today are more active in providing opinion and feedback which helps the company to analyse the consumer acceptance of the product in the market (Porterfield 2015). However there is still a challenge that the companies need to address and that is to gather important and valuable insights from hundred and thousands of opinion, complain posted on social media and other website and develop better software that satisfies customer.
Involvement of business stakeholder:
The agile method specifies that in order to develop better software, business people and the developer teams need to collaborate and this collaboration should be ensured throughout the project (Dan 2015). The importance of business stakeholder as specified by the method is an important one for the projects. It is relevant even today for any kind of projects irrespective of the scope and specification of any particular project. It is widely accepted that companies should engage business stakeholder with the projects to ensure that the software development is efficient as well as successful (Reijonen et al. 2015).
Hence it is concluded that although agile was method was developed to improve some of the issues that was relevant in the previous software development methodology, some of the features like responding to change over planning, face-to-face communication to and within development team are outdated today. While some of the features like customer stakeholder prioritization, involvement of business stakeholder are still relevant today. Hence it is not justified to say that agile method are no more than a fashion now and outdated.
References:
Bocken, N.M.P. and Short, S.W., 2016. The theory of agile project management: a comprehensive discussion. McGraw-Hill, Inc.
Chan, C., 2014, January. The importance of consumer satisfaction in project.
Dan, A., the scope and status of agile method, 2015. Method and apparatus for leading effective project execution.
Laukkanen, T., 2015. The definition and scope of agile method in modern software development. A modern theory of project management, 42, pp.35-46.
Porterfield, T.E., 2015. Evaluation of agile methodology: an empirical investigation of scope and success. International Journal of information and technology, 40(6), pp.435-455.
Raisch, W., 2016. Towards a sufficiency-driven software development: evaluation of as-Is Workflow Modelling, 18, pp.41-61.
Reijonen, H., Hirvonen, S., Nagy, G., Laukkanen, T. and Gabrielsson, M., 2015. The bias of development method in software project. A modern approach, 51, pp.35-46.
Warren. N, 2017, January. The importance of business stakeholder involvement in successful project implementation: an intuitive guide.
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